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?

N1cknamed,
@N1cknamed@kbin.social avatar

This is a group of like-minded, technology-affluent users that most likely have a higher average age than Reddit.

CynAq,
@CynAq@kbin.social avatar

As well as higher average IQ, it feels like.

Kichae, (edited )

IQ probably has little to do with it. It's socialization and learned expectation that are acting as a filter currently.

CynAq,
@CynAq@kbin.social avatar

Yeah, of course. It was a tongue in cheek comment that didn't land well.

Kichae,

Ah. I got woooshed!

clobubba,

Barriers to entry occasionally have positive side effects. The current dynamic in and around the Fediverse reminds me of how dial-up bulletin boards self-selected for computer-literate (and typically intelligent) users. I suppose that implies that we should also expect our own Eternal September, too.

CynAq,
@CynAq@kbin.social avatar

If the adoption rate continues and quality of life improvements such as efficient mobile apps keep getting made, I think it's inevitable. But I also think it can be a good thing, especially if the distributed instance culture with semi-independent communities persist. If the culture shifts so much to instances just being nodes into the larger "verse" so to speak, the general experience could shift a lot with it.

In any case, with all the different user experiences available already with Mastodon, kbin, lemmy, Calckey, Pixelfed and Peertube offering vastly different experiences into the same ecosystem, it'll be a lot more diverse I believe as everyone will find their own comfort zone.

tehgamemail,
@tehgamemail@lemmy.ml avatar

I felt like Reddit was plagued by the mainstream user during the pandemic. I used to go on Reddit to lurk subs like r/Carding to understand how people(criminals?) steal credit card credentials and dump the balances.

By reading them I change the way I manage my own OPSEC. I could read just about anything there. Now it’s all banned or tightly moderated. Can’t say this can’t say that. Hope lemmy won’t be the same.

samus12345,
@samus12345@lemmy.world avatar

If you don't like it, you can always set up your own instance here. That's the beauty of it!

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 :/

skip0110,
@skip0110@lemm.ee avatar

You kind of notice how annoying all that corporate fluff and UI optimized to serve you advertising is when it’s gone.

SirEDCaLot,

This is absolutely true, and this is how the internet was back in the old days before Big tech and megaplatforms. People would set up little servers on their cable modems using spare laptops. It was experimental, it was imperfect, but it was ours. One side effect of this, was that you had to be at least a little bit smart to get yourself connected to it. Even if that just meant knowing that connecting to it was something that you wanted to do. That weeded out a lot of idiots who contribute low quality discussion. Also, because there is no giant company with a financial incentive to get everybody to use it as much as possible, things were built for raw functionality rather than trying to make them easy for people to get addicted to in 30 seconds. That naturally makes them more usable for anybody with an IQ over 90.

Also, no advertisements. No sponsored posts.

neanderthal,

Also, no advertisements.

It didn't take long for ads to come along. Remember the 90s banners where you would punch the monkey to win $20? Or the text links that were ads? Pop ups?

SirEDCaLot,

Okay that's fair- I'm sure some instances will choose to advertise in some way.

TBH I'm more concerned about spam. Reddit has an army of anti-spam stuff, and that's just one site. As Lemmy grows, it will become a spam target, which will be more challenging due to its open nature (IE spammers will spin up their own instances eventually). I suspect that much like e-mail, some kind of RBL list will emerge.

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.

rr7,

Agree, agree, agree, agree!

tyo_ukko,

I have also noticed the absence of alt-right/populist right-wing people. But that could go under your point 2. It's refreshing nevertheless.

Also less guerilla marketing. Not missing that shit one bit.

PrivateNoob,

Are trolls more likely to be alt-right? Idunno, I think all sides can have the same ratio of trolls in them.

bobs_monkey,

True, but there's also a lovely Venn diagram where a significant overlap exists. No one's perfect, but a certain mindset definitely leans more towards being a dick to people than not.

tyo_ukko,

I'm sure for many trolls the goal is mainly to cause a reaction, and I think the alt-right stuff is an easy way to do so. Maybe that's a better way to put it.

Then there's the crowd that populated r/the_donald back in the day. Not sure how much of that was just trolling, but I'm certainly glad not to see that activity here.

