this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2023
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Asklemmy

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As a long time Reddit user, there's something about Lemmy and the fediverse that feels really refreshing and new. I think it has to do with a few things...

  1. People are more respectful of each other and interested in discussion and being social.
  2. Less trolls (users are probably older?)
  3. Due to it not being absolutely huge, I feel like people will actually see my posts and comments instead of being lost in a sea of content. I suppose once Lemmy grows this will change, however the cool thing about the fediverse are the new servers. So you can stick to the server when you want smaller community discussion and go to "all" when you want more populated threads.
  4. The clean UI feels refreshing and clean, almost like the early internet.

What have you noticed? Do you find it refreshing too?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I think it's partially attributable to Lemmy phone apps haven't taken off yet. Phone posting is a different medium than desktop posting with regards to McLuhans "the medium is the message" principle. Phone usage appeals to the lowest common denominator. People use it as a time waste to mindlessly scroll. The cognitive load is much lower. Thus shitty content bubbles to the top because that's all the brain power people are giving it. Phone usage is not conducive to consuming depth of content nor contributing it.

Additionally I think the lower cognitive engagement tends to lead people into greater fuckwad behavior. You aren't on a board with human beings on the other side of a keyboard. It's just a stupid app on your phone.

I think if I'm right then in time Lemmy with death spiral not unlike reddit if phone apps mature and Lemmy apps become a mainstream daily use type of affair. I doubt that will happen without the capitalist engine driving it though.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Am on phone. Should I skip for low cognitive effort?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I don't actually think it's got much to do with having a phone app or not. I see what you are saying with the medium being the message, but I don't think the "medium" is phones or computers.

You're right about the medium being the message though, it's just that the medium is a nerdy federated social media. Right now we are in the first or second big wave of new users. Not quite the nerdiest of the nerds who would have been using Lemmy since the beginning, but we are getting the "early adopters" and the people willing to go out on a limb to try something new. These are the kinds of people who are likely to interact with a community in a positive way, because they are already investing themselves into something before it is established.

I am using a phone app to write this message right now, it was really easy and accessible for me to login and get to grips with the UI. There are loads of people just like me, in fact I would be willing to bet Lenny is being used by 80% mobile users. It's just how we communicate with the world these days. Very few people browse social medias on a computer.

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

You're also forgetting that with a centralized platform everyone is stuck under the same roof. If we do reach that level of saturation then the communities can always splinter into a different instance or group of federated instances.

The problem with reddit was once we reached the point of everyone being there and the overall quality lowering, there was no refuge for the more engaged users to congregate and reform the communities that focus on quality over quantity. You could try and flee to more niche subreddits but it's really not the same, as demonstrated by OP making this post.

And then as you pointed out, the financial incentives are very different here, which will change how users engage with the platform and how the platform evolves as a result. Centralized platforms do everything to drive engagement to increase ad impressions and potential value to ad distributors. We have an opportunity to build communities with entirely different business models where growth is not an imperative.

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

I noticed the same, probably because reddit has become really bad in the last years but I didn't realize it until I joined here a couple of weeks ago.

It's indeed refreshing being able to have honest discussions on a platform that's not infested by bots, propaganda, disguised ads, mass shitposting, hidden agendas, etc.

If lemmy becomes wildly popular to the masses, it's possible things will change for the worse, who knows, but I'll enjoy it a lot in the meantime.

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

The fediverse is a great system for moderation. I've been on Mastodon for years now and it's stayed pretty pleasant.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

People are more respectful of each other

Less trolls

I think you mean fewer 😜

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Not to pat ourselves on the back too much but right now it’s mainly the Reddit power users that are here. The normies are wondering why interesting as fuck was flooded with porn as of last night.

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

Because it's run by the people for the people! :)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I think there's many contributing factors. I actually was thinking about the same thing before I found your post, and the answer that came to mind outside of some of the ones people posted here was:

It feels like a breath of fresh air because we're outside the Walled Garden. We're not trapped on a platform who's soul has been crushed and wrung for every penny's worth like Reddit or Twitter. And we can see that there is a world on the Internet besides the Walled Garden and that fact is very liberating. It makes you feel like you don't have to go back.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Lemmy "feels refreshing" because it is new to you. This deliveres a dopamine hit to your brain because we inherently find new things exciting.

As a concept it is the same public forum we have had for a long time. But it is decentralised which does help with restricting the ability of single groups of people from taking control of the native, so that is a good side-effrct.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Fediverse denizens are really active.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yea, I became more active on lemmy than ever was on Reddit

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Definitely people here are much more polite, the contrast is just striking.

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

I haven't seen a single comment that began with "Imagine.." yet. The lack of immature and pointless sarcasm is a breath of fresh air

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've had more traction on my posts and comments in the month or so I've been on lemmy than the entire 14 years I was on reddit. I'm glad I've moved, couldn't give two shits how it does from here out, I'm away.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

On reddit, half of the users are bots controlled by various corporations and state departments.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

There are less reposts bc its newer and bc there is a lot less bots

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A lot of us have been nofapping reddit for a while so it's it a bit of a release to interact in this familiar way.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

The people aren't assholes. The place is not that big to be totally ruined.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The negativity is definitely less. Sure, out of say fifty comments to a post there's maybe two disgruntled souls. Overall it's conducive to discussion.

Over on reddit I kept to just hobby subreddits for the most part to make comments. Only way to not come across the trolls.

Yes, the clean UI is wonderful. It's good to have something simple. It's also fun to watch something grow.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Of course it feels new, because it is new to many people. :-)

I felt like people were seeing my Reddit posts and comments, and I feel like people are here, as well. As with any commenting website or service, as the numbers of commenters grow large you need to be relatively quick to reply if you want many people to see what you write. On Reddit, obviously that means it depended what subreddit you were commenting on. And surely it will be the same or already is the same here.

The UI all depends on what client you're using. In my mind it doesn't feel like the early Internet, but that probably depends on our relative ages.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think it all boils down to an older and more geeky user base.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (8 children)

I have noticed similar things, just like you. Here are mine:

  1. More respectful, thought-provoking commenters
  2. Being early on a fundamentally different site is cool (federated vs centralized)
  3. In really small sublemmies (Less than 10 posters I guess) I kinda get the small village feeling, where eventually everyone will know eachother, which is kinda wholesome.
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