With more people joining Lemmy and other decentralised networks there is a growing shift to the common misogyny and sexism we find on other social media networks (YouTube, Reddit, etc.).
I think it’s pretty obvious that the reason is that there are even less women here than other places online. What are your ideas on how to change that? Or do you feel it is a lost cause?
Because all communities and topics that have engagement from women on, for example, Reddit are practically dead on Lemmy.
I found it to be similar for the male communities too (askmen, malefashionadvice, etc). There’s a pretty nice balance on Mastodon, so maybe Lemmy needs time?
We can totally work on issues in the meantime too, not saying there isn’t an issue :)
As for the question, I don’t think it’s a lost cause. I’ll write out some ideas in a bit!
Ok so I think that growing the women-oriented communities would follow similar steps to any other community. A big part of that is just communicating the benefits and risks.
Positives:
Negatives:
privacy - You can’t ever delete something on the internet, but it’s even harder with federation. This isn’t a woman specific issue, but it’s one that could affect women more/differently so it’s worth talking about. It’s harder to fight against doxxing, and it’s harder to ensure your account is deleted if you’re trying to fight stalkers. Some of this can be fixed by improving the software, and I’m not clear on what the implications are just yet. But it was worth noting
Lemmy specific: Moderation tools aren’t strong enough yet. Women-oriented communities might attract trolls.
How to grow the communities
get in touch with existing community moderators and set up a parallel / sister community setup. Encourage people to post on both, let those moderators moderate on Lemmy. Trust would help a lot in this case
need more time to think of specific points, but for now other community building ideas would apply too
Thank you for your thoughts!
I want to emphasize this one:
I think the Lemmy instance beehaw is predominantly or exclusive led by women and well, when I remember correctly it had to aggressively defederate from multiple bigger instances… Heavy moderation costs time and thereby money. And a huge factor in this is that instances and communities which announce heavy moderation seem to attract that extra truckload of trolls. I don’t want to start a drama discussion here, just to underline that moderation problem.
Oh I didn’t know that about Beehaw, that’s cool to know :)
Yes that makes sense, and I think some Reddit communities tried and couldn’t establish here for that reason (askHistorians). Lemmy needs to make the moderation easier in order for things to work out for everyone
What makes you think women aren’t engaging in topics though? Because they don’t say “I’m a woman and…” in the comments?
I think you’d be surprised.
(Edit. Oh I get it, because we’re not engaging in your topics. Gotcha)