PrivateNoob,

Honestly seeing alt-right trolls here sounds logical, since Lemmy is definitely more progressive leaning.

bobs_monkey,

I've seen a few, but they were mostly contained to more random offshoot instances, and those stirring up bullshit were booted pretty quick.

I think the inherent instance ownership gives admins a greater sense of pride to keep their localities positive, and a lot off us are still feeling from what reddit became in the last 5ish years and there's a communal sense of keeping that outta here.

And yes, at least for now. Hopefully those marketing ploys are readily apparent and get kicked to the curb quickly.

sideone,
@sideone@lemmy.world avatar

People are more respectful of each other

Less trolls

I think you mean fewer 😜

floofloof,

I see what you’re doing there, but it caused me real pain on Reddit that no one could do effect/affect or reins/reigns or populace/populous or phenomenon/phenomena or you’re/your or they’re/their/there or lose/loose or who/whom or counsel/council or “she and I”/“her and me” or may/might or i.e./e.g. or its/it’s or lay/lie or pique/peak or pore/pour or… sorry, I’m a bit anal and a bit traumatized. Anal trauma, if you will.

sideone,
@sideone@lemmy.world avatar

Sounds uncomfortable

PrivateNoob,

I have noticed similar things, just like you. Here are mine:

  1. More respectful, thought-provoking commenters
  2. Being early on a fundamentally different site is cool (federated vs centralized)
  3. In really small sublemmies (Less than 10 posters I guess) I kinda get the small village feeling, where eventually everyone will know eachother, which is kinda wholesome.
MentalEdge,
@MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz avatar

I'm really liking number 3, as well. Hello PrivateNoob!

PrivateNoob,

Literally you're the reason why I wrote the third one. ^^

SkyNTP,

I feel like I’m eavesdropping a private conversation.

samus12345,
@samus12345@lemmy.world avatar

I'll translate your comment into Reddit-speak: "now kith"

StarLuigi,
@StarLuigi@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I just wanted to say I love your banner and profile picture, what are they from?

PrivateNoob,

Oh, thank you for the compliment! I don't know if they are a specific character from a series or a video game, I just took them from Pinterest. With the banner, I specifically wanted to find a wallpaper that captures a bit of retrowave internet aesthetics.

OSHI NO KO ENJOYER. It's a pleasure to meet you.

StarLuigi,
@StarLuigi@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Pleasure to meet you as well!

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.

chaddy,
@chaddy@feddit.de avatar

I think the lack of a karma equivalent, and thus karma farming, results in much more thought out and unique posts/comments.

WalrusDragonOnABike,

Torn between replying with "this!" as a meme about how generic responses like that are used to farm karma and making a joke about how "of course someone with only 1 reputation point would say there's no karma equivalent." Idk how reputation works and if its only internal to instances or a shared across instances. But its possible it does become a karma equivalent in the future.

DoucheAsaurus,
@DoucheAsaurus@kbin.social avatar

Reputation seems borked at the moment, it counts downvotes but not upvotes so I'm sitting at -34 right now lol

Kantiberl,
@Kantiberl@kbin.social avatar

Boosting is the only way for reputation to go up. I boosted you for science.

Very_Bad_Janet,

Interesting! I gave you a boost as well, also for science. Funny how we all seem to be tinkering and figuring what does what here.

ivanafterall,
@ivanafterall@kbin.social avatar

I'm not sure I feel comfortable taking advice from a person with -51 reputation...

Kantiberl,
@Kantiberl@kbin.social avatar

Ooo everybody come look at Mr. Non-controversial over here with his +40 reputation.

cunnilingsus,
@cunnilingsus@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Do you mind explaining what boosting is for us on Lemmy?

Kantiberl, (edited )
@Kantiberl@kbin.social avatar

It adds your comment to my profile feed if anyone is following me. I think it's a way to work better with Mastodon like sites but I don't really know. I understand that @ernest is in the midst of changing that.

chaddy, (edited )
@chaddy@feddit.de avatar

Lol, I think the first one would definitely have flown over my head without explanation. Also, I don't know if it's instance specific, but I can't seem to find my reputation on my profile, neither on feddit.de(lemmy-ui) or Jerboa. Where do you get that information?

