I came here after the API falldown and I like how quiet and normal it feels. I like coming across people in different threads and topics and while sometimes I’d like to see/read more content, this also helps me put the phone down.

What is kind of putting me off Lemmy is the amount of tankies. I understand they are actually far left from Reddit who migrated, but they’re just damn idiots and are simping for Putin (yes, I’m aware that some of them could be St Petersburg-based Russian trolls larping as tankies).

It’s quieter which I love and hate. I don’t feel addicted to engaging here which is awesome for my mental health but it can also make it difficult to find instances. I’m still struggling there.

However, when I do comment I find the people to be much more open to discussion. There are actual engaging conversations to be had which has been a great change. It feels less like shouting into the vast nothingness of the internet here, more intimate like a club of people with similar interests. I don’t feel scared I’m going to get dogged on, flammed, harassed, othered, or ostracized. There have been times I’ve shared my Native background when it was important to the convo and everyone’s be so fucking cool just treating me like a human being or listening to what I have to contribute from my perspective. Doing that on Reddit was a mixed bag where I would have to worry about the possibility of a sleu of people PMing me or replying with just awful hateful small pp energy racist shit.

Honestly, the bar was in the deepest pits of hell so if Lemmy couldn’t shuffle over it I would have lost all hope for humanity lol

It’s much worse than reddit. Mods are total dictators. They ban without any reason, only based on their political views. You criticize Hamas? Banned from worldnews. You’re free to spread antisemitic propaganda because it’s fine for them. It’s the opposite of how it should be in many ways

Its aight. It reminds me of old web forums and BBS style conversation. There’s a lot of passion and intelligence but also incredibly one-sided takes and an unwillingness to empathize or see another person’s perspective. I mostly stay for the Picard Maneuver memes.

I’m really happy with it. People here are mostly thoughtful, smart, and post interesting content. Less fighting, less toxicity, no shills in political discussions because it’s not big enough, no corporate astroturfing (the closest we come to that is adderall spam ha ha).

It feels healthier to me than reddit, which I think I had probably been addicted to. Being on Kbin I never have to run out of content because of the “microblogs” section which has Mastodon, and my multireddit style “collections” (like this news one). But I also find it easier to put my phone down.

Also I find it hilarious that although I do still see occasional screeching about US liberals, over here it’s because the poster wants “the libs” to be more left wing not more right wing.

I like how many of the users don’t resort to memes or namecalling (not that there aren’t a few here and there) and the replies are straightforward

It sucks up too much of my time. So it’s working. 👍

I spent some time reading a significant number of the replies, so I’ll offer this as a suggestion for some of the repeated themes regarding overbearing political stance, decisive topics, etc:

• encourage and support people discussing matters from an open perspective, trying to take a less decisive stance, or being open to different sides

• encourage people and participate in conversation with people who show compassion or agree to disagree rather than write people off

• ask questions instead of assuming

• sometimes, opinions don’t have to be right/wrong

• opinions aren’t facts

Sort of like reddit. There’s less content, but also less comments just replying “lol, so true” to a political meme. That said, there’s also, for some reason, more rape apologism than on reddit. Maybe it’s because lemmy is even more male dominated than reddit was or is.

I like a few of these communities, and I’ve had some nice conversations on some things I’m passionate about. But it seems like the population outside my small communities is dominated by violent wanna-be political activists competing for who can express the most outrageous sentiment.

Advocating against violence against one’s parents in a hypothetical situation where a parent developed the wrong US politics not only got me downvoted, but also replied to by some asshole from Australia who wanted to rub it in that I was clearly in the out-group.

I don’t normally reply when I see things like that, but after seeing so much vitriol I felt the need to leave a comment. I won’t be doing it again.

Reddit but with less content (which is fine), I browse by top past 6 or 12 hours, and just check in once or twice a day.

Also I don’t know about more mature… There’s a lot more people here arguing and gatekeeping and generally being weird about Linux for some reason.

I mean, I like Linux, I use it a lot, but these people make it their identity, like it’s an obsession, and they violently hate people who dare to use Windows.

…I get the impression these are actual grown adult men and women, acting like big babies :-P

There’s a lot of people here engaging with Linux discussion in a normal healthy manner too of course, just the weird ones are the loudest, you know? It’s off putting.

I like it. It’s a bit smaller, but that means I can actually read through most of the comments. It’s very slightly left of me, which creates good food for thought as well.

It does run of the issue of having a heavier tankie and “both sides bad” presence, but that’s preferable to the alternative. I also like that I recognize some users.

Most importantly? I feel like I’m contributing to a conversation here. On Reddit it was just like shouting my opinion into the void.

Well, so far I haven’t had anyone crawl through my history for personally identifiable info to email me with threats to my family. So, aces as far as I’m concerned.

That really did happen, not exactly a Reddit thing specifically though. Still, community so far feels far nicer and mature here than the old place had devolved into. IMHO this feels very much like Reddit did after the digg exodus years ago. I am hopefully optimistic about this place and the fediverse in general but I do fear what may happen if the big players are threatened enough and get some legislation passed in their favor.

I was enjoying it, but two things are getting tiring: the lack of social sciences and humanities, and especially the misogynistic ‘tone’ of some users.