What's interesting about this is not that it's a reddit clone, of which there is no shortage, but that it's a federated reddit clone. It speaks ActivityPub, the protocol used by Mastodon.
The potential for a shift from online interaction mostly taking place in centralized, corporate-owned systems to federated ones without any centralized control is interesting. In the previous shift from small siloed websites to big centralized services, reddit largely replaced message boards, and a large-scale shift to federated systems will require a replacement for that.
That's not to imply a shift to federated systems is inevitable, though I do consider it desirable.
I struggled to determine what exactly this was, at first.
The docs[1] are fairly clear, though:
"Lemmy is similar to sites like Reddit, Lobste.rs, Raddle, or Hacker News: you subscribe to forums you're interested in, post links and discussions, then vote, and comment on them. Behind the scenes, it is very different; anyone can easily run a server, and all these servers are federated (think email), and connected to the same universe, called the Fediverse.
I don't believe that's accurate. a lot of instances do have a registration questionnaire required however, mostly to combat spam, similar to some mastodon intsances.
But if the federation is largely people you won't want to interact with (or who refuse to interact with you), that just puts you on a version of Reddit with no other users.
And Pleroma is full of whatever the polar opposite of a tankie is (not going to use the "f" word but you know who I mean). It's not too surprising that the political allegiances of the core developers affect who is and isn't interested in joining the network.
You're egging and reducing a website because it has leftists on it while the paragons of personal responsibility, efficient markets, and the banking system are having a meltdown and getting a bailout.
Remind me again what government handouts and interventions are?
I don't understand the point of a comment like "there are leftists that use this website".
FediTips, a Mastodon account, recently shared some concerns about the Uyghur-related content in the largest Lemmy instance, which is run by Lemmy's developers:
This created a firestorm on Lemmy, on which it was noted that Lemmy removes conservative and libertarian communities with the reason "No conservative communities":
> Removed Community conservatives reason: No conservative communities
> Removed Community Libertarian, in the pursuit of a free society reason: No conservative communities allowed
Perhaps the underlying software is fine, but the largest Lemmy instance is not exactly the friendliest to anyone who wants to express themselves more freely than they are allowed to on mainstream social networks.
Lemmy doesn't seem to offer anything to me. It probably offers something tangible to certain groups with opinions that are not well represented elsewhere.
The fact that it's federated under the hood is not a feature that would matter for most people, at least as far as I can see. If it meant that I can easily move my conversation elsewhere then yea I can see that, but I really can't, and it only further divides my comments across yet another silo.
Would be happy to be corrected if I'm wrong about my impression.
Honestly the current content is not doing the platform any favors. Who wants another social media option that ranges from the inane to the toxic?
Reddit like forums, open source self-hosting, federation, these are all good points but people need to see how they make a difference in practice.
Mastodon somehow managed to be seen as a less toxic version of twitter, though it might be mostly peoples wish than anything intrinsic to the platform.
But all new entrants in the fediverse party will have to think how to convince people that social media are actually worth the hassle
It's probably as much to do with the people as anything about the software. I have the impression Gargron set out to create a less toxic version of twitter and the early users he attracted were people who wanted a less toxic version of twitter. Many of the later users were people who liked interacting with those early users.
It appears Lemmy may have been created by people who wanted a version of reddit for militant communists, which might tend to discourage anyone who doesn't want to talk to militant communists from adopting it.
41 comments
[ 6.6 ms ] story [ 118 ms ] threadThat's not to imply a shift to federated systems is inevitable, though I do consider it desirable.
The docs[1] are fairly clear, though:
"Lemmy is similar to sites like Reddit, Lobste.rs, Raddle, or Hacker News: you subscribe to forums you're interested in, post links and discussions, then vote, and comment on them. Behind the scenes, it is very different; anyone can easily run a server, and all these servers are federated (think email), and connected to the same universe, called the Fediverse.
...
Note: Federation is still in active development"
Also a useful post: "What is lemmy.ml"[2]
[1] https://join-lemmy.org/docs/en/index.html
[2] https://lemmy.ml/post/70280
Remind me again what government handouts and interventions are?
I don't understand the point of a comment like "there are leftists that use this website".
Government handouts and interventions are social democracy, the system we all live in.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
For people from two-party-system country it may sounds same. But as someone born in Czechoslovakia, some of those linked posts gave me a pause.
FediTips, a Mastodon account, recently shared some concerns about the Uyghur-related content in the largest Lemmy instance, which is run by Lemmy's developers:
https://mstdn.social/@feditips/106835057054633379
This created a firestorm on Lemmy, on which it was noted that Lemmy removes conservative and libertarian communities with the reason "No conservative communities":
> Removed Community conservatives reason: No conservative communities
> Removed Community Libertarian, in the pursuit of a free society reason: No conservative communities allowed
https://lemmy.ml/post/78808
https://lemmy.ml/modlog
Perhaps the underlying software is fine, but the largest Lemmy instance is not exactly the friendliest to anyone who wants to express themselves more freely than they are allowed to on mainstream social networks.
Please don't take HN threads into ideological flamewar, don't call names, and avoid unsubstantive and/or flamebait posts.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33615058 (223 comments)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33438493 (190 comments)
Lemmy: A Federated Reddit Alternative - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33615058 - Nov 2022 (215 comments)
LemmyBB, a federated bulletin board - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33438493 - Nov 2022 (186 comments)
Open Source federated link aggregator in rust - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31712332 - June 2022 (37 comments)
Lemmy Release v0.14.0: Federation with Mastodon and Pleroma - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29266003 - Nov 2021 (48 comments)
Lemmy – A link aggregator for the fediverse - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28453165 - Sept 2021 (213 comments)
Lemmy a federated, open-source and privacy alternative to Reddit - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24393689 - Sept 2020 (9 comments)
Lemmy, an open-source federated Reddit alternative, gets funding for development - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23664067 - June 2020 (634 comments)
AMA about Lemmy, an open source, Federated alternative to Reddit - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23389622 - June 2020 (4 comments)
Note:
Reposts are fine after a year or so, but when a story has had significant attention in the past year, we mark reposts as a dupe. This is in the FAQ: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html. Lemmy: Federated Alternative to Reddit in Rust - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19686972 - April 2019 (99 comments)
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenny_(bot)
[1] https://www.lennytroll.com/
The fact that it's federated under the hood is not a feature that would matter for most people, at least as far as I can see. If it meant that I can easily move my conversation elsewhere then yea I can see that, but I really can't, and it only further divides my comments across yet another silo.
Would be happy to be corrected if I'm wrong about my impression.
Reddit like forums, open source self-hosting, federation, these are all good points but people need to see how they make a difference in practice.
Mastodon somehow managed to be seen as a less toxic version of twitter, though it might be mostly peoples wish than anything intrinsic to the platform.
But all new entrants in the fediverse party will have to think how to convince people that social media are actually worth the hassle
It appears Lemmy may have been created by people who wanted a version of reddit for militant communists, which might tend to discourage anyone who doesn't want to talk to militant communists from adopting it.