this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2023
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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by chitak166 to c/fediverse
 

I used to think that there would be 1, main 'Fediverse' with all of the 'big instances' connected to each other. The recent Threads debacle has shown me otherwise.

The point of the Fediverse is that there is no one single entity, or group of entities, dominating it all.

Right now it feels like whatever the big instances do, we kind of have to go along with to be a part of anything. As the Fediverse grows, there will be more options to suit different types of users.

I think it's fine if big instances federate with Threads and it's fine if they don't. People can just join instances that align with what they want. It's not like defederating means being cut out of the Fediverse, that's not possible.

Great design. I'm eager to see how it plays out.

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[–] GONADS125 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (8 children)

Edit: Since so many people are misinformed: No, blocking Threads on an individual basis is not a solution. This only blocks posts from Threads showing up in your feed. It does not block Threads users' comments from spreading hate and extremism throughout federated instances, and lemmy users will still be subject to potential harassment from Threads users. (See the harassment of the LGBTQ+ community on Threads for examples...)

Here's a comment of mine that states my argument against federating with Threads.

Also, I was not trying to debate the issue here. I was looking for recommendations for alternative instances... I'd appreciate anyone actually responding to my comment.

Original comment: Anybody have recommendations on a decent instance that won't be federating with Threads? Maybe one that allows community creation but isn't full of tankies?

I'm jumping ship from .world if they go through with federating with Threads. Such a shame to see the effort put into building this great instance come undone.

This place decided to disregard what the majority of their users want and turn the neighborhood to shit way faster than reddit. I thought we'd at least have a couple years before instance admins started selling out to such a shitty company that's going to make the fediverse a less safe place for their users.

Meta will also do anything they can to EEE and I'm not convinced the fediverse is as invulnerable to such exploitation as some users seem to be.

[–] TORFdot0 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just because Lemmy.world doesn’t agree with about defederating with meta doesn’t make them sell outs. Like you said, you are jumping ship; just like the fediverse intended.

For better or worse, Lemmy.world is intended to be a catch all instance for normies so it makes sense why they would not defederate from meta.

[–] GONADS125 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I disagree that they aren't selling out.

I consider it to be as such when this move isn't supported by most of their userbase, they misframe that blocking Threads is a viable solution for the rampant issues with hate/extremism, and the decision puts their users at risk (both in the form of extremism/harassment and exploitation by Meta).

It's an inch towards becoming mainstream, but the costs outweigh the benefits IMO. I believe it's hypocritical to defederate from exploding heads and then turn around and federate with Threads.

I think misleading users into believing they can block Threads (only the posts), making a decision against the majority of their community's wishes, and instead subjecting them to potential harassment, misinformation and exploitation is selling out.

[–] MimicJar 1 points 1 year ago

You've mentioned that the majority of Lemmy.world users support defederating from threads. Do you have a source?

As someone in the "wait and see" group I'm curious how many people really are in each group.

[–] TORFdot0 -1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If the majority of users on Lemmy.world does not want to be federated with meta then Lemmy.world will lose those users and then no longer be the power they currently are with influence over the fediverse.

Also I believe it’s disingenuous to equate explodingheads, which was defederated for being extremely toxic due to its lack of moderation and meta which presumably has more resources to devote to moderation than any fedi instance (of course they are still terrible at it)

I’m for defederating with meta when the time comes because I don’t think that their influence is healthy for the fediverse and don’t think that most admins could handle the burdens that would come with federating with them. Lemmy.world (and mastodon.social and a few others) is a big enough instance that they could handle those challenges. I’ve said before that if meta only sticks to the open source AP spec then the risks are much less and so that should be the criteria for federation

[–] ChunkMcHorkle 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

deleted by creator

[–] CaptainSpaceman 3 points 1 year ago

woohoo! we got moderated content!!! cant wait for all the "organic" ads that pop up in my feed from users spouting the benefits of Tide^TM brand soap!!!!!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I was looking for recommendations for alternative instances… I’d appreciate anyone actually responding to my comment.

OK.

Largest Lemmy instances blocking Instagram Threads are (according to fedipact.veganism.social) lemmy.ml, lemm.ee, lemmy.ca, Hexbear, feddit.de, Beehaw, Lemmygrad, lemmy.dbzer0.com, lemmy.blahaj.zone, discuss.tchncs.de, sopuli.xyz, aussie.zone, feddit.nl, lemmy.zip, midwest.social, feddit.uk, mander.xyz, ...

[–] Zak 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There are lots of hypotheticals here.

I expect the lemmy.world admins to block servers that are frequent sources of hate and extremism. I don't expect them to speculatively block servers because some people guess they might be. I'm pretty skeptical that a majority of users want preemptive blocking. I don't, and the votes and comments I see in most conversations on the subject suggest that's a position held by a very loud minority.

I'm not sure Threads users will be all that interested in interacting with Lemmy. It's an awkward UX to participate in Lemmy conversations from Mastodon, and I believe Threads has essentially the same format. Threads is likely to have a bigger impact on Mastodon servers, and I don't think any of us can reliably predict what that impact will be yet.

