this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2024
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Quark's

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Come to Quark’s, Quark’s is Fun!

General off-topic chat for the crew of startrek.website. Trek-adjacent discussions, other sci-fi television, navigating the Fediverse, server meta (within reason), selling expired cases of Yamok sauce, it’s all fair game.

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c/Quarks will change to "local only" when Lemmy 0.19.6 releases (startrek.website)
submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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EDIT 3: **Due to some bugs we're delaying this feature until Lemmy 0.19.6 is released! **

The goal of c/Quarks has always been to help foster a sense of community for StarTrek.website, but it is just a generic "offtopic" community and does not really have an identity of it's own on the Fediverse.

Thanks to the new feature in Lemmy 19.4, we can create true "local only" communities. And Quark's can be what it was originally intended to be, a place for our users. This will allow us to better discuss what kind of experience users of this instance wish to have (not just provide) without all the dorks on less cool instances coming here and ruining our weather control network.

Smiling

EDIT: to those of you concerned about missing out on "trek-adjacent discussion" @[email protected] has indicated they plan on loosening the "on topic" rule of /c/StarTrek to include more of that.

EDIT2: If anyone is interested in growing and operating a community on our instance, please feel free to reach out or comment here!

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 5 months ago (2 children)

That’s a total bummer but I’m not moving my whole identity for one single community. If everyone did this, Fedi would be an ever lonelier place.

Bye 👋

[–] [email protected] -1 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I'm legitimately curious: what is the appeal of this community to a remote user?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 months ago (1 children)

On my home instance, the community [email protected] is for discussing issues specific to the instance, it's not really relevant to people not using the instance.

On startrek.website, the Quarks community seems to primarily discuss Star Trek adjacent topics which are of interest to many Trek fans.

I think it's great that you guys want a private community for discussing things only relevant to the instance. I just wish you hadn't chosen to close a community with broad external interest.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Thanks for the response.

We'll probably relax the rules on c/startrek a bit to allow a degree of Trek-adjacent content that we might have previously punted to Quark's.

I'm thinking of stuff like the Paramount acquisition drama, which is off-topic but clearly still relevant.

Expanding outward from there into stuff like "here's what Frakes is up to," we approach territory that can be covered just as well elsewhere in the Fediverse.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Trek-adjacent discussions

Literally the first topic of this community, according to the sidebar. Sales of expired Yamok sauce are also relevant to Trek fans on other instances.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

And to be clear, Trek-adjacent discussions will continue to be allowed in Quark's. I just don't think making the community private will be some great blow to the Fediverse.

If it helps, we will allow sales of expired Yamok sauce in c/startrek, provided the seller can produce a certificate of authenticity.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I have to say that this makes me rather sad.

Instead of drawing folks into the fandom tent with adjacent topics or broadening the discussion of established fans, it’s creating less conversation.

I think that there’s a place for a ‘discuss the health of the instance’ conversation on a separate dedicated community, but also a Trek-adjacent general and open discussion. I consider Frakes’ career as a sci-fi director or the Paramount saga as adjacent.

As long as it meets the norms of the instance in terms of civility, why not? Are the admins/mods truly being flooded with a high volume of spam from outside on Quarks?

Last, I would like to note that without Quark’s being open, I doubt we’d have had the interest to create the Dr Who community. I think that it’s cool that it percolated up through the discussion.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I hear you, but "drawing folks into the fandom tent" was not what Quark's (or the instance for that matter) was created for. Quark's has always been "General off-topic chat for the crew of startrek.website.".

That said, if you or anyone else wanted to create a community with that or a related stated purpose (and promised to grow and actively maintain it in line with instance values) I would be more than happy to entertain the idea. But you can't have mine lol

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Yeah, it's probably good to mention that all (I think?) of our DMs are open if someone has a suggestion for us.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I just don’t see how closing everyone else out from Trek adjacent discussions helps the community.

The whole point of federation is letting people with varied interests come together. It doesn’t work if every niche interest makes their “general” board private.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

I mean, if we're talking about the sidebar...

General off-topic chat for the crew of startrek.website.

But I do understand and appreciate the perspective. It's in-line with the internal discussion we had when making the decision.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

But aren’t all Trek-related discussions on-topic?

If you’re going to ban “outsiders” from off-topic chat, you should also ban on-topic chat from the off-topic community.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

If the concern is that we're going to have a sooper secret, members-only Star Trek discussion group, that is not the intent. If we were going to do that, we'd just make the instance private.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

No, I’m concerned about balkanization of the community of Trek fans.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Oh. Okay.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (8 children)

@ValueSubtracted @deegeese you're joking, right?

I only discovered this place after I was on fedi for 3+ years. It's incredible and amazing to be able to participate remotely. I honestly can't fathom why you WOULDN'T want that. But hey if they want to close it then bye I guess.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Good luck folks, I think each server having it's own identity and it's own place is something that makes the fediverse great.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

You should be here, making burgers of the day using the entire galaxy of ingredients

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Thanks, we do too!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (4 children)

Goofy decision. I have an account here, but I rarely use it because of the ratio of spam to genuine posts on the instance.

