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{{ambox|type=notice|issue=This article has been edited by a user associated with the topic. It may not reflect a neutral point of view.|image=none}}[[File:Lemmygrad.ml logo.png|thumb|285x285px|Logo of lemmygrad.ml.]]{{Multiple issues|{{POV}}{{tone}}}}
!{{Infobox website|name=Lemmygrad|
'''Lemmygrad''' is a principally [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist–Leninist]] instance of [[Lemmy (software)|Lemmy]] with [[Dengism|pro-China]] tendencies<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/668436 Please note Lemmygrad is a Marxist instance (principally Marxist-Leninist)!] by @CriticalResist8 (May 31, 2023) ''Lemmygrad''</ref> founded in August 2019. As of September 2023, the site is the fifteenth most popular instance of Lemmy,<ref name=":0">[https://the-federation.info/platform/73 Lemmy] ''the-federation.info''</ref> with it hosting nearly 50,000 posts and around 600 active users per month, although actual patterns of user activity varies.<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/ Lemmygrad.ml]</ref>
! colspan="2" |type=<small>Online forum<br>Troll farm<br>Spam host<br>Propaganda outlet</small>
|founding_date=<small>17 August 2019</small>|founder=<small>[https://lemmygrad.ml/u/muad_dibber Dessalines]<ref group="note">Who currently goes under the username of "Muad'Dibber".</ref>|num_users=<small>7,700 registered accounts<br>200 active users|url=<small>lemmygrad.ml</small>|espoused_ideology=<small>[[Dengism]]</small>|language=<small>English<ref group="note">English is the only language for the site interface. However, while most posts on Lemmygrad are in English, smaller communities exist which are based around a language other than English.</ref>|key_people=<small>[https://lemmygrad.ml/u/felipeforte Felipe Forte], [https://lemmygrad.ml/u/CriticalResist8 CriticalResist], and others}}
|}'''Lemmygrad''' is a pro-[[People's Republic of China|China]] online forum founded in 2019. The site is based around [[FOSS|free and open source]] software and is [[Fediverse|federated]] with similar forums.<ref>[https://www.makeuseof.com/best-fediverse-servers-create-online-community/ The Best Fediverse Servers to Create Your Own Online Community] by David Rutland (8 October, 2022) ''MUO''</ref> As of February 2023, the site hosts nearly 40,000 posts and around 200 active users.<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/ Lemmygrad.ml]</ref>


Lemmygrad is controversial on the [[Left-wing politics|left]] for the ideological stances most dominate in its community. The moderators of the forum, along with most of the usership, adhere militantly to pro-China ideology. Many users on Lemmygrad are currently banned from the site, and most of the banned users come from the related site lemmy.ml.<ref name=":1">[https://lemmygrad.ml/modlog Modlog] ''Lemmygrad''</ref>  
Lemmygrad was founded at a time when Reddit was cracking down on communist<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/Conservative/comments/cmwnnd/rchapotraphouse_has_finally_been_quarantined_for/ /r/ChapoTrapHouse has finally been quarantined for their repeated rule breaking and constant incitement of left-wing violence.] /r/Conservative at Reddit. 6 Aug 2019.</ref> communities as a way for communists to have their own space free of corporate rules and ownership.


The development of revolutionary movements and ideology is rarely considered on this site, with its rhetoric largely entailing defense for so-called "[[actually existing socialism]]", most notably, modern China. Users which do not fulfill this ideological stance are almost always banned by the moderators.<ref name=":2">[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/362912 The admins want your opinion on the Hoxhaism community.] by  @Farmer_Heck (26 August, 2022) ''Lemmygrad''</ref> The moderation itself is commonly said to be plagued with poor and ad-hoc moderation policies, along with a plethora of "informal rules" which the moderators enforce.<ref>[https://lemmy.ml/post/382275 New rule on hostility...] by @Whom (23 July, 2022) ''Lemmy''</ref>
According to an unpublished paper from data researchers at Binghamton and Cyprus Universities, lemmygrad.ml ranked among the top "domains of [[Tankie|tankies]]" on the internet.<ref>{{cite journal |title=A Data-driven Understanding of Left-Wing Extremists on Social Media |last=Utkucan |first=Balcı |last2=Sirivianos |first2=Michael |last3=Blackburn |first3=Jeremy|url=https://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.06981.pdf|journal=Unpublished; posted at ArXiv.org|accessdate=2023-07-23 |p=38}} Tables 11 and 12. See also text on pp. 23-25.</ref>
 
