Preface

I've run DubVee for about a year-and-a-half as of this writing. Until now, I've not really had much of a mission statement beyond being an on-ramp to the Fediverse and trying to keep things civil and non-toxic from this instance's point of view.

Recent and semi-recent events have revealed an ugly truth about many of the users in the Fediverse (and social media in general), so I've put together an actual mission statement in hopes of addressing that. It's also my last-ditch effort to not shut down this project out of disgust.

I want DubVee to be an example of what the Fediverse can be when it's not overrun with political idealogies masquerading as people, extremists, lynch mobs, and people too toxic to be anywhere else. I know for a fact that there are plenty of users that don't fit that criteria, and I dare say they are the majority. However, the above-mentioned groups are definitely drowning them out and giving Lemmy (and the Fediverse) a bad image in the process.

To that, I say: Not here. Not on DubVee.

Why DubVee and Why We're Different

DubVee is not your typical Lemmy instance. In order to achieve our goals, we have to do things a little differently compared to other instances. We want the "default" experience to be positive, welcoming, and non-toxic without requiring new users to discover and deal with the toxic parts on their own. We want everyone to be able to go to the homepage without the default experience making them say "what the fuck?!" and turn away. (That's literally what happened when I tried inviting a few Reddit colleages to Lemmy).

Some people may disagree with that; that's fine and is part of the beauty of the Fediverse. There are plenty of other instances that let you rawdog everything (and everyone) the Fediverse has to offer which you can then curate on your own.

Dubvee is not such an instance, and that is a feature we're proud of.

As an instance, we're pretty heavily moderated in order to maintain a welcoming atmosphere that fosters civil discussion. We don't "tone police" everything, but we do expect users, local and remote, to behave themselves and act in a rational, civilized manner. Those who cannot, local or federated, are quickly shown the door.

We also expect people to be here because they want to be here (the Fediverse) rather than being here because they're too toxic and/or have been banned everywhere else.

Note: None of this is throwing shade on other instances. I'm simply highlighting that DubVee recognizes a problem exists, that we are actively addressing it here, and extending an invitation to anyone who wants to be a part of it.

Inspired by Beehaw

Beehaw existed for a year or two before DubVee came online and is seen by many as the "heart" of the Reddit-like corner of the Fediverse due to their mission, philosophy and guiding principles. I've looked to them as a role-model since day 1, and that has not changed. I've always tried to make DubVee as "Beehaw-lite" as I could. In fact, many times, I've described DubVee as "Beehaw with downvotes enabled".

Join Us?

If that's the kind of environment you're looking to be a part of, we welcome you. Even if you want to create an alt here as a "vacation spot" to get away from that on other instances for a while, you're also welcome.

While we're not quite ready to throw open the doors (we're still configured as a regional instance), we're planning to open up soon to a wider audience who wants to be a part of a better, nicer Lemmyverse.

If other instances are taking similar stances against extremism and lynch-mob mentality, then please let me know so I can shake their admins' hands.

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DubVee's Goals

1. Address the Elephants in the Room

There is one, big elephant in the room that I'm going to point out: there is a not-insignificant userbase in the Fediverse that:

• Is here only because they're too toxic for regular social media
• Has been banned everywhere else and can keep spinning up alts on new instances
• Jump straight to violent solutions to every perceived problem
• Operate in complete bad faith but aren't technically breaking any rules on the more general-purpose instances
• Just want to stir up shit (that's not unique to the Fediverse, just worth mentioning)
• Think it's some kind of absolute free speech zone where they can air their most toxic thoughts
• ...Worse (we'll just leave it at that)

DubVee has always been quick to deal with those accounts, and recent events have reinforced and escalated the need to do so more firmly and more permanently.

