I put on my robe and wizard hat.
(I am in the UK and make TTRPGs. He/Him.)
Absolutely! I think it will be good to keep an eye how users, communities and the mods and admins of different instances respond - because where the line is drawn or isn’t, or when people stay silent on important issues happening on their servers or in their communities can speak volumes. (I’m not saying I have seen anything like this yet, not implying anything - just interested to see how things will unfold over time and hopeful for the future!)
There is plenty of rudeness, hostility, and general toxicity and bigotry to go around. But there is also a lot of kindness, thoughtful consideration, and people who want to do the best for the platform and communities forming here.
I feel like the amount of more challenging or unwanted behaviour has gone up just in the time I’ve been here (hopefully not because of me!). From hardly seeing much of that in the first week or so, to then gradually seeing more and more as presumably more people move over from Reddit.
Be interesting to see how instances and communities respond, and if a more firm line will be drawn.
Yes very much so! I don’t think it should be enforceable at all, but it will be interesting to see how it changes and works out at the platform grows - and more so as large companies move in and the majority of users and content is on large instances which a lot of early adopters don’t want to be involved in.
Totally agree - it’s a wonderful freedom, but it also means as happened with Android recently that a large community can be closed down and redirected and there isn’t a policy to transfer or reclaim the space if it is locked by the one person who owns it. Not a huge issue now, but come the point large companies are moving to the space it could well get quite messy!
I understand why it can be beneficial but it brings so many potential complications and issues that I think on balance it would be worth trying to address it somehow, maybe through codes of conduct, policy and enhanced search and validation at the point a community is created. Wouldn’t be perfect by any means, and I don’t think it should be a requirement to stop duplicate communities - but as an example to prevent issues with mergers and fractured user bases, with the android community being a recent instance of a disgruntled users where an established community has been shut down and moved to another instance with no way for the existing community to reclaim their space.
There are potentially issues with community name squatting, duplicate content and cross posting, users missing out on conversation from one instance if they aren’t aware of it; and when large companies start to move into the space, there will be communities swallowed up potentially, and the various issues and questions and clashes it causes.
I suspect there are also going to be issues as the site grows with where servers are located and how compliant they are with GDPR and other regulations too.
Even the getting started guide for .world (and others) mention check other instances for duplicate communities first, so it is likely something that needs to be addressed in some form.
It’s a really interesting subject that will be fascinating to see how it unfolds over time!
Like ghosts?