There are different opinions on Beehaw’s registration process. I kind of see how some people would find it dissuasive, specially after most of us are coming from Reddit. But I still think it’s very practical, at least for the time being.
Btw, this is only my opinion as a new user, I don’t know any of the admins/mods. Link to my original comment.
I honestly have not tried to sign up for beehaw so I can’t comment on the registration process itself in detail, but I do find that they’re intentionally trying to be picky a little strange. It seems to me that beehaw is trying to build a community that isn’t actually all that well suited for a federated setup. Which is fine but like, maybe they should just make a forum?
if federation can’t accommodate the idea of a curated community then that is a huge failing and limitation of the concept. federation should not mean “get fucked if you want to build something that isn’t open season”, it should mean “build a community to your taste, but still have the ability to connect to places which aren’t your own community effortlessly”
And federation should definitely not imply letting your users to see content they don’t want to see due to poor moderation from other instances. I mean, people sign up here for a reason… How’s that “being picky”
This is my thought as well. I signed up for Beehaw specifically because I loved the idea of a chill place where I don’t have to worry about the typical Internet joys of bots and trolls, and where people can have actual discussions. If I want to see other Reddit-like content like low-effort memes, that’s where federation comes in, because I can go elsewhere to see it. Meanwhile, others are free to hang out in my home instance if they like the vibes (also due to federation) as long as they don’t try making a mess of the place. If they do… Well, they get kicked out the only way available for now.
I mean, it’s not like they’re being picky out of spite… They explained the situation and what led them to defederate.
I didn’t mean to imply that they did anything out of spite. And I’d argue that by definition they are being picky. But, I also said that’s fine. I don’t care what they do with their instance it just seems kind of opposed to the whole purpose of the federated content mindset. I dunno, maybe I just still don’t get it. Personally I don’t care about the centralized/decentralized thing. I just wanted a reddit replacement.
Regulation of user registration and defederation are key to the fediverse, not against its purpose.
The purpose of the fediverse isn’t to be a replacement for any centralised social media, it’s to be a safe alternative free of corporations and bad actors (who are isolated in their own servers). If you just wanted a Reddit 2.0 maybe a centralised alternative would have been better for you.
Isn’t the decentralization like the entire point? Your two points go hand in hand, I think.
Defederation and regulation of registration and interaction are part of decentralisation.
“Decentralised social media” doesn’t mean “the same as a centralised social media, but on a bigger scale”
It’s just that instead of belonging to a corporation that seek profit, it belongs to common people who can have their own servers/chose the server they want to be and interact or not with the people or content of other servers as they please.
Decentralisation gives you the choice to:
Not having to see intolerant/discriminatory content
To interact more easily with people akin to you, as part of federation in certain platforms is the ability to create “bubbles”, which consist on sister instances that are closely connecting and interacting with yours.
Being able to register to a server that fits your need and it’s in agreement with your ideas.
It also gives you the opportunity to move on to another instance if something happens to the one your in or you simply find that it wasn’t for you. Because there are hundreds of servers using a same software, you don’t need to put up with anything, if you don’t agree with the admins you just move to another instance. Neither are still possible here, but other platforms have features like “migration” and “nomadic identify” that facilitate this.
Limiting who can be part and interact with your server is also essential because most of the people that choose the fediverse and other open source social media over corporative one (not people who are simply here because their fav social media giant fucked them over) do so because they want to be safe from the harassment and bullying promoted in big capitalistic social media platforms. These people belong to marginalised groups, are political or some other kind of activists, etc.
The humanity of the person behind an account is very important here.
As such attitudes like trolling, interacting in bad faith, baiting, etc that were seeing as neutral, “great fun” and encouraged on big for-profit social media platforms aren’t acceptable here. “Trolling” and “shitposting” is a valid reason for defederation here.
So, no. This is not a replacement, this is a completely different model of social media that caters to a completely different public.
Lemmy and kbin aren’t “multiserver Reddit”
Mastodon, Pleroma, Misskey, etc aren’t “multiserver twitter”
Friendica and Hubzilla aren’t “multiserver Facebook”
Nor they ever aim to be.
Decentralized governance is I think the point. You, upon diving into Federation: Into the Fediverse or browsing Federation: Across the Fediverse have an opportunity to find an instance that is governed how you like. Remember how on reddit there were both complaints that admins took too long to quarantine subs like The Donald, while also complaining that power mods were preventing meaningful discussion from happening? Well here you can find the right moderation style for you! Including spinning up an instance and self moderating
Reddit is centralized. The Fediverse (however you choose to access it) is decentralized.
You will never find a Reddit replacement here.
Closest thing I have so far. It’s been scratching the itch since last Monday.
Idk, you could say they’re being “over-protective”, but even then I would argue. As I’ve said in another comment, people who come here expect that… At least I did when I decided to sign up here and not somewhere else. And they do federate with other servers. I mean, you’re posting this from kbin after all… so how’s that opposed to federation?
Btw, IIRC they literally say in one of their posts: “this is not a Reddit replacement”.
I also didn’t say they were being over protective, I said they were being picky by definition. Which for the third time, I don’t have a problem with lol. I don’t care what they do with their instance. Curating a userbase is totally their prerogative. It just seems weird to do so on this platform where you’ll be interactive with userbases that you did not curate. It seems self-defeating. That’s why I originally said another format or structure may have just worked better for what they want to create. But again, I don’t really care either way, I was just throwing in my two cents that no one asked for.
Go to any established (older than a month or two) Lemmy instance and click the “instances” button. You will see that each has lists of instances they defederated from.
It’s part and parcel of decentralization.
Beehaw isn’t the first nor the last server on the fediverse to ask people to submit a sentence or two explaining why you want to join.
Thematic instances and instances aim to marginalized groups tend to be picky to protect their users and/or keep the instance “on topic”
Sure it is! Beehaw limiting instance users and curating the instances they connect to isn’t a bad thing. Their users want a close knit instance with links to other instances who suit their philosophy. Those who choose Beehaw choose it for that reason. That we can all choose a good home here is absolutely how federation should work.
Okay so like just one more time here I want to try to make it super clear that I never said, nor meant to imply, that beehaw is doing anything “bad.” I didn’t say it’s a bad thing. I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I just don’t get it given this platform.
Beehaw is a couple years old at this point. It’s been chugging along happily in the Fediverse, curating communities and a membership base that is quite successful. (Hence the tens of thousands of new people wanting to join, and overwhelming floods of people from other instances wanting to participate in Beehaw’s carefully curated communities.)