cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/6788379
Hi,
As we might all know ( Early adopter of Lemmy ). Lemmy has been (also) made to give an alternative to the censor kingdom of Reddit ! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemmy_(software)
And further more Lemmy is fLOSS 😍
Great ! but watch out ! we don’t want that Lemmy take the same path as Reddit did ! ( hopefully this is limited as it run as a ~Federated model )
Anyways, I believe to avoid censorship and jeopardize users privacy the following should be considered by Instance admins and moderators.
Avoid as possible a mandatory email to register Doing so is not reducing spam or whatever you’re afraid ! It’s limiting users to create account that preserve their anonymity ! If you don’t know why anonymity is important I’ll suggest you to dig this website to start with https://www.laquadrature.net/en/support/#chiffrement BTW if I couldn’t be anonymous, I wouldn’t write any post on Lemmy, as I’m not living in a free country !! Look on other instances some admin have found clever way to circumvent bots without the need of an email.
Also Lemmy don’t require too much of moderation ! as any user can use the block feature in their options
so you should not censor content in behave of others !
If the freedom of expression is limited to the ideas that we like, it is not freedom of expression. Noam Chomsky.
Cheers,
the email requirement is trivially completed with free email services should the niche people who require such drastic anonymity need it.
Edit: sorry, I may have misunderstood your post - free email != email masking.
My original post below…
Curious why you consider email address masking services as for those with “drastic anonymity” requirements?
I personally don’t think so: they are pretty much just a digital P.O. box, and are typically not anonymous in any way (subpoena/court order to the provider). They are built-in to Firefox too, it will automatically create new ones OOTB as you sign up on websites, if you click the autofill.
They are however IMO one effective tool out of many to restrict the ability of data brokers and hacking groups (aggregated breach datasets) alike from making money from your online presence without your consent.
In almost all cases this data is freely searchable for law enforcement and private investigators, allowing them to avoid going through the legal system to investigate and possibly detain you for things you’re not guilty of
If it’s trivially completed then why make it a “requirement”, don’t emulate business’s bad practices for no good reason.
I tend to use disposable emails so if I’m ever logged out then that account is gone. Fine by me, I hope that’s not much to process for hosters.