Yesterday there was a conversation that contained several blatantly anti-vax comments. I had previously included in the community description a rule against anti-vax posts and comments, but I was not enforcing it well. I will be enforcing that rule going forward. I have also included a new rule against personal attacks. Please remember to report violations.
If anti-vaxxers wish to have a discussion, they are free to create their own community. This community is not a home for that sentiment.
Thanks. That is a good policy, and you’re doing a good job as a mod.
I guess for me the takeaway is, it’s always going to be a game of whack-a-mole and it’s always going to be a question of whether you have good mods. Other servers are just not going to have them all the time, so we’re really depending on lemmy.ml to federate and defederate in a thoughtful way. So far, so good though.
Actually, I need some help modding. I’m keeping an eye out for a couple of people, but I’m not sure who is 1) trustworthy and 2) interested.
I know that on Mastodon, they sometimes had paid community managers. I wonder if Lemmy perhaps gets to a point where that kind of capacity is needed, and/or if it’s getting the funding it needs in the meantime. That might allow for a moderating team that has the bandwidth to support communities as needed.
lemmy.ml as a server doesn’t seem interested in moderating this kind of thing. Seems like it’s up to mods like @pingveno@lemmy.ml here.
I’m okay with the instance rules being a lot looser, then delegating further restrictions to individual communities. I just don’t want /c/coronavirus to become yet another hub for misinformation spread. These sorts of conversations have been largely played out already elsewhere.
Wow that was an awesome thread. Back and forths of ideas is exactly what makes the internet so great.
It’s not a good policy, but to each their own. Such policies will only hinder, stifle and cap your growth. As awareness for these softwares grows and people start running less biased instances, yours will be left in the dust.
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There are many, many legitimate discussion topics around the pandemic. What measures are effective? How should governments proceed? I’m even fine with discussions that are not so flattering to vaccines or pharmaceutical companies. But that thread yesterday really crossed the line in terms of the fire hose of misinformation. While in theory misinformation can be countered by rebuttal, in practice it takes so little effort to make a false claim in relationship to making a rebuttal that antivaxxers can just exhaust their opponents. It also tends to derail more worthwhile conversations.
gracias loco, los antivacunas me traen del asco
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Done.
While the community management is free to run it as they prefer, there are many strong arguments to reconsider the position being taken now. For one, many people who joined lemmy, the federated reddit alternative, joined it because reddit often censors allowing existence of alternative narratives to be known, even when it is well reasoned and evidence backed.
Second, lemmy is socialist/commumist in ideology, while risky vaccines are backed by big pharma.
Third, in this pandemic, often the authorities are as ill-informed as the public and literally doing anything to give a semblence of control over the situation.
Fourth, side-effects like myocarditis, were initially ignored by public at large, their reporting prohibited by authorities and social media alike, in the name of stopping the “anti-vaxxers”. But an year later, these are acknowldged to be genuine and published on the pamphalets that accompany vaccine vials.
To summarise, please reconsider your editorial position. Science proceeds by answering those who question it, not by censoring them.
I will not be changing this decision. To respond to your points:
For one, many people who joined lemmy, the federated reddit alternative, joined it because reddit often censors allowing existence of alternative narratives to be known, even when it is well reasoned and evidence backed.
That has not stopped individual communities from having their own moderation policies.
Second, lemmy is socialist/commumist in ideology, while risky vaccines are backed by big pharma.
This is just an ad hominem. Vaccines are widely accepted by the scientific community as an essential public safety tool. The problems with big pharma are really, but that’s not a good excuse to smear vaccines. Also, characterization of them as “risky” is misleading. There is some extraordinarily small risk, but the risk from COVID to someone who is unvaccinated massively outweighs that risk.
Third, in this pandemic, often the authorities are as ill-informed as the public and literally doing anything to give a semblence of control over the situation.
There is no rule against criticizing the actions of authorities in this community.
Fourth, side-effects like myocarditis, were initially ignored by public at large, their reporting prohibited by authorities and social media alike, in the name of stopping the “anti-vaxxers”.
Research about the myocarditis side effect first came out in May 2021, right about when there were more young men getting their second dose (this is the primary trigger). I’m not sure what prohibitions there were around this, so I can’t really speak to that aspect.
To summarise, please reconsider your editorial position. Science proceeds by answering those who question it, not by censoring them.
The thread that this was posted in response to had a large amount of egregious misinformation. It had gone far beyond asking questions. I’m not going to target people who are looking at emerging issues, but I will absolutely remove long debunked claims.
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It can’t be far right it’s not even launched yet lol
lemmy.ml is on big pharma’s side. If you’re far right use wolfballs.com but otherwise maybe just try using a less biased instance, or pop into this Lotide instance narwhal.city
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LOL I don’t care dude. I’m on narwhal.city.
In any case, it’s true. If your official stance is to ignore any potential danger of unvetted vaccines, it seems reasonable to assume that you’re on the side of big pharma.
unvetted vaccines
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines went through the full FDA approval process. This is a first warning. Further such posts will lead to a ban.
Oh no! I’m so scared!
I didn’t mean that they didn’t get approved by the FDA, so don’t cry. I meant that they skipped many typical vaccine test requirements because of Trump’s Operation Warp Speed plan.
They have long since gone through the full approval process. Plus the millions vaccinated. They are far from “untested”.
They are tested, they just haven’t been as thoroughly tested as previous vaccines. While they have indeed gone through the full approval process, that process was shortened in order to get vaccines rolled out in a timely enough fashion to respond to the pandemic.
