[finder83]

My impression (which may be wrong) of Lemmy is that a large number of instances are very pro-censorship and heavily left-leaning. Which of course is reflective of Reddit itself. But it doesn't exactly instill confidence in signing up for instances as a relatively conservative contributor, even while abiding by the terms of service of the instances.

Any advice for a conservative Christian trying to find a reddit alternative or Lemmy instance that also doesn't want to be moderated or banned into oblivion (or de-federated because of trolls which I do not represent)? As many conservatives know, even joining /r/conservative and not posting on reddit was enough to entirely be banned from many communities that have nothing to do with politics. Walking into another similarly prejudiced social network (but at a platform level) doesn't sound like fun to me.

[failuser]

Why not join Truth Social, a or other dedicated conservative social network instead?

[finder83]

A few reasons:

1. I appreciate open and friendly discussion with people who don't think like me. The atmosphere, even of /r/conservative is very different than something like truth social. I don't want to be in an echo chamber, and the content from the echo chamber seems tailored to click-bate. i.e. "Watch X DESTROY Y with Logic", or conspiracy theories. I read a variety of news, and I don't need another source for it, but would rather watch discussion unfold about different topics by people who may have different opinions as well.

2. I use Reddit primarily for tech, gaming, programming, gamedev, and programming language related topics or other unrelated things like woodworking or bushcrafting. I like the community-based paradigm to social media for that reason, and that content is almost entirely lacking on conservative social networks.

3. I'm not really a Trump supporter. Truth social I believe is also relatively dead, but I've never joined so I can't verify that.

4. Free speech is extremely important to me. Trolling, hating,etc, should be moderated, but a dissenting opinion written respectively should not be, in my opinion. I'm not sure that Truth Social has reputation as a free speech platform. Reddit as a platform has largely been a free speech platform. Independently moderated subreddits have not. But Lemmy instances seem like they're going to take a stance against any communities or instances that don't fit the ideology.

There is value in open debate and conversation, but it does seem like Lemmy is intended to be a walled left echo chamber. I'm curious if your question is reflective of others' opinions as well, in that they'd prefer people not like them ideologically would just go to their own spaces and leave others alone

[failuser]

Thanks for a comprehensive reply. There might be a market niche then, but we no longer have infinite VC money to for many attempts to plug it. I think the hardest part here is attracting the right moderators that can tread the line between keeping the conversation civil and not enforcing their opinion, which is harder by the day. Both criteria are very subjective and hard to automate.

[tracker1]

I'm pretty much of a similar mind. I don't want to be closed off from dissenting opinion. I'm pretty free speech and although I'm not in favor of platform blocking, I'm all for personal blocking, and/or creating niche communities, maybe ones not even federated.

I think there's a lot of value in seeing differing opinions even if you don't agree with them, as long as the discussion remains civil. That goes for myself as much as anyone else, I'm human, but I'll tend to cut off once personal insults are flowing.

I got the domain jump.red a while ago, to make a more conservative/libertarian community... may throw a lemmy instance up this weekend there. Won't necessarily fit the bulk, but I think there's room. Was also thinking on putting up one on the bbs/tech related domains I have.

[Snuupy]

https://exploding-heads.com/

[grep_name]

My plan is to just add a bunch of instances' local feeds to my rss reader and audit them occasionally to check which I like the most.

I'm thinking of joining fmhy, which isn't the most active but is clear about their federation policy and has only defederated from lemmygrad (which seems to be a major source of posts from the group you're referencing)