Let me explain. So I wrote a Steam review recently, and someone came by and wrote something toxic. Calling me an idiot and other worse things, because I didn’t like their favourite game.

But here’s the great part: I didn’t even have to fully read their vitriol. I just clicked the trash icon and it’s gone forever. It felt empowering and amazing ~ just the ability to remove toxicity at-will. No waiting 7 business days for a mod to maybe think about removing it; no additional trolls seeing the toxicity and taking it as an invitation.

It was a stark contrast to most other social media, where you’re practically powerless. Sure, you can block the aggressor; but their comment is still there for everyone else, like a giant turd you kicked under the living room carpet. It attracts other pests, and it still affects anyone else who comes by.

Of course, it would probably be immediately abused for all the wrong reasons if implemented here ~ but it would be cool if it wasn’t. What do you guys think? Maybe there’s a middle ground that gives users more control over their posts?

  • Skavau@piefed.socialEnglish
    3·
    2 days ago

    The only reason we do it this way, on Lemmy and Reddit, with centralized moderation of communities, under centralized control of the whole system, is because it makes it easier to censor. I’m serious.

    It’s also because the design of Reddit/Lemmy is community-driven and not user-post on profile driven. We post to communities, not profiles. People subscribe to communities and browse the posts within them.

      • Skavau@piefed.socialEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        Yes, because that’s essentially what Lemmy is - designed to be a federated version of Reddit. What you are suggesting is something that would in practice function entirely different to this place entirely.

          • Skavau@piefed.socialEnglish
            2·
            2 days ago

            Lots of people come on here to build communities. You imagine a system where communities don’t exist at all and all posts are essentially just profile posts, purely moderated by the profile owner.

              • Skavau@piefed.socialEnglish
                2·
                2 days ago

                Because Reddit was (is), and people wanted alternatives to Reddit. People tend to like the community-based system, in many cases because they themselves have interests they want to promote via that system. I do. There’s plenty of services that exists that are effectively just profile posting.

                  • Skavau@piefed.socialEnglish
                    2·
                    2 days ago

                    I want to run a television community. So I do. Can’t do that under your system.

                    And in the Lemmy/Piefed’s case, people can just spin up alternative instances - so it really isn’t like Reddit in that sense.

            • Zarobi@aussie.zoneOPEnglish
              0·
              2 days ago

              Sounds like federation at it’s ultimate final form. I always imagined someday everybody having their own personal servers and posting locally, rather than joining extant instances*.

              I have no idea how moderation tools work on Lemmy though… does it reach out and delete comments from other instances?

              • Skavau@piefed.socialEnglish
                3·
                2 days ago

                Yes, it would. If you are a community mod, and you delete a comment from someone else who is off-instance, that deletion federates.