DESCLAIMER: This will be a little bit of a long and maybe even a personal write up, if you do read it all, thank you in advance!
Hello everyone, not sure if anyone remembers much of what happened with my account u/TheArstaInventor on Reddit, In a nutshell, I was the guy who created initiatives like r/lemmymigration and r/kbinmigration, got banned unfairly for a while to be unbanned later after community backlash, I also created guides to help users move to Kbin, Lemmy or the fediverse in general, the one that took off the most was "The Redditor's guide to how Kbin works".
Later I also entered the r/RedditAlternatives mod team, and helped moderate the community further as its popularity grew a ton at the time and a massive increase in posts required a bigger mod team. I also coordinated with other mods at the time at r/ModCoord when the blackout happen and the whole coordination not only made blackout possible but a ton of communities made another home here on the Fediverse.
Although at first, I supported Lemmy massively, I moved to Kbin later instead after learning about some of the concerns surrounding Lemmy's project developers at the time (them being tankies) but then over the months of using Kbin and investing a ton of my time on the project, I came to the harsh reality and conclusion that when it comes to platform maturity and stability, Kbin is years behind thanks to constant errors across the website sometimes, bugs and other instabilities, this also lead me to reconsider supporting and coming back to Lemmy, this time to Lemmy.world.
I also discussed with other people and came to the conclusion that the devs being tankies or their personal idealogies can't and haven't affected the overal project = Lemmy. Sure, there are some instances that cater to their idealogies such as Lemmygrad or even lemmy.ml but thanks to the project being open source and especially part of the fediverse, there are many other general instances, the best one being lemmy.world, that are moderated by entierly different people. The developers of Lemmy, who just help develop the platform, and their personal idealogies, especially on other instances, don't and probably will never matter or be an issue.
There is also a major advantage of open source - keeping the original project in check with the threat of a fork project taking away users from the OG project, this itself will by fundamental design keep Lemmy from questionable changes in the future by Lemmy's own developers. Apart from all this, the developers themselves following this concern released a statement stating their ideologies won't affect the platform itself and even if it does, it is open source and is open to being forked.
This was more than enough for me to jump ship here now, I am personally a little bit exhausted after so much of work I put into Kbin at first, but there are too many issues and is certainly not ready for prime time which has lead me here, I kind of have to start from scratch here but one thing has made be extremely happy.
I don't know if I was a reason for even single person to come here to Lemmy from Reddit, but what happened to my account earlier on showed that Reddit is actually a flaw, a fundamental design flaw that is closed source and centralized, this was the base to all the issues, not just Reddit's recent API changes that surfaced, over the years. I don't know if even that was a reason for atleast a single person to leave Reddit for Lemmy and the fediverse, but I am just happy that a ton of people are now on this site, leaving Reddit for good and I have immense satisfaction that I did atleast 0.1% contribution to it.
I also hope some of my guides and posts inspired and helped people give open source software a real try this time and it seems like a ton of people have settled in the fediverse, really makes me happy that we finally have a self-sustaining community outside Reddit, but not just outside Reddit, but in a FOSS platform.
Putting an end to my long write up above, I want to mention using this opportunity, that I've created c/ModCoord !modcoord@lemmy.world, not exactly the same r/ModCoord from Reddit, in-fact my vision is wider and bigger: A place for all moderators to coordinate, help each other. A place to help new users migrate and ask questions about perhaps moderating a new community created. But most importantly, helping Reddit moderators migrate not only themselves but their reddit communities to Lemmy. Apart from the community on Lemmy itself, I also plan on creating a discord server that will be linked to the c/ModCoord here. Right now there is about nothing there, but I will soon start working on it and you will start seeing a lot of progress moving forward there, so do consider subscribing and supporting our vision and future initatives there - especially if you are a moderator, even better if you are a reddit moderator like me moving here. We also plan on working on a wiki-like post on c/ModCoord with tons of resources to help with community discovery who have already moved from Reddit to lemmy and so on.
Today, I left r/RedditAlternatives Mod team, a great bunch of people who shared my vision but it is clear that those who were really committed to seeing Reddit's downfall left already for alternatives, mainly Lemmy and the Fediverse, so did I, little point in staying there.
