General Discussion

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Welcome to Lemmy.World General!

This is a community for general discussion where you can get your bearings in the fediverse. Discuss topics & ask questions that don't seem to fit in any other community, or don't have an active community yet.

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💬 Additional Discussion Focused Communities:

[email protected] - Note this is for more serious discussions.
[email protected] - The opposite of the above, for more laidback chat!
[email protected] - Into video games? Here's a place to discuss them!
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Remember, Lemmy World rules also apply here.

0. See: Rules for Users.

No bigotry: including racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia.
Be respectful. Everyone should feel welcome here.
Be thoughtful and helpful: even with ‘silly’ questions. The world won’t be made better by dismissive comments to others on Lemmy.
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founded 1 year ago

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It's so much easier to comment on Lemmy because it isn't a toxic cesspool waiting to tear you apart (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

266 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Especially the upvote/downvote system drives bandwagon behavior. If a post gets like 3 downvotes and the next gets 2, people just look at the votes and assume who's right and follow that. They will literally think votes decides what's right. Though when you're on the other side of that, it's also important to know that votes don't matter and it doesn't mean you're wrong. It's also important to know when to leave a conversation when it stops being a discussion and turns into an argument. Arguments are literally useless and just aggravating, which people won't admit that they love.

The reddit behavior certainly still comes out. But an upside about decentralization is you can block the instance they're from since that annoying behavior tends to follow the same company and you probably block a lot more annoying people as a result.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I've looked at comments I didn't feel like reading, looked at the score then voted based on that. This is a bias we're all subject to, knowingly or not.

You see a comment had -20 downvotes your interpretation of the contents is immediately swayed to side with the majority. Removing downvotes ~~looking at you beehaw~~ also doesn't solve this problem. Less likes than the person who responded to you? You must be wrong.

So I'm glad Lemmy, at least the browser version, shows both up and downvotes by default and the total score is hidden away in the top right. Helps remove a little bit of bias.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I don't think hiding the vote count is a bad idea though. Keep the upvote/downvote system and let it sort which comment is on the top and whatnot, but who does seeing the score really benefit? There is no winner or loser, and the score doesn't matter, so why is it kept anyways? The goal in the end should conversation.

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

Yes, it absolutely does. But I think it's still worth it to have a downvote system.

I'm glad we can even see the exact ratio, too. The more transparency, the better.

At the same time, it would be cool if users could just sort by means other than votes. If you'd like, it'd be nice if you could hide the votes altogether so you don't see them. I wouldn't do this, but I support having the option to for those who would.