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.

  • kek@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    Great post.

    To add to this, not resorting to calling others tankies or Russian bots when you have differing opinions, especially around politics.

    • Nursery2787@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      10 days ago

      My biggest worry on Lemmy is actually bots and Russian psy ops though. If centralized reddit couldn’t stop them before misinformation spread, how is Lemmy supposed to?

      • Aqarius@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        10 days ago

        I’ve had the thought that if I were to design a psyop campaign, a pretty solid option for dominating the discussion would be to come out swinging and accuse everyone else of being an agent. That way, people have to either constantly defend against accusations, or they conclude, rightly, the accusations are baseless and decide to disregard the very idea that there is a psyop going on.

      • Cris@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        0·
        10 days ago

        I could be wrong but to me it feels odd to think lemmy is big enough to be worth organizing psyops for.

        Not to say it couldn’t be an issue in the future, but it feels much more likely that people expressing pro Russia sentiment are just people who bought into that particular brand of propaganda.

        Which like, to some extent all of our individual world views are shaped by the environment of propaganda we’re exposed to. We’re all products of our social conditioning, and ultimately that’s exactly what propaganda is. Media designed to socially condition people to a certain set of beliefs. All we as individuals can do is be aware of it and be willing to look at our own beliefs critically.

        But at the end of the day I think the folks praising Russia on lemmy are just people. People I personally think are misguided, but I don’t think theyre generally acting in bad faith any more than the general population here.

        • Nursery2787@lemmy.mlEnglish
          0·
          10 days ago

          At the minimum it’s worth harvesting posts, and hacķing servers to link ip addresses to those posts. That’s just one officer being assigned to the newborn Lemmy division with a couple thousand for hardware.

          • Cris@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
            0·
            10 days ago

            Honestly if anyone is doing that I really feel like it would be the US, not Russia.

            Russia’s goal is to sew discord and unballance the populace that drives politics, and for that to work you need a MASSIVE scale that we just don’t really have. They don’t really have much to gain from the IP addresses of a handful of leftists

            But Lemmy is exactly the kind of hotspot for people DEEPLY angry about the government of the US to organize that if we’re big enough to be on their radar, the US government would have a vested interest in keeping an eye on potential dissidents. Unlike Russia IP addresses and personally identifiable information would be useful to them, in identifying threat actors, tracking their activity and volatility online, and building cases that would allow them to prosecute should said dissidents escalate

            That’s how it looks from where I’m standing anyway 🤷‍♂️

      • davel@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        10 days ago

        Instance admins have pretty good information at their disposal to identify bots.

        I have yet to see any instance admin say that there is any significant amount of bots, outside of the occasional spate of spamming. I only see such theories & accusasions come from non-admins, with no accompanying compelling evidence.

    • Cris@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      11 days ago

      1 billion percent agree, not everyone you disagree with is acting in bad faith

      • jimmy90@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        9 days ago

        when you’re dealing with fundamentalists or extremists things turn nasty very quickly because you’re questioning their fantasy world

        doesn’t matter if they’re good or bad faith, often they will just ban you

    • Draces@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      10 days ago

      I came to Lemmy (lemm.ee originally) with this attitude. Tankies really made me regret trying to be sympathetic too them. It was the most vile interaction I’ve had on the Internet maybe? You shouldn’t call people tankies if they’re not but real tankies are by far the biggest problem with the fediverse and it’s growth

    • misteloct@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      10 days ago

      Sometimes they literally just are. Not seen it on Lemmy but on Reddit I definitely interacted with users, age under 1 year, all suspiciously pro-Putin. It’s rare and I’m looking for it, but still.

      • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        0·
        10 days ago

        It’s rare and I’m looking for it

        Unfortunately not that rare of a POV to find. They just generally don’t do the young account thing. Some are true believers. Others likely state actors. Don’t see as many bots but the greater levels of transparency and lower active population probably makes it less worthwhile of an investment.

      • TiggerYumYum@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        0·
        10 days ago

        It’s not rare at all. These people are massive contributers to political/tech communities, thousand plus posts in a year. You’ll see them spamming posts about Israel, denying genocide in Ukraine, and misreprsenting to outright lying if you call them on it. All over lemmy.world and lemmy.ml.

    • saltesc@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      10 days ago

      On Reddit, I once bragged about having universal healthcare and got called a Nazi and a communist at the same time.

      This is what happens when Xbox kids that use the n-word grow up. They learn new “bad” words and throw them around out of context and contradictingly. They don’t actually know what those things are, though, so it never makes sense.

      I’ve been called a tankie here. I didn’t know what it was and looked it up, just to discover it was the literal opposite of the things I was saying. I was very confused and just put it down to frustrated self-projection. At some point they had been called that, it upset them, so now they use it to upset people too but they still don’t actually know what it is they’re saying.

