cross-posted from: https://literature.cafe/post/30387402
@threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works
Ik that there used to be Diagonlemmy, but, IMHO, we should create an instance that is exclusive to Harry Potter, and the Wizarding World.
Perhaps call the instance Wizarding.World, or something.
That way, Fediverse users who wish to interact with Harry Potter material can, and other users/instances/etc, can defederate/don't have to.
Harry Potter is only going to become more popular.
The HBO Harry Potter series is coming. Whether we like it or not, the HP fandom is about to have a significant resurgence, and it's going to find a home somewhere on the internet.
The question is whether that somewhere is Reddit, Discord, and corporate platforms — or whether the Fediverse gets there first and shapes what that community looks like.
People flock to spaces where they feel familiar and welcomed.
Rowling will profit from HP whether a Lemmy instance exists or not.
The Fediverse needs more projects that make immediate sense to people, and it needs to stop ceding entire fandoms to corporate platforms by default.
The move isn't to reject the fandom.
The move is to build the instance with explicit values — pro-trans, pro-queer, progressive moderation, zero tolerance for bigotry.
Pull HP fans into federated, open spaces and surround them with those values.
That's far more powerful than gatekeeping.
I shared this, because I wanted to know what the general consensus was.
Also if there were any users who might have any experience with potentially creating/running their own instance.
53 Comments
FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website · 33 pts · 141d
Why would this decision require a public feedback sesh? Build it and they will come. Or they won't because they read some stuff about the author.
Teknevra@literature.cafe · -2 pts · 141d
Because a lot (if not most) of Fediverse hate anything Harry Potter.
Also, neither me, nor the community's mod, have the resources to potentially create an instance.
onlinepersona@programming.dev · 4 pts · 141d
No need to do it yourself. Let someone do it for you. There's Communickwhich can also setup a matrix server for you (in addition to Lemmy). There might be others, but I dont know of them.
I think it's the cost of a Netflix subscription.
markz@suppo.fi · 3 pts · 141d
I checked out the website, but I can't find any mention of being able to migrate away or downloading the databases. How do these managed services work?
rglullis@communick.news · 6 pts · 141d
Hey, Communick founder here. End of last year we did the migration for ttrpg.network from K&T to our servers. There were definitely some issues in the beginning as that was the first large-ish instance in terms of community activity, but things now seems to be a lot better. To anyone willing to migrate, I can extend the same deal I offered to @eerongal@ttrpg.network: if you commit to an yearly plan, I can waive the setup fee.
markz@suppo.fi · 1 pts · 140d
I said migrate away. I don't know what kind of access the managed service includes. This is something that I think should be clearly stated on the website.
rglullis@communick.news · 1 pts · 140d
Right, I misunderstood. We have daily backups and I can give access to them via SFTP, but to be honest there is no interface to do that via the website yet. It's only recently that hetzner integrated their storage box solution to their cloud API, and I didn't have the time (or customer pressure) to automate that yet.
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 141d
Hosting a harry potter instance - $10/mo (* I have no idea how much proprietary shit costs)
Supporting fascism - PRICELESS!
onlinepersona@programming.dev · 4 pts · 141d
Communick is fascist? Where did you get that information?
Deceptichum@quokk.au · 2 pts · 140d
Teknevra@literature.cafe · 1 pts · 141d
@onlinepersona@programming.dev
Thanks very much!
That definitely would be helpful.
Teknevra@literature.cafe · 0 pts · 141d
gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone · -4 pts · 140d
Then fuck off
Teknevra@literature.cafe · -1 pts · 140d
No
gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 0 pts · 140d
Stupid TERF
Teknevra@literature.cafe · -2 pts · 140d
No U
gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 140d
Just please, say the quiet part loud, that's all people want.
"I support jkr but I don't want to say it cause I know it would make me look bad"
Ludicrous0251@piefed.zip · 14 pts · 141d
birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 11 pts · 141d
Just "transphobe" works better, tbh.
Brewchin@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 140d
And would work as a Belgian gTLD domain, as with the shortener for youtu.be 😄
gabe@literature.cafe · 14 pts · 140d
Be prepared to be defederated from almost immediately as it opens by people... as well, as an instance admin, I can say it is hard. Even for a small instance. As well, people are just going to downvote your instances content as soon as its posted. The only reason we have the harry potter community still on literature.cafe is because its dead and most posts to it are critique of the TERF JK Rowling and the series, if it was positive content we'd likely have to delete it.
Teknevra@literature.cafe · 0 pts · 140d
That wouldn't matter.
It would actually most likely be beneficial, given that the instance would give a space to all of the existing potterheads out there.