The moderators of the forum openly tolerate and at times even endorse the raiding of ideological opposed sites<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/c/redditactionfront Red Action Front community] ''Lemmygrad''</ref> (which commonly includes those owned by socialists) and virtual piracy.<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/c/leftpiracy Left Piracy community]  ''Lemmygrad''</ref>  


== History ==
== History ==


=== Founding and early developments ===
=== Founding and early developments ===
Lemmygrad was founded in August 2019, with its first post being on the 17th of that month.<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1 Lemmygrad's first post]</ref> Its initial moderator team and usership were largely composed of Dengists from various [[Telegram]], [[Reddit]], and [[Discord]] servers. However, other ideological groupings were provisionally allowed on the site as well.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20230218212951/https://lemmygrad.ml/c/trotskyists Trotskyism community on Lemmygrad]</ref>
Lemmygrad was founded in August 2019, with its first post being on the 17th of that month.<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1 Lemmygrad's first post]</ref>  
 
==== Reddit "migration" to Lemmygrad ====
In March 2022, the self-declared Dengist subreddit [[GenZedong]] was quarantined on Reddit for its promotion of disinformation and war propaganda within the context of the [[Russo-Ukrainian War|Russian Invasion of Ukraine]], and seemingly threatened with an impended ban. Its accompanying communities of "GenZhou" (its "educational" outlet) and "GenZhukov" (its "military history and tactics" outlet) were banned for their usage in evading the quarantine for GenZedong users as well as their alleged espousal of disinformation.<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/156859 Gezedong is quarantined] by @drstrangelove (23 March, 2022) ''Lemmygrad''</ref>


The Lemmygrad moderators would react to this by self-promoting their project on the GenZedong subreddit and Discord server. With the further assistance of the GenZedong administrators, this would prompt a so-called "migration" from Reddit to Lemmygrad in order to ensure that GenZedong users would be able to persist in their [[Denialism|denialist]] and [[Historical negationism|negationist]] content. Due to the size of GenZedong, Lemmygrad would temporally expand greatly. So much so, the moderators of Lemmygrad would soon refer to their forum as an "/r/genzedong replacement" and would admit that most of the activity of Lemmygrad took place with "migrated" GenZedong users on their site.<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/170744 <nowiki>[HOW TO:] Lemmygrad is more than just a knock-off subreddit replacement. Let’s actively leverage Lemmy’s federative structure in our favor!</nowiki>] by @Will (24 March, 2022) ''Lemmygrad''</ref> However, this large-scale increase in site activity was only temporally. As the year 2022 progressed and the GenZedong subreddit remained unbanned, most GenZedong users in Lemmygrad would return to their original subreddit. By January 2023, there only existed only about 50 active users on Lemmygrad, including the moderation team.<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/187158 I am concerned with the sustained activity of the subreddit.] by @weridpan ''Lemmygrad''</ref>
==== GenZedong migration ====
In March 2022, the [[GenZedong]] subreddit was quarantined on Reddit. As usual during a ban wave, it mostly targeted right-wing subreddits but a left-wing subreddit was added in the wave so that Reddit could claim they were impartial in their bans. Its accompanying communities of "GenZhou" (its educational outlet) and "GenZhukov" (its military history and tactics outlet) were banned, according to Reddit, for being used to evade the quarantine on GenZedong<ref>[https://old.reddit.com/r/genZhou GenZhou] on Reddit</ref><ref>[https://old.reddit.com/r/genZhukov GenZhukov] on Reddit</ref> despite being created prior to the quarantine.