      If I see someone defaulting to Russian bot or tankie, I’ve found another Xbox kid and it’s in my best interests to just move on.

    • TiggerYumYum@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      0·
      10 days ago

      Lemmy.ml and lemmy.world are infested with tankies though. It is probably going to make me leave Lemmy. I’ve already started to discourage people in my life from joining because of how bad political and technological communities are. A lot of other communities are just empty.

        • TiggerYumYum@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          0·
          9 days ago

          Keep spouting that tankie rhetoric. “Anyone who calls me out for my similarities to MAGA surely are the far right ones!” Lmao

        • TiggerYumYum@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          0·
          9 days ago

          Oh and I keep getting comments removed by mods just for calling out a tankie, but sure lemmy.world isn’t infested with y’all.

          • BrainInABox@lemmy.mlEnglish
            0·
            9 days ago

            If you’re getting comments removed from .world of all places, it’s not because you’re “calling out a tankie”, that’s for sure. I’m assuming it’s more “screeching at a socdem”.

            Also, what do you mean “y’all”? We Already established by your own definition that I’m not a tankie. Unless you’re just giving up the pretense that it’s not just a meaningless snarl word you fling at anyone to the left of you.

            • TiggerYumYum@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
              0·
              9 days ago

              Not really. I gave sources of Ukrainian genocide, and it got removed. Y’all in the general sense, if you dont identify as a tankie, great. Maybe stop taking the bait then? Doesn’t feel like it from where I’m standing though.

              • BrainInABox@lemmy.mlEnglish
                0·
                9 days ago

                I gave sources of Ukrainian genocide, and it got removed.

                Why was it removed.

                if you dont identify as a tankie, great.

                Nah, that’s not it, it’s that I don’t fit the definition of tankie that you yourself articulated.

                Doesn’t feel

                Yes, I was already pretty convinced that who you call a tankie is entirely based on “feeling”

                • TiggerYumYum@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
                  0·
                  9 days ago

                  Dunno, ask the mod who removed it. I gave a very, very basic definition and you’re acting like it can’t be expanded upon or further elaborated. How very rigid of you. So, I have actual work to go do, in my community, helping others and practicing the ideals that I preach. Good luck not doing any of that here 👍

                  By the way, if the word tankie offends you so much, it might be because you have more in common than you’d like.

  • Gibibit@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    10 days ago

    Getting better at communication takes time and practice. Depending on where someone is in that journey, a post like this can make a big difference. And I think we can all use a reminder to be kind every so often. So, thanks for taking the time to write this out

  • shaggyb@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    10 days ago

    Unless you’re a republican or other type of nazi. Then you can absolutely go all the way to hell.

    Tolerance got us here.

  • GooberEar@lemmy.wtfEnglish
    0·
    9 days 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.

  • icedcoffee@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    10 days ago

    Love how the point of the post is “hey try to be nice” and everyone sounding off in the comments like “FUCK YOU AND FUCK THOSE SPECIFIC GUYS TOO”

    Maybe more people should just post their reviews of vacuums here

  • PixelPilgrim@lemmings.worldEnglish
    0·
    10 days ago

    I generally say bullet points are good ideals, but there’s a much bigger issue with mental health.

    There are certain people in lemmy that need to learn what “you have no enemies” and “I’m gonna do my own thing” means. It’s fine people are different live on earth is very diverse

  • Alborlin@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    9 days ago

    Okay I agree, so let’s start from Linux related any post, tell them if somebody asks a problem don’t tell them just install mint , or how one is crazy because they are facing the problems in Linux or if you are not using Linux what idiot are you. I stopped participating because

    1. Linux dude bros are just idiots troubling me
    2. I can’t find content which is though not niche is just is plain not news or Linux
    3. It’s very confusing to use fedverse as I don’t know of i can go all subs via my boost app or do i need something else , if so where to access them.

    So let’s make it ACCESSIBLE, NON DERAGORTY FOR ANON LINUX USERS ALSO

  • squirrel@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    There was a movement in the blogging community ~15 years ago to leave positive comments on posts you like. It was an approach to conquer negative comments and a general destructive nature of online conversations. I still do it to this day. If I really like something or appreciate someone’s work, I leave a nice comment.

    • Cris@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      11 days ago

      Oh neat, being younger there’s a lot of how folks approached the web in its earlier years that I don’t have any experience with, and think there’s a lot to learn from

      I love that!

  • FundMECFS@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    I love this.

    I think it’s important to say this doesn’t mean pretending you like or agree with something you don’t like or agree with.

    But when you do see something you like or agree with, drop a compliment. Compliments make places better!

    • Cris@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      11 days ago

      Absolutely agree. Fake niceness is worthless and does nothing to make a space better.

      We need sincerity.