I've linked the post about Lemmy's origin, and here's a link to Lemmy's documentation: https://join-lemmy.org/docs/en/index.html

Here are some things I really like about Lemmy's design:

• leaves control in the hands of server owners - i.e. it's not just a node in a Tor network that just exists for load balancing, it actually allows owners a lot of control over what content is available (e.g. can block other instances)
• encourages competition - the barrier to making a new instance is low, so if one instance misbehaves, it's easy to make your own
• transparency - open mod log, open source code, etc; this helps individuals truly understand what they're signing up for when they join an instance

And some things I dislike:

• no obvious monetization strategy - seems like the going strategy is donations, but I'd like to see more experimentation with paying for use (e.g. maybe small crypto transactions); I worry that this will hurt long-term viability of community-funded instances
• original authors seem a bit... sympathetic to authoritarianism

So what do you think? What do you think Lemmy does well, and what could it improve on?