==== Purported denial-of-service attacks ====
Lemmygrad received a huge influx of users at that time and had to establish user account vetting as, at the same time, trolls from GenUSA (a pro-US imperialism, chauvinist community made in response to the growing popularity of GenZedong) were also making accounts to troll Lemmygrad.
In March-to-May of 2022, Lemmygrad allegedly suffered denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against it, taking down the site for a number of hours. While the moderators of Lemmygrad claimed the perpetrators of the supposed attacks were [[Liberalism|liberals]] and [[Fascism|fascists]] who were organized on anti-communist subreddits, this claim is impossible to prove.<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/175422 We’re getting DDOSed] by @Ancient_Might_5820 (25 March, 2022) ''Lemmygrad''</ref><ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/247946 Apologies for lemmygrad being down some today, we’re working on it.] by @muad_dibber (17 May, 2022) ''Lemmygrad''</ref>


=== Later events ===
As a response to this huge influx of new users, the administrators of Lemmygrad made several posts to try and get them acclimated to Lemmygrad quickly, as it was different to Reddit in many ways (in the rules, the federation aspect, and the methods of moderating). Eventually, two moderators from GenZedong were made into site admins so there could be communication between the community of GenZedong and the administrators of Lemmygrad. One of them later agreed to leave the administration on amicable terms.
Lemmygrad, as it developed in mid-to-late 2022, woud experience notable ideological purges (commonly in the form of mass-bannings of ideological groupings on the site). These purges would result in most, if not all anti-China groupings being banned from the site.


==== Ideological purges ====
This increase in site activity was temporary and eventually subsided later in the year 2022. However, the c/GenZedong community on Lemmygrad remains the forum's most active community.


===== Purge of patriotic socialists and MAGA communists =====
==== Denial-of-service attacks ====
By 2022, an ideological conflict had developed relating to the presence of users under the persuasion of [[Patriotic socialism]].<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/300041 What is a Patriotic Socialist (Patsoc)?] by @leninenjoyer (3 July, 2022) ''Lemmygrad''</ref><ref group="note">Not to be conflated with Socialist patriotism, "Patriotic socialism" refers to the American-exclusive social-chauvinist ideology which rejects class struggle in favor of conspiracy-like thinking, supports bourgeois nationalism and chauvinism, and other such revisionist aspects.</ref> While this resulted in a number of internal debates over the nature of Patriotic socialist ideology (particularly relating to if Patriotic socialists were to be permitted on Lemmygrad), and the moderators decided to ban all patriotic socialists in July 2022.<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/300839 Lemmygrad mod team statement on “patriotic socialism”]</ref>
Along with the migration of the GenZedong community, Lemmygrad suffered denial-of-service (DoS) attacks against it, taking down the site for a number of hours at some points between March and May. This prompted the administrators of Lemmygrad to switch to another hosting provider with better (D)DoS protection, as well as update the Lemmy code to patch the vulnerabilities the attackers were using.


==== Creation of Lemmygrad.com ====
==== Purge of the c/Hoxhaism community and banning of Wisconcom ====
On September 23, banned patriotic socialists created a website called lemmygrad.com.<ref name=":4">[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/388618 An Urgent Reminder That This Has Been Created. Beware.] by @TheAnonymouseJoker (24 September, 2022) ''Lemmygrad''</ref>
In June 2022, a self-proclaimed Hoxhaist by the name of [https://lemmygrad.ml/u/wisconcom Wisconcom] would join Lemmygrad.ml. He would quickly center his posts around criticizing [[People's Republic of China|China]] specifically.<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/u/Wisconcom?page=1&sort=New&view=Comments Comments by u/Wisconcom on Lemmygrad.ml.]</ref> Other users of Lemmygrad, by and large supporters of the People's Republic of China ([[Dengists]]), began to argue with Wisconcom who did not budge on his views. Wisconcom was eventually banned from Lemmygrad for being overly combative after several user reports about his bad faith and insulting behavior,{{Cn}}although the founder of Lemmygrad later stated that he was banned for "ultra-leftism".<ref>https://lemmygrad.ml/comment/330430</ref>


