Hi there.
A short introduction: This is an alt account. I’m a moderator here who has been unhappy with the state of news/political discussions here for a long time. The admins have kindly given me the opportunity to see if we can make some improvement the community here.
We will be doing some major revision of the rules left by the previous moderators and will use discussions in this thread as feedback on the direction we should take our community.
This will be an open discussion on the state of our community, the rules and our moderation practices. Feel free to give your inputs.
My goal is to foster thoughtful discussion in our community, and not let this place be a replica of r/politics.
First order of business, immediate rule change.
On !politics@lemmy.world, effectively immediately, we will no longer restrict political discussion to the politics of the United States of America. Discussion regarding of the state of politics from around the world is now welcome.
I will leave this pinned for 1-2 weeks for our team to take feedback and make our proposals then.
I’ve never seen down votes not used to punish people with messages that others disagree with.
I mean, if someone posts a racist angry opinion, Im likely to down vote. Even if this was their carefully considered opinion.
But when people are liberal in their use, it suppresses discourse and creates the echo chambers we say we hate (when other people do it).
I’m not sure lemmy provides mod tools that would help move the needle, but I’m in your corner for changing/expanding the discourse.
I’m here to learn. Sounds like what you’re proposing would help that.
Best of luck and thank you for the reply.