this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2025
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Fedigrow

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US-specific news community (ponder.cat)
submitted 1 month ago by PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat to c/fedigrow@lemm.ee
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Hi all. So I made:

!usa@ponder.cat

The thinking is that there isn't a good home for non-political US news on Lemmy. There are three obvious communities, but one is on lemmy.world, one is defederated from lemmy.world, and one is on an instance that I find just slightly off-putting.

My questions are two:

  • Is this useful? I assume I'm not the only one who feels like this is needed.
  • How do people feel about a news+politics community, versus a strictly non-political news community? There are plenty of good places for US politics. I could go either way, but personally I tend to like the news+politics combination, and I think a lot of the big news in the US for the next few years is going to be political.

Let me know your thoughts, have a good weekend.

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[–] ptz@dubvee.org 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

How do people feel about a news+politics community, versus a strictly non-political news community?

Sadly, there's too much overlap between news and politics. It would ultimately be the mods' call whether an article is news but has a political tone versus an article that's strictly politics. e.g. "T*ump says [blah blah blah]". If it's going to impact people regardless of politics, then I guess it would be news. If it's just posturing / brain fart that gets reported, perhaps it should go to politics.

That said, I generally do prefer politics to be separate from news unless it's something concrete and newsworthy.

Also, I am not a fan of the icon you chose for that community lol.

Is this useful?

I've been pretty happy with !news@lemmy.world for the most part, but I welcome more as long as they take a solid stance against misinformation and agendas.

My only reservations, currently, with !news@lemmy.world is the LW-wide recent moderation policy changes which could tie the mods' hands with regard to removing misinformation. Note that policy has been rolled back pending a re-write, and I'm unclear if the 2.0 version is going to be as boneheaded as 1.0 was.

FWIW, I used to run a US news community on my own instance, but I archived it when the one on LW updated their rules to my satisfaction. At the time, there was mostly just worldnews at ml which was (and likely continues to be) a shitshow, so I was filling the gap.

What I like about LW's main 'news' community is that they:

  • Require post titles to match the headline
  • Require posts to be to actual news outlets and not blogs, press releases, opinion pieces, etc,
  • Disallow non-credible sources
  • Require the actual article URL to be the post link rather than an archive link or link shortener to prevent tabloid trash headlines carrying the same weight as reputable ones.

My local news community went a bit further by disallowing highly biased sources, but I was willing to let go of that requirement and refer people to LW's news since it meant less mod work for me (allowing me more time for other projects).

My hope is to see similar measures taken by any new news/politics communities as those are very good measures to prevent dis-/misinformation.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Also, I am not a fan of the icon you chose for that community lol.

GET READY FOR THE FUTURE BABY, IT'S HERE, LOOK IT IN ITS EYES

I’ve been pretty happy with !news@lemmy.world for the most part, but I welcome more as long as they take a solid stance against misinformation and agendas.

Yeah, agreed. It being on LW is literally the only thing wrong with it.

That said, I generally do prefer politics to be separate from news unless it’s something concrete and newsworthy.

I think you are right. I switched it to be non-political news only. That's the specific niche that is missing, there is no shortage of places for US political content.

Edit: Also, I edited the rules to include some of your excellent suggestions.

[–] Blaze@feddit.org 4 points 1 month ago

Also, I am not a fan of the icon you chose for that community lol.

Shared feeling ha ha

[–] Blaze@feddit.org 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Thank you for creating this, looks like a good combination to !AskUSA@discuss.online

[–] m_f@midwest.social 6 points 1 month ago

Subscribed, I'd like a USA news community that tries to somewhat eschew politics. Yeah, politics seeps into everything, but seeking out news that doesn't lean into it is valuable given how easy it is to find political news elsewhere on Lemmy.

[–] nick@midwest.social 4 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Which instance is offputting, mine? Or is mine defederated?

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 4 points 1 month ago

Correct. It's nothing I can even put my finger on, I just don't like it somehow. It seems fine, none of the weirdness seems to impact !usa@midwest.social, but it bothers me.

I looked up Blaze's citation and that's exactly what I mean. I don't even know how to categorize it, but it's clearly wrong.

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Fwiw the drama surrounding your instance has nothing to do with the users (afaik?), just the admin, as demonstrated by the links from the post that Blaze shared.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Completely agree. I think about 99% of the users on Lemmy are fine, decent people and I've got nothing negative to say about them. Likewise for midwest.social in case that wasn't clear. There's just something weird about the admin team.

The instance is all "ope" "we like corn dogs" "midwest friendly people yay" and then sometimes someone will get banned for not wanting to advocate violence and that exact same admin will say "libbity lib lib" about it and celebrate "violence against the rich." Something's off.

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 4 points 1 month ago

Yeah there was a comment "someone please kill [this person]”, which upon being reported got the reporter banned rather than the poster. And another incident where someone got booted for downvoting a post by the admin. It doesn't sound like a place that I'd enjoy being on. So I gave up on communities located there and support rather alternatives to them elsewhere. Be a part of the change that we want to see in the world and all of that...

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's wonderful! I subscribed from PieFed and Discuss.Online (someone already beat me to that one) and StarTrek.Website so the communities will appear there for others already. If you do end up making a separate community for US political news & discussions, let us know.

Either way, I suggest adding a link to such a community in the sidebar. That way you aren't just implying that "I don't care where you post your crap so long as it's far away from me" (tongue in cheek obviously😛) and rather guide a potential poster to where they can go to meet their needs (of having something to share and wanting to put it somewhere welcoming to such). That would be helpful.:-)

And speaking of, if you think there is value in directing people also to the !AskUSA@discuss.online community from there, that would be another good addition to the sidebar. And vice versa.

I love the new flag icon, and attribution to its source.

I so very much look forward to what results from this.:-)

[–] rimu@piefed.social 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Thanks for doing that.

I have removed all midwest.social communities from https://piefed.social/topics and added their alternatives (this new communitiy and theonion@shitjustworks) instead.

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 2 points 1 month ago

That's great! I would also add !lotrmemes@lemmy.dbzer0.com as well. That should help - I think of that instance as almost part of the big 3, with the unique exception of it being the admins while the users are mostly not even aware.

[–] Blaze@feddit.org 2 points 1 month ago

Thank you!

[–] Emotional_Series7814@kbin.melroy.org 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What kind of news gets posted here? I'm still trying to keep my feed clear of depressing things, and "wildfire claims lives" or "murder happened," while nonpolitical, is still essentially blared at me 24/7 in the rest of my life. However I do appreciate this idea!

Also, have you posted to !newcommunities@lemmy.world yet?

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 4 points 1 month ago

Yeah. There's also !upliftingnews@lemmy.world and !hopeposting@lemmy.world, although to me those are a little rah-rah. I agree with you about the value of a place that specifically has politics excluded. Personally, I love politics even when it is upsetting, but I see the worthwhileness of having a US news community that is separated from it. I imagined it being anything at all that is US news, whether good or bad, just what's going on irrespective of the government or political-warring issues.

I'll plan to post to !newcommunities@lemmy.world once it has a little more content and the nature of the proposed community is ironed out a little better, yes, definitely.