This seems to be becoming the hot topic, the elephant in the chatroom - the balance between censorship / freedom of speech on lemmy. There are solid arguments for both ways, and good compromises too.
IMO the FAQ makes it quite clear what the devs have built here, and why. But recent discussions, arguments, make it clear that a lot of the most vocal users object to it.
I’m very curious. Many active users feel this way? Please vote using the up arrows in the comments.
I’m not active here, but I would be if there wasn’t hard-coded censorship on the software. It’s come a long way since I saw it last. The blacklist has even shrunk, which is a good sign.
But I believe that the ultimate power should be in the hands of admins. If an admin wants to ban naughty words, fine, but it shouldn’t be the default, just like whitelist mode isn’t the default on Fediverse instances, but it’s still an option.
For me, it is about principle. Platforms, especially FOSS ones, need to be ones where people can speak their mind freely. Most people leave Big Tech platforms precisely because of the censorship they perform, but others leave because they don’t censor enough. My view: create software that by default does not censor, but can be optimized through settings to censor to a far greater degree than Big Tech can/does. This allows both sides of the aisle to be served in different ways by the same software.
Also, I voted yes on both “there’s too much censorship” and “the current level is just right” because there is a need for moderated spaces, like this one, it’s just that unmoderated spaces aren’t possible in the current Lemay code.