dominates the federation
Well there you have it.
this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2023
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Asklemmy
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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.
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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.
Another key point I feel is often overlooked about Star Trek is the "Gulliver's Travels" component of (at least pre-Kelvin) Star Trek. Every show, every race was secretly a fun-house-like caricature of humanity's worst traits, with the humans of the show demonstrating growth past that point. You laugh at or shirk away from them, but really it's modern humanity that is being depicted (Ferengi as capitalists, Klingons as warmongers, Romulans as subversives, etc.) And then we see what we could be, the hope that you talked about, in future humanity
It seems like such a creative way to do social commentary. We get to see our present failings in aliens, and then contrast it with how the crew (future humanity) carries themselves. Sometimes it's very clunky and heavy handed (like that TOS episode with the half-white/half-black aliens), but it's still good. My favorites are every time Picard monologues about their values to an alien race in TNG.
Even if you already share the values, it's fascinating to hear them laid out so clearly.
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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.
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Well, you see, Lemmy is full of nerds and communists.
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.
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.
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Why is the show about gay space communism popular on the gay space communism network?
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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
Also credited with the first widespread fanfics of a TV show, I believe.
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no other franchise I know of that dominates the federation as much as Star Trek does.
You answered your own question, brother.
We may never have a good answer for why the gay nerdy communists love the colorful scifi communist space adventures
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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.
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Ah yes, the nostalgic leftist scifi show that defined generations is popular amongst the left leaning members of the nostalgia generation.
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federated platform full of nerds
asks why there are Star Trek fans
Guess.
Guys guys, they're talking about us!
Thr "federation" you say? ;)
Same reason Linux is popular on Lemmy. Lemmy is essentially an explicitly leftist community that appeals to people nerdy and techy enough to leave Reddit and join a smaller platform. Linux is a FOSS, ie leftist techy OS. Star Trek is leftist Sci-Fi.
Nerds, tech, and leftism all congregate on Lemmy.
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there is also a lot of communities about programming and linux
there's only 1 common denominator here. we are all nerds
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Because I want to see Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism happen in my lifetime.
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The Lemmy community is disproportionately made up of either computer nerds or queer people.
Star Trek is basically the most popular nerd IP that hasn't been successfully brought into the mainstream, and is known for being progressive.
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Star Trek (esp 90s Trek and esp TNG) is extremely formative for most Gen Xers and Millennials. It's unapologetically nerdy and has themes of tolerance and empathy, and establishes a utopian vision for the future that (to most people) is unfathomable. When we're not on Lemmy, we're talking about Trek with people in person.
Two words.
Fully automatic gay space communism.
Star Trek just kinda kicks ass.
What, you haven't seen Deep Space Nine?? Cmon what're you doing? Fix that!
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dominates the federation
Say it again so the kids in back can hear ye
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because star trek has long been welcoming to gay and trans people for their inclusiveness and the fediverse is home to a lot of nerds and gay or trans (or both) people. ๐
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star trek mods successfully moved their communities from reddit back then. afaik the only other community with similar success is the piracy community.
Trek fully embraced the principals of piracy. "You wouldn't download a car"? Motherfucker, here's a replicator.
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c'mon, it's right there
United Federation of Planets
Fediverse of Lemmy Instances
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Lemmy is filled with leftists and geeks. They're the same demographic.
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Are you telling me there aren't enough star trek communities?
Lemmy is socialist by nature, and so is Trek, but also it's Trek, one of the two most iconic Sci-fi franchises available, Reddit was basically the same way but with Star Wars, but for some reason there seemed to be far too many people on the dark side and simping for the empire and Vader.
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Because Babylon 5 ended in 1998 and the reboot isn't even in production yet. Also MGM doesn't have the faintest idea what it's supposed to do with Stargate.
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Star Trek has more historical weight behind it. It more or less created modern scifi fandom. It's probably so widely beloved because it's unlike most scifi in that it's hopeful. It sells you on the idea of a better future where everything could go right, where we can explore space and be chill with everyone. Other scifi franchises sell you on window dressing or a bad future full of the same problems we have now.
People like Star Trek because they want it to be reality in a way that other scifi stuff just doesn't do.
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Federation. Star Trek. IT. Linux. Programming socks. Gay. Furries.
This sums up the vocal group here. There are others, but these seem to be the most common.
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In an interview during the 90's, William Shatner told of a story of him being recognized in mid-perfomance by a sword dancer in a small Iranian village. The man stopped dead in his tracks and looked straight at him uttering with utter amazement; "Captain Kirk?!?" That should give us perspective as to how deep and far Star Trek reached people for the last 51 years.
Source: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-approximate-number-of-Star-Trek-fans-worldwide
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