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?

dogmuffins,

I agree. If lemmy continues to grow, inevitably some servers will be shit, but I imagine there will be other non-federated or less-federated instances. beehaw has already started down that path.

Trolls are generally looking for maximum carnage, so I imagine there’s less incentive / reward posting somewhere like lemmy.

god,
@god@sh.itjust.works avatar

As an experienced shitposter, the shittiness of the posting often correlates directly with the inability of moderators to clean it up.

Domille,

I feel like people who moved to Lemmy from reddit are really incentivized to help it grow, so I am constantly seeing encouragements for people to interact / upvote / post content, which is great. I think that the community here is very motivated, and so even though there are less people, you get more engagement.

god,
@god@sh.itjust.works avatar

This is a huge part of it. People are in "this is my new home, I'm gonna wash the dishes just this once!". I imagine things will calm down later.

Domille,

yeah, that's pretty much what happened with Mastodon, as far as I can tell. There are still folks there, but it is much quieter now vs when I first joined it.

esty,
@esty@lemmy.ca avatar

i dont feel that its quiet, more that people have settled in, the users that stuck with masto use it religiously just like how people used twitter

swoos,

This

Pmmeyourtoaster,

I've experienced this as well and have enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing.

lvl100magikarp,

Yep, I try to upvote everything and comment as much as I can. I’m still confused about how to post to specific instances on Jerboa though. Like I’m typing the name but it’s not showing up in the dropdown

The most discouraging thing that happened was that when I wrote a long and thoughtdul comment and press send, Jerboa gives me the “java type blabla” error, and I lost everything I typed. Then I don’t wanna type it again and I just give up on commenting

Hopefully these issues will be fixed soon! As I understand it it’s not even an issue with Jerboa specifically.

Varyag,
@Varyag@lemm.ee avatar

I've gotten to the habit of Ctrl+A and Ctrl+C my comments right before hitting Reply, just in case that happens. Luckily, it's been happening less and less, at least on desktop browser. Hopefully Jerboa gets to that point soon, too.

Ignacio,
@Ignacio@lemmy.world avatar

The fediverse is a great system for moderation. I've been on Mastodon for years now and it's stayed pretty pleasant.

sauna7843,

There was a time where the internet was a place for fun. Purely fun! No profit-based platforms, no mass abuse of users, no privacy violating practices, no forced ID verification, and no political correctness censorship enmass.

This age was known as The Golden Age of the Internet. It was something I saw gradually disappear like a frog being slowly boiled in water.

I’d like the hope we can one day come back to this era. The Golden Age was an escape from reality, while this corporate ran bullshit has been nothing but profit focused greed with a constant reminder of reality.

I cannot express in words how amazing the Golden Age was. We never knew we were in it until it was one day gone. Decentralization and freedom from centralized entities may allow the Internet the perhaps return to the Golden Age. An age where the Internet purely exists for everyone to have fun in and be able to express themselves freely without censorship.

AB7ORH7D,

That's sort of what I feel like this is - or at least that's what I've felt from browsing Lemmy. No ads and no ragebait/doomscrolling. There's nothing requiring that I stay engaged - in a way it's almost respectful of my interests and time.

Mugmoor,
@Mugmoor@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I remember when it died. Web 2.0

PizzasDontWearCapes,

As in when the advertising apps came along, right?

Mugmoor,
@Mugmoor@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

It's when YouTube and Social Media began to take off.

krdo,
@krdo@lmmy.net avatar

Yeah, I loved the golden age. Back when everyone had a Geocities homepage and just linked to each other's sites. Back when getting a link to your homepage into the Yahoo index meant something.

Bruce,

If I were given the opportunity, I wouldnt swtich back to the state of " the good old internet" .

It was full of popups and viruses. DL speed was 3kbps on good days. Hence without any form of streaming. Depending on operator, you had to pay for the landine communication between your PC and the provider. If a family member picked up the phone from another room while you were using the modem, you got dcded. Of course, one coulnt be joined by phone when he was using internet.

You have to weigh the pros and cons.

morrowind,
@morrowind@lemmy.ml avatar

Just because we go back culturally, doesn’t mean we have to go back technologically as well.