A day of the creation of "Lemmygrad.com", it was taken down for supposed copyright issues.<ref name=":4" />
Wisconcom quickly created another account under the name of Ouisconkom<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/u/Ouisconkom u/Ouisconcom at Lemmygrad.ml]</ref> and created the c/Hoxhaism community. The community he had created was being used almost solely to criticize China and not, as the administrators had expected, used to talk about Hoxhaism or [[Enver Hoxha|Hoxha]] to any notable extent.{{Cn}} A post was made looking for user input on this community<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/362912 The administrators want your opinion on the Hoxhaism community] on Lemmygrad</ref> and the general consensus was the community should either be repurposed, or completely deleted and the creator banned for ban evasion. Eventually, the Lemmygrad community was in agreement that Wisconcom should be banned and the Hoxhaism community repurposed. However, due to the functioning of the Lemmy software at the time, his banning also deleted the communities that he had created.{{cn}}


==== Purge of Hoxhaists ====
Later, Wisconcom would come back to Lemmygrad under different alt accounts trying to bait and stoke trouble within the community.<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/468504 RationalWiki made an article about us] on Lemmygrad</ref><ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/468568 A message to Wisconcom] on Lemmygrad</ref><ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/497025 Possible Wisconcom alt] on Lemmygrad</ref> His accounts were quickly banned again for ban evasion.
On September 27, 2022, the Lemmygrad moderation would initiate another ideological purge. They banned many users, including members of the [[Hoxhaism]] community.<ref name=":1" /> Following this, the Lemmygrad moderation would create two new site rules, which banned patriotic socialism and anti-China trends respectively. While this second purge was able to remove remaining "Patriotic socialist" elements on Lemmygrad, it largely targeted anti-revisionist Marxist-Leninists.<ref name=":2" />


== Structure ==
==== Lemmygrad.com copycat site ====
In September 2022, alleged [[Patriotic socialism|patriotic socialists]] of the [[Infrared]] community created lemmygrad.com, a website that was meant to copy Lemmygrad but with a "[[MAGA Communist]]" purpose.


=== Moderation ===
The administrators of Lemmygrad, to protect their reputation, announced they had contacted lemmygrad.com's hosting provider on the grounds of copyright infringement (one of the only things they could do that went against the Terms of Services). The host replied very quickly and took down lemmygrad.com, although the domain name was still usable by its owner.
The site currently has effectively the same moderation teams as when it was founded in 2019. No election for moderation positions have taken place on the site. The currently moderators largely has extensive ties to other Dengist forums and propaganda outlets, with, for instance, moderator [https://lemmygrad.ml/u/felipeforte Felipe Forte] being the founder of the Dengist website [[ProleWiki]]. The moderation prevent non-revisionists from creating an account on the platform.


==== Coordination of raids against external sites ====
Presently, the domain redirects to a [[Transphobia|transphobic]] account on Twitter.{{cn}}
The site moderation openly promote users of Lemmygrad to organize raids (also known as "brigades") against external sites, commonly those which do not comply with their ideological line.<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/c/redditactionfront Reddit Action Front community] ''Lemmygrad''</ref> The moderators have, as of 2023, organized raids against 27 separate websites (most of which have been against socialists sites). The site generally targets subreddits, wikis, and Discord servers.<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/8060 <nowiki>[RAC] an anarchist streamer is looking to debate a Marxist-Leninist</nowiki>] by @CriticalResist8 [moderator] (13 September, 2020) ''Lemmygrad''</ref><ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/468504 RationalWiki made an article about us] by @Leninistkommus (23 December, 2022) ''Lemmygrad''</ref>


==== Online piracy ====
=== Formalisation of rules ===
The site allows and even promotes online piracy. Various communities on the site provide links to torrenting software, piracy websites, and the dark web. Many software piraters have created accounts on Lemmygrad in order to evade the administration policy on Reddit.<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/c/leftpiracy Left Piracy community] ''Lemmygrad''</ref>
In the same month of September, the administrators of Lemmygrad would formalize two rules they had always operated on:<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/379908 We have added two new rules] on Lemmygrad</ref>


==== The "People's Court" of Lemmygrad ====
* ''No porn or sexually explicit content (even if marked NSFW).''
The moderators have formed a "people's court" on Lemmygrad which officially exists to "discuss administrative issues in a more transparent manner" and provide "internal democracy", however, the function of this "people's court" entails little actual transparent discussion nor democracy. Even in instances where the community elects on a certain decision, the moderators rarely, if ever, abide by it. This "court" itself acts merely as a place where the moderators can "inform" the usership of certain decisions, although the rest of their administration is entirely secretive.<ref name=":2" />
* ''No right-deviationists ([[Patriotic socialism|Patsocs]], [[National Bolshevism|Nazbols]], [[Strasserism|Strasserists]], [[Aleksandr Dugin|Duginists]], etc).''


