Why does Lemmy feel so fresh compared to Reddit?

As a long time Reddit user, there's something about Lemmy and the fediverse that feels really refreshing and new. I think it has to do with a few things...

  1. People are more respectful of each other and interested in discussion and being social.
  2. Less trolls (users are probably older?)
  3. Due to it not being absolutely huge, I feel like people will actually see my posts and comments instead of being lost in a sea of content. I suppose once Lemmy grows this will change, however the cool thing about the fediverse are the new servers. So you can stick to the server when you want smaller community discussion and go to "all" when you want more populated threads.
  4. The clean UI feels refreshing and clean, almost like the early internet.

What have you noticed? Do you find it refreshing too?

jenings,
@jenings@lemmy.world avatar

Not to pat ourselves on the back too much but right now it’s mainly the Reddit power users that are here. The normies are wondering why interesting as fuck was flooded with porn as of last night.

Nugget_in_biscuit,

But that’s good, no? The power users are the minority that actually build the community. So we get the core base of Reddit without the problems you get from that site trying to become more like Facebook and TikTok

PenguinJuice,

This is the truth. It's a lot of what OG Reddit felt like before it became basically anonymous Facebook 2.0

chaddy,
@chaddy@feddit.de avatar

I would consider myself a normie, specifically regarding reddit, as I only spent my time lurking there and already have more comments on lemmy than on 7 years on reddit.

The current vibe and atmosphere just feels kind of special. Almost everyone is figuring stuff out, no one is down voted for asking some basic questions and I don't have the feeling that some grammar nazi is immediately around the corner to correct my many mistakes, just to get that sweet, sweet karma.

HorrorSpirit,
@HorrorSpirit@lemmy.ml avatar

Same here. I was also predominantly a lurker on reddit, as even when i wanted to comment something it did not feel safe, for lack of better word. Here i feel much more free to comment my mind. I hope it stays that way. For someone who was too young to experience the “old internet” it feels great to have a new and improved modern analog.

bigbox,

No repost bots, karma farming, or idiots (mostly). The learning curve to joining the fediverse filters out your average facebook/twitter type that Reddit is filled with today. Lemmy right now is how Reddit was a decade ago

zettajon,

The learning curve to joining the fediverse filters out your average facebook/twitter type that Reddit is filled with today.

Let’s call a spade a spade lol this is honestly it.

rozno,
@rozno@roznotech.xyz avatar

It’s really not hard to sign up either; for how small the barrier to entry actually is, it’s made a huge difference in demographics

Konman72,

Agreed. All of the comments against the protests on Reddit kind of give it away in how little they seem to actually understand how Reddit works and what made it great for so long. They see it as just another feed for them to browse and not a community to foster and participate in. Lemmy feels so great in comparison.

JoeBidet,
@JoeBidet@lemmy.ml avatar

Because it’s run by the people for the people! :)

loffiz,

Agree on all your points! Not trying to sound arrogant here but I think content gets a lot more "bland" with more users, or at least in communities without great passion. It's much more personal here and posts generally puts interesting thoughts in my head as opposed to reddit.

Lurra,
@Lurra@lemm.ee avatar

Definitely people here are much more polite, the contrast is just striking.

Griff,

(Love your pfp!)

Haan,

I haven't seen a single comment that began with "Imagine.." yet. The lack of immature and pointless sarcasm is a breath of fresh air

bigbox,

Those users aren’t intelligent enough to understand what the Fediverse is, why they should use it, or even how to sign up.

_haha_oh_wow_,
@_haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works avatar

Because it is?

interdimensionalmeme,

I think because everyone has their own corners, the common spaces don’t need to be as toxic. Also, Lemmy’s population is self selected because of the still high bar to entry. Lemmy basically feels like early Reddit. The hostile influence of moderators and the backlash anger everyone feels from being mistreated by them into silence is not yet here.

random72guy,
@random72guy@lemmy.world avatar

Passion. The people here care enough to have not only left Reddit, but to have made a new community here.

original_reader,

I love this comment. I want to believe it to be true.

Spliffman1,
@Spliffman1@lemmy.world avatar

Totally agree man, it's a refreshing change lol... I've popped back to a couple subs I check and noticed the difference right away over there.

jonuno,
@jonuno@lemmy.ml avatar

I love how when I’m creating a post, it acts as a search box that finds similar already existing posts.

Wander,
@Wander@yiffit.net avatar

You don't have your post deleted for forgetting a minor rule and there's a chance that your post will be seen instead of hidden under countless new posts.

Vlyn,
@Vlyn@lemmy.ml avatar

Even worse when you browse /r/all, find an interesting post about some topic, join the discussion, type out a long reply, hit send…

And 3 seconds later you get an automod message that your comment was removed. Because you aren’t a subscriber to that (default!!!) sub, or you aren’t verified, or you used a word they don’t like.

And even worse: You join a discussion, got some good points back and forth, everything is great. You try to reply to the latest comment in that chain to keep the conversation up and suddenly your comments get blocked. Because it was a /r/blackpeopletwitter post (you didn’t even notice as you found it on /r/all) and at some point they only locked it down for verified black users, kicking you out of the discussion.

I mean sure, have your own space on Reddit (even if it’s basically racism), that’s fine. But then subs like these shouldn’t be default subs on /r/all when they constantly lock down threads.

aski3252,

I think right now, there are a lot of passionate old school reddit users on lemmy who are exited about it and eager to participate and who are finding a lot of things they were missing from reddit.

The community is a lot smaller and made up largely of enthusiasts.

CalcProgrammer1,
@CalcProgrammer1@lemmy.ml avatar

Definitely this, Lemmy feels like the early days of Reddit. I wasn’t a super early Reddit user as I came over just before the Digg migration (and mostly used Digg prior to the migration) but 2010 Reddit felt quite different to modern Reddit. Lemmy recaptures that smaller community feel, but I am excited to see it grow.

bionicjoey,

Less repost bots. Seriously, I'm pretty sure 1/3 of posts I would see on Reddit were repost bots.

May,
@May@kbin.social avatar

Thats a big one i think. Iirc people would use an extension (or maybe a 3rd party app?) to block those users that commonly repost things and for a period of time i saw people saying their feed changed a lot on Reddit just from that. Tho Idk if thatd change much lately bc a lot of reposts I saw before coming here were from new account that were bots tryna build karma :/

CIWS-30,

Other people have made good points, but one I've noticed is that there's no advertising or profit motive (so far) and there's also no leadership that encourages dark patterns like increasing negative engagement through encouraging stuff like doomscrolling or starting or continuing arguments.

I'm on Kbin, and I like how by default all the notifications are turned off. So people aren't automatically told to respond to every little thing they participate in. If they really care, they have to manually go back on check on things they wrote about or were engaged in. Makes it less likely that people will argue endlessly, lowering the quality of posts and replies, and derailing them with long subthreads of off topic discussions or arguments.

unix_joe,
@unix_joe@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

There aren't any bots here promoting a narrative, or auto-downvoting people. From around 2015 until its final days, Reddit was manipulated by business and political entities to steer groupthink. Turning off reddit unplugs you from the Matrix, so to speak.

On Lemmy specifically: its a higher barrier to entry, there's less karma chasing here. Especially if you aren't on one of the larger Lemmy instances. It feels like a community and not like karma-whoring. In my preferences, I turned off viewing the number of votes a comment has, which is nice.

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