Bruce,

Here, people still feel as guests whereas on reddit, people stayed long enough to feel the place is their’s.

(“old timers shouln’t have to deal with this shit again”)

blek,
@blek@sh.itjust.works avatar

Exactly, I am very new to Lemmy and have been met with nothing but open arms from every community. Reddit at times definitely felt more elitist.

Knutsen,

Agree completely. I thinkk my reddit account is 13 years old now. I got over the new reddit UI, took me a while. Still the main thing is, the discussions are what made reddit. Right now, everybody seems to be jumping ship to lemmy/kbin, but most of the main topics are either crapping on reddit or trying to compare reddit with lemmy/kbin, instead of letting it be it's own thing.

My main site will still be reddit, if the quality of posts starts rising without bashing reddit on every 2nd one, then I might change completely.

Also, the UI still feels a bit basic to me.

thetreesaysbark,

I think the comparison is valid though. People want to know if Lemmy is a good alternative for them and you can only do that by comparing.

It doesn't take away that Lemmy is it's own thing.

fleabomber,

A lot of us have been nofapping reddit for a while so it's it a bit of a release to interact in this familiar way.

ergifruit,

"nofapping Reddit" is the greatest way i've ever seen anyone describe the situation

ImFresh3x,

Because I’m here (see username)

Xer0,

The people aren’t assholes. The place is not that big to be totally ruined.

szczur,
@szczur@lemmy.ml avatar

Fediverse denizens are really active.

Heimchen,

Yea, I became more active on lemmy than ever was on Reddit

SrEstegosaurio,

Yeah, engagement is in the Fediverse is colosal in comparison.

potterman28wxcv,

One key difference I found is the lack of user karma. You have no incentive to post something "just to get karma" because there is no global karma on your profile.

This encourages to post what you want to post instead of posting something that someone posted years ago because it's easy free karma

PizzasDontWearCapes,

I just noticed that thanks to your comment. I hope it stays that way on Lemmie - karma farming leads to a lot of low quality content, including bot reposts

floofloof,

If Lemmy accounts with a plausible history ever become valuable like Reddit accounts are, we could see the same behaviour without karma just to build up a history. But for now that seems a long way off.

Send_me_nude_girls,

I got to agree. The first thing I did was looking for my karma on my profile but then noticed quickly that it actually doesn't matter. But has it the same addiction like effect in the long run? At least I can still see people enjoying a well though out comment, which is most of the joy.

Obi,
@Obi@sopuli.xyz avatar

I won't lie my first reaction when I figured that out was negative (oh my god but then how will I keep track of how much people love my comments..) but the more I think about it and use Lemmy the more I like it, like a weight lifted off my shoulders.

And what you said, no point to being a karma fiend when there's no counting, so a lot less easy karma grabs going around.

MedicareForSome,

On reddit, half of the users are bots controlled by various corporations and state departments.

TheLurker,

Lemmy "feels refreshing" because it is new to you. This deliveres a dopamine hit to your brain because we inherently find new things exciting.

As a concept it is the same public forum we have had for a long time. But it is decentralised which does help with restricting the ability of single groups of people from taking control of the native, so that is a good side-effrct.

Send_me_nude_girls,

Aside of people probably being a few years older. Less bots and astroturfing and I bet most people who moved to Lemmy are not your average mainstream user, usually more informed than average. It's easier to talk to calm people instead of the "whoosh I got you buddy" person. With fewer user the chance to get heard and not drowned by meme and joke replies is also much higher. But when more user join this likely changes.

Underwaterbob,

While sometimes mildly amusing, I don't miss the strings of puns that dominated ~50% of the "discussions" I clicked.

midas,

Genuinely felt like filler most of the times, fast food comments, an AI would’ve generated something better etc. Mildly amusing things get beaten to death quickly.

SturgiesYrFase,
@SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml avatar

I’ve had more traction on my posts and comments in the month or so I’ve been on lemmy than the entire 14 years I was on reddit. I’m glad I’ve moved, couldn’t give two shits how it does from here out, I’m away.

floofloof,

It’s nice to be able to speak without being drowned out by cave-fascists.

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