Ask Lemmy

I mean, there's always other places in the fediverse to put ur money

ik this isn't what ur asking, but i wanted to put it out there for you to consider

Because they are ok with other instances operating without censorship. Or with different ideological bias. Some people want their safe space. I do consider it generally harmful, but that's how humans are - we want to discuss with like-minded people even if it limits the range of discussion.

On the balance, Lemmy existing is a benefit to humanity. You don't have to talk to developers themselves.

This really just seems like "I want to complain about .ml" with extra steps.

I don't care for them, so I don't go there.

Open source projects will be used for things of which you approve and of which you do not, that is life.

I would answer but I feel like this post is more about you trying to convince others to retire their economical support that any other thing. Or at least it feels like that.

Decision is yours, same as our decisions are ours.

Why should I convince you for free?

Bear in mind that ActivityPub is so much more than just Lemmy. Mbin and Piefed both exist as alternatives.

If they had developed a centralised bit of software such as Twitter or Reddit you'd have a point. In that case you can't support one without the other.

On a decentralised bit of software you can support the developers and spend your time on an instance they have no control over. So supporting the developers for development is not the same as supporting any particular instance - thats why a lot of instances accept donations too.

Just to be real:

Every instance is an example of arbitrary censorship. It's just that .ml is specifically about a kind of censorship you don't like.

All that said, there is no "should". Donations are voluntary, they are not the only way to contribute to the development of the fediverse, and there is already both alternatives and competition, and you could support those instead. I hear Pixelfed is making the rounds.

I mean, you could support piefed development or one of the *bins, instead.

At the end of the day you need to decide what kind of person you are. Are you pragmatic or idealistic? Are you able to separate art from artist and creation from creator? Should you support a good open source service created for the betterment of everyone if you dont like the politics of its developers?

I'm a pragmatist by nature. I believe that a useful tool remains a useful tool even when its crafted by tankie assholes. If I found out the maker of a computer command like sudo was a leninist or whatever I wouldnt go out of my way to install an alternative just because I dont agree with the batshit politics of the creator. Just like I wouldn't stop enjoying a song after finding out the ones who made it were greedy egotistical dickheads in personal life.

Young and politically charged idealist love that online social justice warrior signalling and political identity posturing. Everythings gotta be us vs them culture war, with us needing to always be on the morally/politically high ground else your a filthy inhuman nazi them who must be refunded/canceled. You get older and realize most people no matter the lean have some level of dogshit half baked politics or some other degree of mental emotional whackiness from past trauma or poor life circumstances causing them to be imperfect animals with dumb fucking biases. That's humanity and the heart of darkness for ya. You can choose to associate the imperfections of the creator with the creation, or you can try to decouple them and see them as separate entities linked by causality.

Donate to an individual instance then. Or fork your own, call it Demmings, and see where that takes you.

Prepare for the transition to Piefed.

Please create an account on PieFed if you don't already have one. Let's keep the momentum of more and more users migrating to PieFed. Also help contribute content to other instances so we can reduce .ml influences.

That sounds like a you problem

You should not continue supporting it if you don't feel that the developers are deserving of your money.

It's not arbitrary, you're just upset.

Support piefed instead. It's fine for the Lemmy devs to have their opinions, but if they are going to be assholes about it then they can deal with the fallout. I've been around open source communities long enough to know that this quickly becomes a sunk cost fallacy, and the fediverse will be better off ripping off this bandaid as soon as possible.

There is no way to convince a person who is raised in a capitalist system why "arbitrary censorship" is way better than "democracy" where all significant media is capitalist owned. The only difference is that one is honest, the other isnt. If you come to my house, I will absolutely arbitrarily censor you if I dont like what you're saying. Thats called personal freedom.

The "freeze peach" approach is a purely capitalist idea where you supposedly can say anything, even shitting on someone elses table but you have no actual way to change the broken system you're in. Thats how they like you, divided, shitting on those you deem lesser and incapable of organizing.

So no, the people who make lemmy are the people who let you say exactly what you are saying now. From my pov, they deserve huge donations. Does that have to do anything with their instance? Not in my opinion.

But because I like to discuss these things: an instance is your private matter. you can do whatever you like and hear whatever you like. If that means you only say nazi stuff for example, that is your choice. And defunding those who give you actual freedom (before lemmy there was reddit and nothing) while not defunding the police or the state that does the exact opposite (looking at you, USA) is just wild imo.

Piefed is growing

It's open source (AFAIK or least I certainly hope so). So once published, the bad guys' work was effectively done for free. Take the win.

You do whatever you like

They're building a system that allows you to avoid censorship that you don't like. I'd focus on that part.

You shouldn't. Support your instance or something idk.

You are supporting the development and technology. That is the great thing about the Fediverse, you go where you want to be, but can reach out to other isolated communities and take the parts that you want and need.

The developers of Lemmy created this specific platform and are improving it. Since Mastodon started, everyone wanted a Reddit replacement, we now have it.

From the Fediverse I have now made life long friends and we have private Matrix chats. Without servers with sepcific communities, I would never have met them.