I’m finally making the switch from Reddit. The Voyager app seems like a pretty seamless transition, but I’d love to hear any tips about using this platform, or what quirks distinguish it from Reddit as a whole.
Another tip I haven’t seen yet:
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It varies by client, but Markdown generally works, here.
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Spoiler tags seem to still be a separate extension from regular Markdown.
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Many of us try to be more careful to include ALT Text with images, as it supports both blind users, and anyone whose server is just being slow to load images:
Example of Image with Alt text in Markdown:
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Welcome in from the cold. We have hot cocoa and blankets.
Beans
ECCE HOMO QVI EST FABA
It’s small now, but growing. You can’t scroll infinitely for new content. It’s grown a lot in the time I’ve been here. The smallness can be a positive if you work to have genuine interactions with people. There’s no “karma” and some instances have disabled down votes entirely. You have sometimes subscribe to more than one community of the same topic (each on a different instance).
take all of the things you hate about Reddit comment culture and do your best to perpetuate them here
This
I recommend browsing /all to find popular active communities
Here’s one I haven’t seen mentioned yet: many of us explicitly state our intended tone after our comments, to avoid miscommunication. Particularly in busy threads.
We have some great accessibility outreach communicators here, some of whom have shared how much it helps them or people they know.
Some examples:
- (Sarcasm)
- (Genuine)
- (Joke)
Sometimes these are abbreviated, but we often even avoid abbreviation - for general clarity, but probably mainly because we’re always gaining new users who might not recognize the abbreviation.
Welcome!
Lemmy.world is the boring “normie” instance and you’ll find it much friendlier than this place if you’re not a committed Marxist-Leninist ( that’s what ML stands for)
If normie means neoliberal bootlickers then yes
There’s the ML culture I was talking about!
Thanks for the demonstration.
Bud “thinks” big words must mean ML. Bet you can’t even define neoliberalism without looking it up. Obviously not even an ML user.
Neoliberalism:
noun
Controlled opposition
Ha! I had no idea where I was, thanks for clearing that up.
There are a bunch of Anarchists on Lemmy.ml, as well as liberals and Social Democrats. Lemmygrad.ml is the Marxist-Leninist instance, Lemmy.ml is more of a generalist instance, but the users, mods, and admins lean Marxist.
Just being nitpicky, really.
Any political instance is cringe
Most instances will have some political lean, but some will make it a focus, which is a good thing to have that as an option for those who want it.
It becomes unhealthy when there’s a lot of biased instances, which I feel like there is currently
Every instance has bias, and will have bias, whether that bias is made public knowledge officially, or swept under the rug, at least in my experience.
There’s small bias, and will to have neutrality; and then there’s blatant bias and censorship. We’re in the second option here.
All bias is bias, neutrality doesn’t really exist in bias. Something being in the “middle” is itself a stance, not without equal bias for it.
A place with Marxist mods will not be tolerant of non-Marxist views. This one certainly is not.
If we’re giving advice to new users, they should be advised to find a more tolerant instance.
.world really isn’t very tolerant of certain views. They are very quick to dismiss people as Russian shills/bots for instance. I disagree with this instance’s views of China and the Russo-Ukraine war, and am not an ML (though I do kind of lean Leninist) and haven’t seen much bad faith name calling. It certainly is prevalent in leftist spaces (CIA bot, NAFO shill, etc) but this place is surprisingly decent.
Don’t mind me, just linking my introductory Marxist-Leninist reading list in case you want to learn more. 🥸
I don’t know what to tell you, other than that a lot of the most active users of Lemmy.ml are Anarchists, and most communities on Lemmy.ml are not affiliated with Marxism to begin with, even if you include communities like World News that are more politically focused as “Marxist.”
Either way, I wouldn’t call Lemmy.world more tolerant, but tolerant of a different set of views. Lemmy.ml is more broadly federated than .world is, while .world selectively defederates from instances it isn’t aligned with politically. Even further, OP is on Lemm.ee, just asking on Lemmy.ml’s AskLemmy community, which makes sense as one of the biggest AskLemmy communities.
I’m not even trying to dig on Lemmy.world or anything, I just want to point out that it’s not really accurate to consider Lemmy.ml a Marxist-Leninist instance, unlike Lemmygrad.ml, or even Hexbear.net which is an umbrella Leftist instance.
So in case it wasn’t painfully obvious, I’m a total noob and don’t even know what lemmy.ee is haha. Do I need to make new accounts for each suffix or can I move it around—and what effect does my account being .ee vs .ml or whatever have on the experience?
Instances are like mini Reddits, many with their own unique flavor and focus (such as tech, LGBTQ+, politics, etc), with their own communities. You can stay within said instance by sorting locally. You can also see other communities on other instances by searching for them, or by browsing by all.
Does that make sense?
So if I were in a tech one for instance, the difference between that and just joining r/technology is that it aggregates all the sublemmies/posts that fall within that category? To kind of create a one size fits all home feed?
Not exactly, but close! Rather than pulling communities from other instances, it will have its own communities, but these local communities will usually have a tech focus, and thus so will the users. programming.dev is one example I know of. That doesn’t mean they don’t have other communities like for gaming and whatnot, but by virtue of being hosted on programming.dev, a gaming community there will likely have users more with a programming background.
That’s why generalist instances are, IMO, overrated. You can visit other federated instances, so your All feed will cover you for diversity if you want to step outside your niche.
Different instances go for different federation strategies, though. Hexbear.net, as an example, likes to have generally small lists for federation and remain fairly self-contained, as it is a space generally for Communists and Anarchists and does a good job of protecting its large queer userbase. Instances like Lemm.ee, like the one you have an account with, see almost everything, and are designed more for their All sort than local (though some communities are definitely on Lemm.ee).
