Alt text:
A three panel meme of someone riding a bike.
- First panel: Someone riding on a bike. “Reddit is imploding, quick let’s get on Lemmy”
- Second panel: The bike starts to tip over on its own. “Oh shit there’s too many of us, we’re being defederated?”
- Third panel: They’ve fallen on the ground by the bike, holding their knee in pain. “Fucking Beehaw”
My initial Lemmy account is on another instance, and some reactions I have seen to Beehaw defederating it have me… Displeased. Maybe it’s because I am an internet grandma who used to use three dozens phpbb forums at the same time, but protecting one’s community is entirely fucking okay and the “snowflakes” talk is exhausting.
100% agree and I just can’t understand why so many are going nuts over it the way they are. They’re so reactionary and ridiculous it makes me wonder if they read the actual reasons why (or even understood them.)
Aaaand that’s why they’re out. boot emoji
The reddit influx brings good but also redditors’ usual bullshit along with it.
I love that beehaw is looking out for us and maintaining a space where it feels like people with differing opinions can actually talk about things with nuance and without feeling like they’ll set off a landmine at any minute.
I’m still in disbelief, for some reason we can have a nice place here
To me it feels like the tantrum you see when someone who behaves badly is called out for it. They all almost immediately try to flip it around like they’re the victims. Pretty much just thinking of it as a toddler throwing a tantrum and it’ll make a lot more sense.
I think there’s something to that idea. To my mind, what’s driving that is a kind of internet culture shock. A lot of spaces on the internet do not encourage thoughtful posts and responses, and the culture of communication tends towards negative emotional affect and hostility. A lot of people seem to be entirely unaware of how hostile, reactive and negative they’re being, based on my admittedly anecdotal observations of new users joining spaces where the communication culture is radically different. They think it’s normal, because the spaces they frequent are also hostile, reactive and negative, and when their negativity is pointed out to them, it sparks defensiveness because they’ve not been aware of it until now, or consider it ‘normal’. The de-federation seems to have been interpreted by some as a rejection of their behaviour and has sparked that defensiveness as a result.
I think past 10 years social media has been “grooming” the average internet user into becoming enraged at the slightest deviation from status quo and that’s what we’re seeing here. Rage means clicks means revenue for companies. Open internet doesn’t need revenue and doesn’t encourage rage.
I’m sure it’s not news to you, but anytime you see someone trying to squash discussion or the like with terms like “snowflake”, they’re just projecting and letting you know that they’re fragile.