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In addition to the UX of Mastodon/Lemmy, I also think the moderation or lack of it is a major issue. It would be nice if this got more attention, because it's e

by tensor 3y ago

In addition to the UX of Mastodon/Lemmy, I also think the moderation or lack of it is a major issue. It would be nice if this got more attention, because it's even a weak point of places like reddit. On the plus side, reddit does have some blanket site wide content moderation that targets some of the most egregious and illegal content. I think that's good, and I don't think "leaving it up to individual server admins to blacklist" is sufficient. On the negative side, the way subreddits and mastodon instances are moderated is a huge problem. Being the first to create a community shouldn't necessarily give you 100% control over the content. That sort of thing can be an option, but to me reddit has made it clear that for major and large communities there needs to be some more democratically inspired form of governance. Yes, this is a hugely difficult problem, but unless we want an endless cycle of new sites that become toxic or problematic once they grow to a certain size, it's a problem that needs a lot of attention.

vintermann 3y ago
It seems to me that most popular Mastodon/Lemmy instances outlaw more stuff than reddit. How good they are at enforcing it is another matter.
- tensor 3y ago
  I'm not necessarily looking for more things being outlawed, or less things being outlawed. Rather I'd like to see some system where subgroups can more fairly decide what gets outlawed or allowed, and mechanisms for transparency and accountability of enforcing such rules. It may not matter that much for a sub dedicated to a niche topic, but hopefully its clear that subs that are supposed to represent cities, countries, and similar should somehow managed in a "democratic" like way. There is clear value in the names of these subs. While mastodon doesn't have "subs" per-se, having some sort of moderation that is "democratic" and implemented by a diverse group of people would be good to see. Having each instance owner have ultimate moderation power is not a plus in my book. Why should moderation and choice of content be biased towards those tech savvy enough to setup an instance? That's not what I want in a social media platform.
jtode 3y ago
Reddit useless to me, because I am either banned or shadowbanned in several of the subreddits dedicated to my interests or which are otherwise relevant. r/Winnipeg, which is my hometown and still a city I drive into on the regular, is controlled as an echo chamber by a group of elite admins. It doesn't matter what kind of echo chamber, except to say, it's my viewpoint that dominates the echo chamber. Nonetheless, my tone (which on Reddit was very similar to my tone on here) was enough to get me shadowbanned. If I have no voice in the sub dedicated to my community based on an arbitrary decision by an unknown admin and which I wasn't even supposed to know about, let alone appeal the decision... that's a garbage platform, you ask me. r/GratefulDead is likewise run by a tiny dictator. In theory there's other admins that could take action, but they don't. In theory this is all fine and within Reddit's rules, which are clearly garbage. If they are positioning themselves as the de facto public square, you can't have arbitrary and anonymous censorship.

by tensor 3y ago

vintermann 3y ago

It seems to me that most popular Mastodon/Lemmy instances outlaw more stuff than reddit. How good they are at enforcing it is another matter.

tensor 3y ago
I'm not necessarily looking for more things being outlawed, or less things being outlawed. Rather I'd like to see some system where subgroups can more fairly decide what gets outlawed or allowed, and mechanisms for transparency and accountability of enforcing such rules. It may not matter that much for a sub dedicated to a niche topic, but hopefully its clear that subs that are supposed to represent cities, countries, and similar should somehow managed in a "democratic" like way. There is clear value in the names of these subs. While mastodon doesn't have "subs" per-se, having some sort of moderation that is "democratic" and implemented by a diverse group of people would be good to see. Having each instance owner have ultimate moderation power is not a plus in my book. Why should moderation and choice of content be biased towards those tech savvy enough to setup an instance? That's not what I want in a social media platform.

jtode 3y ago

Reddit useless to me, because I am either banned or shadowbanned in several of the subreddits dedicated to my interests or which are otherwise relevant. r/Winnipeg, which is my hometown and still a city I drive into on the regular, is controlled as an echo chamber by a group of elite admins. It doesn't matter what kind of echo chamber, except to say, it's my viewpoint that dominates the echo chamber. Nonetheless, my tone (which on Reddit was very similar to my tone on here) was enough to get me shadowbanned. If I have no voice in the sub dedicated to my community based on an arbitrary decision by an unknown admin and which I wasn't even supposed to know about, let alone appeal the decision... that's a garbage platform, you ask me. r/GratefulDead is likewise run by a tiny dictator. In theory there's other admins that could take action, but they don't. In theory this is all fine and within Reddit's rules, which are clearly garbage. If they are positioning themselves as the de facto public square, you can't have arbitrary and anonymous censorship.