You could always just defederate from those toxic instances? It seems like this isn't a popular decision with the community. Might be worth rethinking it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

The admin team doesn't make instance decisions based on what's "popular". It's actually against our mission statement. Though that doesn't mean community input is ignored.

But that being said, admins can see who's voting and we can see that the downvotes are not coming from users with much/any history in this community. So we are not taking their feedback strongly into account.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago

This logic is bonkers. Lurkers are part of the community too. Everyone participates in their own way.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (2 children)

If you don't like the content hosted on this instance, why do you have an opinion on this at all?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I do like the non-spam content on this instance, such as Quark's and Daystrom. I'm subscribed to it through other accounts, but occasionally I poke my head in on the actual account I have here.

Personally, with most of the instances I actually use, I find it easier to just look at the Local feed. On this instance, however, a significant portion of what gets posted is just repetitive spam, so it's hard to really do that. It's much easier to subscribe to individual interesting communities, such as Daystrom and Quark's, through other instances that I'm more likely to actively use.

I suppose if you don't care what kind of experience anyone has on your instance, that's your business.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

spam

Inigo Montoya, with the caption "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I'm referring to your constant advertisement posts.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 5 months ago

Gee whiz, it really sounds like this instance isn't for you, and also like you don't know what an advertisement is.

Best of luck in...all that, I guess.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

~~I think she's saying she's upset we don't remove enough content from other communities (federated with us but not originating) on this instance. Which is correct, the admins here generally leave content on other communities alone if they are actively moderated.~~

Ok nevermind she's apparently saying /c/StarTrek and /c/Risa are "spam"?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I was actually specifically referring to Value Subtracted constantly spamming empty threads and ST:O ads.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago

Per instance guidelines, submitting on-topic content to relevant communities is not considered spam. But if you want to stay subscribed to /c/STO and block ValueSubtracted's "spam" StarTrek.website has a block feature you can find on their userpage.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

...and the fractured drawbacks of lemmy slowly become apparent. I see this happening more and more, and don't expect lemmy to survive if it continues.

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

YOU KILLED LEMMY

YOU BASTARDS

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

This is dumb and makes no sense, even for the intended purposes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

@[email protected] Tagging you here because you're basically the only other person who contributes to this community.

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

I've always kind of (naively?) viewed it at face value: a place for everyone to discuss sci-fi and other things that aren't directly Star Trek with an audience that's largely composed of fellow Trekkies. But I do realize it's also your "meta" community where you answer instance-specific questions, post announcements, etc. It makes total sense for those to be local-only (and once I update my instance, I'll probably be doing the same for my meta community).

We'll probably relax the rules on c/startrek a bit to allow a degree of Trek-adjacent content that we might have previously punted to Quark's.

While I like the idea of a dedicated and federated Trek-adjacent community, I realize there's moderation and other overheads to deal with if you were to spin up a new community for that purpose (if you even wanted to, that is). As Value Subtracted said in the quote above, relaxing the rules of /c/startrek to cover things that would currently go to /c/quarks would address that.

So, I'm sad to see it go (from my federated perspective), but I completely understand the motivation for doing so and support it.

Or, as the Borg would say:

Seven of Nine with the caption 'We will adapt'

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Man, I don't like Stamets but he was right lol.

When you guys just wanna do something even if people disagree you're gonna do it.

On either side though it kind of sucks. From the mods are right perspective, yeah, basically only users from the instance post here already. On the other side though, bringing activity in from across the federation is definitely a better move long-term unless the people coming in are toxic. Latest non @stw poster had a hilarious premise and I loved it. Would hate to see that go, but I guess it's going to /c/startrek anyways.

Everybody is kinda dug in here, it's pretty sad.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The problem is nobody wants to grow and maintain a federated "Trek adjacent" community. I've even offered the opportunity to host one on this instance and nobody wants to put in the effort.

(Also, I just need to point out that Stamets was not "right" about anything involving our team. He claimed the Risa mods were "transphobic", and set up a new community where he repeated the claims. When one of our Admins asked Stamets if he intended to continue, he cried harassment and used the attention to promote a GoFundMe.)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

I think you guys actually need more open communities and not less.

Quark's is great as an off-topic zone. The theme makes sense because the bar is somewhere people go to unwind and not necessarily talk direct shop. Stuff like news that's Trek-adjacent fits perfectly in here, but the subsequent topics listed after other sci-fi television kind of deserve their own community. I think the scope of Quark's is too large.

Navigating the fediverse and server meta have traditionally been their own communities as a /c/meta sort of affair. Those are definitely things that only the @stw community would really want to discuss internally and perhaps should be kept instance-user-only, but something like news and other "adjacent" content is of value across the federation and the opportunity for everyone to post just makes more organic sense to me. I would also take the opportunity to have another themed name, like /c/battlebridge, /c/ops or even /c/conferenceroom for the meta community.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Yeah I totally agree with pretty much everything you just said.