Recent events over at lemmy.world have got me thinking, and I wanted to see what the community here are reddthat.com thinks.

Most details are available at the lw admin team’s latest post. TLDR A discussion about whether a vegan cat diet was viable started at c/vegan. An admin banned some comments and removed a moderator of the community. LW updated their TOS with a section about misinformation. The admin actions were reversed.

(Probably, I am misrepresenting the situation, read the link before taking up arms)

While, I prefer to enter my own opinions in a comment, I would like to add some questions to frame the discussion:

  1. What do you the new section about misinformatiom? Do you think reddthat needs one?
  2. What do you think about how the situation was handled by the LW admin team?
  3. Given that LW is the biggest lemmy instance, how do you think these changes will influence smaller instances like reddthat?
  4. Do you have any other take aways from this? Or any other questions?
  5. (bonus) Isn’t it hilarious that lemmy has its own tea (=gen z for drama)?
  • @[email protected]OPEnglish
    2•19 days ago

    What do you the new section about misinformatiom? Do you think reddthat needs one?

    When considering misinformation clauses I like the Wikipedia example. Intentionally or not, a core strategy wikipedia followed from early on is “don’t give a platform to the trolls”. Some believe that constructive critism is not effective against an attention seeking troll, it’s much more efficient for everyone to ban them early.

    That said, freedom of speech is equally important and it’s important to differentiate between hard to discuss topics and misinformation. Hard to discuss topics are important because they help us explore new ideas, and grow as people and society.

    All in all, I don’t like LW’s misinformation section, but I do think one is necessary. While, I cannot make a complete suggestion, I would definitely consider updating the clauses about peer reviewed research. Publications can be a reliable source of information, but gatekeeping knowledge into academic institutions is an issue IMO (especially if you consider that being a researcher is an socioeconomic privilege).

    What do you think about how the situation was handled by the LW admin team?

    It was a roller coaster to watch the controversy unveil, but I think the situation was handled well by the LW team. An admin made a few mistakes, which is understandable, the mistakes were acknowledged and fixed.

    Given that LW is the biggest lemmy instance, how do you think these changes will influence smaller instances like reddthat?

    While, I am sure of the influence LW holds over other lemmy instances, I try to remember that in the scope of the fediverse LW is relatively small.