here's a good list of communities I came across today, subbed to a bunch myself
https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/comment/17176543
as everyone else has said most instances are chill but avoid the tankie triad
this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2025
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The Democratic People's™ Republic of Tankiejerk
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115 users here now
Dunking on Tankies from a leftist, anti-capitalist perspective.
Rules:
- Be civil and no bigotry of any kind.
- No tankies or right-wingers. Liberals are allowed so long as they are aware of this
- No genocide denial
We allow posts about tankie behavior even off fedi, shitposts, and rational, leftist discussion. For a more general community [email protected] is recommended.
founded 2 years ago
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Nice! Welcome and congratulations on making the move!
Outside of avoiding the three tankie instances (.ml, lemmygrad, Hexbear), you don't need to worry too much about which instances a community is on. Just search for the most active ones (there's a community search at the top of the page) and hop in!
The tankies are concentrated on three main instances so basically you can either block those completely or just don’t participate in any communities on them. Some do visit the non-politics coms there but I think they always end up interpreting things in a political lens so I avoid them all.
The instances are Lemmy.ml, lemmygrad.ml, and Hexbear.net.
Actually a lot of the more debate-bro tankies tend to make alts elsewhere to argue. By blocking the big three (if they're federate), you're usually just avoiding the ones who are not very argumentative and of course all the campist-flavored topics which might be annoying.
I find it easier to block the communities. I’d rather not post content on an instance where I’ll be banned for calling China capitalist lol
Ran into several fresh accounts this week alone. TankieTanuki and something with "Stalin" in the name were the more obvious ones (I say like a random hours old account complaining about NATO in two separate threads and nothing else isn't obvious).
Yea, but unfortunately the admins and mods of the Tankie Triad are the biggest Tankies around and enforce that through (ironic, because they always complain about censorship) mod action
So the best course of action, if you're not on an instance that defed's from them, is to not reward their comms with activity. A total boycott, no posts, no comments, no upvotes. With a little luck, all the non-tankie users will gradually shift over
Yeah there's a few of those on world and probably other instances I'm sure. I block them when I see them
Yeah I don’t personally do that but I’m just presenting the options. It doesn’t bother me to interact with tankies I just hate their censored safe spaces rife with misinformation.
Just browse the All feed and subscribe to the stuff you like. At this point many instances block .ml and hexbear, so you'll be fine.
It's grad and hex that most instances defed from, .ml is more subtle and hosts a number of official Lemmy software support forums, so not many do defed from them. Unfortunately.
Its so unfortunate how most linux distro instances are hosted on .ml
May I ask what those instances are? I’m assuming .ml is Marxist Leninism (mask off) but idk what hexbear is. Are there any instances which are specific to my interests such as anime and music?
- lemmy.ml is one of the original instances, run by Lemmy developers Dessalines and crew. ML for them stands for "Marxism-Leninism", not "Mali." They have a reputation for censoring criticism of Russia and China, but have a number of mainstream-ish communities.
- hexbear recently lost the Hexbear.net domain name due to a registration screwup. Last I heard they are hosted at chapo.chat. They have a reputation for "dunking" on non-tankies.
- lemmygrad.ml I know the least about, as I've been defederated for nearly my whole Lemmy lifetime. Allegedly pretty tankies.
- ani.social seems like it may specialise in anime stuff. I blocked several of their communities in grounds of not labelling nsfw. That's about as much as I know.
Update: it seems that hexbear.net is back to hosting hexbear.net.
ani.social seems like it may specialise in anime stuff. I blocked several of their communities in grounds of not labelling nsfw. That's about as much as I know.
The problem is definition of NSFW is different for all Lemmy user. One time I posted a Official Art of [email protected] and it got reported for not labelling NSFW. That pic doesn't even have any thing like Fanservice or Showing Clothes. Just normal School Uniform.
"If the 65 year old HR worker would take a second glance, it's Not Safe For Work."
So a gay couple kissing is NSFW and a straight one is fine? That’s what a 65 yo HR worker would say in my experience.
But, I never understand. Why would anyone use Lemmy or any social media at work? I am Teen. So, really asking.
NSFW stands for "not safe for work" - the label literally exists so that users know what to avoid to make the service usable at work without risk of getting fired over it.
And why wouldn't you want to use it at work? Breaks are a thing, many people try to spend them trying to recharge by doing something that takes them out of the work mindset for a bit, and Lemmy is perfect for that.
Yes. It's not really exclusively about work, though. It applies to families, public transit, anywhere someone might see your screen. It's not a nudity or gore tag, but a sort of inoffensively presentable content tag. The office screen mentality is just a good way to get the right idea across.
Also, "better safe than sorry" is a good mentality. It's better to over tag than under.
The core of it is avoiding drama at work, but yea it can be useful in other situations too. Suggestions to add a not-safe-for-life tag have been around since basically the day after NSFW become a thing cuz people do want some nuance.
Like, I can fire up a video of russian invaders getting blown to bits in Ukraine while sitting in the breakroom and while it might not be the most tasteful content, it's not going to get me fired; but most of those are tagged NSFW anyway just as a general content warning.
Gotta make due with the tools we've got. I'd definitely be in favor of adding a NSFL option to cover the gore - I don't want surprise titties on my screen in the middle of the breakroom, but if Karen finds something on my screen distasteful that isn't forbidden by actual policy, then she can go ahead and look away.
You have to be 18 to access lemmy.world (which this thread is on) per Rule #3 of their ToS BTW. That's technically still a teenager so maybe you are of-age, but wanted to mention it.
I am on lemm.ee which allow user over 16. So, I am safe I guess? It doesn't even matter I am gonna Turn 18 this July.
This particular thread is hosted on lemmy.world and you must be 18+ to access it.
So, What .world gonna ban me? They don't have any proof that I am a teenager or just 40 Year Old Man who was roleplaying as a teenager on Internet? Who knows? Banning is also pointless I can create 10 different account on Lemmy. So they can't make me stop using Lemmy. It's already been 1.5 Years now. I had a account .world at first then I moved to lemm.ee.
Hexbear was worse, very pro China/Russia/North Korea, but I think they didn't renew their domain license, so the server went down. Lemmygrad is the same way, I think it's still active. .ml I didn't think is too bad, just block yogthos or whether their name is.
I’ve found it easier to block ML communities. A lot of the people on ML aren’t that bad, but you WILL get banned from the entirety of ML for any criticism of russia china and north korea. The mods really aren’t scared to abuse their power. I’d rather not participate.
Ive found that lemmygrad.ml is on average way worse than just lemmy.ml. Ive interacted with people from lemmy.ml and had positive interactions not the case for lemmygrad.
Several communities of the same name are emerging here- search for them, and key words similar to your communities.
It’s still pretty small comparatively, but growing exponentially.