The fediverse is small, and thats both a blessing and a curse - one of its several blessings is that in a smaller space we all individually have a bigger impact on what the culture of this space is like.

On this comm (and on lemmy broadly) there’s a lot of discussion about how to grow the fediverse, what to improve, but an easy thing you can do for the fediverse is right in front of us-

  • Be kind

  • Ask people what they think, and why

  • Approach folks you disagree with with curiosity rather than hostility (EDIT: no, this is not specifically referring to Nazis. I get it, they’re the first thing that comes to mind. I’m not telling you to approve of Nazis I’m just saying be kind to your fellow lemmites)

  • Engage sincerely

  • Ask yourself if there’s something nice you can say

  • Make this small space worth being in

A platform lives or dies by what’s available on said platform and often we have this conversation in the context of “content” or posts - and we may never have as much content as reddit does. But content and posts aren’t the only thing this kind of platform offers- it also offers people. It offers community, and human interaction.

Culture and community is lemmy and the fediverse’s biggest differentiator, and we all have a role to play in shaping the culture of this space.

The biggest thing you can do to help the fediverse is make it a place worth being.

  • Cris@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    1·
    8 months ago

    Here are some more specific examples to think about!

    • Compliment people’s art and ask about their process

    • Teach people about something you’re knowledgeable on

    • Give constructive criticism on peoples projects when it’s welcome

    • Thank people for posting things you’re glad you got to see, tell them you enjoyed it

    • Tell people you’re glad they’re here

    • Tell people you hope they have a good day

    Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts :) if you have thoughts of your own, I’d love to hear them!

    • ArtificialHoldings@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      8 months ago

      Technically anyone can spin up an instance centered on whatever dark and inhumane topic. That’s the reality of an open network. That’s why defederation and whitelisting are such important tools as Fediverse grows. You don’t actually want access to every last bit of information on the network.

  • GooberEar@lemmy.wtfEnglish
    1·
    8 months ago

    On the one hand, yes, yes, yes, absolutely.

    On the other hand, way too often people are absolutely vile here and nobody sticks up for themselves or for others. Really a shame that r-word-it bullshit behavior is often times totally accepted and approved and even rewarded here.

  • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    0·
    8 months ago

    I disagree with your premise.

    It should be “The best thing that you can do for humanity is to be kind”.

    Seriously. We’re living in a time when fascism is in an upswing and at least one religious leader has publicly called empathy a sin. Kindness and empathy are rebellious acts.

    • Cris@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      8 months ago

      I should give quiche a chance…?

      I like quiche okay 😅 very eggy but it can be pretty tasty 🤷‍♂️

  • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    0·
    8 months ago

    I can co-sign this if we can agree that some types of ‘disagreements’ don’t belong on the fediverse, a la the Nazi bar problem.

  • OpenStars@piefed.socialEnglish
    0·
    8 months ago

    Lemmy has a well-known reputation as being a “Nazi bar”. e.g. as mentioned in this example post in r/RedditAlternatives complaining about toxicity on Lemmy, here is one of the comments therein (not from OP but as part of the overall conversation):

    If their experience is anything like mine, it’s populated by mostly far left wing Americans who were banned from Reddit for being too extreme. I disagreed with someone about a topical left wing American position and received death threats. In fact I’ve never received that many death threats on Reddit. Lemmy is extreme.

    Even if the threats came from Hexbear or one of the lemmy.ml mods who are allowed to make death threats against users without any repercussions, “we” still expose “our” users to such content when we federate with those communities. i.e., for exactly the same reason that we defederate from instances that share CSAM, if we really, truly, genuinely don’t like it when mods make death threats against users, then we need to put a stop to it - by defederating those instances that are known to do exactly that.

    Otherwise we give our tacit approval, and moreover whenever we encourage people to join Lemmy instances, we willingly expose those people to this kind of content. Would you expose someone to CSAM, knowingly and without warning them first? Then why is it different when we can see the death threats, delivered by mods, who are not censured in any way, yet still encourage people to come here to Lemmy communities? Are we truly that desperate for content that we are so inconsiderate to them as to expose them to that without warning?

    If you somehow have not heard of this yet and really don’t know what I’m talking about, a lot of details are offered in Discuss.Online’s (successful) Petition to defederate from hexbear.net, although that particular mod in question is from Lemmy.ml.

    • JasSmith@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      8 months ago

      I’ve had exactly the same experience. Lemmy has been far more hostile than I ever experienced on Reddit. Any opinions which aren’t far left are called “Nazi,” and users are very quick to justify violence against “Nazis.”