As Reddit’s enshittification reaches new heights their attempts to suppress attention for alternatives, like federated Lemmy, has the opposite effect as this Hacker News discussion shows.
As Reddit’s enshittification reaches new heights their attempts to suppress attention for alternatives, like federated Lemmy, has the opposite effect as this Hacker News discussion shows.
That second comment by goplayoutside says it well: “Maybe the modest technical hurdles are a feature, not a bug.”
I think it is a feature, and the same is true for Mastodon and the Fediverse as a whole, imho.
I also see it as a feature. If instances have a natural active user cap, then server-based communities can’t get so big as to outpace moderation. And admins have the ability to moderate local users’ behaviour on off-site sublemmies by enforcing their own codes of conduct.
The internet used to be small, but expansive. It became big, but concentrated.
I liked the former. I know many people like the latter. Those people are welcome to their corporate slums.
You’ve worded it well. I think the technical nature of it is to its benefit, and many server may not want to make the signup process easier, for the reasons you mentioned.
@humanetech @thoro I like it because it weeds out the type of people who would end up being low-effort posters, trolls, and spammers.
While it keeps the willfully ignorant out, it can also keep people with learning disabilities out. Accessibility should always be worked on. That being said, Lemmy is certainly easy to access, Even more so than Mastodon IMHO because Mastodon you have to know people whereas lemmy all you have to do is sign up for a community
Very much so. It shares the load, both from a technical point of view but also from moderation and maintenance point of view.
It’s actually pretty great, all of this.
Problem: organizations pushing a political or commercial agenda will train their agents to overcome modest technical hurdles. Spammers, in particular, will go to extreme lengths to overcome technical hurdles, including hiring people to solve CAPTCHAs.
Agreed, I remember being shocked about a decade ago learning that there were services run in developing countries where you pay about $1 for 1000 CATPCHA solves for your spam bot to pass along and a person solving it.