As a HUGE car enthusiast, I will be working on bringing car communities to Lemmy personally as well (give me a shout out if you are a car enthusiast!:), especially those I already mod on Reddit.
If you read all that, I really appreciate it and i'm terribly sorry if it was too long but hey, I gave you a desclaimer 😉 😂
Finally, Let's create the next front page of the internet, even better this time.
Welcome, and keep up the good work. Good to see you here.
Even if you don't like communists. Politics plays a big part in open source for many, and giving power to people and away from corporations. While we were all happy and content on reddit, those guys were grinding away to build something for people. It did not appear over night. To some extent it is what drives and motivates people. I understand you are not communist and don't agree with the philosophy, but it's worth at least respecting that it plays a part in how people operate and is a reason why they self-sacrifice the way they do.
I'm personally a socialist and don't agree with tankies support of certain countries administrations (past and present), but share a similar view of the world in wanting power in the hands of people, not corporations. I think we need to go further to respect other people's views, even if we do not agree with them. Shitting all over them (and the platform) based on their views while supporting the thing they build does feel somewhat disrespectful. It's the same as religion in some ways. You can fundamentally disagree with a religion while conducting yourself in a respectful manner when around those that differ from your views.
Imagine saying "I didn't want to use x because of the creators , but later realised the religious view didn't impose on my own, so I have given it another shot."
I think we need to get to a world where we can be respectful of people having different views even if we do not agree with them and would be quite happy to deconstruct it in debate.
It’s one thing to be a communist, it’s an entirely different thing to make excuses for authoritarian communism. Tankies frequently ban and censor things they disagree with even when there are no broken rules which is the main issue I see.
Thanks to federation and open source software, this shouldn't be an issue.
Agreed, my solution has just been to stop subscribing and posting to as many Lemmy.ml communities since that’s where I’ve run into issues.
You're not alone in this.
It’s bad over there. Worldnews is a trash fire.
Who's making excuses?
Do you want to give an example of where the developers banned or censored something? It sounds like you're generalising.
I see you're also posting from lemmy.world, despite the fact they defederated from Hexbear before it even federated. To be critical of censorship while using that instance is ironic. Either you stand against censorship, or you're just using it as an excuse to bash something you dislike. lemm.ee is far from tankie, but approached it in a manner more conducive to what you believe...
Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of normal stuff and normal people on Lemmy.ml. I’ve had comments deleted as hate speech for stating Hamas and Iran are a part of the problem in the Middle East. I’ve had issues with how Lemmy.world has handled some of their federation decisions but I’ve also seen some pretty terrible things posted on both lemmygrad and hexbear so I can’t say I blame the admins. World also refederated with Dbzer0 which makes me think they are open to reassessing which I like. If things take a turn I’m not comfortable with, I will probably move instances.
I'm a Christian socialist and you'll never find me locking arms with a tanky Communist. They're so disrespectful of other people's views they want to shoot people for having them.
Violence is a sin.
We talking about Christians and homosexuals in parts of the world?
You don't even detect the irony in your post.
That's a tiny minority of Christians whereas it's not a tiny minority of communist and tankies.
Furthermore it's an aberration when it comes to how people believe Christianity should be practiced that it involves such violence towards homosexuals, whereas it's the norm among communists.
Yeah the problem isn't their belief system, it's the fact that they will brigade people who ask the wrong question or make the wrong assertion. Not in a corrective way, or in a way of trying to convince/persuade, but in a "you're a horrible racist genocidalist scar on humanity and should never have been born" kinda of way. It's very strange.
Where did the devs do that, or are you generalising?
I never interacted with them. Someone said they weren’t voting for Biden because of Gaza and everyone got very very angry when I asked who they proposed as an alternative. Sadly nobody was willing to answer that, I’m just a horrible person for not knowing already.
Which was exactly the problem with Reddit. Like exactly to a t.
Well that was usually caused by the mods going authoritarian. Lemmmy.ml and lemmygrad are some examples of places on Lemmy that are just like that, but in genera, people are very chill around here.
Communists are inherently radical/extremist and radicals/extremists don't care about other opinions and will actively suppress them.
