What up my reptilian friend
Comment on Hello fediverse
Sal@mander.xyz 3 years ago
Wiggle hard, wigglehard! 🙌
wigglehard@wolfballs.com 3 years ago
Sal@mander.xyz 3 years ago
amphibian* 🐸 🦕
Not much, just browsing, agreeing with you that big tech is asshoe and wiggling 👍
wigglehard@wolfballs.com 3 years ago
I made an edit on my last response to reflect your amphibious nature
Sal@mander.xyz 3 years ago
Thank you, now I can breathe under water again!
wigglehard@wolfballs.com 3 years ago
Wiggling is the most important part, keeps me going, and going hard
sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 3 years ago
Your instance looks quite interesting, does it have a policy of banning dissent?
I've had a bad track record of getting banned from lemmy instances for fairly innocuous disagreements with orthodoxy. Never been banned from anywhere until I started participating in lemmy servers.
mayonesa@wolfballs.com 3 years ago
Lemmy is still Reddit in spirit.
Sal@mander.xyz 3 years ago
Hi! Thanks :)
I still have not really worked out the set of rules, my instance is very small and I here because I like the underlying principles of the fediverse more than because I like to moderate. There is no policy yet on banning "dissent", but it is also not intended to be a "free-speech" platform to the same degree that wolfballs is. It depends. I would not ban someone because I disagree with their ideas, but I will delete content if it is unnecessarily offensive.
I have put some thought to it as I try to strike a balance... For example, arguing unorthodox ideas such as that the threat of global warming is greatly exaggerated or that vaccines don't work - would be acceptable as long as it is discussed respectfully and even better if sources are provided. Making in /c/biology a post titled "basic biology" and then a picture of a man next to a woman, the man labeled "man" and the woman labeled "woman", would not be allowed, because that would be an obvious provocation meant to offend.
The topic of my instance is science/nature, and the purpose is to provide a space to have communities such as /r/herpetology, /r/chemistry, /r/science, /r/mycology, etc... away from Reddit. I would prefer to have a relaxed environment for discussing interesting science rather than a politically charged one, and I find that more important than total un-filtered free speech. I am learning as I go.
sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 3 years ago
It sounds like you're trying to find a proper balance of being reasonable to allow discussion but also being reasonable to keep needlessly offensive, I can respect that. I know there's times I've seen people being needlessly disrespectful using an FBXL website, and it stung. It's like "C'mon, did you really have to do that?", but my philosophy and TOS is "I'm not your dad, and you're not mine" so I don't like to step in unless it's something that might be existentially dangerous to the platform I run.
The two pieces of advice I have for anyone who is trying to be reasonable and keep it between the lines and build a community of diverse yet respectful opinions are:
Keep the wikipedia rule of "assume good faith" in mind. Not everyone is a Russian troll or a "correct the record" paid shill, sometimes people just are wrong about something -- or right about something you're wrong about -- or agrees with you but isn't expressing themselves clearly -- or is misunderstanding what you're saying.
Have a progressive moderation policy -- meaning have some steps including some warnings before someone hits "site-wide lifetime ban" so that people conversing in good faith have a couple chances to change their behavior. You can probably skip steps for particularly egregious behavior, most behavior by definition isn't particularly egregious.
Sal@mander.xyz 3 years ago
Thank you, I appreciate the advice and I think that it is good advice.
With regards to (1), I always assume good faith when it comes to arguments! It is usually when slurs are used that I have problems. I think that most people understand why slurs are offensive and that it is easy to have a discussion without using them. I also understand that many people believe that words should not hold the power that many of us given them, and that it is ridiculous to 'ban' a single word, and so in that regard they may be using them in good faith. It is complicated, but in the context of my instance I prefer to accept that simple words can trigger strong negative emotions and strive to have a peaceful relaxed environment.
(2) Yes, I banned one person once for a comment on accident but un-banned them immediately and removed only that comment. Other than that I have only banned people from the 4chan brigade and users posting spam, mostly about selling viagra pills. To be fair, not a lot of people have posted in my instance, so I have not had the opportunity to test my limits 😅
On that note... A slight diversion. I have no idea where these viagra spammers come from, and I am actually curious now about how their spamming scheme works. Is there a building somewhere where people get paid to spam viagra ads all day? I feel like having a bot capable of posting to a lemmy instance would be too specific, but maybe bots these days are sophisticated enough to identify message boards and post to them. Otherwise, it has to be manual.... But, who are they? Why spam useless ads?! Will anyone buy those products? How did they get to my instance?
masterofballs@wolfballs.com 3 years ago
Completely reasonable and a sensible approach.
The great thing about the fediverse is every instance gets to make their own rules. My take on it, These sort of discussions have many grey areas. What is offensive to include for one person is offensive not to include for another. I prefer to remove myself from the equation as much as possible and let mods mod for themselves. Trying not to delete pointlessly offensive content is super hard and I would not expect most people to try to do it.
Sal@mander.xyz 3 years ago
My own personal opinions change very often as I learn more about topics, so if I were to ban people who I disagree with I would end up banning myself for my old comments!
Yes, I think that that is a good way of doing things.