this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2023
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The groupthink on reddit is not imposed by the monolithic entity in charge of reddit; it's imposed by the average of redditors and by subreddit moderators. The fediverse may support a better diversity of participation such that the average is less representative, but I think if Lemmy (say) got larger - let's say at least as large as reddit was 10 years ago when there was plenty of groupthink and toxicity - you would see major Lemmy communities take on similar characteristics to major subreddits. I think what you're saying is that you'd get various communities with overlapping areas of interest and different moderation policies and groupthinks, allowing for more diversity. But I think that network effects provide a strong opposing pressure to that kind of diversity, and even where more than one community can survive, I think you're more likely to see the equivalent of
/r/politicsand/r/conservativeemerge than/r/leftofcentreand/r/rightofcentreor something. So you still have groupthink, people are still liable to get downvoted into oblivion or banned for expressing the wrong opinion.I'm not really sure what you're getting at with the trolling aspect though: I don't really see why diverse moderation policies would discourage genuine trolls as I don't see how that "smooth ramp" would be any discouragement. Maybe you reckon it would be too much admin to keep track of where the line lies in each different community?
I'm new to Lemmy (I am assuming it will be better than reddit for a long time due to being smaller and the userbase having a different average, and federation meaning other influence from a monolithic controlling entity won't affect it) and very interested in this though so do share what you think.
I’m not really sure what you’re getting at with the trolling aspect though: I don’t really see why diverse moderation policies would discourage genuine trolls as I don’t see how that “smooth ramp” would be any discouragement. Maybe you reckon it would be too much admin to keep track of where the line lies in each different community?That could be one impact, there are many differences that have significant impacts in my opinion. One of the biggest is that trolling and more importantly the identity of trolling relies on standing justttt behind specific lines within specific communities and projecting toxicity through thinly veiled language/behavior that just barely keeps a troll from crossing the line (or just crossing it to see if anyone is going to do anything). Trolls form huge chunks of their identity around those lines, with shitty memes and dog whistling as basic forms of creating said identity. The worst trolls basically form their entire identity around this and try to spread it to others by making memes/jokes about transgressing those lines (looking for the other edgey-boy losers who will validate them).
If every community has different lines and enforcement that doesn’t meant there won’t be trolls but it does mean that they aren’t given an easy place to gather and forge identities around like they are with monolithic communities with one moderation policy. You end up with a lot of losers getting kicked out of many different communities instead of a group of trolls who have come together based on the identity of pushing the lines of a specific large community.
Obviously I am generalizing, and I am not saying I am 100% confident I am right but in my experience this hypothesis fits my experiences on and off the fediverse.