this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2022
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ie. Will you really miss anything if your home instance stopped federating? Question mainly targeted at the less tech-savvy users of the largest instances

Edit: I know federation is important for smaller instances and other fedi apps, but my question was directed at lemmy.ml and lemmygrad.ml users. Sorry if I wasn't clear about that the first time.

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[โ€“] QuentinCallaghan@sopuli.xyz 16 points 2 years ago

By losing federation with lemmy.ml, Sopuli would lose a lot.

[โ€“] sexy_peach@feddit.de 15 points 2 years ago

I am on feddit.de and without federation this server would be much different.

[โ€“] altair222@beehaw.org 14 points 2 years ago

I'll lose a lot if my home instance stops federating since most of the communities I've subscribed to are federated.

[โ€“] frippa@lemmy.ml 13 points 2 years ago

Ooh yeah I would lose a lot, I am active both on Lemmy and Lemmygrad.

[โ€“] liwott@nerdica.net 13 points 2 years ago

Of course it does, federation is the one reason I can have a Lemmy experience from this #Friendica instance !

[โ€“] ihaveausername@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Even though I don't often browse other instances, I think lemmy.ml would lose a lot since some of the most active users are from other instances.

[โ€“] poVoq@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I wish there was a way to easily transfer accounts between instances (nomadic identity), so that federation could really shine (as it definitely benefits smaller instances), but I am also sometimes annoyed by the low effort drive-by comments that federation enables.

[โ€“] krolden@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

yes that would be great

[โ€“] OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 years ago

No but it's a failsafe if Lemmy.ml pulls a Reddit

[โ€“] sexy_peach@feddit.de 7 points 2 years ago

I wouldn't use lemmy if it wasn't federated...

[โ€“] Daryl76679@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 years ago

I think this instance on a whole would be fine, but I would miss Manders and Feddit communities. Those are the two main instances that I lurk around besides lemmy.ml itself.

[โ€“] TheConquestOfBed@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Phpbb already exists and has been far more stable for far longer. Federation is the only thing really justifying Lemmy as a separate project from traditional forum software.

Given, I think it could use more easy/immediate moderating tools in the UI (like mastodon) and more robust personal blocks for users. But I get the feeling this post is secretly trying to address the lemmy vs. lemmygrad political split.

Tbh, I don't think Lemmy.ml's site culture is capable of growth. The tech users are here because of the novelty, but beyond that they don't comment much and seem to use the site as a glorified RSS feed (note how, pre Gen Zedong migration, the only posts with more than a half-dozen comments were about Lemmy software updates). They don't really add any value that you can't get on reddit or hackernews.

Longform forum posts aren't super useful to anarchists, who tend to aggregate on mastodon for a reason. Short, visual, personalized, and curated content speaks more to modern anarchist norms and values. They don't like people telling them to "read theory" and will make fun of your 5000 word wall of text screed. Snappy, information dense toots that grab your attention in the first 5 words get boosted pretty quickly. However, traditional-format posts on !anarchism@lemmy.ml only get 3-6 upvotes and maybe 2 comments a best. (And before any of y'all complain, prove me wrong by engaging with each other).

Lemmy site culture was pretty much in decay before GenZedong got here, and it breathed new life into the medium (even just through inspiring people to complain about lemmygrad, which has increased engagement dramatically). The longpost format is quite perfect for marxist usage and I'm interested to see if lemmygrad can get a network of socialist sites going. Seeing this much communism on the TL has been my dream for this place for the past couple years.

[โ€“] Whom@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Not really. I like federation in general, but Lemmy would honestly be just as useful and a lot simpler if it was regular self-hostable forum/link aggregator software.

However, I imagine most of the donors and extra attention Lemmy has gotten have to do with the fact that it's federated.

[โ€“] Daryl76679@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

I think this instance on a whole would be fine, but I would miss Manders and Feddit communities. Those are the two main instances that I lurk around besides lemmy.ml itself.

[โ€“] marmulak@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I think for me lemmy.ml is enough. Turning off federation would have the added benefit of stopping the crazies from coming on here

[โ€“] leslieriver@fapsi.be 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Turning off federation would have the added benefit of stopping the crazies from coming on here

After reading this conversation, I had the similar thought. Instead of wasting effort resolving federation-related issues, it would be far better to concentrate on enhancing other parts of the Lemmy software and community if federation doesn't actually offer much value to the majority of users.

[โ€“] marmulak@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago

Why not just block specific servers instead of only allowing specific ones?