HI – I'm wondering:

  1. If support for private communities with a restricted member list within a Lemmy instance that is otherwise public is on the drawing boards for future implementation? Timeframe? Or just a someday since we are mostly volunteers?

  2. If not, where would be the best place for me to submit this feature request?

Trying to weigh several factors as to whether or not to keep my Lemmy instance operational. My use case is I'm trying to attract an audience of users (mental health professionals) who seem to be just not interested in discussions on Lemmy if they are open to the public. If they want an anonymous account to discuss other topics (I allow these too), they can just open one anywhere. (Yes, I've done more marketing than most, but that's another topic.)

Thanks, Michael

  • Shadow@lemmy.ca
    1·
    1 year ago

    Federation and private communities aren’t really compatible. If any instance needs to pull your posts for federation, any user can too.

      • Shadow@lemmy.ca
        2·
        1 year ago

        Pretty much. If you want a community with limited posting access I can see that happening, but limited read access seems opposite to the ideals behind lemmy.

        I’m curious though - if you’re looking for private communities, then what’s the point of a federated platform like lemmy? What are you looking to gain from federation?

        • Michael Reeder LCPC@lem.clinicians-exchange.orgOP
          2·
          1 year ago

          Shadow – The point is to have the best of both worlds. So a person could join the Lemmy instance and participate in all the Federated communities. Then, they could be vetted for the private community (which is not Federated – only on that instance), in order to discuss more private matters.

          Not extremely secret stuff, more along the lines of “I’m a psychotherapist and I’m having depression issues myself” or “I have a depressed 23-year-old female client with symptoms of … Do you all have some treatment recommendations”. Stuff that is back-channel and maybe the whole world should not read.

          Despite their various evils – Facebook, Tumblr, and Reddit all have both open and closed communities. Of course these platforms are no doubt reading the “private” communities and monitizing it quietly in some way. Maybe even selling the data out the back door…

          Anytime people need a bit of trust and privacy at a distance this becomes a good idea. A young mother’s group wanting to exchange advice and support on breastfeeding, an LGBTQ group at a particular somewhat hostile college in Texas, etc.

          Yes, old-fashioned BBS systems (remember FidoNet?) do this – but then non-technical people have to learn a new BBS login every blessed time they want to access one of their particular closed groups. So you do it all through Lemmy for some convenience.

          – Michael