Curious to know, I’d heard “lemming” used in a semi derogatory way, since “a person who unthinkingly joins a mass movement, especially a headlong rush to destruction” is the dictionary definition. It seems to be the first thing to come to mind as to what you’d call a Lemmy user.

This platform certainly is embodying a mass movement to get off of reddit, and I’m definitely all for it! But I can’t help but feel this could be one of those baby names that sounded cute and catchy but could be bullied later into life. What are your thoughts?

  • @[email protected]
    3•2 years ago

    I bet that somewhere, at any given time, I’m being called something. It’s a simple byproduct of anyone falling into the universalization trap.

  • @[email protected]
    4•2 years ago

    I like it tbh XD anything is better than “redditor”, I can’t get the image of the fat vaping neckbeard with a fedora out of my head

    • @[email protected]
      2•2 years ago

      The feeling of the word depends on the feeling of the community, so as long as the community is nice we should be good.

  • @[email protected]
    6•2 years ago

    Why tie your identity to it at all? There doesn’t need to be a collective name for lemmy users.

    Is an email user an emailer? Is a reader of RSS feeds a RSS’er? Are discord users discorders? Or signal users signallers?

    (Note: Not actually sure if discord users call themselves something)

    • ALERT
      2•2 years ago

      No, they don’t call themselves anything on Discord, they are too busy arguing with their moms.

  • AlexRogansBeta
    6•2 years ago

    If we actually wanna support the essence of what we’re engaging on, we shouldn’t factionalize by user interface and should avoid names attached to Lemmy, Mastadon, or KBin. We should instead be Federates of the Fediverse.

      • @b3nsn0wA
        3•2 years ago

        we could just be fedizens until we take that back from the FBI or a different name emerges

  • @[email protected]
    8•2 years ago

    Also people will think we’re stupid if we let a group of scientists throw us off a cliff. Which is fair.

  • SapienSRC
    4•2 years ago

    I like it for two reasons. 1) I love that game and it gives me nostalgic memories. 2) It’s ironically funny since a Lemming is the exact opposite of what we are just by being here.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 🏆
    12•2 years ago

    While I know that the origin of the stereotypes is false, the stereotype still remains. So I’m not fond of the term for that, but it’s not a super big deal. I might joke about it because it’s pretty fucking funny (c’mon… Redditors coming to Lemmy on a leap of faith? Like lemmings off a cliff is analogous as hell), but I mean… People who would use it to talk shit, would end up turning anything used to describe a group as a slur so there’s not really a point in caring too much.