== Ideology ==
The first rule was formalized by popular demand, although like most Marxist spaces, Lemmygrad did not allow pornography or other sexual nudity content from the start.
Lemmygrad, like other Dengist communities, claims to follow "Marxism-Leninism" along with maintaining an "anti-imperialist" stance. However, their ideology is fundamentally little more than a deviation of Marxism-Leninism, with the Lemmygrad moderatorship of community defending social-imperialism and even bourgeois state such as the modern [[Russian Federation]].


=== Anti-science promotion ===
The second rule was also being operated on after some belligerent patriotic socialists attempting to create accounts on Lemmygrad and ultimately brought down the enjoyment the community had in using the website with their disruptive behavior.<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/239568 <nowiki>We have [re]instated the Dongistan community</nowiki>] on Lemmygrad</ref> However, it was formalized after lemmygrad.com was created as a basis to provide transparency to the community and make the banning of future patriotic socialists easier.
Lemmygrad formerly contained users promoting anti-science content such as claiming that ADHD does not exist. The community responsible for this, c/antipsychiatry, has since been banned along with its moderator Amicese.<ref name=":3">[https://lemmygrad.ml/c/antipsychiatry Anti-Psychiatry community] ''Lemmygrad''</ref>


=== Third Worldism ===
=== Merging of "Shit X Say" communities ===
Some users on Lemmygrad express Third-Worldist views, although the majority do not. The majority believe that the First World does contain an exploited [[proletariat]].<ref name=":0">[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/496069 On Third Worldism in the First World] by @Nameless_Partisan [moderator] (26 January, 2023) ''Lemmygrad''</ref>
Shit X Say communities, popular on Reddit (ShitLiberalsSay, ShitRedditSays...) were quickly brought over to Lemmygrad. For a while, c/ShitLiberalsSay was the biggest community. Eventually though, many more such communities were created by users and often left to abandon. Other users started complaining about these many communities that also, they felt, polluted their timeline and prevented them from seeing things other than hateful content. As such it was decided based on popular demand that all communities following the "Shit X Say" format would be merged under just two communities: ShitReactionariesSay and Shit[[Ultra-left|Ultras]]Say. No other community of this type would be permitted on Lemmygrad after this.


=== Social-imperialism and pro-Russian war propaganda ===
== Ideology ==
Lemmygrad supports Chinese and former [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics|Soviet]] social-imperialisn as well as Russian imperialism, including and particularly its current war in Ukraine. The leadership of Lemmygrad falsely views social-imperialism as being a mere "term" concocted by "Trotskyists".<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/comment/335088 Post by the Lemmygrad moderation]</ref>
Lemmygrad describes itself as "principally [[Marxist-Leninist]]" and supportive of "[[actually existing socialism]]". Users who do not entirely follow this line are allowed to some extent, may be subject to censorship and bans.  
 
During the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine, Lemmygrad users have actively propagated Ukrainophobic views, posting content which glorifies the suffering of the [[Ukraine|Ukrainian]] [[working class]], denying Russian warcrimes, claiming that Russia's imperialist action is an "anti-fascist liberation war", and even claiming that the majority of Ukrainians are followers of Nazism (called by the Lemmygrad users "Ukronazis").<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/post/444520 Kiev now. No lights and snowed in.] by @Shrike502 (25 November, 2022) ''Lemmygrad''</ref>
 
=== Views on LGBT+ ===
Lemmygrad supports the [[LGBT+]] community, and the community c/lgbt has over 400 users, although many are inactive.<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/c/lgbt c/lgbt]</ref> There is also a trans community with about 15 active users.<ref>[https://lemmygrad.ml/c/trans c/trans]</ref>
 
