I find this news disconcerting coming from such a large instance so early on. Many of the criticisms of Lemmy I’ve been fighting against on Reddit have had to do with defederation and the possibility of getting cut off from your favorite communities on your main account. I handwaved that away as being extremely unlikely save for the exception of NSFW or extreme political content. But this news has taken me quite by surprise. Perhaps I should have seen it coming given the community Beehaw is trying to foster.
This really makes me wonder what will happen to instances that make this decision. Will their communities diminish in favor of the more accessible ones? Will this decision hurt Beehaw in the long run? What does this mean for the Fediverse in the near future when fighting against its detractors has been such an uphill battle?
Thoughts?
Yeah. Who gets to run this thing, and how do we stop them from being evil?
As it is, I expect an instance will become like a passport. Some passports are better than others because they’re seen as less risky. Users will be incentivised to get on the most exclusive instances that will have them, basically.
Wild concepts but I agree with you. I think that’s how things will go.