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?

      • Travalaaaaaaanche!@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        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.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          There’s a fun documentary called How William Shatner Changed the World about all the scientists and inventors who have been inspired by Star Trek.

        • Broken_Monitor@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          I find star trek boring too, there’s a lot of far more interesting and exciting scifi out there so I really don’t get how it still has such a huge fan base still.

          That said, if they start dropping the hard Rs in Star Trek I will definitely tune in to that catastrophe.

          • jack55555@lemmy.ml
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            2 years ago

            Not everything needs to be action or drama packed. It’s like a good documentary, the premise is usually very exciting. Kind of like a what if.

    • Yardy Sardley@lemmy.ca
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      2 years ago

      I never really thought about it before, but it seems obvious now. Trekkies and open source tech folks would have a massive overlap, and Lemmy kind of exists perfectly within that intersection of utilitarian principles. So of course we would all find each other here.

  • ISometimesAdmin@the.coolest.zone
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    2 years ago

    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.

    • 👍Maximum Derek👍@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 years ago

      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.

      • constantokra@lemmy.ml
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        2 years ago

        And it’s a great example of how viable lemmy is as an alternative. Not sure about random subs, but any of the really nerdy ones could make the jump.

    • Actual@programming.devOP
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      2 years ago

      Both this and all other answers are good for different reasons. From what I’m reading, the beliefs and politics displayed within Star Trek are beyond progressive for the time it came out, while also shaping sci-fi. This creates a very committed fan base that when Reddit started acting up, they were able to move a large chunk of their user base away to Lemmy, since Lemmy is filled with similar-minded people.

  • nixcamic@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

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

    • Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml
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      2 years ago

      The funny irony is that assimilate is a slur in Canada due to its rich history of genocidal intent, to the point someone got into legal hot water because they had a novelty star trek license plate containing it and people thought they meant basically our equivalent of the n word.

      They had to explain to a bunch of people including the news what they actually meant and they were like “we don’t care, change it” which is especially rich coming from a culture and government which still continues assimilation-styled (as well as actual killing) genocide to this day.

  • Gabu@lemmy.ml
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    2 years ago

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

    You answered your own question, brother.

  • verity_kindle@sh.itjust.works
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    2 years ago

    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.

  • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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    2 years ago

    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

    • thezeesystem@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Do you know of a wiki or link to this about trek boards and first email? Search engines now a days are getting on my nerves about not showing what I typed into it.

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    2 years ago

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

      • Odum@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Wait but which O’Brien? Miles? Or the clone Miles that was meant to infiltrate the peace talk? Or the Miles from 7 hours in the future that just replaced the present day Miles? There’s just so many to choose from, it’s so hard

        • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
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          Or mirror O’Brien that thinks nothing of kidnapping Jake Sisko even after Real Sisko saved his life on multiple occasions.

  • Stoneykins [any]@mander.xyz
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    We may never have a good answer for why the gay nerdy communists love the colorful scifi communist space adventures

    • Meowoem@sh.itjust.works
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      If you’re trying to say the way ryker throws his leg over a chair is the cause of me becoming a communist programmer then I have to tell you that you are sorely accurate.

  • hesusingthespiritbomb@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    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.

      • pachrist@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        For real. It’s been at least top 3, and arguably top 2, for scifi my entire life.

        Star Trek has been at the top for nearly 60 years. In the US at least, you can turn over a rock anywhere and find a Star Trek fan.

            • Actual@programming.devOP
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              2 years ago

              I think it fits. Perhaps in Europe the fan base is less large. Star Wars, Harry Potter, and even Dune are what people around me are into. Though it’s mainly (only) just Star Wars.

              • Mothra@mander.xyz
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                2 years ago

                How do you define mainstream? Sure it has to vary with demographics etc. But if you ask any random person, “have you ever heard about Star Trek?” , you will get a yes for an answer in too many cases, even if they’ve never watched it. Show them images of the characters and they’ll likely go “aahhh yes those”. Compare that to something more obscure like “have you ever heard about Aeon Flux?” and you’ll probably get weird looks even though there are comics, a movie and an animated series of it. Star Trek may not be as popular as other franchises, but it is mainstream imo.

      • Telodzrum@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Yeah, IDK. As a huge Trekkie, I’ve been nothing but pleased that Trek forced its way into the mainstream without changing its progressive this-is-for-everyone values.

        • BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee
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          2 years ago

          im not a trek fan but i hear that a lot dont like how it became more action oriented than it should be. is that a true criticism?

          • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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            2 years ago

            Star Trek has always been more about diplomacy than violence.

            It is a trek between the stars, not a war.

            That said, it contains action, but it wasn’t the main selling point.

          • Gabu@lemmy.ml
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            2 years ago

            Very much so, yes. That’s what turned me off of Picard, for instance (and the whole “Earth is back to being a shithole after a single android attack” thing).
            The very obvious subtext of every good Star Trek episode and plot is that just talking things through is a good way to solve most problems. Newer writers don’t seem to have gotten the memo, and instead try to cram as much generic hollywood garbage as they can into the series.

          • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            That’s only an issue with some of the new trek series, not the classic ones from last century. I’m not really concerned with paying attention to the new ones at all.

          • Telodzrum@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            nuTrek (the Abrams movies) and Picard S1 were way more action than I was expecting and it made me like them a lot less than other properties. However, the vast majority of Trek is not action-oriented at all and is more about traditional science-fiction stories — providing an abstraction of real-world issues and approaching them through a philosophical lens with spaceships, alien races, and esoteric concepts as allegory.

      • hesusingthespiritbomb@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        I guess I mean this in a relative way.

        I can talk about Star Wars and basically everyone I know has a lot of context. Most people have watched a good amount of it. Even people who are explicitly not nerds know about it. Same with most comic stuff.

        Meanwhile Star Trek is still a lot more niche. People know the bare basics of what it is, but that’s about it. With the exception of my SO, I’ve met a grand total of two people who watch it.

        Also if someone knows a lot about Star Wars or Marvel they don’t necessarily know a lot about other nerd IPs. Meanwhile the people who knew about Star Trek also knew about shit like Farscape, Dark Matter, and other IP that just gets confused looks from most people.

      • Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 years ago

        That was pretty true for a long time but it’s changing as of the last decade or so

        I fucking love Star Trek and have since I was a kid 20+ years ago