Plus, most of the existing instances wouldn't have to deal with HP/JK conversations and media, because all of the admin and whatnot of the various different instances could tell any users that try to please keep all HP/JK media to the Wizarding.World (or WizardingWorld.Lemmy, or whatever name the instance potentially ends up having).
Ie
Similar to how a Quarantine works.
Plus, it would help to bring in a ton of new users, to the Fediverse.
Nice to see that censorship is still alive and well, even in The Fediverse.
ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 9 pts · 140d
Yay, more folks who are happy to fund the erasure of trans people. Can't wait! /s
gabe@literature.cafe · 5 pts · 140d
You would likely need more than one admin. Regardless, I wish you the best of luck because you're going to need it.
Teknevra@literature.cafe · 2 pts · 140d
Thank you very much
markz@suppo.fi · 11 pts · 141d
Sure, it could be good. However...
Teknevra@literature.cafe · -1 pts · 141d
markz@suppo.fi · 7 pts · 141d
You could ask the community if someone can and wants to run an instance, but chances are that the idea is dead already. You then have to convince the communities to move, which could also not work, or even backfire.
So I'm not very convinced that this will happen, unless you decide to just do it yourself. Become the change you wish to see.
Teknevra@literature.cafe · 1 pts · 141d
No ideas yet, for the first question.
For the second, there are already a couple of HP and JK Rowling communities.
!harrypotter@literature.cafe
!harrypotter@lemmy.zip
!harrypotter@lemmy.world
!jkrowling@lemmy.blahaj.zone
ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 140d
To be clear, the blahaj one is for people to talk about the awful shit she's doing and the impact it's having on her victims. It's not a community for people who support her or just want to have polite conversation about her that ignores the harm she is doing
Teknevra@literature.cafe · 0 pts · 140d
Yes, but it's still connected to Harry Potter.
gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 138d
In the same way that fuckAI is connected to AI, sure.
But that's a stupid point to make
The links you put;
Just go read better fantasy books, it's not hard, there's a million million more of them, cause jkr is a sloppy hack. He's some of the works she borrowed from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_influences_and_analogues
ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 11 pts · 140d
What's interesting about this, is you post it as if it's a question, and despite getting an almost universal "Fuck no" as the answer to the question, you're just arguing that we should do it.
If you want to do it, do it. But stop looking for validation for it. You're asking for approval to celebrate and recognise someone who actively targets and harms trans people. You're not going to get that approval. So either take that as the answer, or stop pretending it was ever a question.
vantablack@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 8 pts · 141d
no 🤮
frongt@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 141d
Who is "we"? If you want to do it, no one is stopping you.
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 6 pts · 141d
As long as it’s okay to criticize homophobia and transphobia JK Rowling spews, I say go for it.
Teknevra@literature.cafe · 0 pts · 141d
I personally wouldn't mind, as long as that wasn't your only intention, and you did it in the correct communities / weren't trolling.
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 140d
It's not my intention, but I think it should be allowed.
I've been a fan of the Harry Potter series since the first movie. Not a huge fan, but I enjoyed the first four (books and movies, the latter 3/4 not so much) and some of the associated media.
These days you can't say you're a fan of Harry Potter without someone throwing JK Rowling's transphobia in your face. The problem is, I agree with them. JK Rowling is a trash human. I still like the stories she told and I enjoy some of the movies. I enjoyed the recent game, Hogwarts Legacy. I enjoy that the developers included a trans character to spite Rowling.
I don't think every Potterhead should be harassed for JK Rowling's views, but I also think it's difficult to engage with the community without considering it, given that the author is so public with her views. It's the same with Orson Scott Card and Ender's Game. Similar fandom (academia in space rather than witch/wizard fantasy), similar issue (author is homophobic). Similarly, the LGBTQ+ community tried to cancel the fandom, and these days, fans acknowledge Card was wrong, but the books still hold merit. Also, just like JK Rowling's author insert character Hermione is completely opposite to the author's views, so too was Ender (who was kind of like a meek version of Harry).
But nah, my favourite bone to pick with the Potterverse isn't that the author is human garbage (which is technically outside of the Potterverse), it's that Gryffindor = good, Slytherin = evil, and the other two Houses don't matter. As a Ravenclaw (or rather, I would be a Ravenclaw if I went to Hogwarts), this annoys me. It also seems to me that the better backdrop for the story would be if Harry and Draco were more directly rivals, Harry was about to be placed in Slytherin for his ambition (to best Draco) but he gets placed in Gryffindor instead. (This is more or less how it already goes.) But then Ron gets placed in Hufflepuff and Hermione in Ravenclaw, because that just makes more sense, and the four of them basically work together, often over the objections of their Houses being against them working together rather than sticking with their own House. I'm also suggesting that Draco explore his shades of grey rather than being "the bully." It makes more sense for the other Slytherins to use him (and his father's position) to reach their own goals than it does for Draco to merely be a shadow of his father.
tenebrisnox@feddit.uk · 5 pts · 140d
I find it amazing that JKR pretty much gets a free pass when someone like Gaiman is so me-too-ed that people online throw out his books and trash his mostly progressive history. Just imagine the condemnation if someone suggested a Gaiman community. Weird, subjective times we live in.
