Let’s address the elephant in the room

  • OpenStars@discuss.onlineM
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    2 days ago

    It’s up to jgrim and lazyguru, I don’t want to cause them any problems. Though this topic is arguably not “political” (at least in the sense of one side vs. another), just an extremely controversial one, and we also need to be careful bc of the slippery slope: like even if parts of it were considered okay, where is the line between that and when it all of a sudden is not? Lemmy.World was helpful in being very clear where that line should be.

    If the admins want to lock this, I will absolutely support that call. Especially with the USA becoming more fascist in a few months time - we need to preserve this space to discuss things in more than we need to have a single discussion about any one topic in particular.

    Edit: oh and I just re-read the part about “future crimes” - that seems very likely to get us in trouble, so I would say no, not at all in relation to future crimes. It’s one thing to discuss a topic in theory, and quite another to bring federal attention down upon us to scrutinize everything happening here.

    • Blaze (he/him)@feddit.orgOP
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      2 days ago

      Lemmy.World was helpful in being very clear where that line should be.

      Indeed. I had a look at DO’s rules, they link to the the Lemmy Code of Conduct, which doesn’t explicitly address this topic

      Edit: oh and I just re-read the part about “future crimes” - that seems very likely to get us in trouble, so I would say no, not at all in relation to future crimes. It’s one thing to discuss a topic in theory, and quite another to bring federal attention down upon us to scrutinize everything happening here.

      But then couldn’t this topic being discussed on LW as well now, even with the new ToS?

      • OpenStars@discuss.onlineM
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        2 days ago

        But then couldn’t this topic being discussed on LW as well now, even with the new ToS?

        Exactly my point - they aren’t forbidding all discussion on the topic? Well, tbf at the very beginning they did panic, then they took 3 days to clarify the ToS, but now such discussion is entirely allowed. Just not outright actual illegal stuff, like that guy wanting to sabotage their physical machines to bring them down - that stuff ofc remains illegal, and advocating for murder is illegal. If anyone wants to find a place to discuss illegal activities, it’s not so much that it’s impossible but it does sound like something better suited to an anarchist instance? Though it’s not something that I’d want to be involved in.

        AskUSA was an idea that predated all of this jury nullification controversy, where we wanted to make particularly Redditors feel more comfortable migrating over to Lemmy, despite all the objections like “it’s run by tankies” and “it’s more for an international audience than me inside the USA”. For that purpose, it’s progressing along nicely is it not?

        Though a truly “free speech” instance like the Magats are asking for, essentially 4chan, isn’t something that the vast majority of Fedizens want, and we would defederate any such server that was created.

        In-between all of these extremes is ofc a vast middle ground, and yet police really do exist, so my guess is that any instance located within the USA would not be suitable for discussions of topics that come anywhere even remotely close to skirting the law here. But even if that were not true, I still personally would not want to be involved - especially as a moderator! There are too many nutjobs that would be attracted to such, it sounds like an enormous undertaking, plus a highly unpleasant one.

        • Blaze (he/him)@feddit.orgOP
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          2 days ago

          If anyone wants to find a place to discuss illegal activities, it’s not so much that it’s impossible but it does sound like something better suited to an anarchist instance?

          Quoting myself from another comment

          I just had a look at https://join-lemmy.org/docs/code_of_conduct.html to check

          We are committed to providing a friendly, safe and welcoming environment for all, regardless of level of experience, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, personal appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, age, religion, nationality, or other similar characteristic.

          So if people say “CEOs of private healthcare companies who cause the deaths of thousands of citizens for profit should face the same fate as the United Healthcare CEO”, is it acceptable or no? Real question, I don’t think it’s that clear from the rules.

          Also, as those are the rules created by the Lemmy devs, I would really surprised if they prevented any action against CEOs

          • OpenStars@discuss.onlineM
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            2 days ago

            I’ll help out by clarifying: regardless of whether Discuss.Online allows such, I don’t want to be moderator of a community that would skirt the law so closely, so I don’t want it here in !AskUSA@discuss.online, at least under my moderatorship.

            – the additional, irrelevant details –

            I am actually getting quite nervous even meta-discussing this discussion of how people would discuss such matters. I am no lawyer, and I want to stay SO VERY FAR AWAY from the legal line that I don’t have to worry about whether - oopsie daisy! - it has been crossed or not. I already have stress in my irl and this isn’t helping! Our discussions of creating a place such as AskUSA predated all of this jury nullifcation topic, and I hoped merely to help provide a “welcoming” and “fun” and “safe” place for Americans to enjoy visiting - and I’m still offering to do all of that much - but the rest of this, is getting to be too much for me!? Sorry if I did not realize what you were ultimately pushing for - I’m not commenting on rightness vs. wrongness to want such here, just that I don’t think I can help you with fulfilling that desire, which especially in the upcoming changing legal landscape within the USA, is more than a little on the extreme end of what might even be theoretically possible (and quite possibly is not, legally speaking, or else may become so very very soon).

            Furthermore, if Discuss.Online was itself okay with it, and someone else wanted to moderate it, then I’m totally okay to hand over this exact community to whoever would step up for such? (in that case… please tell me what buttons to press? I am new to the mod tools here and I don’t see that option, or maybe we’d need to get an admin involved? anyway I’m totally supportive of such if that’s what people wanted, so I could initiate a request to them in such a case?) I have no desire to “squat” this community name and outright prevent discussions that people feel like should be here.

            Though if we want to keep AskUSA as light-hearted and fun, and to put politicaldiscussions@whereverelse, then that works too (in that case I still hope that people would join this community to help moderate it).

            I hope this helps paint a vision moving forward?

            • Blaze (he/him)@feddit.orgOP
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              2 days ago

              I hoped merely to help provide a “welcoming” and “fun” and “safe” place for Americans to enjoy visiting

              As I said elsewhere, there’s a reason Ask and Casual communities both exist.

              A list of questions that could be asked on AskUSA but would still be completely legal

              • US Americans, what are your worst experiences with your healthcare insurance?
              • US Americans, how big of a deal are school shootings in your daily lives? Is the media depiction overblown?
              • US Americans, how is life on minimum wage?

              None of those questions would cross any rules, but they would make the community look serious and depressing, but also would allow people to talk about those serious matters.

              From what you are saying, you should probably handle a more laid-back CasualUSA community, similar to !casualconversation@lemm.ee , !yurop@lemm.ee , !casualuk@feddit.uk

              You can probably open a post to call moderators to take over AskUSA, and open CasualUSA in parallel