It feels like people are a lot nicer here than on Twitter and Reddit, and even when people disagree, it’s generally civil and not an all-out flame war. Also, there’s no algorithm promoting outrage all the time.
For me, the anticipation of toxicity was a huge deterrent for me ever participating in real discussions, but here I feel like I can be myself.
I think it’s healthier this way.
Add to it, some of us habitual lurkers (me for example) find it not as meaningless to comment. Didn’t want to do it often because most comments get buried and it would feel empty and kinda pointless.
Same here m8.
I was also a lurker in “the other place”, but convinced myself to participate here since I wanted to help lemmy feel “alive”. Now I really like it and comment regularly.
I was also a habitual lurker. In all my time there I posted maybe 3 comments and that was only because I wanted to be helpful and I knew the answer to very specific questions.
I’m not a very confident person in my interactions with other people, but got inspired by others like yourself that I should be the change I want to see (or something like that, I’m paraphrasing). So I took a deep breath and just started posting whenever I had an opinion, or thought of something that tickled my funny bone. And I have to say I’m enjoying it so far, people are positive and I love the sense of community I’m feeling.
I’m glad I took that step.deleted by creator
That’s fine too. You should do what you feel comfortable with.
I’m right there with you guys, would rarely comment on Reddit, but lemmy has been so great and I want to help it flourish as much as I can.
same here, I joined lemmy just a few hours ago and it already seems so much better than what reddit has become now.
Definitely feels more comfortable here. At first, I thought I wanted all the other refugees to come here and recreate Reddit. But after a few days, I kind of hope no more do. It’s such a nice place here as is.
Not only is it a nice place, but the general vibe feels way more wholesome that the other platform.
That’s why you gotta hijack comments that are already upvoted.
I have lurked for over a decade on Reddit and finally see value in commenting/posting on Lemmy because the engagement is great!
I love how the number of upvotes on this comment speak to the point your making. And now so am I (former lurker)
I haven’t been able to quite put my finger on why I’m commenting more here and this nailed it.
Yep, I can now see how much of a cesspool Reddit has become when going back and forth between the two platforms. Part of me wants to see the platform grow bigger and bigger, but I fear the same will eventually happen if it gets bigger.
This kind of social media actually seems to work better with smaller communities. Reddit used to have some great niche subs.
This, most of my reddit feed has posts with thousands of comments already. Here, I feel more a part of the conversation.
Habitual reddit lurker checking in! Commenting on Lemmy bc I want to be a part of something. So far everyone here has been very nice.
So far. One the nob ends find a way in it’ll not be as friendly, that’s why blocking them and their instances promptly is important. I saw something on blocklists the other day and will look into that. I may be totally wrong, but to me it sounds like the filters we’d use in uBlock Origin or similar. Sounds good to me.
I did see a theory that part of the vibe is the result of federation itself. People drift to instances that align with them and their views, and instances have defederated each other based on hate or trolls. Basically the trolls start quarantining themselves.
Sounds like creating echo chambers which will hurt healthy debate
I think that a lot of toxicity on commercial socian networks comes from their need to increase engagement, so they tune algorithms for that. Which is usually agresive behavior.
Just by not having that sort of algorithms we will be better.
Just wait a bit longer…
I like lurking, with a comment here or there. I have noticed the comment sections are giant circle jerks with everyone congratulating each other on how smart and civil they are. Better than aggression and trolling but still… ew.
That was a very insightful point and I appreciate your delicacy in delivering it. Congratulations.
i used to love r/yourjokebutworse when it was still new. then people started doing the exact same thing in the comments that they were making fun of. im jerking myself off writing this i know
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I dont think civility is gross, but I do think gloating about is gross.
Literally no one is acting any different than on Reddit, but somehow everyone is pretending they are.
Like they didn’t just come from reddit themselves lol.
I’ve seen way more arguing than agreeing, but maybe it’s the communities I frequent.
So many posts right now are “DAE think Lemmy > Reddit?” If anything, people are more anonymous here, so it is only a matter of time before the amount of users brings in more toxicity. But just like reddit, users can avoid toxicity outrage baiting, and other issues by joining better (smaller) communities instead of echo chambers.
Just don’t ask questions on political subs
Or ask questions in general, the reddit community HATES questions for some reason.
Gotta stir the pot sometimes. Those guys are easy to rile up.
