The fediverse is small, and thats both a blessing and a curse - one of its several blessings is that in a smaller space we all individually have a bigger impact on what the culture of this space is like.

On this comm (and on lemmy broadly) there’s a lot of discussion about how to grow the fediverse, what to improve, but an easy thing you can do for the fediverse is right in front of us-

  • Be kind

  • Ask people what they think, and why

  • Approach folks you disagree with with curiosity rather than hostility (EDIT: no, this is not specifically referring to Nazis. I get it, they’re the first thing that comes to mind. I’m not telling you to approve of Nazis I’m just saying be kind to your fellow lemmites)

  • Engage sincerely

  • Ask yourself if there’s something nice you can say

  • Make this small space worth being in

A platform lives or dies by what’s available on said platform and often we have this conversation in the context of “content” or posts - and we may never have as much content as reddit does. But content and posts aren’t the only thing this kind of platform offers- it also offers people. It offers community, and human interaction.

Culture and community is lemmy and the fediverse’s biggest differentiator, and we all have a role to play in shaping the culture of this space.

The biggest thing you can do to help the fediverse is make it a place worth being.

  • Mallspice@lemm.eeEnglish
    7·
    1 day ago

    You would think the internet is full of bees looking to make honey but really it’s full of beetles wanting to roll their shit.

    • Cris@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      1 day ago

      The Internet can certainly lend itself to discord and hostility. I think that makes it all the more important we think carefully about what kind of spaces we want to build

      Both in the sense that we should pursue kindness, but also in the sense that we should be designing our platforms to be healthy social spaces! Another commenter made some really good points about how important it is that we shape our platforms in a way that facilitates the kind of social spaces we want to he a part of :)

      • Mallspice@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        24 hours ago

        I disagree that kindness should be pursued foremost. Knowledge and truth should be pursued and kindness shouldn’t be allowed in charge because when it is you get shit like language policing which is insanely toxic and stupefying.

        You want kindness? Go somewhere designed to be wholesome but please, for the love of honesty and free speech, don’t enforce that crap site wide.

        • Cris@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          1·
          24 hours ago

          I don’t think kindness is at all mutually exclusive with knowledge and truth :)

          To be clear I didn’t mean “enforcing kindness” as in like forcing everyone to engage in a specific way or they’re banned for not being nice enough

          The big corporate platforms are, in a lot of ways, designed for hostility conflict and toxicity. Because they’re designed for engagement, and anger drives engagement like nothing else possibly can. Facebook did internal studies and found their algorithm made people miserable, and then kept it that way because with respect profit, it was a great design.

          I think we should be thoughtful about the mechanics of the platforms we’re building and whether they incentivize people to lash out at eachother, or incentivizing healthy social spaces.

          I’m not here in support of some dystopian “be positive or else” insincere niceness platform. But I do think it’s worthwhile to shape the culture of the space we spend time in intentionally :) I wanna enjoy being here. I’m here in pursuit of worthwhile, sincere interactions with other human beings, not shitty internet flamewars where nothing is gained and everyone walks away more bitter and angry

          When you say you think knowledge and truth should be guiding principles, what do you mean? How would you see this platform designed? What way of engaging with eachother do you think is worth pursuing? :)

          • Mallspice@lemm.eeEnglish
            1·
            21 hours ago

            That’s a positive perspective.

            I’ve seen a lot of that in leftists spaces lately, way more cautious of it now.

            Engagement may not be great but it wins. Imo fediverse needs engagement to live long term but maybe doesn’t need toxicity for it, but addiction is inherently a little toxic.

            Yes we should be thoughtful, not everyone is unfortunately.

            How fucking dare you seek genuine humanity online. lol

            I think letting people say anything (with obvious bannable exceptions like abuse, threats of violence, death, rape, and cp) helps, that fact checking or being wrong should not be bannable, and that people should be given more ways to conflict with each other but in a way that spurns creative debate not pure hostility but that pure hostility has real value to show people whether or not they should change and shouldn’t be shut down outright. Like commenting ‘fuck you’ should be allowed anywhere but not ‘fuck you go kys’ because it’s destructive not constructive; like if people with unpopular opinions weren’t allowed to silence dissent, they’d actually change their opinions and do better.