this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
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Ask Lemmy

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[–] [email protected] 103 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This but about how almost everything about Lemmy is spun as either good, or better than reddit's equivalent.

Like the other day I saw a post about how Lemmy's active users were on the decline, trying to claim that was somehow good for Lemmy. Or back when Lemmy had its /r/place copy, there were plenty of people saying it was better than reddit's. Basically anything about Lemmy that's somewhat lacking has people desperately trying to defend it as actually superior.

It borders on delusional at times. Yes Lemmy is good, but reddit is still better in dozens of ways, almost all of them related to user count. And this is coming from one of the people who deleted their reddit account and replaced it with Lemmy cold turkey - I haven't been back there (except for porn) in almost 8 weeks.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yes, I miss reddit for porn. Porn lemmy is lackluster

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

And not niche enough. The stuff I like on reddit has 28 posts from the last 24 hours. The equivalent on lemmynsfw hasn't had a single post since mid-July and I'm pretty sure the restrictive rules on pornlemmy would just ban it if posted there.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You do know you need an account on the NSFW instances to see the stuff on them right?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Yes. I have one exclusively for it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I see them just fine without one, but I did allow nsfw on my account when I created it

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There is more. Go check the stickied post.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

The stickied post on nsfw lemmy or ask lemmy or something else? And there’s more porn? Because honestly, that’s like telling me there’s more furry, Star Trek, and Linux content there- it’s already all over my front page and I don’t need any more.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

but reddit is still better in dozens of ways, almost all of them related to user count.

It's not though, because it's all locked away through an interface that doesn't work for many people. And it doesn't matter how good what's on the other side is, if there is a barrier that ensures I won't ever be on the other side.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It goes both ways. There are ways Lemmy is better than reddit, even in this early stage - and the default interface is 100% one of those. Default reddit is getting more and more like facebook these days.

But the lack of users on lemmy really hurts it. Of the 20 posts on my current All page, 13 of them have 0 comments. 5 of the remaining 7 have fewer than 5 comments.

I really think Lemmy has the potential to eventually surpass reddit - but I by no means at all think it's even close to that point yet. While it still has a long way to go software-wise, growing its userbase is by far the biggest hurdle it has to overcome. And as long as reddit keeps getting worse I think we'll get there.

I did get your point that reddit's strengths don't really matter if it's wrapped in a package that's unusable. I just disagree that that means Lemmy is automatically better in every way.

I am also not overly into this chat - because of what I said not what you said. I considered deleting my original message because it was more negative than I care to be, but left it because people had already replied. I'd really rather not get sucked into a chain of messages where all I'm doing is complaining about Lemmy.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

There are plenty of users. The issue is they're not all working together on the same content.

That's the really the issue with federation as a solution for Reddit. Reddit was what it was because of a single, shared userbase all commenting and voting on the same things. Like /r/place, it was one canvas, all hands contributed to it.

The fediverse was sold to us as working the same way but the results have been the opposite. It's fragmented with invisible walls.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

While I agree that federation currently works against Lemmy, and I've written to that effect before (Though I think most such issues can eventually be fixed on the software side), I still disagree that there are plenty of users. The entire active userbase of Lemmy is still fewer people than are subscribed to /r/Montana. /r/AskReddit alone currently has more unique people on it at the time of this reply than Lemmy has had in the last month.

So that's our problem: We're trying to take the amount of people who might browse /r/AskReddit at its peak on a Wednesday, and using just them trying to rebuild everything on reddit. The userbase here is spread too thin. Federation is artificially spreading them even thinner, but even without it we'd still be desperately in need of new users.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

anyone know if you can make a post there asking about Lemmy - I feel like reddit mods would remove it, you know?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's just being obtuse. Reddit does, in fact, have better content. You wouldn't say a restaurant has shitty food because you don't like the decor.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

That’s just being obtuse. Reddit does, in fact, have better content.

I'm not denying that. I'm saying it doesn't matter, because I can't access it except through an app that I actively dislike using