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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
As a Lemmy supporter myself, I am not sure why "inability to control disinformation" is a valid reason for wanting to use this. Like, you do know how open, decentralized platforms work, right? A centralized service run by a company like Reddit can control disinformation if they want. On Lemmy, we can't control that even if we want. It's just not how the technology is designed to work.
There are better reasons to dump Reddit, like tracking and stuff like that.
Federation is a halfway point between centralization and purely decentralized/peer-to-peer networking, in which the burden of maintenance and moderation is spread amongst several instances. Instance admins have the ability to control bad behavior on their own instance, and can blocklist other instances that refuse to do so. Under this model, any instance that proves to be particularly problematic will find itself collectively blocklisted by the wider federation.
This, one instance wont be able to handle a massive amount of daily users, but the fediverse is designed with ahem... federation in mind.
Mastodon dot social is an example of when there is an over centralized instance, but lemmy ml, although centralizing it's still relatively small.
It's not quite black and white in terms of disinformation control. While it's not possible to control misinformation globally, it is possible for individual instances to moderate it and choose what instances they federate with. Since Lemmy isn't being run for profit there aren't any ulterior motives for keeping misinformation on the site either which has been a problem with Facebook in particular, and likely Reddit as well to a lesser extent. I think the community can keep itself honest as long as misinformation is seen as a negative by majority of the users.
Yes, but I think the crux of the issue is that Reddit chooses to not do anything against it despite being able to so so. I guess if there was a serious effort but the end-result would be imperfect because of technical reasons (as in the case on Lemmy) then no-one would complain.
I feel there is an issue here. What steps are lemmy going to take if so called misinformation starts spreading on the platform?
At least on this instance, we have a mod team that's strict about banning covid deniers. If its another instance, we'd de-federate with them.
I support this hard stance against those who deny reality.
Nice
So far, the mod is really encouraging people who are AGAINST all the misinformation being spread around Reddit to migrate. I don't know if the people who spread misinformation really want to migrate to another site if A) Reddit is already platforming them nicely and B) they see that the people who are moving to these other sites are people against them. Plus, Lemmy has a reputation for not being friendly to bigots and reactionaries. Just look at previous threads about Lemmy on /r/linux. I guarantee you there will be people complaining about the slur filter and Lemmy's heavy-handed moderation. The mod mentioned other alternatives, too, some of which may catch the attention of the more "free speech" oriented people.
You do have a point, though. Ultimately, I trust the current admins and mods of the Lemmyverse to keep it a healthy community. They've done a great job so far.
Then we make a new instance and go there?
lemmy.ml could also close doors/delist itself sometimes to facilitate decentralization. Closing being probably the preferrable option.
You mean "closing registrations", right?
Yes.
Probably should hold off on that until lemmy.ml is "full", which I think might not happen for a while yet.
I think Lemmy should go to invite-only because if people are going to leave Reddit, do we want the same people polluting /r/NNN with horse paste on here?
Sort of? They will soon realize that things are different in here, but if we want to grow the community, we have to accept new users, in one way indiscriminately.
Honestly, LBRY is literally inflated with pure anti vaccine and anti covid material. I don't see how many "Free, Unlimited Speech" sites will survive waves of antivaxxers coming in from reddit when they don't have a central place anymore.
The sad truth is that these people are so into their own bubble of "Everything I see is correct, but everything stating otherwise is the government trying to convince me otherwise."
EDIT: Also, I think that these people are just looking into Open Source Software as a way for them to spread their stupid, delusional opinions now that "free-use" software is "Owned by big tech that tries to silence us because its the government" or some stupid altright opinion like that. Also, if you're one of those asshats, please look into the general social media algorithms, human behaviour and the target groups of ivermectin use before you call someone else a sheep or a dumb cow.
The sad truth is that these people are so into their own bubble of “Everything I see is correct, but everything stating otherwise is the government trying to convince me otherwise.”
