Probably a few stories to share

Let's address the elephant in the room

cross-posted from: https://discuss.online/post/14195662

This is in regards to the brand-new !AskUSA@discuss.online community.

And by more serious discussions I mean e.g. the legality of the recent jury nullification issue, which I don't want to allow if I were a moderator in it.

If you say yes you will be granted the community "ownership" as the sole moderator. I've only been a mod myself on Lemmy for less than a day but we'll figure out how to transfer it to you. You can ofc always add new mods and change it however you like after that. The advantage here is chiefly that you get the community "name" AskUSA, whereupon I could later create e.g. a CasualUSA but you would have the privileges of that specific name, to match the style of e.g. AskUK or AskLemmy (or AskScience or AskMen or AskElectronics or AskAndroid etc. - there are so many here using that style:-).

I don't want to be involved in something that is going to constantly be depressing to me, though I do recognize the need for such and am offering the community "name" if someone else wants to pick up that mantle.

While if nobody says yes then I suppose I'll just keep it going in the more CasualUSA light-hearted style, until such time as someone does. Either way I'll offer to help grow it by posting and commenting to it regularly - unless you want me to stop b/c I tend to be really bad at guessing what people want to see (e.g. personally I love John Oliver and also got involved in the Reddit protests, so why people are downvoting sexy pics of JO on Lemmy of all places... I seriously have no clue).

The community also needs moderators to help in general - so even if you don't want to take it over, would you like to help moderate it if it were to remain a more casual, light-hearted community?

I mean... duh. :-D

Wisdom, intelligence, humility, bravery - he is the embodiment of all values that we hold most dear in this great nation.

(Question: Is this okay to ask a "leading question" in this community? Answer: since this is mainly a test post meant to get us started, I will ask a counter-question: why da fuq not!?:-P)

Mostly - though if you were banned from Reddit for toxicity, while you may be welcomed elsewhere on Lemmy with open arms it will not be on this instance.

But if you, like so many of us, are simply so very done with all the corporate enshittification, then yes enjoy breathing the free air here!:-) (though to be clear, "free" does not mean absence of any and all consequences, so much as it means that here, our efforts can be truly rewarded without having to fight the current of Reddit trying to maximize "engagement" e.g. making you angry as much as possible)

We are mainly liberal- to centrist-minded people here, with people espousing the Alt-Right platforms generally speaking not accepted (though it's far less what you believe and far more how you treat others that is the deciding factor - why should we care what you personally believe, if you are engaging with us in good faith? again, this isn't Reddit, we don't aim to maximize "engagement" here, we just try to enjoy ourselves). We offer a strong focus on kindness - as in, why bother talking to one another here (as opposed to there) if all we are going to do is spew toxicity in the general direction of one another (or with bots)? Shouldn't it be like... "fun", or something?

Speaking of, I highly recommend reading this essay: https://medium.com/@max.p.schlienger/the-cargo-cult-of-the-ennui-engine-890c541cebcb - it's not mine (though it's wordy like me!), and it's long, but it really helped me to decide to leave Reddit, since all their enshittification tactics were designed to maximize their profits but at the expense of our mental health, and that essay lays bare how and why and what. Meh, suit yourself:-).

Btw there is a community here specifically dedicated to !reddit@lemmy.world. Otherwise we tend to mostly just try to forget the sordid past that so many of us came here to get away from:-P. Personally I post pictures from Reddit here all the time, and I've done that with articles/posts as well - I usually get tens to hundreds of upvotes, along with a couple of comments chiding me for mentioning Reddit, so decide for yourself if that is a trade-off that you want to make:-D. Some people even mention continuing to use both Reddit and Lemmy - mostly that's okay, b/c that's like, your choice, so who are we to judge? (though perhaps be wary of mentioning that in the Linux forums, b/c they can be more than a little preachy here:-)

Reddit the corporation kinda became evil, but Reddit the idea of many interconnected forums where we could all just enjoy talking with one another was fantastic, and I think we can take the good while leaving the bad behind. Anyway, yes, I want YOU to feel welcomed here! (so long as you offer the same respect to us in kind)

Answer: I mean... just don't get us banned, m'kay? :-P