this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2023
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I am one of the admins of Beehaw and I'm trying to get some feedback on our potential move.

Let's start out with a little Beehaw history before judgements are passed, please.

A handful of us were beta testing Tildes when we decided to have discussions on a Discord server.

We decided that our 'Northern Star' or guiding principle would culminate as 'Be Nice' with purposefully vague/flexible interpretations. Our overall goal is to provide a safe space to disenfranchised persons.

We talked for a little over a year and some of our members became impatient. Then someone stepped in to suggest a couple of platforms that we could consider getting started with.

One of those platforms was Lemmy. None of us knew, at that time, anything about ActivityPub.

During the Reddit exodus (surrounding the API outcry and blackout), our instance exploded. We were, initially, crippled by the mass amounts of users seeking refuge.

Thankfully, someone stepped in and volunteered hundreds of hours of work to stabilize our instance and refine it further.

After many hours of talks, it became clear to us that our overall goal could be achieved outside of Lemmy/ActivityPub.

Right now, we feel that Lemmy and ActivityPub have downsides that are limiting us from achieving that goal.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (2 children)

It would be a big loss for the fediverse, but if that's what OG Beehaw users want, I don't necessarily feel like we should have a say

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[–] Blaze 10 points 11 months ago

I would regret it, Beehaw has nice communities

[–] freeman 10 points 11 months ago

You should never have been on lemmy according to your stated goals of a 'safe' closed community. Your actions during the reddit exodus while you were still a big part of the lemmyverse (especially regarding communities) certainly did not do the rest of lemmy any good. Not that I think you care.

It's better for lemmy if you leave, it's better for your goals to leave so just do it.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

I'd be sad, there are many great communities and contributors there, and I'd hate to see it go away :(

Maybe some limited federation with instances you consider responsive enough when an issue arise?

[–] eestileib 9 points 11 months ago

Don't care, do whatever you like.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

With your abuse of defederation and the unability to create our own communities I don't care that you leave. Although lemmy.world abuse it too, at least there is a ton of communities that I could join

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

I always got death-cult vibes from beehaw. I expected their flame-out to be a lot more dramatig than this, though.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

yea just keep moving around until you don't have users anymore

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

The fediverse defederates servers as a means of limiting the influence and reach of their content and users. This just sounds like admins contemplating self inflicted injury.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

I already can't see beehaw users, maybe when you finally defederate from everyone some will rejoin the fediverse proper.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

People say that the point of activity pub is federation but to me that also means voluntary federation. The possibility of federation. What I dream for it is an option to opt-in instead of opt-out. You should be able to pick "opt-out" if you want a big, connected place. You can have your cake and eat it too by also keeping an account in a big instance of your choice. Most apps let you switch accounts with a tap or two.

We don't all want to be thrown into the world all the time; complete federation just makes it a safe space for majority populations and marginalizes minorities by default. No, I'm not saying you're all evil and exclude people on purpose, it just happens. It happens to me too.

Some of you seem to think that marginalized people are too soft and want a safe space, but you fail to notice that largely, you also have a safe space for yourself, it's just that you probably belong to the default in many areas (I am sighted and most of the internet is made for sighted people).

I grew up in a small forum; people should be able to choose to keep things small, and open in a controlled way. Because that's the beauty of activity pub, you can still federate with others!

I understand the very practical problem of lack of moderation tools and to me that's pretty much the only reason to leave, for now. Maybe come back if it gets better?

[–] Ziggurat 8 points 11 months ago

I don't know beehaw, and in general have a pretty bad image of it. Like a bunch of people who want to play together and don't want to federate with anyone, and when you do you it's to troll. So indeed, you're already mostly out of the fediverse.

No idea which kind of content we'd be missing, but beside the Drama about Some instance is leaving the fediverse it won't change anything for most of us.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I already have another account I only use on beehaw, so I wouldn't mind a compkete defederation or software change. Safer/nicer spaces are really hard to maintain without moderation control, and lemmy clearly isn't there yet and might not be there for some time. If staying federated/on lemmy means beehaw administration/moderation ends up burnt out, I feel like it's the right move to move.

As a personnal aside, the only thing that would prevent me from staying on beehaw is if you chose a closed-source platform (eg discord).

Anyway, thanks for the things you do and the way you do them !

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

Reading through the lemmy.world responses is just disheartening.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Well my small instance is still federated, but the other NZ instance defederated after an 'issue'

I think in the last 2 or so months, the interaction between Beehaw and the main (other) lemmy instances has been less abrasive than it was during the big exodus.

I feel that you leaving now may limit the further growth of the fediverse, but if it is the right thing to do for your users than that is up to you and your users

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

I like some communities that beehaw hosts such as music.
Other than that: The more the merrier?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

I don't think lemm.ee is federating correctly, but I'll give my take here if some one can sees it.

Beehaw will go the way of every other reddit alternatives, because the existing community is not enough to sustain the critical mass of activity needed. In fact, with the current instance policy, Beehaw is struggling to sustain itself as is with federation, which will only get worse if you defederate.

I'm not sure why Beehaw refuse to use Lemmy's white-list federation feature and selectively pick and choose who to federate with instead of going full scorched earth.

It's ultimately up to the admins at Beehaw to make this choice, but I would like to say, grass is not always greener on the other side, defederation will harm Beehaw more than it helps.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Let me start by saying that if Beehaw would be missed for all of us, but I doubt people would move with it if it left ActivePub. That being said I’d recommend sticking with Lemmy, sure it doesn’t have all the features yet — but it’s still young (and is still growing).

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

TLDR don’t want you to leave.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

blahaj and beehaw are my two favourite places on the internet so id definitely miss y'all ❤️

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Sucks that you're getting shit for this. You do you, and you'll do good whatever you decide because this is the whole point of it all - freedom to choose.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

I think you have to do what's best for your people. You have a very particular set of goals with Beehaw, and if the fediverse isn't the right place for that then it's fine to move on. I'll be curious to see what you all decide to do, and, if you do leave, what you end up creating!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I find that one of the drawbacks to this federated landscape is knowing when to make a new account and where. There. Are. So. Many. Options.

If Lemmy and AP are so limiting why not be part of its development and growth? Development doesn’t seem to happen fast on these platforms, and for good reason. “Move fast and break stuff” is a terrible mantra in my opinion, and I’m glad for things moving more slowly.

In either case I have enjoyed the discussions over there and it would be a shame to see it defederate. Best of luck to you and the team either way.

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