I'm creating this write up to give our newcomers a quick rundown on the why, how, and what of the OEY community. If there is still some confusion or clarity required, please don't hesitate to reply in the comments!

What is this community?

Like a lot of other new Lemmy users, Orcas Enjoying Yachts was created in the wake of the Reddit debacle.

Prior to creating this instance, I already had experience with the federated world via tools like KBin and Mastodon, but this was my first foray into Lemmy. My years of web development and programming experience came in handy when getting server, SMTP, etc. specs all squared away.

Where does the silly name come from?

The name is derived from the recent stories about orca whales attacking and capsizing yachts.

With the onslaught of attacks and blatant lies being leveled at the working class by sociopathic types like Elon Musk and Reddit's Steve Huffman, alongside the painfully boring capitalist homogenization of the internet, the name "Orcas Enjoying Yachts" acts as a tongue-in-cheek nod to our seafaring friends that carry out these yacht attacks.

It's a symbolic phrase for fellow working class members like myself that are sick of watching all of our former web platforms and communities become soulless blackholes that serve to act as nothing more than IPO fodder for the wealthy.

I often call this "IKEAfication": the act of draining something of its life, to the point that its reduced to nothing more than a room filled with boring white furniture. We see this in our daily lives as we transition into adulthood. Next time you go to an IKEA, look at the furniture for kids, vs the furniture for adults. I could go into a tangent about the methods used to homogenize and control the population in a capitalist society, but I'll save that for another time.

Why didn't you call it "Orcas Sinking Yachts" instead?

1. It felt too heavy-handed. The intent was to appeal to likeminded people that are angry and frustrated with the direction everything is heading (both in terms of web communities as well as the world), while also keeping things fun
2. The sinking.yachts domain was taken
3. I thought this name had a nice ring to it, and also acts as a fun, silly URL to fly your flag under as you continue to traverse the Lemmy world like myself

Can you share any of the technical aspects?

• The instance is hosted on a scalable Digital Ocean droplet running Ubuntu 22 (it's a basic setup right now while I gauge how things go)
• Automatic backups are enabled and run every few days
• I was unable to successfully use the official docs for Ansible or Docker setup, and instead used Lemmy Easy Deploy, which I highly recommend checking out
• Federation is enabled and registration is open
• Users can also create communities

What's in store for the future

As time permits, I'm going to work on a logo to represent the community, a new banner, and eventually a custom theme. I'm also toying with the idea to start digging into Swift so that I can try my hand at creating a Lemmy iOS app, but that is a little further off.

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If you are curious and have any other questions, concerns, or ideas, please feel free to post in the comments. Additionally, if you're trying to find your new home for Lemmy stuff, sign up and take a moment to read the Community Rules and Guidelines post.

If you got this far, thank you! See you on the Lemmyverse!