cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1119656
The !android@lemmy.world community on this instance thrived for a while and reached almost 19k subscribers very rapidly and it was very active.
Recently the Reddit mods of r/Android created another community with a few hundred members on another different instance where they are mods and that one was then astroturfed on c/android by a person seemingly unrelated to that community’s mods.
Apparently some discussions then took place between owners of both communities and the mods of !android@lemmy.world community then unilaterally closed the community, thus, according to their own sticky notice, succumbing to the flawed reasoning that the Reddit mods are “more experienced” and therefore the rightful representatives of an Android community.
I find this behavior sad and it just shouldn’t be allowed here for two reasons:
- this sets the precedent for more Reddit mods to just come and claim “ownership” of communities by bullying existing ones into closing;
- does not respect the almost 19k subscribers who didn’t even have a say in this, and especially those who had already expressed that they joined !android@lemmy.world because they did NOT want to be moderated by the old Reddit mods.
!android@lemmy.world needs to be reopened now and the mods removed since they expressed that they no longer want to moderate a community on lemmy.world.
Unless there is some kind of federation issue any user could just follow the redirect and subscribe / participate in the other community with practically no hassle. I was able to subscribe to the communities on the new instance just fine. Any interruption of browsing would be solely due to stubbornness of not moving off principle. And maybe that principle is justified - maybe the new space will be moderated differently, in a way you find worse - but it does not change the fact that ultimately this is a small issue and you are blowing it out of proportion, on purpose, for no good reason.
It’s also worth noting that the migration also means being open to beehaw users as well. We’d do a proper automated redirect and import over existing history if we could. The aim isn’t to cause disruption. What’s great about Lemmy is the ability to both not switch instances when accessing other communities and the ability to switch instances as needed.
It’s not blown out of proportions because many, me included, simply never asked to move. If this is allowed then parking community names to force users to go to other communities should also be allowed.
It’s not like you’re being forced to move to a new house or something. It’s like two clicks on a website.
I’m not saying that this issue isn’t a real one, I’m trying to say you’re being much too angry about it and (intentionally or not) stirring up a little witchhunt when this could be handled much more casually.