Every single large server in this federation has at least one Star Trek community. There is even an entire server dedicated to Star Trek.

Not only that, these communities are some of the most active I’ve ever seen. There is no other franchise I know of that dominates the federation as much as Star Trek does.

So, what’s the correlation with Lemmy and Star Trek? Why not other sci-fi series? Please, are there any connections?? Is this all coincidental?

  • @[email protected]
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    16511 months ago

    I think it’s nerds. /s

    I think a lot of the lemmy userbase are at least somewhat techy (also see the Linux communities), and a lot of techy people like Star Trek.

      • Travalaaaaaaanche!
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        2511 months ago

        Eh, more like Trekkies are techies. I would consider myself somewhat of a techie, definitely nerdy, and very much into sci-fi, but I really don’t give a shit about Star Trek. I’ve seen a lot of it, just because I’ve had a couple girlfriends that really enjoyed it, but otherwise I probably wouldn’t have watched any after my childhood.
        Now, if HBO were to do a hard R version, I’d probably get into it.

        • Flying Squid
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          1211 months ago

          There’s a fun documentary called How William Shatner Changed the World about all the scientists and inventors who have been inspired by Star Trek.

            • @acceptable_pumpkin
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              1011 months ago

              It’s ok, whenever you get annoyed about his ego, just go watch the clip of Ole’ Bill trying to pontificate after his trip to space and Jeff Bezos cutting him off. The look on his face is so sad and frustrated.

            • Flying Squid
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              611 months ago

              Yeah, not the best, but still a really fun documentary.

        • @Broken_Monitor
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          -211 months ago

          I find star trek boring too, there’s a lot of far more interesting and exciting scifi out there so I really don’t get how it still has such a huge fan base still.

          That said, if they start dropping the hard Rs in Star Trek I will definitely tune in to that catastrophe.

          • z500
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            811 months ago

            If it’s hard Rs you want, just put on any episode where O’Brien is mad at the Cardassians

            • The Barto
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              11 months ago

              Star trek: in our universe racism is no more…

              O’Brien: Damn Spoon heads!

              Star Trek: Except Miles, he’s the exception to the rule.

          • @[email protected]
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            311 months ago

            Not everything needs to be action or drama packed. It’s like a good documentary, the premise is usually very exciting. Kind of like a what if.

    • Yardy Sardley
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      1111 months ago

      I never really thought about it before, but it seems obvious now. Trekkies and open source tech folks would have a massive overlap, and Lemmy kind of exists perfectly within that intersection of utilitarian principles. So of course we would all find each other here.

  • The Picard Maneuver
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    12711 months ago

    The Star Trek community has been going strong for nearly 60 years for a reason - Star Trek rocks.

    When it started in the 60s (and continued especially strong with TNG in the 80s), it was unique in depicting a hopeful look at how things could be rather than a reflection of how things are, differing from how most shows do social commentary. It’s refreshing.

    Star Trek is attractive to people who want to see a world where people work together toward great things in a post-scarcity utopia, with current day conversations of race, nationality, sex, gender, etc. being so far in the rear-view mirror that they’re non-issues. Plus cool technology. I think that appeals to the Lemmy crowd.

    • Dessalines
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      2111 months ago

      To me, Trek is a mash of three great communities, each nerdy in their own way:

      • Science-fiction, specifically optimistic mid-century science fiction.
      • Theatre / Drama
      • Revolutionary Socialism

      This article scratches the surface of it.

      • ActualOP
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        311 months ago

        Thank you for the article. I’ll need to look more into this in the future.

    • @[email protected]
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      911 months ago

      I think you personally posting more than the other Lemmings combined might have something to do with it…

  • ISometimesAdmin
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    10811 months ago

    So others have already talked about how great Star Trek is. I agree with them, but I think that literally everyone has missed the point of your question:

    https://startrek.website

    It’s its own lemmy instance. It was spawned from the migration away from reddit, and it’s stayed alive since. So combine an active former-reddit community with lemmy and a good reason to all rally around, and finally the final ingredient of federation, and the Star Trek related rooms will always be on every server, and they’ll always be populated.

