This is in regard to Lemmy.world blocking piracy communities from other instances. This post is not about whether you agree with the decision. It’s about how the admins informed their users.

A week ago Lemmy.world announced their Discord server. This wasn’t very well received (about 25% downvotes, which is rather bad compared to other announcements). The comments on that post were turned off, presumably to avoid backlash.

Before that, announcements about the instance used to be posted to !lemmyworld@lemmy.world. This time, the information was posted on the Discord server instead.

I don’t agree with this. Having to use a proprietary platform to participate in an open-source one goes against the very purpose for me, especially when the new solution isn’t really an improvement (as before the information about the platform was closer to it).

Edit: Corrected the announcements community name.

Update: Lemmy.world finally released an announcement and promised they would inform about similar actions and gather feedback in advance in future.

    • @grte@lemmy.ca
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      2111 months ago

      Alternatively if you scroll to the bottom page of any individual lemmy instance there should be a link called Instances which will take you to a page of all the instances yours is federated and defederated with.

      • @joe@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        An instance with no defederation policy is going to end up exactly like an instance with no moderation policy. It’s going to become Voat or whatever the latest far-right website is these days.

        You might be better served to seek out an instance with a transparent defederation policy, and admins that use it as a tool of last resort, instead of first resort. I was, perhaps mistakenly, under the impression that lemmy.world fit that bill, but maybe not so much.

          • @joe@lemmy.world
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            1511 months ago

            I know reading comprehension isn’t much valued in some political circles, but I didn’t say what you think I said, so I’m not sure you really mean “agreed”.

            Some moderation is required because an honest dialog cannot happen if all parties don’t feel safe. This is not the same as “no moderation”, but it’s also not the same as what you pretended I said, which is “heavy moderation”. I don’t understand why you think this discussion in any way translates to a government, but generally speaking, the US government has less ability to “censor” than a non-government entity.

            And, as I already alluded to, the result of lax moderation is bigotry and hate, every time. If I had to pick between heavy moderation or voat, and to be clear, I don’t have to make that choice because there is nuance allowed, then I’d pick heavy moderation over a site infested with redhats and the like.

          • @joe@lemmy.world
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            511 months ago

            I think one of us doesn’t understand federation-- and to be clear, it might be me.

              • @joe@lemmy.world
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                311 months ago

                I thought we were discussing defederation. You cannot block entire instances on lemmy, that I know of.

                Blocking a community does not block the users of the instance. The type of people that would naturally gravitate to, for example, a far right instance of lemmy.

        • Bilb!
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          11 months ago

          This isn’t true, I think. You can have an instance that federates with nearly everyone but which still has a higher standard for behavior for its own users. This way, users on such an instance can see all the problematic instances but are not permitted to be problematic themselves. It’s an option.

          (Even still, I think you’d find yourself de-federating from someone eventually for spam or other technical reasons if not due to objections over content.)

          • @joe@lemmy.world
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            1511 months ago

            It’s a problem of scale. If you don’t defederate from a racist-focused instance (for example; hypothetically speaking), then you need to devote resources to moderating those users who make racist comments, as allowed by their instance, but directed at your users. Sure, you could do this, but it’s probably smarter to just defederate and save the resources for other uses. And no moderation team is going to be flawless, so racism will still creep in and be missed by the mod team.

            It might be a different story if users are given the tools to block entire instances (like kbin has) but even then I think the ROI would be low.

          • @joe@lemmy.world
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            311 months ago

            I apologize; I don’t know what you mean in relation to what I said. Do you mind elaborating?

              • @joe@lemmy.world
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                111 months ago

                Copyright (not “copywrite”, btw) law is batshit insane, but somehow people believe it to be even worse than it is.

                Your browser makes copies of every image you see, but this doesn’t violate copyright law because it’s automatic and necessary for the browser to function. Does that sound familiar?

                Also, for like 2 decades the standard action is just a takedown request that threatens legal action if ignored.

                And to be clear, the admins had no actionable reason to block the piracy communities. They did it preemptively.

                  • @joe@lemmy.world
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                    111 months ago

                    And due to the nature of IP enforcement, once an object has been created that the copywrite holders could find objective, takedown enforcement becomes impossible when an object is more or less instantly shared across a hundred thousand instances.

                    This is not correct.

        • gabe [he/him]
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          011 months ago

          It’s also likely to get into legal issue. I like sdf but the fact they aren’t defederating from the pedophile instance is really really bad.

            • gabe [he/him]
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              111 months ago

              Lemmy.sdf.org they are a very very very old internet tech focused community that’s been since the late 80s. They’ve been pretty much everywhere on the internet as it’s grown

                • gabe [he/him]
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                  211 months ago

                  Ah my bad. I don’t really feel comfortable saying their name completely openly because they are very aggressive to any and all people who point that out, but they allow loli/shotacon and attract a lot of open pedophiles. Wont say the name outright, but if you go to https://lemmy.world/instances and scroll down to “blocked” and look at the first one, that’s it. Do not go to that instance. I’m serious, the content they host is illegal in many jurisdictions.