Slop.

They're essentially the worst aspects of Reddit libs distilled into the purest form of shitlibbery you can imagine.

Lemmy.world is part of a network of "generic" Fediverse instances commonly ending with the .world TLD (mastodon.world is another example administered by the same people). They appear to be mostly concerned with growth, essentially following the tech startup model of growth -> ??? -> profit. The admins saw the Reddit Exodus as a good opportunity to expand their small collection of platforms into Lemmy, and by the numbers they were the most successful (though dozens of other instances were launched around the same time).

In the lead-up to the Reddit Exodus, Lemmy dev Nutomic (IIRC) pitched Lemmy as an alternative on Reddit and the thread went viral. As a maturing Free Software alternative to Reddit with real-world use, and an architecture which mitigates many of the shortcomings of previous Reddit alternatives (e.g. Raddle, Voat, Tildes) it checked all of the boxes that tech-bro Redditors could possibly ask for in such a platform. It stood out to them as a viable solution for the same reasons it stood out to us five years ago. Tens of thousands of people created accounts on various instances and got to posting.

Soon after, the Red Scare began. With the number of instances being launched and the number people signing up, people began taking notice. Not just on Reddit and Lemmy, but on other corners of social media as well. In various ways, people began pointing out that the people developing the alternative to monopoly capital social media were (gasp) Communists. This snowballed from curiosity and concern from people who weren't used to seeing open communists developing free software, to a full blown social hysteria - our own little Satanic Panic. Dessalines's thoughtfully written collection of essays transformed into the necronomicon. A collection of works which could be pointed to as proof of his and the project's deceitful nature, while simultaneously being a form of forbidden knowledge which could never be quoted with any amount of context. Thousands of people, including instance administrators, developed the mindset that they had been tricked into using Lemmy, and that rather than its obvious purpose of being a censorship-resistant social media platform which is also structurally resistant to corporate acquisition and consolidation, it is actually a nefarious organ of misinformation aimed at disintegrating the foundations of Western Civilization.

A substantial part of the social media engagement strategy employed on platforms like Reddit is to make the users believe that by posting, they are engaging in an existential battle for civilization. With Liberal Democracy hanging by a thread, the smallest acts like upvoting the good ideas and downvoting the bad ideas can be all the difference it takes to tip the scales. Every day they spend in the posting trenches is a day that fascism is held at bay. Where the beleaguered city on the hill can stand one day longer against the endless hordes of tyranophillic Russians and Chinese. This attitude was carried over here by many of the Reddit converts, and places like Lemmy.world are the result.

They are serious. It's one of the liberal lemmy instances.

ⓘ This user is suspected of being a cat. Please report any suspicious behavior.

Lemmy.world is basically the USA of Lemmy instances. They showed up one day because a bunch of ex-Redditors decided to make an open source Reddit using the Lemmy name and script, quickly grew to be the largest instance by far and now act like they’re the only instance worth a shit.

Complete clowns.