• Oliver
      link
      fedilink
      English
      4411 months ago

      Probably because the need of moderation.

      If you host an instance and let people in (even if it’s a limited circle, i.E. your students) you are responsible for moderation. I think that’s something institutions back off currently.

      For an mail server that’s much easier.

        • SolidGrue
          link
          fedilink
          English
          1211 months ago

          Many Universities already have their own dedicated subreddits that are usually moderated by a mix of faculty, staff, and students. I know of at least one sub moderated in part by the chair oftheh math department, who is as funny as they are savage.

          An above-average level of shitposting goes on, sure, but it’s also a great venue for the school’s online community to engage across organizational boundaries.

      • @lemme_at_it@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        10
        edit-2
        11 months ago

        Universities used to have students involved in publishing magazines as journalists, editors etc. This is the evolution. I’m sure a decent sized uni could find or create a student group who can be responsible for moderation under an official administrator.

      • The dogspaw
        link
        fedilink
        English
        4
        edit-2
        11 months ago

        Then don’t let people post on the server people can repost if they want to comment

    • Phanatik
      link
      fedilink
      1511 months ago

      Universities have experimented with more private social networks. I remember YikYak back in my uni days. They either don’t have the resource to spin one up or they don’t know about it.

      • @cryball@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        911 months ago

        Might not qualify as a social network, but university hosted IRC servers were a thing once.

    • @shrugal@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      6
      edit-2
      11 months ago

      Because of the network effect and content aggregation. With emails you just want to reach a specific person, with public posts you want to reach as many people as possible. But I also think the whole ownership and control problem of centralized social networks wasn’t as apparent as it is now.

    • @zebs@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      411 months ago

      Back in my uni days (1997-01) my uni ran its own Usenet server. Don’t think it carried the alt.binaries, but did have groups specifically for the uni. Sadly only a small handful of people used it.

    • @brenno@lemmy.brennoflavio.com.br
      link
      fedilink
      English
      211 months ago

      Same here, and I doubt their IT departments knows deeply about Fediverse. Also some times the department making communication is non technical and not close to IT so people making decisions just choose what they know (Instagram, Twitter, etc). At least that was the case in the University I studied

      • @cryball@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        111 months ago

        It’s mostly the latter from what I’ve seen.

        At least in my country IT departments have very little wiggle room as organizations have gotten more rigid with increased control from the top echelons. Some universities in my country used to host a lot of cool services for students to use. Nowdays it seems that the legacy stuff is kept online as long as the people maintaining them are around.