== Criticism ==


=== Lack of ideological discussion ===
Lemmygrad has made necessary changes to its working principles in response to its growth over the years as a community.{{relevance}}{{clarify}}
Lemmygrad has been frequently criticized for its lack of ideological diversity and discussion. All users on Lemmygrad are effectively required to follow Dengist ideology, and those who do not are banned hastily. As a result of this, the postings on the site regularly devolve into dull mockery of so-called "[[Ultra-left|ultras]]", without these "ultras" being able to actually defend their arguments. Thus making Lemmygrad an ideological "echo-chamber" of sorts.  


==See also==
== References ==
*[[Lemmy]]
*[[ProleWiki]]
*[[4chan]]
*[[8chan]]
==References==
<references />
<references />
===Notes===
===Notes===

Latest revision as of 18:59, 3 September 2023

Logo of lemmygrad.ml.

Lemmygrad is a principally Marxist–Leninist instance of Lemmy with pro-China tendencies[1] founded in August 2019. As of September 2023, the site is the fifteenth most popular instance of Lemmy,[2] with it hosting nearly 50,000 posts and around 600 active users per month, although actual patterns of user activity varies.[3]

Lemmygrad was founded at a time when Reddit was cracking down on communist[4] communities as a way for communists to have their own space free of corporate rules and ownership.

According to an unpublished paper from data researchers at Binghamton and Cyprus Universities, lemmygrad.ml ranked among the top "domains of tankies" on the internet.[5]

History

Founding and early developments

Lemmygrad was founded in August 2019, with its first post being on the 17th of that month.[6]

GenZedong migration

In March 2022, the GenZedong subreddit was quarantined on Reddit. As usual during a ban wave, it mostly targeted right-wing subreddits but a left-wing subreddit was added in the wave so that Reddit could claim they were impartial in their bans. Its accompanying communities of "GenZhou" (its educational outlet) and "GenZhukov" (its military history and tactics outlet) were banned, according to Reddit, for being used to evade the quarantine on GenZedong[7][8] despite being created prior to the quarantine.

Lemmygrad received a huge influx of users at that time and had to establish user account vetting as, at the same time, trolls from GenUSA (a pro-US imperialism, chauvinist community made in response to the growing popularity of GenZedong) were also making accounts to troll Lemmygrad.

As a response to this huge influx of new users, the administrators of Lemmygrad made several posts to try and get them acclimated to Lemmygrad quickly, as it was different to Reddit in many ways (in the rules, the federation aspect, and the methods of moderating). Eventually, two moderators from GenZedong were made into site admins so there could be communication between the community of GenZedong and the administrators of Lemmygrad. One of them later agreed to leave the administration on amicable terms.

This increase in site activity was temporary and eventually subsided later in the year 2022. However, the c/GenZedong community on Lemmygrad remains the forum's most active community.

Denial-of-service attacks

Along with the migration of the GenZedong community, Lemmygrad suffered denial-of-service (DoS) attacks against it, taking down the site for a number of hours at some points between March and May. This prompted the administrators of Lemmygrad to switch to another hosting provider with better (D)DoS protection, as well as update the Lemmy code to patch the vulnerabilities the attackers were using.

Purge of the c/Hoxhaism community and banning of Wisconcom

In June 2022, a self-proclaimed Hoxhaist by the name of Wisconcom would join Lemmygrad.ml. He would quickly center his posts around criticizing China specifically.[9] Other users of Lemmygrad, by and large supporters of the People's Republic of China (Dengists), began to argue with Wisconcom who did not budge on his views. Wisconcom was eventually banned from Lemmygrad for being overly combative after several user reports about his bad faith and insulting behavior,[citation needed]although the founder of Lemmygrad later stated that he was banned for "ultra-leftism".[10]

Wisconcom quickly created another account under the name of Ouisconkom[11] and created the c/Hoxhaism community. The community he had created was being used almost solely to criticize China and not, as the administrators had expected, used to talk about Hoxhaism or Hoxha to any notable extent.[citation needed] A post was made looking for user input on this community[12] and the general consensus was the community should either be repurposed, or completely deleted and the creator banned for ban evasion. Eventually, the Lemmygrad community was in agreement that Wisconcom should be banned and the Hoxhaism community repurposed. However, due to the functioning of the Lemmy software at the time, his banning also deleted the communities that he had created.[citation needed]

Later, Wisconcom would come back to Lemmygrad under different alt accounts trying to bait and stoke trouble within the community.[13][14][15] His accounts were quickly banned again for ban evasion.

