There is a lot of discussion happening in the background of our project here. We could not anticipate all of the challenges that we were going to face a few years ago. One of the reasons for this was because we had no idea what our choice of a platform would bring.
Specifically, we chose Lemmy as the software that we would use to launch our endeavor to attempt a safe space for marginalized persons online.
In the first year or so, this choice was completely successful for a very small number of users. And then we all experienced an enormous influx of users when Reddit announced/implemented their shutting down of third party apps.
Since then there has been a huge number of people that have joined the Beehaw project. This tsunami of users initiated technical problems, and otherwise, that we could not foresee.
Thankfully and fortunately, we have had a couple of incredibly knowledgeable persons that have swooped in to ’save the day’ and keep this site running.
Unfortunately, these persons will NOT be able to continue to support the Beehaw project much further. They have life commitments and other factors, including careers and family life, that will prevent them from contributing to our project in an ongoing fashion.
All that being said, Lemmy (the software that Beehaw runs on) development is incredibly slow and is riddled with problems that makes administration/moderation very painful.
Therefore, we are left with some options that may feel uncomfortable to us. For example, we may want to consider leaving the Fediverse for another software platform that does NOT include ActivityPub. To explain, Fediverse/ActivityPub are very positive concepts on the foundational level. However, the Beehaw project is struggling to include this because most of our moderation/content/ethos is being jeopardized from OTHER federated instances (i.e. it, mostly, is NOT coming from within our own Beehaw registered user base).
The aforementioned persons, that have ’swooped in to save the day’, have been discussing/working with us to come up with the best solutions that would enable the Beehaw project to continue while NOT needing incredibly experienced/technically adept persons around.
Right now, we are testing alternative software platforms and evaluating them based on everything that we want Beehaw to become in the future.
Thank you all for your continued support of the Beehaw project and entrusting us to make this happen.
Every single part of Beehaw seems ill-suited to the fediverse. I joined (like many) after Reddit shit the bed by banning 3rd-party apps. I wrote a thoughtful (mandatory) application essay and… silence. Never heard back. Later, I reacted to a particularly bad take in a Beehaw thread and was told that I wasn’t “being nice” like the rules required… Bitch, I’m not even a part of the your “community”! You chose to federate with the rest of us! I guess what I’m trying to say is byeeeeeeeee! Go start your own little puritan community somewhere I don’t have to encounter it…
One, there was a point where the application system was bugged and some applications were lost so they had to stop processing applications. This is an issue on lemmy not on the mod team. Additionally, because lemmy is not setup for the sort of application process the mod teams want, there is no way to notify a rejected application. Your application might have been rejected.
Two, by replying here you are choosing to encounter this community. Don’t be surprised when you get moderated for not following rules.
Three, no one will miss these sorts of interactions. It’s not puritan to want to avoid something that takes away from your enjoyment rather than adds to it. Clearly at one point you thought so to and wanted to join. Perhaps though you only wanted to be a bad actor in the community and the application process worked as intended.
You know how on reddit, and many other platforms, subcommunities within those platforms have rules? Like some subreddits had a no image macros rule? If you posted an image macro to one of those subs, and get warned or your post is actioned, that entirely on you and not on the community. it doesn’t matter if you’re “part” of that community, you should abide by the rules of that community when you post in it.
Of course, you’re welcome to wilfully ignore or go against the rules of the communities you post in, but aside from being just a generally dick move, you also put yourself in the sights of the moderation of that community.
And you chose to post in this community - abide by the rules or the moderators have every right to tell you you’re breaking the rules, or take action if it continues.
I think, based on the attitude you’ve displayed here, I can see why you were not deemed a good fit for the community when you applied.
I understand what you said about community rules. But the funny thing about the Fediverse and how people receive their posts is that it’s not uniform. I’m in kbin on a phone and I don’t see who is posting from what instance unless I click further. Same for the community or magazine someone is posting in - I can see that on my feed but once I click on a post I cannot see it. I’ve joined many communities and magazines and they are only identified by the topic name in my feed, not the instance. I cannot see any community or magazine rules from my feed or inside the posts.
Just saying that easily identifying a group’s rules is more of a challenge in the Fediverse (this is not an argument to ignore rules).
Mmhm, I can empathise with that. Although, it does still fall upon the user to ensure they’re abiding by the rules of the communities they interact with, but regardless of that responsibility, I do understand its tricky.
The wording in the parent comment also seems to imply the Fediverse is just Lemmy/kbin, which is a weird self-centric take I see here (i.e. on Lemmy) a lot.
A lot of the broader fedi that has access to adequate moderation tooling are doing just fine and don’t seem too “ill-suited”. It’s really just Lemmy that’s like this.
I’m not entirely sure I’ll attempt joining “the new Beehaw” wherever it may set up shop (y’all are a bit too serious news-y for my liking, personally), but all the federated interactions I had with the folk from Beehaw had been quite positive, and it’s kinda sad to see y’all go. But I can definitely understand the reasons why, and I do have my own gripes with Lemmy (both the software and the unfortunate community it has picked up) as well.
Your conduct here is indicative of why you might not have been accepted into Beehaw or had mod action taken against you. I can understand your frustration, but federation (as it is right now) is a two-way street: The servers share posts, but users are expected to behave according to the rules of the server they are posting to.
You are capable of not posting in Beehaw, and you are welcome to block Beehaw communities as you wish, if you don’t like Beehaw’s rules, mods, or expectations we have on your behaviour.