2. Provide a Non-Toxic, Chill, Civil, and Safe Environment

Building on the first goal, we take several measures to maintain a positive atmosphere here:

• DubVee is open-federation by default, but we do not federate with any of the "big 3" extreme instances: ml, grad, or hexbear nor any instance known for spreading hate or trolling

• Extremism of any form is not tolerated. Accounts espousing or excusing extremist rhetoric are quickly banned. This includes, but is certainly not limited to:

  • Advocating, excusing, praising, suggesting, or condoning violence against any person or group (including political violence)
  • Hypocritical takes that amount to "Fascism / authoritarianism / whatever-ism is bad, but a little bit is okay when it's my side doing it"
  • "Burn it all down" mentality
  • Stirring the pot by jumping into otherwise civil discussions and injecting extreme rhetoric
  • Pretty much any pattern of behavior that devolves into "lynch mob" mentality.
  • "Wink and a nudge" versions of any of the above

• Hate speech toward any group is prohibited.

• Trolls, bad-faith actors, and people who cannot interact civilly are quickly shown the door.

3. Focus on Quality Over Quantity

We prioritize quality over quantity, and we're not obsessed with growth nor having an endless stream of low-quality content just to fill up space.

We allow very few bots here, AI-generated slop is prohibited, and we do not federate with instances that primarily act as "bridges" reposting from other platforms. Having seen the endless stream of low/no-activity bot posts on other instances, I am very happy with how this policy has been working. This is a platform for humans to interact with one another, share cool stuff, and discuss things. Bot posts have shown to be primarily noise rather than signal.

4. Prevent Misinformation

We have a very strict misinformation policy here, and it is enforced for both local content as well as content arriving via federation. Some of the measures we take to achieve this goal include:

• No low-credibility news sources are allowed
• News articles must always be to the original source and without editorialized titles (exceptions being made for non-news/politics communities).
• Any suspect/wild claims without references are subject to a "mod first, fact check later" moderation policy.
• Any federated news-like communities that are not in compliance with these rules will be administratively removed

More details can be found in our Misinformation Policy page.

5. Ask Users to Leave Their Political Idealogy at the Door

This is a big ask on the Fediverse it seems, but it's not without a good reason. Having run this instance for a year and a half, I've found that 99% of users who make their political idealogy their entire identity tend to be 100% insufferable and cause needless drama.

Just be a person and talk to other people about cool stuff. It's really not hard to not inject political idealogy into every interaction.

This is not to say you can't express your political views - far from it. Hell, there's plenty of politics communities subscribed on this instance. Just don't make everything about it, don't inject it into every conversation, and just be a person and not an arm of your political party.

While this is more of a request to users of this instance, we do ban accounts from federated instances that do nothing but inject political ideaology into every interaction. I will say that since we defederated from .ml that has been less of an issue, but it is still necessary on occasion.

6. Respect the Right to Free Expression - Within the Bounds of Civility

We absolutely believe in the right to free expression of ideas, but it must be done in good faith, in a civilized manner, and without adding needless drama or toxicity. Trolling, hate speech, bigotry, misogyny. harassment, extremist rhetoric/calls to violence, and/or otherwise saying the worst things imaginable under the guise of free expression (aka "freeze peach") is not tolerated.

7. Not Be a Propaganda Platform

We disallow users that are clearly here with an agenda. DubVee is not a propaganda platform; it's for sharing cool stuff, staying informed, and having civil discussions. If someone is here to push an agenda, regardless of what that agenda may be, then they're outside what we consider "good faith" interactions.

Share stuff you're passionate about, sure, but don't be here just to spam your agenda.

8. No Porn

We do not federate with any of the primarily NSFW instances nor do we allow pornographic NSFW communities from general-purpose instances. No judgement if that's your thing, but porn is not our primary focus here, and neither I nor the backup admin want to moderate it or scroll through it when browsing /all.

The main frontend for DubVee, Tesseract, supports multiple profiles. As a compromise, I've unlocked the main UI to allow adding accounts from other instances. With this, you can add an account on another instance that does federate with the NSFW instances, or you can create an account on the NSFW instance(s) and switch to that profile. Many other Lemmy clients also offer the ability to add multiple accounts, so there are plenty of options. We feel this is an acceptable compromise.