As a matter of community building, lets make this a monthly thing ๐
Community gardening
As stated in our Wiki, we allow members to create their own communities as a way to encourage contributions, but this comes with the responsibility of active moderation. The site admins can't moderate all communities and unless a posts gets reported, they might not even know about spam etc. Thus we will regularly prune seemingly abandoned communities.
The current list set for pruning is:
- ~~Buy it for life~~ volunteer found
- Dumpster Diving <- removed
- OpenSourceEcology <- removed
- ~~Rat Zone~~ volunteer found
- ~~Board games~~ volunteer found
- Solar Powered Vehicles <- removed
So unless someone wants to step up and take them over for moderation and active contribution, they will be removed at the end of the month.
In addition there are these two communities that attract quite a bit of moderation workload and the current mods need support with that (otherwise it might be better to prune them as well):
Technical updates
The originally planned move to a smaller dedicated server was only partially completed and ran into some issue with 8GB RAM being slightly too small for our current Lemmy database use. It might be just a a memory leak issue that should be fixed with the next Lemmy release, but given some related consideration I decided to try use another server with 16GB RAM instead. This move has not been started yet, but I will try to keep the down-time to a minimum.
This server also has a built in GPU that would likely allow automatic scanning for illegal images via Lemmy-safty. This image recognition script is fully local, so no data is transmitted to any 3rd party, but it will likely result in some false-positives (Likely NSFW / child themed ones, which seems not like a major problem for our instance). Any hits will be removed from the storage automatically so this will also protect our moderators from having to deal with such potentially traumatic imagery.
I also made some progress with the account integration between Lemmy and an XMPP/Jabber server. The idea is that you will be able to use your existing username@slrpnk.net ID also for federated chat via the Jabber network. This is more secure than the internal Lemmy DMs as Jabber clients support end to end encryption (like Signal more or less). If in the future some Lemmy clients will add privacy preserving UnifiedPush we can also support that via this XMPP server.
I also started trialling a Movim web-client for it, which besides being a nice chat interface for private 1:1 and group chats, can also act as a long-form blogging site (kinda like Medium or Substack) for our members. Lets see if there is an interest in that ๐ค
In theory bridges to Matrix, Discord, Telegram etc. could also be added, but it will need some more testing and might not work out. Voice and video calls will also initially not be supported due to some technical issue, but I plan to fix that ASAP.
Draft code of conduct
I am also still looking for feedback on and maybe some contributions to our incomplete draft code of conduct.
Open discussion
If you have any other topics related to our community here on slrpnk.net please comment below.
This all looks super awesome! I appriciate all the work you are doing & look forward to being able to use my srlpnk login for a variety of fediverse services :)
Also its really cool db0 created a automated photoscanning tool. No one should be forced to personally review content for things like csam ๐คข
Also here are some code of conduct points that could maybe be useful:
Solarpunk is about looking towards brighter futures. Please try to find optimism in what can be very grim realities. This means moving away from doomer talk about how all hope is lost. We all know there are problems so lets work together to create solutions.
Stay civil when talking to others. We all have different views, and many of us are passionate about them. This does not give you the right to insult, brigade, or bully another person. If something is truely harmful, disgusting or hateful, please report it to moderators so it can be removed.
Activism puts the punk in solarpunk. As all punks know though, some plans must be made in secret. Lemmy is an inherently open and accessible space. ANYONE can read when is written here: the FEDs, lawyers, even the company youre planning on sabatoging. Do not use this space to plan activist work. Use secure channels instead, such as an end to end encrypted messaging service.
Encourage others to take positive steps, even if they are small ones. Lets lift each other up and make this a welcoming space for people to explore how we can make tomorrow a better place.
There's a fine line between avoiding 'doomer talk' and actively lying about the state of reality.
I'm all for hope (I desperately want to have it) but I'm really struggling with all the posts here that massively minimise the danger we're in and promote wishful thinking.
I don't know how this can be changed or improved upon but vehemently pretending that protesting, signing petitions, and setting up community gardens is enough, is just making me uncomfortable.
How do we lift each other up and make tomorrow a better place when all the science points to climate collapse and fresh water and arable land being depleted in the next 5 to 30 years?
I think its about where the focus is. There was a really good discussion on it last week. I agree it is a fine line to walk. We dont want to be blindly positive, nor do we want to be hopelessly negative. I think part of it is being okay with imperfect or partial solutions. Perfection is the enemy of the good, and people who only hear about how awful everything is tend to tune things out or quit trying.
I think what most people want is to be realistically aware of where the world is without being so overwhelmed they stop trying. I agree petitions and community gardens wont fix the world, but I do thing they are still a positive step in the right direction. We want to recognize and encourage actions like that. Its not all that needs to be done, but it is still nice that it is happening.
Avoiding doomer talk doesnt mean only agreeing, nor does it mean avoiding hard topics. I think it is about maintaining some hope that we can make things even a little bit better, and celebrating those moments even when they are small.
Example of being a doomer: Going onto a post of someone sharing a community garden they started just to rant about how gardens dont make a sizable impact on global emmissions & how it is privilaged and wasteful since the garden isnt even planted according to permaculture principles.
Example of being an encourager: going onto a post of someone sharing a community garden they just started and complimenting their work, recommending some native plants they could consider for next year, and linking to additional steps people could take (like starting a compost, giving out free seeds and seedlings to other people in the neighborhood, replacing grass with other vegitation, etc)
Doomer: electric cars are terrible, we still need to mine the minerals, and the whole car centric focus is problematic >:/
Encourager: congrats on the hybrid that will cut done on emmissions for sure! i notice youre in Vancouver. They actually have a petition to set aside money to convert some roadways into solar powered trains. If youre interested come the the city cousil meeting this sat it would be great if you could come show your support!
One final thought: the c/collapse community was originally created as a space for people who are feeling a but doomed to talk about those feelings, vent, and work together to move towards a healthier mindset. So avoiding doomer talk isnt about burying those feelings, i think its more about being mindful of where and how we vent those feelings of doom & the impact those feelings can have on others.