this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2026
102 points (94.0% liked)

Ask Lemmy

39045 readers
1702 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, toxicity and dog-whistling are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Obviously, the internet has always been a toxic place, (the phrase "flame war" has been around for decades,) but it seems to have gotten so much worse over the last few years. I used to think decentralization of the internet would fix the worst of it, but Lemmy seems to have gotten worse alongside the rest of internet culture, proving me wrong. How do we fix/improve this culture of toxicity?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] AskewLord@piefed.social 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Why?

toxicity is inevitable in real life such as much. toxic people are everywhere, and they drag people down with them.

i've had toxic family, friends, and co-workers. sometimes you have no choice but to live with it, sometimes you can ignore it, sometimes you can boot the person from your life if they cross certain boundaries. and sometimes the toxic person tries to get you removed.

the false tech bro assumption I've seen since forever, is the idea you can engineer out people's negative behaviors and impulses... you can't. they will find a way to exploit whatever system you set up. that's what they do... that's what makes them toxic. you cannot create a social media network that is free from toxic people, unless you make one with no people involved.

[โ€“] Kirk@startrek.website 1 points 1 day ago

I'm not talking about engineering a problem away. I'm saying it can't be engineered away and requires human adults in the room (moderators in this case) to handle bad behavior.

Accepting the presence of toxicity as a fact of life does nothing more than attract more toxicity.