Hi all, as with most of you, I’m an immigrant from Reddit. I never used to go on to the NZ or regional subreddits because frankly, I felt very unwelcome and those places were extremely negative.
How then do we build a new community that is based on being positive and accepting, even of those with different points of view, political leanings, religious beliefs or lifestyles? Everyone deserves a voice, no one deserves to be shouted down or made to feel unwelcome or belittled because they have differing thoughts.
Even festering cunts like Brian Tamaki and his ilk, deserve a seat at the table. We live in a free country and that means everyone should get a voice. Everyone gets to speak their piece, even if you don’t like it.
How do we stop this community devolving into yet another online echo chamber?
@Dave@lemmy.nz has already stated that he would rather not over moderate (I don’t want to put words in his mouth either), and I love the idea of free speech… but, and a big but it is, I wouldn’t want to see this become a home to bigots.
I had spun up a Lemmy instance before I saw Dave had created this one. The NZ community I put in place was very deliberately called !aotearoa@no.lastname.nz and not NZ.
I don’t want to give the impression of a low amount of moderation. Rather, calling people out on poor behaviour* as a first step and resorting to bans only when discussion fails.
* we don’t have to put up with or waste our time on obvious trolls, I just don’t think banning anyone that says something in good faith that we don’t like is the way to build a welcoming community
I’ didn’t want to imply that it would be low moderation to the point to where it falls apart, and I another comment I linked to the thread.
So far Dave I think you are doing well to get across what your intentions are.