this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2025
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I read an old thread documenting the opinions of Lemmy maintainers an the .ml instance. The issue of funding a project with people openly expressing opinions many find distasteful and it being the biggest reddit alternative on the fediverse came up, so here's a topic to discuss it.

What should we do? What are the options?


Answer: No fork necessary, there are Piefed and Mbin.

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[–] graysonuniverse@sh.itjust.works 1 points 17 hours ago

The thought-police strike again.

[–] PixelPilgrim@lemmings.world 1 points 1 day ago

I have the mindset of taking any idea that works for yourself and use it for your purposes. Like we should be stealing ideas from big tech and foss-ing them. Id assume big tech is worse than this maintainer

But what would the fork look like? Finding the maintainer contribution and rewriting them?

[–] termaxima@slrpnk.net 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

They are insane. But their views don't seem to ever make it into the code, so I don't mind for now.

[–] graysonuniverse@sh.itjust.works 1 points 17 hours ago

It's actually pretty interesting.

I recall one incident in lemmy's infancy where one of the devs tried to ban the use of certain words, but then the community (rightfully) pushed back and said "no, that's stupid."

[–] UltraMagnus@startrek.website 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I don't see the point in boycotting something that's free and doesn't make money off of selling my data. I suppose you aren't obligated to donate to it, but that was already true.

I suppose OTOH, I'm not pro-tankie, but I at least prefer tankies to the fascists and authoritarian capitalists (or whatever you want to call them) that run mainstream media. Harm reduction is the name of the game IMO, not finding a platform with a perfect set of political values aligning with yours (at least for me, I haven't run into many leftists who are also committed to nonviolence due to pragmatic reasons). The russia/ukraine stuff in that thread you link does look nasty, on the other other hand

[–] nesc@lemmy.cafe 78 points 4 days ago (2 children)

We already have Piefed and Mbin.

[–] veniasilente@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 days ago

Me being reminded I have my mbin account abandoned: 👀

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 15 points 3 days ago (4 children)

OK, thanks. I guess I'll be migrating to those and setting up a donation - if they don't use Github sponsors.

[–] Skunk@jlai.lu 23 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Also the piefed main dev is nice normal human being with humanist views of the world. He has a rational discourse toolkit box with links about how to handle extremism, disinformation and stuff like that.

Piefed would be much better aligned with your views.

[–] lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 day ago

humanist view of the world

Sure, but isn't he the same guy writing the backend to specifically exclude or editorialize the posts by the member who does thorns?

[–] Tuuktuuk@piefed.ee 1 points 2 days ago
[–] BlueKey@fedia.io 13 points 3 days ago

Both main devs of Mbin support at least Librepay.

[–] CaptainBasculin@lemmy.bascul.in 47 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

You have piefed if you really want to. I personally am fine with developers having views I disagree with, expecting everyone to have the same views as me is unrealistic; if they tried to influence how you host your instance based on their views that's something I'd disagree, but they do not do so on Lemmy.

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

We all have limits. For some communicating with those who tolerate genocide is alright, for others using their software is fine, and for even others they will happily give money to them à la "it's not me, so why should I care?". But if the number of people who don't care is not enough to sustain that software development, it will have an effect. We can wait to see if we get that far or do something about it.

I'll check out Piefed and Mbin as that seems to be most common answer here.

[–] nasi_goreng@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 days ago

I don't think Lemmy dev even have the opinion you stated above...

[–] ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 47 points 4 days ago (2 children)

The Lemmy platform is just a tool to manage and delivery content. And I think it's important to differentiate the software from those who manages the software. I can see there's is a tacit connection and influence there. But unless they start baking inherently bias features into the software and skewing it, I don't think it's a big problem.

Also, because it's an inherently federated platform, if people don't like the opinions of those who run a specific instance, they can (with the inclination and determination) spin up their own instance and manage that the way they see fit. And that has happened quite a few times over the last couple of years.

So no, I don't think it requires a fork really. Not unless the people managing the main branch lose interest and the software starts to wither on the vine, or they start corrupting it somehow. But that's just my opinion.

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[–] melmi@lemmy.blahaj.zone 33 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Once every couple months someone makes a post saying "I just found out the Lemmy devs are TANKIES! Won't someone do something about it?" No one has expressed real interest in forking Lemmy, though plenty of people have expressed interest in someone else forking Lemmy for them.

Most of the dev interest seems to be on Piefed right now. For some reason Mbin hasn't seemed to really take off, I don't see people talking about it as much.

[–] Coelacanth@feddit.nu 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Mbin is just kinda weird. I guess there aren't too many people who are after a Reddit-like that also care too much about microblogging. Or maybe they do but the microblogging part of Mbin is just an inferior experience to Bluesky or Mastodon anyway? Or maybe people just dislike having to call shitposts in meme communities "articles" in "magazines"?

[–] BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 3 days ago

having to call shitposts in meme communities "articles" in "magazines"?

That is super clunky and I do hate it.

[–] meldrik@lemmy.wtf 29 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I just wish .ml was more honest with their rules and policies, so people can actually make an informed decision, before they sign up there.

