this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2023
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Asklemmy

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Every single large server in this federation has at least one Star Trek community. There is even an entire server dedicated to Star Trek.

Not only that, these communities are some of the most active I've ever seen. There is no other franchise I know of that dominates the federation as much as Star Trek does.

So, what's the correlation with Lemmy and Star Trek? Why not other sci-fi series? Please, are there any connections?? Is this all coincidental?

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[โ€“] PonyOfWar@pawb.social 377 points 1 year ago (2 children)

dominates the federation

Well there you have it.

[โ€“] halm@leminal.space 84 points 1 year ago (1 children)

federates the Dominion

FTFY

[โ€“] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 60 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Federate the Dominion? Are you joking?

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[โ€“] Bongles@lemm.ee 167 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I think it's nerds. /s

I think a lot of the lemmy userbase are at least somewhat techy (also see the Linux communities), and a lot of techy people like Star Trek.

[โ€“] Namstel@lemmy.one 57 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[โ€“] Travalanche@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Eh, more like Trekkies are techies. I would consider myself somewhat of a techie, definitely nerdy, and very much into sci-fi, but I really don't give a shit about Star Trek. I've seen a lot of it, just because I've had a couple girlfriends that really enjoyed it, but otherwise I probably wouldn't have watched any after my childhood.
Now, if HBO were to do a hard R version, I'd probably get into it.

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[โ€“] thecrotch@sh.itjust.works 118 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, you see, Lemmy is full of nerds and communists.

[โ€“] nixcamic@lemmy.world 102 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Why is the show about gay space communism popular on the gay space communism network?

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[โ€“] ISometimesAdmin@the.coolest.zone 102 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So others have already talked about how great Star Trek is. I agree with them, but I think that literally everyone has missed the point of your question:

https://startrek.website

It's its own lemmy instance. It was spawned from the migration away from reddit, and it's stayed alive since. So combine an active former-reddit community with lemmy and a good reason to all rally around, and finally the final ingredient of federation, and the Star Trek related rooms will always be on every server, and they'll always be populated.

[โ€“] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 66 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, I think this is a big part of it. The Star Trek sub's total abandonment of Reddit and conversion to a standalone Lemmy instance during the Blackout was a big deal and a big driver of traffic in those days and beyond.

Star Trek is big in the Threadiverse for the same reason that Earth is big in the Federation. They were a massive force in the early days.

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[โ€“] intensely_human@lemm.ee 97 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Asking why Star Trek dominates the Federation? tsk tsk tsk

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[โ€“] peopleproblems@lemmy.world 95 points 1 year ago (3 children)
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[โ€“] Gabu@lemmy.ml 80 points 1 year ago

no other franchise I know of that dominates the federation as much as Star Trek does.

You answered your own question, brother.

[โ€“] verity_kindle@sh.itjust.works 78 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Because Trek fans were the first to organize conventions. They started out small in the late 60s. Now every single weekend, somewhere on this planet, there's a Trek convention being held. The conventions also raise massive money for charity. They are the nerds other nerds want to be, in terms of organization. I'm here for the memes.

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[โ€“] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 76 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Most of the internet was started with Star Trek boards. If I recall correctly, one of the first emails ever sent was about Star Trek

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[โ€“] kerrigan778@lemmy.world 75 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Ah yes, the nostalgic leftist scifi show that defined generations is popular amongst the left leaning members of the nostalgia generation.

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[โ€“] Stoneykins@mander.xyz 71 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We may never have a good answer for why the gay nerdy communists love the colorful scifi communist space adventures

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[โ€“] FangedWyvern42@lemmy.world 68 points 1 year ago

federated platform full of nerds

asks why there are Star Trek fans

Guess.

[โ€“] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 67 points 1 year ago

Thr "federation" you say? ;)

[โ€“] regdog@lemmy.world 58 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Because I want to see Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism happen in my lifetime.

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[โ€“] hesusingthespiritbomb@lemmy.world 58 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The Lemmy community is disproportionately made up of either computer nerds or queer people.

Star Trek is basically the most popular nerd IP that hasn't been successfully brought into the mainstream, and is known for being progressive.