Does that make sense?
Isn’t lemmy.world very very USA-centric? And they are keen on name calling you as a tankie if you mention things that do not go along with their view.
I was banned from a community there, because I mentioned the Munich agreement and shared my view opposing what the community had in a discussion that centred around the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.
Yeah I like sh.itjust.works. It seems to be a pretty balanced. North American instance.
Yep.
No awards, so you have escaped the cringe “thank you, kind stranger!” comments.
In all seriousness, I would curate a bunch of pages that interest you so you have a home page relevant to your interests. There’s a lot of competing communities but I just add all the big ones that are relevant.
There are no recommendation algorithms for content, you are one! Search for communities based on your interests and subscribe to them. The Communities view of your home instance and Lemmy Explorer are good for that. Because Lemmy is decentralized, all discussion isn’t centered around one site like on Reddit, which may at first give an impression of emptiness.
I also wrote an extensive guide about Lemmy few weeks ago.
Welcome!
That guide is helpful. Thanks!
Yeah it felt a little empty here at first, but then I realized I get way more replies on most of my comments here than I did on reddit where most people just scrolled right past it.
You make a great point.
I fire off comments without thinking much at about the same rate as I did on the other website but get replies on about ~50-60% here vs. ~20% on centralized media.
It’s really nice honestly. /gen
(And people are much nicer about tone tags here!)
Indeed, I quite like it, cause I’m here for discussion not just shouting into the void.
I find myself commenting far more often than I did on Reddit. I remember once that I lamented that Lemmy doesn’t have a “super upvote” in the way that Reddit gold used to be (which is a silly thought, given that I have never, and would never pay money to gild a comment). However, I realised that on this more discussion based platform, a short but meaningful comment can readily function as a super upvote. I think the lack of karma accrual for comments/posts also promotes this.
Same, I’m engaging more often here than I did on Reddit because it feels less like shouting into the void. I just wish there were more active communities for philosophical/political/religious debate on lemmy.
Also I didn’t even realize there wasn’t a karma system here, but that seems like a good call. I never paid attention to it on Reddit either (I couldn’t even tell you off the top of my head how much I have.)
Right? I think Lemmy is way more conducive to conversations than Reddit.
Very nice, thanks!
I’m going to be honest, I would prefer having some sort of algorithm. Not only it would the things I’m uninsterested away, but it would occasionally show something new to me. I’ve seen people with “cjrated feeds” saying something about it being boring. The problem is not algorithms, it’s how they are constructed.
That’s a good point. That said, I do have options for finding unusual stuff when I want something fresh, so I’ve never felt uninterested. (It also helps that I’m tired of dopamine holes trying to create a never ending novelty coaster like regular social media)
If you see a bunch of posts that says death to America, you’re probably on a .ml server
Most content is driven by the Picard maneuver and this jellyfish guy.
There I think you’re oriented.
As a more serious aside to the above, it is generally worth paying a bit of attention to which instance other users you interact with. There’s obviously no blanket statement you can make about the users of particular instances, but there are definitely certain instances that are more appealing to… certain groups of users.
lemmy.ml in particular has a bit of a reputation for having tankies on it, but there’s lots of very interesting and reasonable people there (or here, I suppose, given this is an ml community), also.
Gonna go against the grain, and recommend browsing the instance list and browse whichever instances look interesting to you locally, and then make that your “home” instance. Lemmy’s connectedness is equal in importance to its disconnectedness, niche instances thrive and create interesting experiences, while federation allows crossover and further engagement.
Using Lemmy for its “all” sort is more of a replication of Reddit, while leaning into the strengths of federation can create a more unique experience IMO and usually a more pleasant one.
And finally, welcome!
Thanks!
Noted. Don’t fully grasp how this all works yet but I think I’m starting to get the idea. Seems like an evolution of Reddit.
No problem, people tend to love to help!
Especially when it means that Reddit gets one less user. At least for me
Yep!
I agree with trying to find and support a local instance. I personally find it nice to have this account (made before my local was made) for a global feed and a local account for playing more into local culture and news which are too niche to get visibility on a regular instance’s feed.
That’s what I do!
I think (absolutely IMHO) Reddit commenting is more confrontational. Sure, we have that here, but on Reddit I would get slapped down often, because I’m not that smart and I make mistakes. My clumsy way was chum in the water for the sharks.
Not here. I feel like people here, EVEN WHEN THEY GET MAD, can be spoken to, even apologized to, and together you can be okay. Not agree necessarily, but not ugly or unkind.
I’ve seen a few new people here try the “smack em for being stupid” technique, and mostly it gets them downvotes and criticism. I really love that about being here.
It feels much safer for the sensitive.
That’s refreshing to hear actually. Reddit can be a pretty unfriendly place depending on what corners you spend your time. I think in today’s tumultuous and divisive political/cultural landscape we need neighborliness more than ever.
This is a great point.
There’s also very convenient block mechanisms for rude folks, and a “block and move on” culture for those who don’t keep their communication civil.
Yes, I do block the rude.
I think partly this is due to there being no karma on this platform. Garnering up votes or downvotes in a single thread is largely meaningless outside of it.
For some reason nobody gave any suggestions for a client to use. If you are familiar with Apollo for Reddit, there is a spiritual successor here on Lemmy called Voyager: https://vger.app/
You’re gonna look around and see a few old accounts and think you missed the early bus. You didn’t. We’re still pioneering.
If you think “why isn’t there a community for this” or “why isn’t anyone posting to this community” it’s because we’re small and we need people like you to fix those issues!
