Disclaimer: not a security expert at all, just a working knowledge. However, what I read 18 months or so after reading that github thread was enough to reassure me.
Like Reddit, KBin and Lemmy are 'link aggregators’
This means, in subject driven Communities (sub-reddits), people post links or images or their thoughts and others comment on them
Reddit is software that’s installed in one central location (server). This means it is owned and controlled by one single commercial entity.
Kbin and Lemmy are both software that are installed in multiple locations (servers), owned and controlled by multiple people and can be installed by anyone. This means no one can ever own or control the entirety of Lemmy.
Reddit, KBin and Lemmy can be accessed by users via websites or apps.
Reddit is centralised. If it disappeared tomorrow, it would be completely gone.
KBin and Lemmy are federated. If one instance (server) disappeared tomorrow, all the others would be unaffected and carry on as normal.
All instances of KBin and Lemmy can talk to all other instances of KBin and Lemmy, as long as they are federated.
Rule breaking and/or toxic instances/servers can be defederated by other servers/instances.
Reddit, KBin and Lemmy are all free to use. However, with Reddit you must contend with invasive privacy and advertising. The way to support KBin and Lemmy is to donate to the development team and the server/instance your account is on.
I totally applaud your efforts to find a solution to this issue but I don’t think this is practicable, at least in it’s current form. I get the underlying idea that changes to the extension will have to be continually adapted to by the scrapers but that’ll slow them down for a negligible amount of time.
I don’t mean to sound negative and I really do thank you for your efforts but I can’t see how this could be effective.
I thought you people had stayed on Reddit. Y’know, the people who live to say shitty things to people and then sulk when they get edited/removed/banned and blame it all on ‘the hive mind’ or ‘group think’ or some other sneering put down when the reality is simply that most people don’t like shitty people saying shitty things.
Well, Mastodon has been around since 2016 IIRC which is nearly 8 years and it’s still growing and expanding. There’s no reason to suppose Lemmy will be any different.
A large part of the issue of sustainability is intent. Meta, Twitter, Microsoft, Google etc are profit driven. By that standard, no fediverse software is sustainable because for-profits only care about continual growth leading to continual profit.
Lemmy is open source. No one who develops it or hosts an instance really cares about it being financially profitable so there’s not that motivation. The motivation is more akin to doing something positive for people and at the same time, indulge in a hobby/interest they have. If the people who benefit from it (you and me, the users) recognise that benefit I would hope they donate to its development and the instance they’re on. This in turn enables the users who can’t afford to donate to still be able to participate in a system where profit is not King.
So sustainability in the fediverse really means ‘can I afford to keep doing something I enjoy doing?’ As long as they can, it’s sustainable.
I have quite a lot of faith, but I think the majority of my faith is that whilst you’re right that abuses can happen because some people are cunts, there seems to be a groundswell of willingness to react to that possibility and tackle it.
The relatively recent CSAM attack on .world Communities is a prime example of that. Code was written and systems put into place (not by the lead developers it has to be said but by @db0 and others) to tackle that threat.
Been using it for over a year now. The clients were a bit ropey for awhile but they’re great now.
As for trust, only you can really answer that, but they tick all the right boxes for me - I can pay in a way that preserves my privacy, everythings open source and E2EE, they have good policies.
I wouldn’t have an issue with this either - within reason. But I suspect making an instance a de facto business from which an admin draws a wage would raise so many issues about a whole raft of things it probably wouldn’t be worth it.
You’re right, all any of us do, all day, non stop is gripe or insult American culture. Why only the other day, I was in the shop and when I got to the till to pay, all me and the cashier could talk about was America. “That’ll be £44.99 please love and did you see the latest data about gun deaths in America?” God, we’re so insecure.