[โ€“] Ilikecheese@lemm.ee 23 points 1 year ago (14 children)

hasn't been successfully brought into the mainstream

Wat?

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[โ€“] BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee 57 points 1 year ago (3 children)

there is also a lot of communities about programming and linux

there's only 1 common denominator here. we are all nerds

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[โ€“] Cowbee@lemm.ee 56 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Same reason Linux is popular on Lemmy. Lemmy is essentially an explicitly leftist community that appeals to people nerdy and techy enough to leave Reddit and join a smaller platform. Linux is a FOSS, ie leftist techy OS. Star Trek is leftist Sci-Fi.

Nerds, tech, and leftism all congregate on Lemmy.

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[โ€“] KingJalopy@lemm.ee 55 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Almost like it's some kind of federation...

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[โ€“] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 48 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[โ€“] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

Most people like the concept of post-scarcity space socialism...

Who would've thought people don't want to work until they die on a dying planet, huh?

[โ€“] dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 47 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Star Trek (esp 90s Trek and esp TNG) is extremely formative for most Gen Xers and Millennials. It's unapologetically nerdy and has themes of tolerance and empathy, and establishes a utopian vision for the future that (to most people) is unfathomable. When we're not on Lemmy, we're talking about Trek with people in person.

[โ€“] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 45 points 1 year ago (4 children)

because star trek has long been welcoming to gay and trans people for their inclusiveness and the fediverse is home to a lot of nerds and gay or trans (or both) people. ๐Ÿ’•

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[โ€“] YeetPics@mander.xyz 44 points 1 year ago (3 children)

dominates the federation

Say it again so the kids in back can hear ye

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[โ€“] Custoslibera@lemmy.world 42 points 1 year ago

Two words.

Fully automatic gay space communism.

[โ€“] TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone 40 points 1 year ago (21 children)

Star Trek just kinda kicks ass.

What, you haven't seen Deep Space Nine?? Cmon what're you doing? Fix that!

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[โ€“] barsoap@lemm.ee 35 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

Because Babylon 5 ended in 1998 and the reboot isn't even in production yet. Also MGM doesn't have the faintest idea what it's supposed to do with Stargate.

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[โ€“] MoonRaven@feddit.nl 33 points 1 year ago

Are you telling me there aren't enough star trek communities?

[โ€“] SendMePhotos@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Federation. Star Trek. IT. Linux. Programming socks. Gay. Furries.

This sums up the vocal group here. There are others, but these seem to be the most common.

[โ€“] Meowoem@sh.itjust.works 23 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Jesus, just call me out by name if you're going to be so specific

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[โ€“] misophist@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago (21 children)

Lemmy is filled with leftists and geeks. They're the same demographic.

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[โ€“] redcalcium@lemmy.institute 32 points 1 year ago (2 children)

star trek mods successfully moved their communities from reddit back then. afaik the only other community with similar success is the piracy community.

[โ€“] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Trek fully embraced the principals of piracy. "You wouldn't download a car"? Motherfucker, here's a replicator.

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[โ€“] DigitalTraveler42@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Lemmy is socialist by nature, and so is Trek, but also it's Trek, one of the two most iconic Sci-fi franchises available, Reddit was basically the same way but with Star Wars, but for some reason there seemed to be far too many people on the dark side and simping for the empire and Vader.

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[โ€“] cheeseburger@lemmy.ca 29 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Anecdotally I have the impression a lot of North American Lemmy users are technology professionals and enthusiasts in their 40s and 50s and therefore many would also be Trekkies from the 20th century.

[โ€“] tgxn@lemmy.tgxn.net 28 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Hey, some of us are in our 30's too!

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[โ€“] LostWon@lemmy.ca 24 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Infinite diversity in infinite combinations.

(Also, DS9 was the best.)

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Others have brought up other reasons, but one I haven't seen is simply the depth of material to work with. Trek has had multiple multi-season series and tons of movies, which means you can basically find the right image for any meme if you watch enough of it.

[โ€“] AgentGrimstone@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not that into Star Trek but until other scifi communities I'm actually into get as active as Star Trek, I'll be hanging out with the trekkies.

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