Recently there seems to be some of misunderstanding what the lemmy.ml instance is about, especially from newer users.

Lemmy.ml has always been a niche site, and it will most likely stay this way. We don’t have any intentions to turn it into a mainstream instance, or set a goal of getting as many users as possible. Our goal is simple: make an instance that people like to use. I would say that we have been successful in this, but obviously it is impossible to satisfy everyone.

The reason for this is that @dessalines and I are paid to develop Lemmy, while donations from lemmy.ml users only make up a negligible part of our income. Besides, having more users would force us to spend more time moderating, and less time for development. Lemmy works quite differently from big tech sites like Reddit in this regard: while they get more money with each extra user through advertising, for us it is the opposite. So we would much rather have a smaller, non-toxic, and friendly userbase, than a large one.

Part of the problem might be that lemmy.ml is described as “flagship instance”, which can certainly be interpreted to mean “mainstream” or “general purpose”. I struggle to come up with a better, more accurate description. If you can think of one, please comment here.

If you dont like the way lemmy.ml works, thats okay. Federation exists exactly to solve that problem, let different groups have their own instances, with their own rules and political views. You can see the list of existing instances, and instructions for setting up a new one on join-lemmy.org.

In particular, I would like to see someone (or a group of people) create a mainstream, or liberal instance. That should help to avoid further drama, and avoid attempts to turn lemmy.ml into something that it is not. @dessalines and I would certainly be willing to help with any technical problems that such an instance runs into, and include it on join-lemmy.org (just like any other instance that meets the code of conduct).

  • soronixa
    6•3 years ago

    so something like “lemmy.ml, a community of leftist privacy and FOSS enthusiasts, run by Lemmy’s developers”.

    The question about the flagship instance is a difficult one. I guess we would have to talk to the admins of such an instance, and see if we get along with them.

    thank you. I think it’s a good compromise between protecting a community like lemmy.ml and helping the adoption of Lemmy.

    At the same time, I dont think it should be necessary to have a single flagship instance, because that leads to centralization. Maybe there could be multiple such instances in the future?

    good point, we’re safe for now, but surely we sould keep an eye on that.

    do you want to make an official announcement that you’re looking for someone to host a general purpose instance to function as the flagship? and maybe posting the announcement on mastodon, and some subreddits?

    • @nutomicOPMA
      8•3 years ago

      so something like “lemmy.ml, a community of leftist privacy and FOSS enthusiasts, run by Lemmy’s developers”.

      That sounds pretty good 👍

      you want to make an official announcement that you’re looking for someone to host a general purpose instance to function as the flagship? and maybe posting the announcement on mastodon, and some subreddits?

      I thought this post would be enough of an announcement, lets see if anyone shows interest to start such an instance over the next days. Anyway, the decision to make it a flagship instance for Lemmy would probably take some time after the instance is launched.

      • dinomug
        10•3 years ago

        “lemmy.ml, a community of leftist privacy and FOSS enthusiasts, run by Lemmy’s developers”.

        I agree too.

      • DessalinesA
        7•3 years ago

        a community of leftist privacy and FOSS enthusiasts, run by Lemmy’s developers

        I’m running the instance crawler, so I just changed this now.

      • soronixa
        4•3 years ago

        I thought this post would be enough of an announcement, lets see if anyone shows interest to start such an instance over the next days. Anyway, the decision to make it a flagship instance for Lemmy would probably take some time after the instance is launched.

        I kinda meant announcing it on subs like r/fediverse, r/linux, r/selfhosting, r/privacy, r/privacytools, subs like that.(just not on r/redditalternatives, it’s an absolute disaster xD ) and on mastodon. and maybe a post to see if other lemmurs agree with the idea.