I feel like almost every single piece of software has some problematic dev that has racism, transphobia, or both. I recently read a post about the calc key devs and sighed *facepalm. It is honestly really annoying cause I want friends to use Fedi but than you can pull up a whole laundry list of problems with the devs and it’s like (welp, signing up for threads). I feel like people care a ton when it’s the small instance, vs a megacorp. Like Meta has a horrible issue with transphobia and racism but it only seems to matter if it’s a smaller project for some reason
I’m not here to defend racism, phobias, or any other kind of discriminatory behavior. But if you look deep enough into anybody, you’re going to find something you or someone you know doesn’t like. I can guarantee it. Are some of the original developers of a specific set of software “problematic”? Yup. Have more contributors come forward and added to the software in meaningful ways since then? Yup.
Do you use Linux? Windows? Mac OS? Do you use Ethernet? Wifi? What about IP, or TCP, or even application protocols like HTTP? Do you enjoy TLS and AES encryption? What about the Internet as a concept? Every single one of these was developed by fallible people, funded by organizations I bet you’d have problems with. The military industrial complex has contributed heavily to every single one of the above technologies.
And just for the record, a lot of the people that originally designed the ActivityStream and ActivityPub standards were people concerned about marginalized Internet users. Use the software, choose an instance that’s like-minded, contribute improvements where you have expertise, and move on. The original developers of the Lemmy software don’t matter, nor do their politics or their biases. They simply wrote some Rust and Javascript to run a webserver and interface that saves data to a database. What you do with that tool is what really matters.
Well, the good news is that the “fediverse” is actually built on a web standard (ActivityPub), which you implement in any software you want. :) What that means is that the “the fediverse” is more comparable to “the web” than to a given social network. There are people building websites you won’t agree with, same goes with fediverse software. Move on and find those that you like, or build them. The fact that it’s built on web standards mean that anyone can decide to add their own software without concerting with anyone else, without asking permission from anyone else, you just build and publish. That’s what made the web so strong since its beginning, and that’s IMO a core advantage of ActivityPub compared to other decentralization projects.
I know this!, the issue is 90% of people don’t. If the devs on calckey are semi problematic they won’t use it and use threads, bsky, or honestly just twitter. I feel like they hold foss software to a higher standard.
Why? What do I care about the devs? It’s open source so it doesn’t matter. The code belongs to anyone who wants to use it.
yeah, I mean that’s one take. I feel like it’s debatable. I guess them not wanting to use calckey is about the same as me not wanting to use soapbox. I feel like politics of devs matter more when your marginalized, and while calckey issues don’t effect me as a mostly white Hispanic I feel like it effects people of color more.
I feel like it’s more or less an ethical thing more than anything. I guess in a way it feels stupid coming from me who is using a software built by tankies (who I disagree with)
Okay. Finally, after a month here, I’ll bite.
Who said it was built by tankies? I’m not saying it wasn’t. But, afaik, ActivityPub was developed by W3C.
Are they tankies? They don’t strike me as tankies, but I’ve been wrong before. People keep saying the Fediverse was built by tankies, and I guess I’m missing some history, because as far as I can tell, there may have been some tankies, but it doesn’t seem built by tankies.
Even now, Lemmygrad is small. They’re annoying as fuck. And they’re pervasive on Lemmy. But, it’s not like there’s a lot of them.
So, if anyone feels like bringing me up to speed on the history of the Fediverse, I’m extremely eager to learn.
Don’t know the history of Fediverse, but the two main devs of Lemmy are self-proclaimed Marxist-Leninists. But as I stated above - what do I care? It’s open source, the code doesn’t belong to them.
Lemmy specifically was built by tankies, not activitypub lmao
For the love of god can you goofballs stop trashing opensource developers. They are creating software for you for free take the gift and stop the bitching.
I will be honest, I feel like all foss software has these issues, I use linux and there are so many devs I cannot really say who is who obviously, I just feel like for a ton of people expressly People of color it might be important to use software that isn’t against your interest.
I don’t get it tho, if a in your eyes good person wrote Lemmy what differences does it make? are the current devs pushing their agenda in the code or whatever? it’s literally all open source
I wouldn’t want to be another statistic that boosts their user count that they can brag about. And if there are ads, I don’t want to be contributing monetarily to them and their ideals.
I feel this applies to “smaller” platforms like lemmy more - where a very defined group is running the show. Or massive ones with certain figureheads who talk too much shit, like where most of us came from.
In essence, it’s a matter of principles.
I dunno about the code. But, they’re definitely pushing their agenda here on Lemmy.
As far as I’m concerned, it’s the only true negative aspect of Lemmy that I’ve noticed since I joined.
Everything here is pretty good. The users are mostly cool. Content is not high in quantity, yet, but it’s decent quality.
Lemmy has one real, true problem, tankies. They’re dishonest, they manipulate content, they brigade posts, they’re a cancer. They have no home in legitimate link aggregation.
If it is true that they “built” Lemmy, it was only to get away from everyone who shunned them and forced them to find a safe place. And now they’re mad that people who aren’t deranged lunatics arrived in their safe place.
I never see tankies, so maybe that’s just the communities you’re in.
lemmygrad.ml and lemmy.ml are run by them, the former is explictly a tankie haven. While lemmy.ml is supposed to be a general lemmy instance, the admins (which are the same as lemmygrad’s) have spoken in favor of genocide and removed posts on lemmy.ml that are critical of the CCP, especially in regards to the treatment of the Uyghurs.
Most instances have defederated lemmygrad, some have defederated lemmy.ml as well.I did check out lemmygrad, it was pretty cringe. I’m subbed to maybe 10 communities on lemmy.ml but I guess they are quite niche.
Well w/e, idiots are gonna idiot. We have a pretty good group of people on lemmy world.
If there was software written by people predjudiced against me, and using said software was free and beneficial to me, I would be nelson laughing at the devs all the way into the sunset.
I absolutely disagree about all fediverse devs being problematic. @ernest is the dev of KBin, and everything I’ve seen of or about him shows he’s a good person and a gem.
Also, there’s a vast difference between being a bit of an asshole sometimes, depending on your point of view (like Linus Torvalds), and trying to justify genocide (lemmy devs).
Yeah, I mean not every single one obviously but a decent amount.
I am active on the main calckey.social server since bevor there where 300 users on that server.
I can say that the devs off calckey( now firefish) are not reactionary or a problem.
They react quick to moderation and server problems. The care for the community and marginalized people. There are queere people part of the team.Buuuut, if you dont like it you can use Hajkey or iceshrimp(both forks of calckey).
