That makes sense. I kind of just assume everyone can find out my identity if they try hard enough. So my infosec is as if I’m speaking to a stranger on a nearby train. They could probably follow me home but I don’t give them a reason to and I don’t say anything incriminating.

Out of curiosity, what’s the purpose of multiple accounts?

I don’t see a problem with that. I don’t personally care who specifically voted for anything, but I also don’t mind if someone knows I was the one who did it

I kept getting shadow banned constantly. My comments ending up with 1 view no up or down votes. For completely arbitrary reasons as well. And I got completely banned from a few communities by accidentally using extremist terminology (?).

And yes I don’t doubt they removed it for a reason, it makes it a much less friendly place. Like you’re putting down and directly affecting the other person rather than just disagreeing. It’s hard to explain.

Lemmy has this feature which is really nice… -20 points doesn’t show +20 and -40. It mentally feels a lot better to know that 20 people agreed with you even if more people disagreed

Myself and everyone I know considers Reddit to be a social media. Along with TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Lemmy. Some grey area ones are Discord and Snapchat. So if you work backwards from there, the Aus Gov definition you listed above is actually pretty reasonable.

I agree that the forums I used to ask for help in Diablo 2 don’t count as social media, and they are rightly excluded in the definition you listed. So you’re really just trying to argue that Reddit and Lemmy is a forum instead of a social media, which you’re entitled to your opinion of course, but most people will disagree with you.

• The sole purpose, or a significant purpose, of the service is to enable online social interaction between two or more end-users.

You can’t argue that a news site that happens to have a complementary comments section is the sole purpose of the service. It’s not comparable to Reddit and Facebook at all. Look I hate the social media ban as much as you, but that’s a completely separate issue you just mixed up in there.

Governments banning websites is a whole other kettle of fish I don’t really want to get into right now. Social media has always been a vague definition. It’s like porn, you can’t define it, but you know it when you see it.

4chan is a forum because it lacks the features that make it social media-y. There’s no upvotes. There’s no feed. It’s just a list of unstructured posts and comments. What would happen if you added upvotes, comment threads, direct messages, friends list, an algorithmic home page, to 4chan? Oh look it’s Reddit. Which is a social media.

You can’t just change the definition of words because you don’t like governments restricting them. The actual problem is governments attacking your rights, it has nothing at all to do with social media. If instead of restricting social media they restricted specifically “comment sections”, would you be arguing with me on the formal definition of a comment section?

Again I get that you hate the restrictions. I think they’re dumb too and I live in AU. But the definition of social media is not the problem here.

Heat pumps mentioned, Technology Connections fan spotted

It feels like social media to me. It has upvotes, replies, notifications, comments, a feed… If it’s not a social media then neither is Reddit, and at that point the word stops being meaningful. Look right now we’re even arguing about semantics just like any good social media

Does that make Lemmy an underground black market? 🤔

Damn, that’s really lame

Yeah I think a lot of people like it when you address all their text. It’s a bit awkward sometimes though on how to actually go about it, like it can seem like a bit of a non-sequitur.

Don’t worry you don’t seem thirsty :)

Nothing feels more dehumanising than applying for a job in 2026 with a big company*

I wonder if the grocery store could just hire you directly and cut out the middle man? Like just approach the boss and be like. I need a job. You need worker. Gimme a contract and I’ll start tomorrow