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blue@diagonlemmy @diagonlemmy.social

Diagon Lemmy - A Harry Potter-themed Lemmy Server is now live (before you block me instantly, please hear me out)

  1. Harry Potter Fandoms will be a part of the Fediverse one way or the other. It’s better to shape this development rather than being overwhelmed by it.
  2. Harry Potter Fandoms are a huge opportunity for the Fediverse. Look at what the collaboration of Lego and Disney brought to Fortnite. People want to spend time in places, in which they feel familiar and welcomed. I'm not saying collaborating with big companies here, what I'm saying is: the Fediverse needs to be filled with life and we have to use that opportunity first, before others do.
  3. Don't throw the opinions of J.K. Rowling and its fandom in one bucket. It’s one of the biggest in the world, there is a broad range of opinions and people.
  4. The Fediverse needs more projects that immediately make sense to people. Projects that you tell a person about, and they say: "Oh, yeah, that makes sense." Mastodon in comparison to Twitter was such a thing: its billionaire proof. Everybody gets why that's a good thing. A better, more open place to build Harry Potter fan sites could be another.
  5. The project (including other places like this that may follow) could also become another attractive place on the Fediverse for the open-source community. Who wouldn’t be excited to help build the world of Harry Potter?

All of this is of course up for discussion. I'm a very stubborn person but I'm also able to listen ;)

Edit: I removed "queer friendly" from the description. Its not a claim that I can fully uphold anyways. Instead, it has a no tolerancy policy against transphobia, which is more clear and probably easier to enforce.

Here is the link: https://diagonlemmy.social

155 comments

  • Man, the gatekeeping is wild these days.

    You're allowed to like a story you grew up with as a child and also dislike its bigot author, they're not mutually exclusive. Talking about Harry Potter doesn't give Rowling magical transphobe powers; Voldemort logic doesn't work in real life. The rightsholders have already taken great strides to distance the HP property from Rowling and adopt it to be more inclusive in spite of her TERF bullshit. It's not a hate crime to like a story about child wizards anymore.

    If people want to geek out about some books or movies they like, they should be allowed to do so without the insinuation that they're by default enabling transphobia or something. But the beauty of the Fediverse is that your community has just as much right to exist as any other, so as long as you can maintain a healthy, hate-free community that isn't posting a bunch of pro-Rowling bullshit, I say go for it. Anyone who would block your instance for merely existing probably isn't worth your time, anyway.

    • I feel like most of what you said there can just be directly copy-pasted to the sidebar.

    • I love Harry Potter, what are you gonna do, block me? /s

      For me all the hate Rowling gets just helps to make this brand bigger ¯(ツ)/¯

    • Let me pose a hypothetical to you then. If the transphobic rhetoric of JKR escalated, and transphobes took action, like just started doing even more harm to the trans community than they already have. At what point would you say "you know what, I've had enough of HP. It's just distasteful to engage with this anymore".

      Let's say a trans person enters, participates, and becomes a part of your HP fan community. What if they are directly, or even indirectly, harmed by JKR's transphobic rhetoric? If you continue to engage with how great the content is, while ignoring what just happened, was that trans person, who was harmed, ever really part of your community? Or were you just paying lip service to your community's inclusivity?

      These hypotheticals can happen, it's not even remotely outside the realm of possibility. At what point is engaging in HP fandom distasteful?

      • At what point is engaging in HP fandom distasteful?

        I'd say when the material that makes up the HP franchise, itself, becomes distasteful. I'm not hugely invested into HP, but last I've seen of it, the franchise is LGBT-inclusive, directly in spite of Rowling. I see no reason why one shouldn't be allowed to enjoy the story.

        Yeah, Rowling may still profit from it. But the bitter pill is that she's allowed to. People are entitled to make money from their IPs, it's how society enables creatives. Just because somebody's a shit person doesn't mean they're not allowed to earn a living. And realistically, she's going to make money from it, anyway. Blocking a Lemmy instance has literally zero impact on Rowling's bottom line, making the act little more than posturing.

        The HP material, itself, is fine. And the HP community largely seems inclusive toward LGBT fans. I can't think of any reason to consider liking it or talking about it to be distasteful. Rowling's a TERF shitbag, and I think most of the HP community is generally onboard with that notion, too.

  • Man. People need to learn how to ignore stuff they don't like or use the block button.

    • right? there's more outrage than is really worth it. just don't participate in it if you don't like it. instance blocking is a thing now on lemmy I'm fairly sure.

  • The crass may say "don't hate the player, hate the game", but a more accurate way to get the point across is that one can indeed separate the content from the creator and should not be judged for it.

    Jewish people can watch Disney movies and not have to consider that Walt Disney was a huge anti-semite and a terrible human being.

    People use Linux and don't even care that Torvolds is no stranger to controversy himself.

    It's OK to like a story and not like the person who wrote it.

  • Divorcing the author from the work is rather challenging when that author is a living billionaire who makes money whenever you buy any kind of merchandise of their work. While pirating their trademarks without paying is in principle harmless, the moment you cross over into, say, paying money for Harry Potter Lego or Harry Potter Fortnite skins, you are then immediately funding the author's hate campaigns

    The instance name is clever, but I think you will find the concept embarrassing in hindsight. I would recommend not doubling down on the cognitive dissonance

    • People don't seem to realize that their consumption of a product is seen by its beneficiaries.

      Sure not YOU directly, but when someone sees "oh this place also set up something dedicated solely to the thing I made, they must really like me and approve of the things I do/say!" and others who agree with their shitty views think "oh they agree too, otherwise why promote it?"