Skavau@piefed.social · 3 pts · 140d
I mean this thread does have -27 downvotes
tenebrisnox@feddit.uk · 1 pts · 140d
Rightly so. I'm probably over-egging it. But there are still many people who should know better willing to give JKR a pass. Look at how excited people are online about a shoddy Amazon remake of the movies. Could you imagine anyone even considering a Gaiman show at this point?
Skavau@piefed.social · 1 pts · 140d
I think people consider sexual assault differently here, although I'd note that Harry Potter is probably way more of a global phenomenon than Gaiman's stuff which plays into this too.
metakrakalaka@lemmychan.org · 4 pts · 140d
If you want to.
I think it makes sense to follow the Star Trek instance and just have local communities centered around Harry Potter while allowing federation with everything else.
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 141d
No. We don't need a new instance for every mass media piece of shit. Definitely not scumbag HP.
Make an instance for Hoppers first. I hear it's actually good.
robert.meyer86@piefed.social · 3 pts · 138d
Auster@thebrainbin.org · 3 pts · 141d
The Harry Potter franchise is pretty expansive, so even if this next series is a major flop, I have my doubts the series will alone be able to burn all the goodwill in the franchise, leaving plenty still to be discussed.
Also, I like the idea of forums focused on specific niches, but having seen isolated ones multiple times shrink into irrelevance, being federated should help give it a bigger life span. Also wouldn't be the first focused instance I see around. So on this point, I also defend the creation of a Harry Potter instance.
Just don't know how protective the companies involved with the Harry Potter brand are towards it, so hopefully a site that presents itself as purely a discussion forum among fans won't be stepping in anyone's toes.
And about the fediverse not liking Harry Potter as someone commented, such perception feels awfully like centralization, in this case on ideas. So another reason to have a focused forum, so people may be more comfortable enjoying and discussing what they want, instead of falling into a silence spiral to not be the perceived majority's enemies. And as you proposed, those that don't like are free to block/defederate.
And about software, might I suggest an hybrid one, so people on both threadiverse and microblog platforms may be able to interact? Dunno how Piefed fares on that front (I keep forgetting to check) and Lemmy is kinda isolated by their design philosophy.
But back on creating an instance, now that at the end I reread the other comments, it's a task, requiring resources, interest and time someone may not have. So if asking for one to be created by others is likely be a short-lived idea.
So good luck on finding anyone then.
Or maybe also you'd be interested in reading the responses to a question I made in a self-hosting community, if you want to do it yourself but don't know where to start:
https://thebrainbin.org/m/selfhosted@lemmy.world/t/1513112/What-to-study-to-be-able-to-host-a-site
HubertManne@piefed.social · 3 pts · 137d
I mean I can think of ip that makes more sense for its own instance. star trek comes to mind.
trajekolus@piefed.social · 2 pts · 141d
While I like him as a player I feel it is better to just post to the rugby community .
Teknevra@literature.cafe · 2 pts · 141d
@threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works
morgan_423@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 140d
This feels like building a forum to discuss Mein Kamph, and then saying it's going to moderated with a focus on inclusion, human rights, and diversity.
With the whole HP thing, there are IMO far too many people fully separating the art and the artist. I just can't morally do that.
FEIN@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 140d
I understand the point you're making, but we might be losing the plot comparing Mein Kampf to Harry Potter...
nieceandtows@programming.dev · 1 pts · 140d
People can like and love Harry Potter without endorsing or even being aware of Rowling and her views.
gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 140d
Lol, you've heard of the idea of publicity right?
Deceptichum@quokk.au · 3 pts · 140d
FosterMolasses@leminal.space · 2 pts · 130d
I think it does that only when you're actively supporting new work.
As in, I've never seen anyone publicly demonize someone else for using the term Lovecraftian or discussing his influence on literature.
But if you purchased a new publication called "The Infallible Brilliance of HP Lovecraft" it'd be really suspicious lol
I think it's enough to criticize the author and their work in hindsight when we find evidence of their prejudice inside it, without it meaning that everyone who's ever enjoyed the fiction is an evil demon person (especially ones who were impressionable kids at the time). Same for Good Omens.
Teknevra@literature.cafe · 0 pts · 140d
Exactly
zarkanian@sh.itjust.works · -1 pts · 137d
Why would you create something before there was demand for it? Seems completely backwards.
veniasilente@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 132d
It's called preparation.