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[–] Rekall_Incorporated@piefed.social 30 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (7 children)

There is Piefed, it's compatible with Lemmy instances and has a whole load of useful feature for both users and moderators.

Much quicker and responsive development (I've been able to get two small feature/improvement requests implemented within weeks of my initial issue post).

One of the Lemmy developers is also an admin on the notorious Lemmygrad instance.

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[–] realitista@lemmus.org 25 points 3 days ago (3 children)
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[–] freeman@sh.itjust.works 22 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Reactionary forks don't have a great record of success (or even getting off the ground).

[–] Skavau@piefed.social 15 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Piefed already exists (although I contest the use of "reactionary" here)

[–] ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone 25 points 3 days ago

It's also not a fork

[–] hono4kami@piefed.social 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

PieFed is not even a fork, btw, it's a completely different software

[–] Skavau@piefed.social 2 points 2 days ago

Yes I know, but I was just speaking generally.

[–] Maiq@piefed.social 25 points 4 days ago

Maybe join piefed and if you want block ml.

[–] rglullis@communick.news 16 points 3 days ago

I think that Richard Stallman is a despicable person. Never stopped me from using and supporting the development of Emacs and GNU tools for the past 25+ years.

[–] Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu 21 points 4 days ago (9 children)

I really don't like this dangerous trend of condemning actions of people based on wether we agree with them or disagree with them.

Because this behavior is at the base for intolerance and strong polarization.

First of all, I want to judge your actions for what they are, not for what your political views are. So Lemmy is good and I like that full stop. There will be better alternatives (maybe already are) and I will judge them without agreeing with their creators political views.

Second, I prefer to discuss and interact with people who have different views and political ideas than me, because that's where I grow my ideas and enforce or dispute them. Enough of the echo chamber where the "algorithm" already places us in every social fucking media.

Kids, it's by enforcing and supporting even the ideas contrary to yours that you grow up. Yes this is annoying and can cause serious brain engagement, but yeah, that's how we progress.

Even fascists or communist ideas. Zionist or pro-Palestine, pro gender or anti woke, if we start judging peoples actions only for their ideas we become fascists.

I was also tought that what you do is more significant than what you say. Judge by actions, not words.

So I don't dislike technology because the guy behind it is a fascist or a communist.

Said so, if anybody thinks that can do a better Lemmy by forking it, go ahead and let me judged by the actions.

[–] MyMindIsLikeAnOcean@piefed.world 25 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

This is the “radical centrist” position, and it’s serves the fascist power structure.

None of the things you’re comparing to each other are equal or opposite. You’re functionally saying “I consider good and evil to be equal, I tolerate intolerance”.

I’m not sure if you stand behind your examples, because you didn’t really say anything.

For starters…if you wanted to address the topic you would have compared apples to apples ie fascists to tankies. You can’t casually imply fascists and communists are two ends of a spectrum and both have interesting points to make, that’s absurd: the former are evil, and the latter are dreamers. The rest of your examples are similar.

The topic here is “what level of tankie propaganda are we dealing with, and is it appropriate to allow them to control what we read”.

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[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

OK, let's say somebody who hates you to the core and wants to see you dead made software you found great. All they said was stuff like "I think your kind deserves to be shot", "your kind are subhuman", "they hung your kind and I see nothing wrong with that".

Would you use their software? Would you enjoy being part of the numbers that they use to validate getting money, maybe even power? Would you publicly promote their software? Would you get others to use it? Would you even donate to them? Would you get others to donate to them?

[–] Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu 8 points 3 days ago

How does the Lemmy creators actually personally benefit from the fact I run my own Lemmy instance?

I do not donate to them, but how is the technology created be them evil if it fits my concept of decentralized web?

Do they get money because I run my instance o use another one not under their control? O doubt it

I am actually using their tech against themselves, so what?

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[–] gerowen@piefed.social 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Is the code good? Are you prepared to make any potential fork viable and useful in ways that Lemmy isn't so people have a tangible, non-ideological reason to choose your software over Lemmy? Do you have a long term goal for funding and maintaining a fork?

That said, Piefed is already a thing, and it federates with Lemmy. It's where I'm commenting from right now. It has a better on boarding process and does a better job surfacing things I care about.

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[–] lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 3 days ago

This has been rethreaded so many times I feel like it deserves an entry in knowyourmeme. Opinions are like asses, everyone has one, everyone things someone else's stink, in the end, what matters is you can support Lemmy without actually supporting the developers (eg.: support your local instance).

[–] asudox@lemmy.asudox.dev 12 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

If you want to, go ahead.

But Lemmy isn't a small project. Can you really bear the maintenance burden alone?

And Piefed & Mbin already exist, just recommend them over Lemmy then? They are also supposed to be easier to maintain, so fork them if you want to fork something.

[–] RalfWausE@feddit.org 11 points 3 days ago (4 children)

I don't see a "we" in this, follow the free software way: Don't like it? Fork it yourself or don't use it.

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[–] mrdown@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

Just don't give money to the instance they own that is pro russian occupation and pro china human right abuses

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You can use mbin if you want out of the Lemmy codebase, it's a separate codebase that does the same thing.

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