      Is it possible to separate the creatOR from the creatION? Yes. But not for everyone, and many of those who can't will see your support as support of their own shitty ideals that match the creators'.

      Sure, you may not be antisemitic, but the country club you go to for lunch sure is. Go ahead and pretend you're not supporting them I guess.

      • Is it possible to separate the creatOR from the creatION? Yes. But not for everyone, and many of those who can’t will see your support as support of their own shitty ideals that match the creators’.

        If it would be that easy, yes. But you ignore that H.P. does have a cultural value to it. Now you could try to re-build this, but first of all: it will be pretty hard to come up with something that no one feels offended by. And second of all: it will be pretty hard to come up with something that is equally popular.

        For me, this is about post-structuralism vs. structuarlism. The current zeigeist is all about "deconstruction", but if you de-construct everything, you are left with nothing. You need to build something new and that structure will always leave some room to deconstruct.

        So I'm for leaving some of these cultural structures even if they are in parts worth overcoming. In case of the social web, which the Fediverse tries to create: it will not work without some kind of cultural structure on which it is build. People don't want to spent time in a non-place, the Metaverse already failed because of that (at least its first try).

        Post-structuralism is bad. Its anti-liberal and currently a big problem on the left imo.

  • Look at what the collaboration of Lego and Disney brought to Fortnite.

    I'm not sure if this is the example you want to follow

  • I'm sorry, but as a cis heterosexual man who has trans friends and has turned away from all things Harry Potter and JK Rowling in utter disgust, this strikes me as attempting to ignore the obvious transphobia of the TERF author in the hope of keeping your head in the sand and residing in a place of nostalgia solely because transgendered people aren't the majority.

    I get your desire to grow the Fediverse, but if you want to create a community around a fandom, perhaps you should choose a piece of media that embraces inclusion rather than one that is simply popular?

    Stop looking into your past fandoms with nostalgic rose tinted glasses, acknowledge that you can't have Hogwartz without the hatred, and find media that is straight up more inclusive.

    • Damn, you gotts love those shortcuts. You love HP ? You're a transphobe biggot horrible person. Come on, grow up.

      • Nah. Didn't call you or anyone else a transphobe. Did i? Make your case that you're not simply wanting to enjoy HP while ignoring how hurtful JK's rhetoric has been to the trans community. You're turning a blind eye to the pain a minority community is enduring. That doesn't make you a transphobe, that makes you indifferent to the harm that trans people have and will continue to endure because of JK's transphobic bigotry.

        The company you keep isn't inherently transphobic, but it does show you don't care about this particular issue, which puts you in the company of transphobes. Again, the company you keep reflects on your character. And I personally find that crowd distasteful, and I'm on the internet expressing it as such until the conversation ends.

        I await another one of your witty retorts.

    • If you limit yourself to media created only by authors that past your particular purity test your going to have a very narrow view of the world. There is a reason the HP fandom is popular and I don't think it's because it's because it's made up of budding transphobes.

      • I don't think it's particularly hard to find authors who aren't actively spreading hate, actually. And I don't think Rowling's level of transphobia is a particularly specific purity test.

        Plus, Rowling takes an active role in promoting hate. She's loud about it. She has a big platform because HP is so popular, and I think that makes her especially dangerous.

        She certainly seems to put her money where her mouth is too.

      • I've read Rowlings original HP books. They were decent. My current stance is as simple as no longer supporting her work nor supporting groups that continue to. I'm calling out you and anyone else that thinks they can some how support trans rights and still enjoy the HP universe. You're trying to absolve yourself of somehow not being in the company of transphobic Harry Potter fans, when you clearly are. That doesn't make you inherently transphobic, but it does indicate that you love HP more than you dislike JK's transphobic rhetoric. Sure you can verbally condemn JK's transphobic rhetoric, but if you continue to engage with her content after having knowledge of her bigotry, it indicates you're willing to turn a blind eye to hate speech in the interest of nostalgia. Probably also out of loneliness and a desperation for community.

    • Holy fuck. I like Harry Potter and want to speak about it, so what? Because JK made a few announcements? Words do damage and I get that it's already hard being trans and she isn't helping. But acting like this is just building more walls, dividing an already fucked humankind for no good reason.

      I respect anyone's choice to be trans, but then you'll have to let me discuss HP without judgement as well. And if you won't, then you're the problem. Because I will still respect anyone trans, but I won't respect you.

      • for no good reason.

        Seems like a pretty good to reason.

        And choice to be trans? I dunno if it’s a choice anymore than I “choose” to love the same sex.

      • "choice to be trans"

        Well there you go, transphobia pretending to disguise itself. Go ahead and try to justify your wording, you've already lost plenty of people's respect. Of course if that "doesn't matter" to you, you probably shouldn't have brought it up.

      • Sure, the human race is particularly divided right now, but trying to create a fan group around a brand founded by an outspoken outright TERF who has done real harm to a marginalized group deserves to be called out for what it is: a group willing to turn a blind eye to hate speech.

        Saying we can somehow separate the good the work has done for some people, from the harm the author has done to the specific minority of trans people, is naive at best, and sympathizing with bigotry at worst.

        Think about the community you're trying to create. It is inherently anti-trans, by the very nature of it's association with the author.

        But hey, if that's the kind of company you'd like to keep, then at least we all know who you like to associate with.

  • Cool about the Queer part. HP though can go to hell.

    1. Good to have them all in one place so I can block them all at once.
    2. Same as #1
    3. Noted, but still the same as #1
    4. Same as #1
    5. No.
155 comments