I’m splitting this into two parts. First identifying the issue. And second my personal idea for a solution. I’m hoping for a lot of discussion so please be clear which part you are responding to.

Part 1: The problem

Reddit as a platform has many flaws. Obviously being a corporation means they’re terrible no matter what. But their platform is also flawed. Even if Reddit was 100% community owned the platform would still be flawed. The number one thing that is ruining Reddit are the tyrannical mods.

Each community on Reddit is a dictatorship. Whoever is arbitrarily in charge of a community has full unrestricted power to do whatever they want. The people who are actually creating the content and sharing it are totally at their whim. I understand that modding is a difficult and thankless job, but toxic mods ruined Reddit and Lemmy will do the same if it’s not addressed.

Lemmy’s answer is to allow people to create their own instances. Don’t like the mods at World? Go make your own Lemmy, with blackjack and hookers. But that’s not sufficient. It takes years to build up a community to have enough people for meaningful discussion to happen, and nearly all communities or instances fail. We absolutely need a way for mods to answer to the users.

Part 2: My solution

My solution is simple. Lemmy is built on the community. Everyone helps run it. Therefore mods are elected by the users who generate the highest upvoted content in a community.

Elections should happen on a schedule and, if a community is particularly upset with a mod, a vote of no confidence can be taken.

I understand that this will be a huge undertaking. But I truly believe that we need to fix this issue for Lemmy to thrive long term. Or else we’ll just end up with another Reddit.

  • Auster@kbin.earth
    8·
    13 hours ago

    Discussing the solution would be to accept the premise. And the premise I think is flawed, pun intended, so let’s adress it first.

    Majority of instances are extremely small, so if you are correct on the surface analysis that most fail, it may simply be people giving up on their venture for going to a place more stable and that they don’t have to manage themselves.

    Also surface analysis is another problem by itself because the premises for it can be faulty, and saying as if it’s a certainty can help spread misconceptions. And there’s also the problem of the sensationalistic tone.

    And on communities failing, define failing, please. Some may indeed, but what if they simply represent a topic so niche it rarely warrants discussions?

    And on migrating, if the very top is problematic, voting out can be hard too. Even more so if it’s the guy paying the bills or managing the infraestructure. And also example comes from the above, as the saying goes, so users cather to the culture they want to see fostered by the administration.

    Furthermore, still on voting, who’s to say, if voting is implemented, bot and paid actor accounts aren’t made discretely over time to rig them?

    Also, what works to one group may not work to another, or even to the same group in different periods.

    And still on migrating overall, since here’s a network, not simply just a bunch of social medias aware of one another, if you make an account on a new platform, there’s a kickstart of potential users since they’re still in the network.

    And regarding the network aspect, using a software with microblogging integration such as Mbin, Piefed, Catodon or Friendica can give an even further push, since then you can use hashtags, boosts, following besides subscribing, community packs, etc.

    Also on being a network, you can use relays, such as Threadirator and the other project with a same purpose I always forget the name. That helps making it appear on the connected instances.

    And with the problems I could notice out of the way, no onto the proposed solution alternative:

    The fediverse is a network, so you are free to make an instance to try that yourself. Or also to approach instance administrators to see if they’d be willing to experiment, since people can be rather approachable if you ask them directly.

    And if the idea works out, similar to how historically it goes, people will copy the model. But a beautiful idea on paper means nothing without concrete examples. And as it’s presented, it sounds more like a liability than a proper model.