    • 👍Maximum Derek👍
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      6811 months ago

      Yeah, I think this is a big part of it. The Star Trek sub’s total abandonment of Reddit and conversion to a standalone Lemmy instance during the Blackout was a big deal and a big driver of traffic in those days and beyond.

      Star Trek is big in the Threadiverse for the same reason that Earth is big in the Federation. They were a massive force in the early days.

      • @[email protected]
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        611 months ago

        And it’s a great example of how viable lemmy is as an alternative. Not sure about random subs, but any of the really nerdy ones could make the jump.

    • ActualOP
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      311 months ago

      Both this and all other answers are good for different reasons. From what I’m reading, the beliefs and politics displayed within Star Trek are beyond progressive for the time it came out, while also shaping sci-fi. This creates a very committed fan base that when Reddit started acting up, they were able to move a large chunk of their user base away to Lemmy, since Lemmy is filled with similar-minded people.

    • 🖖USS-Ethernet
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      111 months ago

      When I left reddit because my favorite app rif was shutdown, that was the first instance that caught my eye. I love Star Trek.

  • @nixcamic
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    10411 months ago

    Why is the show about gay space communism popular on the gay space communism network?

    • Otter
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      1311 months ago

      The French line at the bottom 😄

  • @[email protected]
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    8011 months ago

    Because Trek fans were the first to organize conventions. They started out small in the late 60s. Now every single weekend, somewhere on this planet, there’s a Trek convention being held. The conventions also raise massive money for charity. They are the nerds other nerds want to be, in terms of organization. I’m here for the memes.

  • Scrubbles
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    7811 months ago

    Most of the internet was started with Star Trek boards. If I recall correctly, one of the first emails ever sent was about Star Trek

      • cheesymoonshadow
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        2411 months ago

        I haven’t thought of this in years but back in the '90s I participated in an email fantasy RPG where we all roleplayed Romulans. One person would write a chapter from their character’s POV and email it to the group, then the next person does one, and so on, so the story unfolded in unexpected ways. It was actually pretty fun.

      • Xariphon
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        1011 months ago

        Including the one that is the reason we call laughably stupid perfect characters Mary Sue.

    • @thezeesystem
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      811 months ago

      Do you know of a wiki or link to this about trek boards and first email? Search engines now a days are getting on my nerves about not showing what I typed into it.

    • ActualOP
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      111 months ago

      Wow, didn’t know the roots were that deep…

  • @kerrigan778
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    7711 months ago

    Ah yes, the nostalgic leftist scifi show that defined generations is popular amongst the left leaning members of the nostalgia generation.

    • @RizzRustbolt
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      2411 months ago

      Nah. It’s all that O’Brien poundcake.

      • @mrcleanup
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        1211 months ago

        I prefer the cellular peptide cake myself.

        • ggppjj
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          811 months ago

          With mint frosting!

        • @[email protected]
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          11 months ago

          I was about to make a joke about Troi and the expected qualities of a cake, but I’ll leave it at that.

      • @Odum
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        811 months ago

        Wait but which O’Brien? Miles? Or the clone Miles that was meant to infiltrate the peace talk? Or the Miles from 7 hours in the future that just replaced the present day Miles? There’s just so many to choose from, it’s so hard

        • Dessalines
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          411 months ago

          Or mirror O’Brien that thinks nothing of kidnapping Jake Sisko even after Real Sisko saved his life on multiple occasions.

  • @[email protected]
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    7611 months ago

    no other franchise I know of that dominates the federation as much as Star Trek does.

    You answered your own question, brother.

  • @FangedWyvern42
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    7111 months ago

    federated platform full of nerds

    asks why there are Star Trek fans

    Guess.

  • @Feathercrown
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    6711 months ago

    Thr “federation” you say? ;)

  • Stoneykins [any]
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    6511 months ago

    We may never have a good answer for why the gay nerdy communists love the colorful scifi communist space adventures

    • @[email protected]
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      1311 months ago

      If you’re trying to say the way ryker throws his leg over a chair is the cause of me becoming a communist programmer then I have to tell you that you are sorely accurate.