[–] GONADS125 5 points 1 year ago

I disagree on user support. Look at the posts heavily discussing the matter, and also pay attention to the vote counts.

Also, it's not a hypothetical when there is already a systemic issue and the company has a notorious history. Look at my comment here for my fleshed out argument on this subject with citations.

I wasn't intending on debating the issue here; I was only looking for recommendations on alternative instances.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Can’t you block threads yourself once .world updates to 0.19.0?

[–] GONADS125 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's such a misinformative false 'solution' people keep peddling..

No, blocking Threads on the individual user level does not stop comments made by Threads users from showing up on federated instances, even for users who block Threads.

That means users who block Threads will still see hate/extremism and are still subject to potential harassment by toxic Threads users.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I think there are many reasons to block threads but is toxic users one of them?

There are lots of toxic users on Lemmy too. Should we be blocking lemmy.world or lemmy.ml because they have a few toxic users too?

[–] GONADS125 5 points 1 year ago

It's false to consider the userbase on lemmy.world and Threads to be analogous. I have documented the very real problems with Threads in this comment here.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In a Mastodon level this is not true. Blocking Threads.net prevents you from sharing your content with them and for their content to show up. Pixelfed has also enabled user level Authorised fetch which will prevent Threads.net from attempting to fetch that users content

[–] GONADS125 2 points 1 year ago

That's good to know. Thanks.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Would you create a community, and if so, what kind?

[–] GONADS125 5 points 1 year ago

I created [email protected] and have been planning on trying to revive my efforts to grow the community, but I'm sure hell not doing that if Threads is being incorporated. I'm instead going to strip the community of all of the content I posted.

I also want to create a community for my city, but I'm never going to do that on an instance that allows Threads/Meta incorporation. Also have wanted to recreate r/OldSkaters from reddit.

If I wanted to deal with Meta, I'd make an account on one of their privacy/rights-infringing platforms.

As established already, blocking Threads does not block user comments from showing up. Even if it did, I still would not host a community on an instance federated with Threads unless there was a way for the communities themselves to fully block Threads interaction.

But the only way to fully block Threads is by defederating from it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't get, even if you are part of .world and they are federated with threads.

Can't you just personally block all threads?

You personally can defederate without it affecting anyone else.

[–] GONADS125 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No, that's a half-measure at best... It only blocks Threads posts from showing up in your feed. It does not block Threads users comments from showing up on federated instances, even if the individual user personally blocks them.

I am legitimately fearful for LGBTQ+ users, as their community members have already been harrased on Threads by the far-right.

[–] netburnr -1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Keep living in your made up fear.

[–] GONADS125 7 points 1 year ago

Keep living in denial of what has already been happening on Threads haha.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean... I'm not the OP but I don't think people against meta/threads fear their idiot userbase. We just don't want to deal with them. At all. Anywhere.

Or we'd have joined threads.

[–] ChunkMcHorkle 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

deleted by creator

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nothing ever stopped you from creating you own instance. With blackjack and beers.

[–] GONADS125 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Except for time, money, and technical knowledge...

Also *blackjack and hookers!

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So, you have absolutely nothing to offer but somehow you think we should be giving any weight to your opinion?

[–] GONADS125 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Nice strawman attempt! There's no reason for me to even argue with you when your argument is a fallacy and automatically invalid.

Using your ridiculous logic, you must think the vast majority of lemmy users don't hold any value or merit? Because the vast majority of us are not hosting our own instances.

Being an active and constructive user, creating and moderating communities, and fighting misinformation are positive qualities for online communities.

Edit: I've also been donating to Ruud since my first week on this platform, so that's yet another reason your argument is totally incorrect. But I'll definitely be stopping my donations if Threads ends up being federated with.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If the "vast majority of lemmy users" start demand things from their admins while excusing themselves from contributing in any meaningful way, yes, I'd disregard their opinions as well.

"Skin in the Game" is important. If you are not willing to risk anything for what you believe in, then how do you expect anyone else to take you seriously?

[–] GONADS125 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If the "vast majority of lemmy users" start demand things from their admins while excusing themselves from contributing in any meaningful way, yes, I'd disregard their opinions as well.

Boy, you really ought to consider taking a critical thinking class at your local community college or something...

You're still trying to build a strawman argument. When your foundation is compromised, you don't keep building on it...

It's clear you're going to use disingenuous argumentative tactics and fallacies. If your next comment is just as juvenile, I'm not going to bother responding. Again, these arguments are invalid upon arrival, being logical fallacies and all..

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For someone with so much time to go to classes at community colleges, surely you can spare some minutes to run your own instance, no?

Here you go. Go create your own instance and show us how it is done.

[–] GONADS125 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not going to a community college hahaha. I'm working on my Master's in counseling.

Just thought that a critical thinking course may help you with your 4th grade level logic/arguments.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago

The fact that you missed the sarcasm and doubled down by leaning on your credentials is a-do-ra-ble.