Lemmygrad.com copycat site

In September 2022, alleged patriotic socialists of the Infrared community created lemmygrad.com, a website that was meant to copy Lemmygrad but with a "MAGA Communist" purpose.

The administrators of Lemmygrad, to protect their reputation, announced they had contacted lemmygrad.com's hosting provider on the grounds of copyright infringement (one of the only things they could do that went against the Terms of Services). The host replied very quickly and took down lemmygrad.com, although the domain name was still usable by its owner.

Presently, the domain redirects to a transphobic account on Twitter.[citation needed]

Formalisation of rules

In the same month of September, the administrators of Lemmygrad would formalize two rules they had always operated on:[16]

The first rule was formalized by popular demand, although like most Marxist spaces, Lemmygrad did not allow pornography or other sexual nudity content from the start.

The second rule was also being operated on after some belligerent patriotic socialists attempting to create accounts on Lemmygrad and ultimately brought down the enjoyment the community had in using the website with their disruptive behavior.[17] However, it was formalized after lemmygrad.com was created as a basis to provide transparency to the community and make the banning of future patriotic socialists easier.

Merging of "Shit X Say" communities

Shit X Say communities, popular on Reddit (ShitLiberalsSay, ShitRedditSays...) were quickly brought over to Lemmygrad. For a while, c/ShitLiberalsSay was the biggest community. Eventually though, many more such communities were created by users and often left to abandon. Other users started complaining about these many communities that also, they felt, polluted their timeline and prevented them from seeing things other than hateful content. As such it was decided based on popular demand that all communities following the "Shit X Say" format would be merged under just two communities: ShitReactionariesSay and ShitUltrasSay. No other community of this type would be permitted on Lemmygrad after this.

Ideology

Lemmygrad describes itself as "principally Marxist-Leninist" and supportive of "actually existing socialism". Users who do not entirely follow this line are allowed to some extent, may be subject to censorship and bans.

Lemmygrad has made necessary changes to its working principles in response to its growth over the years as a community.[relevant?][clarification needed]

References

  1. ↑ Please note Lemmygrad is a Marxist instance (principally Marxist-Leninist)! by @CriticalResist8 (May 31, 2023) Lemmygrad
  2. ↑ Lemmy the-federation.info
  3. ↑ Lemmygrad.ml
  4. ↑ /r/ChapoTrapHouse has finally been quarantined for their repeated rule breaking and constant incitement of left-wing violence. /r/Conservative at Reddit. 6 Aug 2019.
  5. ↑ Utkucan, Balcı; Sirivianos, Michael; Blackburn, Jeremy. "A Data-driven Understanding of Left-Wing Extremists on Social Media" (PDF). Unpublished; posted at ArXiv.org: 38. Retrieved 2023-07-23. Tables 11 and 12. See also text on pp. 23-25.
  6. ↑ Lemmygrad's first post
  7. ↑ GenZhou on Reddit
  8. ↑ GenZhukov on Reddit
  9. ↑ Comments by u/Wisconcom on Lemmygrad.ml.
  10. ↑ https://lemmygrad.ml/comment/330430
  11. ↑ u/Ouisconcom at Lemmygrad.ml
  12. ↑ The administrators want your opinion on the Hoxhaism community on Lemmygrad
  13. ↑ RationalWiki made an article about us on Lemmygrad
  14. ↑ A message to Wisconcom on Lemmygrad
  15. ↑ Possible Wisconcom alt on Lemmygrad
  16. ↑ We have added two new rules on Lemmygrad
  17. ↑ We have [re]instated the Dongistan community on Lemmygrad

Notes

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