We all are in our own bubble. The bubble is not the problem. Your knowledge of bubbles is.
Educate them. Eventually they'll crash and burn or re-integrate into society.
I don’t see how many “Free, Unlimited Speech” sites will survive
Me neither. Unmoderated platforms always drift into fascism and right-wing authoritarianism. We have to de-platform these people. They're dumb and they need to be separated for all our sakes.
Reddit was dead a long time ago. They have the worst problems of free speech platforms and the worst of "iron first" censorship platforms.
Could lemmy really do a better job at it? If it will start getting millions of comments everyday how well can it start hunting down every piece of nonsense some dude writes?
Also I see that some people complain about stuff that is "incorrect" and potentially damaging being written and not getting censored, but is that always bad? when people discuss things and it can help create better decisions (I think there is research on this) and you could get quality feedback saying why you are wrong. I had some pretty crazy stuff argued in front of me IRL and i managed to help someone think about things in a more rational way. They could also just move to posting this stuff on other social media or just IRL.
how well can it start hunting down every piece of nonsense some dude writes?
Not at all currently, since the mod tools are currently nonexistent, there's no report button and Lemmy doesn't require a "proper" mail address or verification, also you can post whatever you want however huge your downvote ratio is, so self-moderating communities are not a thing here.
I guess sooner or later the devs will implement all that and IMHO that's OK, since Lemmy currently is relatively free from all of those things you mentioned. Spammers get banned quickly, the instance owners of many instances are reachable on Matrix if needed.
Even if we have the report functionality, facebook for example makes about 32 dollars per user (at least that's what google says), that means they can hire people to do full time moderation and making sure more reports are addressed, So i am still unsure it will be better (unless volunteers handle enough of the work load).
(responding in order of most importance, some not-on-topic rants)
I think it may be a good idea to encourage them to shop around for different instances on https://join-lemmy.org
I am hoping that users shop around on join-lemmy vs just coming to the 'main' instance. I also hope to have more users join open platforms to give them control to what they want to see and what they don't want to see.
I said in the thread that the open platforms are a big concern to the misinformation machine because they need to reach out to as big as an audience as fast as possible before their stuff is debunked. They cry when their "free speech" is impacted because that gets people to click and bring up pitchforks, but that's just another tactic they use.
It’s obvious Reddit doesn’t care about its community
Definitely, reddit is a company and companies only care about profit. This is one reason r/linux has over the years linked to primary sources instead of blogs and other link-jacking websites, once money comes into play it's about the money and not about the community.
edit: oh they seem to be a mod of this community
I can probably be demodded or should remove myself (at least on [email protected], some of the others I may stick with for fun). I was interested in the platform early on and wanted to test it out, but honestly I don't have the time for the mod "life" and what I do on reddit isn't going to be the same situation here. I'll stick around on reddit to see what I can do about getting people onto more open platforms, but that probably won't go on for much longer either. Being a mod here implies that I play favorites on which open platform to use but I don't want that to be the case. Plus, it's a distraction. I signed on Lemmy for the first time in awhile to see a user I banned from r/linux complaining about it. Modding here would just result in more of that BS which detracts from the community.
If they’re not going to take responsibility for the social damage they’ve caused so far by harboring and encouraging awful communities, then it’s high time Reddit stopped existing.
r/linux has a lot of people that push the boundaries of our rules and many of them participate in the same subreddits that are now banned by the admins. Without the current mod roster, alt-right/KiA users would have long since taken over the subreddit. The admins are NO help in this regard and the modtools have not improved in any appreciable way. I hope to encourage other communities to do the same, and on that thread at least one person is looking at Discourse.
Additionally, it's hard finding people that want to mod r/linux and when you do, all mods get busy with the much more important real life. No one really wants to deal with the constant misinformation thrown around on reddit for no reward. I do feel requiring original sources has helped prevent a lot of misinformation and we don't see the same situations we used to with systemd/kde/gnome, although they pop up time to time.