Maybe it could be useful for moderators or admins to access that information? But that also poses the risk of accounts "reputation-farming" like on reddit to sell the account to some bot-farm that uses it for astro-turfing or sth similar.

russjr08,
@russjr08@outpost.zeuslink.net avatar

I'm not 100% sure, but I think the reputation thing is a Kbin feature, at least everyone I've seen mention it so far has been on a Kbin instance.

I do not think Lemmy has the same thing, but don't quote me on that!

Very_Bad_Janet,

There is a thing called Reputation (IIRC) tucked away in your profile. Im not sure if that's a true karma equivalent. Also not sure what you can do with it.

awsamation,
@awsamation@kbin.social avatar

It doesn't matter what you can do with it. You couldn't really do anything with karma either.

jrs100000,
@jrs100000@lemmy.world avatar

Ok so let me throw out some old timer wisdom. This is what the social media/forums/the Internet are like when the cream is skimmed off and the 90% of users who only browse, and the 8% who only vote are gone. Enjoy it while you can. The summer always ends.

sneakyninjapants,

I was a bit late one the social media train, isn't that where the "Eternal September" thing came from?

AnyOldName3,
@AnyOldName3@lemmy.world avatar

That's because way back in the past, every September, a bunch of students who'd never had home internet access would have access via university for the first time. It would take some time for them to pick up the culture, so there'd be a month or so of questionable posts.

Noedel,

Absolutely, my first thought was this is what internet was in the 90s and 00s. Slow, good yarns, and lame jokes.

Tbh there's already too many memes here though. Half my front page is 196 and German me_irl sometimes.

samus12345,
@samus12345@lemmy.world avatar

You can block those communities if you want.

Noedel,

I guess I want some memes not all memes

jrs100000,
@jrs100000@lemmy.world avatar

Yea but dont be too hard on the kids. We were sticking frogs in virtual blenders and abusing the /blink/ tag at their age, so let them have their fun.

static_motion,

This is exactly it. I haven’t come across a forum where the “summer syndrome” wasn’t permanently present in a decade. I’ll be lurking around here to see if this is going to finally be it.

yads,

The funny thing is on Reddit I was mostly a lurker/content consumer. There was little incentive to actually post because your post or comment was likely to just be drowned out in the absolute torrent of other posts/comments. Here I'm actually able to be heard.

zzz,

Unfortunately some communities don't seem to exist without the froth. The FIRE community seems difficult to recreate here, or local subs. But do you all remember when r/Bitcoin was mostly programmers?

Very_Bad_Janet, (edited )

The FIRE community could use the existing Mr. Money Mustache forums. Only hiccup is, I believe, that it is difficult to get a new account (not sure why that is, maybe that's an old problem and it's easier now). I've lurked that forum for years; they seem like a friendly, helpful, well regulated, un-frothy bunch.

neanderthal,

I love The Good Place! To get a Mr money mustache account, you have to know the answers to a few questions covered by the blog. If anyone needs help, PM me. I'm a long time follower of the FIRE community and can assist.

If bad Janet poops because she chooses to and ends conversations with long farts, I'm a bit afraid of what a very bad Janet does...

hikarulsi,
@hikarulsi@lemmy.world avatar

Because

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/f2aac837-940c-4079-bf59-bc2b4377df2f.jpeg

ulu_mulu,
@ulu_mulu@lemmy.world avatar

I noticed the same, probably because reddit has become really bad in the last years but I didn't realize it until I joined here a couple of weeks ago.

It's indeed refreshing being able to have honest discussions on a platform that's not infested by bots, propaganda, disguised ads, mass shitposting, hidden agendas, etc.

If lemmy becomes wildly popular to the masses, it's possible things will change for the worse, who knows, but I'll enjoy it a lot in the meantime.

incompetentboob,

I feel exactly the same. It’s really feels like the early days of reddit on here. Everyone is nice and the content is genuine.

I got really tired of typing out comments only to delete them because I didn’t have to patience to be told I’m wrong.

If things go bad here and the bots and the ads take over, we can move to another instance make new communities and start over.

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.

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