Some context for people reading this and out of the loop
Piefed has some filters that are disabled by default and configurable by admins: https://piefed.zip/c/fediverse/p/1005977/piefed-admin-settings-that-allow-to-enable-or-disable-content-filters-they-are-disabled-by
Piefed does more hand holding during the on-boarding process: when you first login, you get a list of a few topics you would like to follow, so that your Subscribed feed already has a few communities, instead of directly arriving to the All feed.
A regular issue from newcomers is that all there is on the Threadiverse is US news: https://old.reddit.com/r/BuyCanadian/comments/1qr4tji/a_canadianrun_reddit_alternative/o2lrxli/
The onboarding process helps with that.
Piefed also has a few features that Lemmy does not currently have
- cross-posts comments consolidation: example: https://piefed.zip/c/privacy/p/1011777/say-no-to-palantir-in-the-nhs#post_replies . Community fragmentation is a regular criticism of the Threadiverse, and this solves it.
- multi-communities, so that smaller communities are not drown in the most active ones in the Subscribed feed, allowing once again to avoid the "all there is is US news"
- built-in keyword filters
For a detailed list: https://join.piefed.social/features/
Lemmy 1.0 is planned to add some of those features, but still doesn't have a defined release date yet: https://lemmy.ml/comment/23570258
Due to all of this, Piefed is currently considered a better platform for new joiners than Lemmy. This can change once Lemmy 1.0 is released, but that's how it is right now.
Why not point to both? Now that most of the tech crowd left Reddit after the 2023 API shutdown, the average Redditor isn't ready to go through a lot of hoops to get to a new platform. See also https://lawsofux.com/choice-overload/
A recent comment showed the disconnection between a Threadiverse enthusiast and a potential new joiner: https://old.reddit.com/r/BuyCanadian/comments/1qr4tji/a_canadianrun_reddit_alternative/o2m2h2o/
On the other hand, the Fedecan guides are quite helpful: https://fedecan.ca/en/guide/get-started
But even beyond that, as we all know, people don't have to understand federation to use the platform: https://lemmy.world/post/35166124
That's why a few people have been pointing only to Piefed recently.
(Why should we even try to get people from Reddit to here? More people allows niche communities to become active rather than relying on one single poster, if any. That's an issue we usually see on !fedigrow@lemmy.zip )
There have been a few posts recently on Reddit promoting Piefed:
- https://piefed.zip/c/fedigrow/p/1004482/post-mentioning-piefed-ca-in-r-buycanadian
- https://piefed.zip/c/buyeuropean/p/999260/post-on-r-buyfromeu-promoting-the-fediverse-stop-relying-on-us-big-tech-decentralized-open
- https://piefed.zip/c/fedigrow/p/995146/something-to-help-people-lead-to-the-fediverse
There has also been a post about the Piefed filters I mentioned above: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/62580326
It seems like since then a few Lemmy users have been on a campaign against Piefed:
This position is a bit surprising, as quite a few Lemmy instances have a Piefed instance as well
- https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/ and https://anarchist.nexus/
- https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/ and https://piefed.blahaj.zone/
- https://lemmy.ca/ and https://piefed.ca/
- https://lemmy.world/ and https://piefed.world/
- https://lemmy.zip/ and https://piefed.zip/
If Piefed was as bad as the posts against it say, then probably most of the instances would have shut those instances down already.
Both software coexist and are federated, so this kind of targeted posts against one of them seems counterproductive.
That's it for me, good Sunday everyone.
There's one point you haven't mentioned that, to me, is the most important one and is honestly, I think, the core issue most people are talking around: Piefed defederates actual Socialist instances (Hexbear, Lemmygrad, Lemmy.ml) by default in a blatant bid to suppress left-wing speech.
If some libs want to go off and make their own little safe-space reddit clone because seeing a post sympathetic to China makes them angry, sure, go ahead I guess. But I'm a Socialist, and all serious Socialists - or Liberals who believe in the merits of free discussion and debate, of which there are vanishingly few these days - are going to be opposed to that sort of thing.
I moved to Lemmy because /r/CTH was banned and /r/GenZedong getting quarantined was the final straw. It is clear to me that the goal of the administration of the major PieFed instances is to recreate the same Anticommunist culture of Reddit within the fediverse.
If the developers of PieFed want me to like their app (or at least be neutral to it), literally all they have to do is refederate with Lemmygrad and enforce moderation policies that do not infringe on legal left-wing speech. If they choose not to, it's they who are putting their politics ahead of their development goals, much in the same way (if this isn't too melodramatic) Imperialist states suddenly stop caring about free markets and the international rules-based order when it comes to the Cuban embargo, Iranian and Russian influence, or Chinese loans.
It has less to do with your politics and more to do with pretty much everyone collectively deciding they don’t want to deal with your toxic instance culture. You guys create such a massive moderation overhead in instances where you engage that it isn’t worth having you around.
I don't agree with some of that stuff either but this should be an individual choice no? Does piefed give the choice to the user to fed with all instances or is it an admin only option?
I'm starting to see the drama now, this isn't good for either platforms.
I think it’s a “defederated by default” type situation, but I’m not familiar enough with Piefed to say 100%
Talking about the merits of free discussion and debate while advocating for those instances is hilarious
smh I know, they don't even allow you to advocate for palestinian genocide
Absolutely rich