Welcome everyone!
First of all, what is a ' Yarning Circle '? Well it's a place to have a yarn, a conversation, in a circle where everyone can speak equally. In this case we're here to discuss the state of the instance and it's future. Something I hope to host monthly going forward. Oh and thanks to slrpnk.net for letting me steal their formatting of community posts.
π Community Highlights π
-
!lll@quokk.au - little left library: "A community to share leftist literature", a cozy little place to find something to read on a rainy day.
-
!y2k_memes@quokk.au - Y2K Memes: This makes me feel old.
-
!90s_memes@quokk.au - 90s Memes: This makes me feel older.
-
.ml de-fed?
π§βπ» What's Up? π§βπ»
Prior to switching over to PieFed from Lemmy, Quokk.au was de-federated from the 'triad', as it stands with the move we are now re-federated with lemmy.ml. In the near future I would like to hold a vote to decide if you would like to continue to remain as such or move towards de-federating them. Please let me know your thoughts.
- I've started working on a few small customisations to PieFed. Mostly centered around the web interface, changing layout.
- New (WIP) themes such as a replication of old.reddit and a PHPBB inspired theme.
π§Ά Yarn π§Ά
Please let me know how you're finding your experience so far with Quokk.au, and if there is anything I can to do help improve it for you.
As an anarchist instance I'd have thought you have more in common politically with .ml than the liberal instances, no? And anyway, given that PieFed has actually functional user-level site blocking, imo there is really nothing to be gained from de-federating. The frequency of problematic users from .ml (and even hexbear) is in my experience far less compared with other large federated instances (e.g. SJW and .world). While there's always gonna be irreconcilable disagreements between anarchists and MLs who adopt a campist "critical support" stance for AES/former-AES states, if you have clear site rules either banning campism / support for authoritarian states or confine those topics to a dedicated community, then I think it's quite possible to get along relatively peacefully with them.
Considering that dbzer0 has changed to tolerate genocide denial and the admins openly praise Hexbear, have openly said despite a 2/3s vote against the matter that they intend to re-federate with Lemmygrad in the future, and say that Critical Support(tm) for China doesn't make one a tankie, I don't really know that you're the best source for what there is to gain or not gain from federation with tankie instances.
I would agree with you if .ml was run by less authoritarian styled socialists. However I have not found that to be the case. I have found them to be basically just as bad as liberals, and the really bad ones can be just as bad as fascists. Our only common ground is the destruction of the current capitalist system, however that is often times where the similarities end.
Their fanatic support for authoritarian dictatorships, denial of genocides, and open hostility to those that don't follow their beliefs (including towards anarchists) does not make me view them as friends or allies. Those that have not met me with open hostility because I am an anarchist tend to treat me more as a tool to further their own agenda rather than a comrade. That is not a dynamic I wish to be a part of. MLs do not tend to treat us anarchists as equals, instead they tend to treat us as open enemies, tools, or they infantilize us.
I agree with most of your comments and have had some similar experiences in the past. I agree those types of campist views are deeply offensive to anyone who fights against authoritarianism. It's all too easy to focus on the negatives though, especially when the liberal instances seem to believe anyone and everyone to their left is a tankie or a fascist or somehow both, simply for not wanting to vote for any party that votes for genocide. Anyway it seems like I'm not gonna convince you so I'll leave it there.
'Heretics are worse than heathens' as they say. I suppose I can tolerate liberals knowing many of them are only so because it's the default they grew into and most people aren't politically switched on to know otherwise. It's those who've come to the same conclusion as other leftists but decide the solution is for them to be the ones wielding state power that scare me.
Thanks for your input, you've given me something to think about as some clear rules might be part of a solution to any future issues if we do keep federation.