There’s also a good life social tip of that to make friends you probably shouldn’t discuss politics, it just creates division. But if you do tend to slide in with “man this thing is happening and it’s totally fucked because x, y, z” you get them to see it without a political lense and people agree significantly more. Just don’t mention political parties.
Just don’t say anything bad about the Fediverse (or anything good about Meta/Threads). That’s when the toxicity with appear. That’s what I’ve noticed, at least.
Or criticize certain political stances.
Yeah I’ve definitely found my voice here on Lemmy… And it might be for this reason.
I hope it can stay like this…ofc it won’t. But I hope.
Give it time, man.
I feel the same way, such a nice place here :)
[cracks fingers]
You…
No, you! Grabs pitchfork.
Me about to tear this guy apart:
Completely agree, so far. Will be interesting to see where it’s at in a year…
:)
Yet.
I feel like there isn’t a “hive mind” on Lemmy like there was/is on Reddit. Even if just a few folks disagreed with your opinion on Reddit, everyone else felt like they HAD to downvote it too and then the next thing you know, you’re being downvoted to oblivion. Here, it seems that folks actually respect your opinion whether or not they agree with it; and while you may get a few downvotes or more, people aren’t afraid of upvoting your comment either.
Such a different vibe and I’m here for it!
Just you wait m8.
Does anyone else feel like we’re kinda waiting for the other shoe to drop though?
We did see a bit of drama that resulted in various instances being defederated, and even if Lemmy is more resistant to corporate bullshit there are some people and groups out there whose sole purpose seems to be ensuring that nobody else can have nice things.
I’m hoping that the people who contributed fine work towards tools for Reddit will be willing to help improve Lemmy as well, but as the same time users need to understand that while the experience is very “Reddit-like” there are some serious differences in technology and implementation that are going to lead to interesting and potentially unforeseen bumps in the road for the future
Yea, I think as soon as there’s enough people, like where you feel you can no longer write a multi paragraph comment, is when it will have dropped.
I think a hive mind will develop, just based on the nature of the format. In any community there will be prevailing opinions that are upvoted and dissenting opinions that are downvoted. People are still settling down and searching for their specific corners to camp in, which is why you’re probably seeing more variety for the time being.
Plus Beehaw exists, so there’s your hive mind right there. Get it? Cause they’re bee themed? Beehive?
Is Beehaw like Lemmy? The world feels like it has exploded since Reddit died (imo), I have been never on the niche parts of the internet but this is so interesting and i like it. So is Beehaw worth checking out?
He was joking. Hive mind and Bee -haw. Bees make hive. Source: I do dad jokes too.
I understand the joke lmao, I’m just asking in all honesty.
Beehaw is a Lemmy instance that defederated from a couple of large instances. Lemmy.world being one of them
And they all act like a hive mind, massive circle jerk?
This happened a few weeks ago when a bunch of people from reddit first started hopping over. They gave some reasons for why they were doing it. Like how they want to curate a specific type of instance, keep it smaller, they don’t want people that have very different opinions from them because they want a safe space, moderating was becoming a challenge. Some people from other instances were saying that Beehaw seems like they want a walled garden. It’s too bad because they had some good communities.
No. We don’t ; -)
Downvoting here seems to be used as it is meant to: to filter out noise.
I love the vibe.
Not yet. I am working on, it give it time.
I just hate how “toxic cesspool” is the default. I was just watching a short video on YouTube about the US city of Baltimore, a place I heard about from an old family friend who studied at Hopkins many years ago.
The video was about the city’s decline, with the primary cause (according to the video) being the hollowing out of the manufacturing and logistics industries. The channel, Forgotten Places, doesn’t strike me as one that toxic people would be flooding to (those channels exist).
Can you guess what every other comment is about? Hint: it’s not the abandonment of productive industry. A small number of comments name more historical industrial employers that have left the city, but by far the comments with the most upvotes are “we all know we can’t discuss what happened to Baltimore 😉😉😉😉😉”
I think that is because all those sites (youtube, twitter, facebook, reddit,…) are promoting “user engagement” or whatever they call it, so they made algorithms that promote it. Of course, that means they promote toxicity and agruments, easiest way to motivate people to comment.
So the whole network becomea unhealthy and toxic.
That’s also the reason I am against federating with them.
