I check my 5 free articles on Ground News practically daily. Ugly site. It points out some ugly things about us.

Ya. A nuanced media net is the only real answer. Trying to balance one liar against another rarely results in balance.

I can say both of those things with genuine respect. I thought I was going to get drafted into Desert Storm. I don’t like sand.

Al Jazeera is the mouthpiece of a hostile foreign power (to me). Its also sickeningly, cloyingly coated with hate for the US throughout any segment. I will on occasion read something that’s been generically reposted, recognize the writing style, and then confirm that it came from AJ. Its so tilted that it reminds me of Fox News. And I don’t watch Fox News either.

I hear you …

I don’t often change upvotes. Sometimes I will go back and upvote things after I better understood the poster’s point.

Downvotes tho … I review my downvotes at lemvotes.org. I haven’t changed many, but I do reconsider them.

Somebody else pointed out, maybe my instance just federated with them. This seems a likely cause for the sudden change in my feed.

Ok. This is useful info.

I’ve just checked that setting. Ok, that’s an option, thx. This is the first bot that I’ve actually noticed (aka it annoyed me), and I’ve blocked it specifically.

Its that old? I don’t know why I’m suddenly seeing their stuff. I’ll inquire w/my instance admin.

I’m still kinda new here. I’m guessing if enough instances admins hate it and defederate Lemmit.Online, they might stop?
I haven’t seen much lemmy drama yet. (Well, other than lemvotes, that was dramatic.) I don’t know how these things sort out.

Thanks for your reply. At every point I feel the opposite, and I think its obvious.
I explained a couple times. So did you. I really feel I get you.
And you’re … well … not wrong, but there’s something missing about how you evaluate social dynamics.
The only way to get people to behave is to leverage their petty bullshit to make them behave.

It could all fall over under sustained assault, but as Lemmy currently stands, instances and admin hold back the tide of crap that is everywhere else on the net.

I’ve read your posts and believe I understand your stance. I fundamentally disagree.

This thing that you call a barrier to entry … I call it commitment and willinness to place your nuts on the line. These things are the basis of polite society. When they are allowed to work, they truly do so, and communities result. People with skin in the game act better. Instances provide governance in a natural, oganic way (despite your claim that its unnatural) that fallls directly from the structure.

You’ve made other points about needing fealty to an instance of people you don’t know up front and trusting your admins.
Yup. You are joining a social group. This is the natural order of things. Don’t like it, or want to tinker? Spin up your own.

It’s interesting to clearly understand your point, find you to be reasonable, and entirely disagree. :)

I very much might! Thanks

Wow. I respect your opinion, which was obviously carefully considered, and I completely disagree with your perspective about instances being a dead end.

As instances are currently structured, they are tied to web domain, and actually owned by somebody somewhere. That somebody has a level of commitment having setup hosting and configured the server itself, and likely to want to not lose their toys. If that somebody refuses to enforce order in their instance, they can be defederated. Thus, bad actors incur risk. There is power in this structure.

This is all public. Somebody owns it. It goes back to real people, who can have real consequences if they do bad things.

There’s a lot of people out there doing bad things. I don’t see a lot of that here.

I’ve seen a lot of crappy ways to organize people on the internet.
This one seems to work alright. For now.

I’m about to spin up a personal lemmy instance. It sounds like Vocta might be more suited to my needs, but the software’s deployment and use is pretty darn obtuse. Like, maybe that does what I want, but I really can’t tell. While you caught my interest here, I ultimately did not learn anything useful. Please explain this social web thing further if you were trying to make a point.

And yes. Votes are quite simply public. I’m all about exposing that.
People act better when they know they are observed.

They send fake (non-existing) actor ids for votes to obfuscate the identity of the real user. It is “compliant”, but completely against the spirit of a public social network.

Ok. This is a damn good reason not to run piefed. Votes are useful. Votes are public.

People that are acting in public, with a reputation to uphold and consequences, tend to act much more civil. And I want that. I want Lemmy to remain as civil as we can keep it.

I’m spinning up a new lemmy instance right now to run a copy of lemvotes and help break up this logjam. This whole question about votes needs to be over.

Its in the protocol. Votes are public.

:)
I love lemmy. Imagine this conversation on reddit. I’m not envisioning any smiles.

Willpower is not some magical force that you can limitlessly tap

I’m sorry. This is not true. Now, I’ll admit, I’m not all that well balanced. That sorta comes with having limitless willpower. And it doesn’t solve most things, really it’s just a different set of problems. But this perspective you share, its the perspective of a NORP. Outside that sandbox, there are crazies that have all the juice it takes for anything at all. Nice to meet ya.

you’re already doing what you can and want to

Well put. This is the true path.

Do I get to use my manic superpower?
If I have to slow down to sleep and eat and stuff like normal people, well then I guess 3 hours of max focus.
If I’m manic … I AM focus.