I have noticed that I interact a lot more in Lemmy than I ever did in any social media. Let it be Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter… I am used to be the lurker, but here for some reason things are different. Wonder if more people feel like I do.
Sometimes it’s corny or a little bit flamey though, but that actually feels like I’m discussing with real somewhat (we’re on Lemmy after all) random people.
I was on Reddit yesterday to remind myself how bad it was. There’s no way I’m reading hundreds of comments especially when most are inane or insane or toxic.
Here, the comment quality is far better (higher signal to noise ratio so to say). And I finally recognize usernames that show up regularly. I feel most folks are commenting in good faith so I’m not constantly on alert looking for right-wing propaganda bots (or trolls or whatever they are). It’s all so much more relaxed and cordial. Hopefully we can keep it that way for a good long while.
I am interacting about the same amount but I am trying to comment with a little more thought and substance though it doesn’t always work out that way.
Agreed about the less people makes it more comfy. The whole instance is your community too, I guess being able to choose what you want from a instance makes everyone more comfortable. You don’t get overflown with people with different objectives when it comes to browsing Lemmy.
Yes, definitely. I’m more willing to share my honest opinion. For me, the fear of downvotes was real. I also sorted Reddit posts by Hot, and I rarely felt motivated to connect on a post that already had 1000 comments.
Lemmy feels very different to me as well. People seem more mature, skeptical, genuinely left-leaning, interested in discussion, and the moderation isn’t totalitarian. Plus Reddit really seemed like it was controlled by moderators with an agenda. I’m not a flagrant asshole (I think), yet I was banned from a few subreddits for not following seemingly arbitrary rules. For example, I was banned from my city’s subreddit for making a post asking a question that wasn’t directly about the city, it was more about the state’s culture/history. I just wanted to know what my neighbors thought. Apparently someone decided that wasn’t what the subreddit was for.
People seem more mature, skeptical, genuinely left-leaning, interested in discussion, and the moderation isn’t totalitarian.
You’ve finally found the right echo chamber for you!
Kidding, kidding. But really, I don’t find people on Lemmy that much more mature or skeptical than Reddit, and I’ve had fewer productive discussions (though those have also been rare on Reddit for several years now). It’s definitely more left-leaning, though.
Moderation seems more friendly, though, I agree with that.
I also have found the discussions more mature, usually, even in some cases where the other person is to my right or left on the political spectrum (I am in the progressive / social democrat range). Of course there are always some that post in bad faith but it seems like the ratio of those to others is lower here, thankfully.
Partially because I feel like people will actually notice, partially because I feel more a part of a community due to the smaller size and seeing the same people multiple times
I comment far far less here than on Reddit. Reddit was much much better at showing communities I actually cared about and sprinkled in cat pics or memes. And most posts already had a little bit of engagement.
Lemmy’s just throws garbage new posts at you with no comments, no interactions, and it was posted 30 seconds ago. It also groups together posts when someone crossposts something to 30 other communities so you just get a block of 5 posts of the same thing.
As it’s matured more I think it’s gotten better, but it’s not good.
Yes, even though a lot of my opinions are considered controversial here. On Reddit, unless you sort by newest posts, you’re going to get buried in the comments section.
I dislike feeding an algorithm, knowing my interaction will be monetized in all sorts of ways and helping companies profile me. This is less of a concern here.
I think I got a double push - I’ve reached a point in my life where I finally have something to say as well as Lemmy not drowning out my posts/comments.
Also hosting a publicly open server drags me in even more; I love that stuff.
I comment and share links at about the same rate as I did when I was primarily on Reddit. I’m less interested in Reddit these days and probably split my time 50-50. I’m pissed at what they did and continue to do, and the quality of the content has clearly taken a hit across the broader Reddit community but it’s still SO MUCH BIGGER than the entire fediverse that there is hundreds if not thousands of times the people and content.
I’ve tried to get a couple of groups off the ground, but I’m just not that guy and wasn’t on Reddit either.
I am not commenting on Reddit much anymore tho, due to the aforementioned behavior by Spez et al.
i miss reddit, too. been 3.5 months since leaving and i used to spend 12 hours or more at a time scrolling and reading. it was like a good friend or partner.
but i really NEVER posted there. and i do here, sometimes.
You’re right, the sheer size of Reddit means it’s hard to deny that the variety of discussion topics is much greater than on Lemmy. The decentralized servers model also means it’s slightly more difficult to find and grow small communities.
What I like though is that in general, posters on Lemmy, even the ones that repost old memes from elsewhere, try to genuinely engage with other commentors.
Add comment