I picture the problem being someone doing that low-key. It’s common for app developers to get offers to install privacy-violating code in exchange for very tempting amounts of money - like, have a somewhat successful piano or to-do list app that you make $15k a year from? Wel, how about you install this spyware crap and we’ll give you $60,000. It’s difficult for small developers to say no. I could picture the same thing happening with Lemmy instances - a small change in ToS, some new JavaScript, and many people wouldn’t notice. At this point it’s u pokey as Lemmy members skew towards tech and privacy aware, but it could happen later on as the membership broadens.
Comment on Open for discussion
Mongostein@lemmy.ca 1 year agoWell, an instance could decide they wanted to try to make money, but I think everyone would just bail on them. People are more than happy to help out servers with donations, no need to make it a business venture.
squiblet@kbin.social 1 year ago
joenforcer@midwest.social 1 year ago
I don’t think so. There are very few communities that actually successfully fully left reddit. A good number of them splintered across circlejerkers on multiple lemmy instances with the users remaining on reddit asking “what’s a lemmy” and staying put. The vast majority never left reddit at all, and don’t give a fuck that reddit is trying to build a business.
Where the lemmy hivemind fails is that a bunch of us are reddit refugees that lost our favorite mobile apps, so you get a bunch of delusional people here thinking that reddit is dead and lemmy is the best thing ever. It’s not. Lemmy has a lot of the same problems reddit had, and we’re just repeating history. Wait until you need to squash extremism, prevent illegal content, and people maintaining the main instance (don’t kid yourself, it’s lemmy.world) need to eat.
Angry_Maple@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
For me, that’s not the case. I enjoyed the amount of content and discussion, but I just lost interest in reddit over time.
I saw the same jokes too often. I got sick of seeing the ads. The admins perma-banned my fiancee’s account, despite her never really commenting or posting. They never gave a reason for banning her, other than going against “policy”, which they never specified when asked. It would be the equivilant of being banned from every single instance. Some of the “helpful” communities were becoming much more toxic over time. I stayed despite that stuff.
Then, the API thing happened. It wasn’t that reddit wanted to profit, but rather how they went about it. Had they been honest with the developers when they asked at the start of the contract year, it would have been much smoother. You can’t change the cost of a yearly subscription halfway through the year. I disliked the provable false rumors that were spread about developers.
I disliked that Spez heavily implied that people leaving reddit would harm reddit employees. He didn’t make that statement about someone who made those threats, but instead he made it about the people leaving. It left a very bad taste in my mouth. I’m not monetarily supporting someone like that if I have any say in the matter.
I disliked the sudden overwhelming toxicity that I saw start against people who were recommending Lemmy. I get being rude to people who are rude, but it’s lame to be rude just because. Someone told me that I would be back, that I should just wait to see them right. That person helped me stay off reddit, tbh.
I don’t understand fanaticism, regardless of the company/platform/group, etc. If I start to dislike a social media, I will move somewhere that I like better. If Lemmy becomes like what Reddit is today, I’ll leave Lemmy too. There’s always something else. I also don’t really care if Reddit sinks or swims. That has nothing to do with me. If I get sick of all social media, I won’t use it. There are lots of other things to do with free time.
Mongostein@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Not really what I was talking about, but ok.
DigitalPaperTrail@kbin.social 1 year ago
the growing pains are necessary, as it was for every other platform beforehand. but this one being FOSS means, after it's gone through that rite of passage, it'll be in a much better position for serving its userbase than if it was being controlled by shareholders and profits.
better tools for seamlessly migrating communities between instances would be a godsend for the longevity of this platform, but right now they're still handling the foundation last time I heard