OK so if you feel Lemmy has been trending towards hostility in the past weeks ppease here me out, interact in the comments but keep it civil.
Lemmy vs Reddit
We all had our reasons to move to Lemmy. What I remember clearly from the beginning of the summer was that we were all praising the tone. Over the years, Reddit has become increasingly toxic - most of all in the comment section. To me, that was what made Lemmy special. Even with less content, the general vobe was what made me come back every time.
clash of the clans
Due to the nature of the fediverse, we get to interact with people with different backgrounds and dofferent ideas. Potentially an incredibly enriching experience for everyone. Anti-defed lemmings defend staying federated with everyone for that precise reason, which I really get. But lately the vibe has turned sour. Every post that has the slightest political undertone becomes this big us-vs-them show. Please stop
discussion vs. shitshow
I am not arguing for stopping discussing our opinions. I also get the whole they don’t have downvotes thing. But can we please treat eachother with dignity, and when writing comments say ‘I believe’ or ‘in my opinion’ instead of ‘you all this or that’?
I think this is the only way forward if we want to prevent everyone from personally blocking a lot of instances in the furure.
Mate, if you don’t believe you can retain civility in your first comment then report the content and move along, if the content doesn’t actually break any rules and you still can’t be civil then please use the block feature extremely liberally.
A lot of people, and a lot of instances, think that genocidal rhetoric is A-okay as long as it is expressed with an air of "civility". Just blocking is merely tolerating that rhetoric.
Sometimes hostility is justified.
How? When I use an ad blocker, am I "tolerating" ads?
You are hiding the problem from yourself, which makes your individual experience better. But the problem still exists as part of the community.
Think about how it plays out in practice. A bigot joins your community and starts posting their nonsense, but is not removed. Instead, some people block them. So now the people who see the bigoted takes are people who maybe agree with the bigot, and newcomers.
So if I'm a new potential member, I check out the community, what do I see? Well I see bigotry that isn't challenged or dealt with, that might even be boosted because the people who would reduce it have blocked the source. So I assume the community tolerates that kind of rhetoric, and I leave.
You have to actually take the trash out. Not just ignore it.
Oh yeah, totally agree if you're a mod. I'm just a normal user, though, so I don't have any way to "take out the trash" myself. I can report it, but if the mods don't do anything I'll have to block.
Sure. But some people are arguing that bigots don't need to be banned, just block them. And that's the position I was pushing back against in my earlier message.