Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected].
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected] or [email protected]
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
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There is no algorithm like that here. You could argue that “popular” posts are the most inflammatory, but that’s not the case in a lot of the communities I frequent.
The algorithm in this case is the human ego multiplied by the limits of text communication.
Fair, but I would argue that in and of itself is not the major problem. There were flame wars/trolls/squabbles on the internet for years. Then along came the rage-rewarding algorithms and clickbait based on profiling, and it all went to shit. Basically, dumping gasoline on ego and indignity.
You are correct in your history for sure.
My comment was more focused on Lemmy and the reason for occasional outbreaks of nastiness. There is no algorithm in the sense you describe on Lemmy.
I meant to convey that what we see on Lemmy is a property that emerges from human interaction through this medium.
Our conversation may be an example of this. I made a comment that was short, but I thought it was unambiguous. Your reply was thoughtful and topical. But a short text requires you to fill in a lot of context. So you may create a slightly different picture than I intended.
This is a deep cut sci-fi tangent, but it applies. Being pseudonymous and not having durable social reputation makes for different human behaviors.
True Names by Vernor Vinge exceprt
The full story is available with a search on the title and author.