I disagree in principle. There is a form of communism that works, though I don't know what it is. Sadly, nothing in the way of what Marx predicted has happened yet. The people have never stepped up and taken control of the means of production, for instance. Rather, we get the extremists that you mention who really just substitute one elite for another rather than humanity as a whole deciding to throw off the yoke of capital oppression.
My point? There is a possibility out there of something genuine occurring. Most of humanity is far too selfish for it to happen now.
You've nailed it. I couldn't have said it better.
P.S. If people from lemmy.ml see me say things like that, they become very cross.
That's because communists are literally nuts and they're not worth listening to in the modern day. Marxism has some valuable things to say. Communism does not.
Look, despite the appealing nature of some of the things Communists talk about they're the last people that should be looked to to provide those things.
They haven't even tried to acknowledge the horrors of communist regimes that have existed. There's not even like an attempt to take responsibility and intellectualize it. It's all just hand waved away as not real communism or blah blah blah or it didn't happen or it was justified in truly horrifying cases. What kind of movement is going to be successful that can't even acknowledge its mistakes? Acknowledging our mistakes is how we grow as individuals and it's required to keep movements accountable and on the right track.
You cannot have a movement full of people who refuse to acknowledge the mistakes of the past... in charge. Best case scenario it doesn't work which is what you see in communist circles today: Endless in-fighting, superiority complexes and toxic personalities.
Worst case scenario we have another genocide.
Communism is a joke philosophy and it's not something that should be taken seriously by anybody. It's one thing if it's an entry point into the world of Marxism where there are legitimate things to be accomplished and to think about. But if you try and apply a communist philosophy or worse a Marxist leninist philosophy towards life and politics you're not on the right track in the slightest.
It's a doomed philosophy and a failed approach. Furthermore communism is not even necessary for the workers to seize the means of production. It's just a particularly violent direct way that has been outmoded and is out of date.
When I first joined Lemmy, I went on to lemmy.ml without knowing what it was--I wanted to be on the instance that the devs managed. It took me just a couple months to realize that something was up. I'd make a random comment and the brigade would come out to attack. It is what made me realize that there's little difference between extremists--it's really just something they latch on to as an identity to fill a hole in their hearts. It's no different than PETA, sovereign citizens, incels, and frankly, evangelicals. I learned a hard lesson in those months that finally lead to me moving to another instance after being told for the upteenth time what a horrid racist eco facist I was.
In regards to your comment on intellectualizing things, it became clear to me that this group really is composed of tankies and they really and truly do believe that Stalin and Mao are genuine communists. If you ask about it, they will quote Mao at you where he argues that people who don't fully understand every aspect of a topic have no right to speak. They get angrier if you make allusions to relativism and knowledge and how there are differing viewpoints.
As a former extremist myself, you're absolutely right. It's not even really about changing the world or actual meaningful activism which is why these extremists are also totally useless in any movement they get involved. All they are is cancer. They just serve to alienate hard-working regular people who care about whatever cause it is.
Shockingly, the thing that made me finally realize this was when someone was on the attack and I asked that if they wanted others to think a certain way, why they didn't try to convince them. I suggested that they try to persuade me and a whole new avenue of attack began--that really made people extra angry and I was really surprised. These people, as you say, aren't actually interested in improving the world. They only want to be right so that they can point at others to say how wrong they are instead. Worse? I am actually sympathetic to the ideas that communists speak of but they drove me away in their rage.
And this my friend is exactly why communism is a dead philosophy. This right here above any kind of technical details or doctrinal differences or ideological issues.. It's this right here that you just described which is why communism will never succeed. Because communist themselves, in 2024 are nuts. I came to the same conclusion you did which is why I stopped calling myself one despite sympathizing and being a fellow traveler.
Gosh I just met my online soulmate I think.
DM me and I'll give you my phone number.
There's nothing to respect about authoritarian communism. It's an ideology that advocates literally shooting people for having dissenting opinions. For all the good things in the ideology (and there are many) that completely negates them. It turns it into a parody ideology, a clown ideology that can't ever actually bring the good stuff inside the box to fruition. It's a poison pill.
It's a box full of your favorite snacks but when you open the lid there's nerve gas on the latch. Can't eat the snacks if you're dead.
Communists are by default and especially the tanky variety, not respectful of people having different views. That's why people don't like them.
Quite condescending, too.