Add a local user setting to filter out image / meme posts, similar to NSFW filtering

[MaximilianKohler]

Requirements

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• Did you check to see if this issue already exists?
• Is this only a feature request? Do not put multiple feature requests in one issue.
• Is this a backend issue? Use the lemmy-ui repo for UI / frontend issues.
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Is your proposal related to a problem?

There are topics I'm interested in, but even though many communities have quality content the memes get voted to the top so they're all I get to see on my front page. I do not want to see memes (low-quality, mindless content designed to keep mindless people infinitely scrolling) from any community.

Eg: https://lemmy.ca/c/fuckcars

Meme top post with 600 votes https://lemmy.ca/post/27666789

Quality content with 9 votes from the same day https://lemmy.ca/post/27685968

I'm unsure whether it's backend or frontend. I would guess both.

Describe the solution you'd like.

It could be similar to NSFW and language filters.

Ideally, I'd also like to block any user who upvotes those kinds of posts, as I do not want to interact with the kind of people who help proliferate that type of content. But that's probably more appropriate for a 3rd party addon after votes become public to everyone and "true block" gets implemented.

Describe alternatives you've considered.

Block all communities that upvote memes to the top. Unfortunately, this completely removes many communities I would otherwise be interested in.

Additional context

No response

[dullbananas]

An alternative solution is sorting methods that ignore votes from people whose age is too different from the viewer's age. This requires storing people's year of birth, which #4786 proposes.

[MaximilianKohler]

I'm doubtful that this can be solved by calculating age differences. I also agree with Nutomic's comment in the linked issue that people are unlikely to share that information.

[dessalines]

Another good way around this problem (IE a way to block meme content), would be to add a back-end filter that filters out all image-type url posts. That way you could avoid people having to explicitly tag things as memes, since people probably wouldn't anyway.

[MaximilianKohler]

That way you could avoid people having to explicitly tag things as memes, since people probably wouldn't anyway

Doesn't it work quite well for NSFW content? Filtering image posts could be a good method though too.

BTW, here is a good blog that expands on the issue with low-quality content:

The Cargo Cult of The Ennui Engine https://medium.com/@max.p.schlienger/the-cargo-cult-of-the-ennui-engine-890c541cebcb

I think Reddit massively degraded itself when the admins purposely started pushing easily digestible, low-quality content in order to appeal to the mainstream, and thus get more users to sell advertisements to.

If any platform could fight against this, it would be one like Lemmy that is not focused on getting more customers to sell ads to.

[TheOneImprove]

Another good way around this problem (IE a way to block meme content), would be to add a back-end filter that filters out all image-type url posts.

Clients already implement filtering, a good example is summit for lemmy.

I don't think implementing a backend filter would be efficient.

[dessalines]

@TheOneImprove Clients don't or shouldn't do their own filtering, they're using the back-end filters we provide.

[Sjmarf]

@dessalines Some clients do currently filter this themselves. It would be nice if filtering out image posts was available on the backend, so less API requests need to be made.

(Keyword filtering would also be nice)

[UmBottesWillen]

Similar to a 'meme' tag, I'd appreciate a differentiation between violent nsfw and pornographic nsfw tags.

[dessalines]

These are the types of things that get endlessly complex very quickly, so I don't think we should support any more than one nsfw tag.

I'm going to retitle the issue to something that adds a filter or local user setting to block image posts, which satisfies this issue.

[UmBottesWillen]

While filtering for images alleviates the immediate problem, I think a robust tagging/flairing system would benefit Lemmy greatly. Many subreddits have custom flairs, such as question, discussion or sub-specific flairs. Adding official flair support would put Lemmy ahead of Reddit in that regard. This could also come with 'wrongful tagging/flairing' report options, as well as an automod that automatically removes flairs from a post, if that post has been reported for wrongful flairs too often.

[dessalines]

There are other issues for tagging / flair, and one PR open that's going to start that process. That's separate from this issue.