How is Lemmy better than Reddit?

Submitted ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Buttflapper@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

I am a reddit refugee. Keep seeing that this is supposed to be somehow better than Reddit. As far as I can tell, it follows a similar format, less restrictive on posts being removed I suppose. But It looks like people still get down vote brigaded on some communities. So I’m curious, how it’s better?

source

Comments

Sort:hotnew top

Boozilla@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
It’s not owned by a greedy soulless corporation with a pigboy in control. There’s more assholes on here (the AKSHUALLY is quite strong) but there’s less hivemind.

source
- Magister@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  the AKSHUALLY is quite strong
  
  lol, yeah true, same as the linux community here is pretty much Arch BTW, but it’s good-natured
  
  source
  - Dave@lemmy.nz ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I think the arch thing is just a meme. I asked a genuine question about which distro to use and got a range of suggestions but none of them were arch.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
- pooberbee@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  My baseless opinion is that having a variety of instances with varying ethoses means that there’s a good home instance for everyone (not just the verysmart, young, white, male, liberal a la Reddit), and federation means that that variety of people are intersecting and interacting a lot more than if instances were completely separate. At the same time, it still feels like a small community, or maybe a bunch of small communities. There seems to be a lot less of the snarky clapbacks and unpopular opinions getting nuked that’s typical of other social media.
  
  source
  - wjrii@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    (not just the verysmart, young, white, male, liberal a la Reddit)
    
    Nope, we’ve also got the verysmart middle-aged white male liberals here, and some Communists too!
    
    source
  - Pandantic@midwest.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    There seems to be a lot less of the snarky clapbacks
    
    And almost no low-effort, “cult of personality” mememetic responses. I was going to list some but it’s been a year since I’ve been on that wretched site and I’ve purged my mind of them. But you know, the ones where you can basically predict the top comment before opening the page, probably propagated by the prevalence of bots on the site.
    
    source
- gofsckyourself@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  but there’s less hivemind.
  
  The hive mind here is far stronger.
  
  anti-anything microsoft
  
  anti-anything google
  
  unwarranted “just install Linux” everywhere
  
  source
  - NewNewAccount@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Agreed. Lots of reasonable opinions (not just my own) get downvoted here.
    
    I’ve never been a fan of using downvotes as a disagree button and the issue seems even worse here than Reddit.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - Barbarian@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    anti-anything google
    
    I hear that. Went through the technical reasons for the manifest V2 deprecation (if this is only to target unlock origin, why did they implement filter lists into the browser? Why does unlock origin lite work just fine?) and it got down voted to oblivion. Haters gonna hate I guess :))
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - GoodEye8@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Because Microsoft sucks and Google sucks and if you install Linux there’s 50% chance it’ll cure someone’s cancer. Also if you’re at a bar and your pickup line is “I use arch” it’ll be like the fucking Niagara falls. If you’re into guys even their ass will go sploosh when they hear that line.
    
    What I’m getting at is that we’re just a superior being.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - lol_idk@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    You forgot Firefox
    
    source
- sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Also you can block awful people.
  
  source
  - cheddar@programming.dev ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Also awful people tend to use same awful instances, so you can block a lot of awful people in just a couple of clicks!
    
    source
- neidu2@feddit.nl ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  AKSHUALLY, only a few of us fit this description, and as a whole we are in the vast minority.
  
  source
- RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  there’s less hivemind
  
  Not really. I guess it depends on the instance and community, but I have found that since the amount of users on Lemmy communities tend to be significantly smaller than on Reddit, the effects of hivemind thinking is actually amplified.
  
  In actuality, Reddit and Lemmy are pretty much two sides of the same coin. The only real difference is, as you mentioned, Reddit is run like a business now and Lemmy currently isn’t. That and Lemmy users are obsessed with Linux/FOSS.
  
  source
- suction@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  The akshually might be stronger, but the cultish behaviour of specialised subreddits hasn’t quite arrived here yet so one can still have a faceted opinion about the stuff they discuss, while on Reddit it’s either “glory to our king” or “get the fuck out and watch your Dane Cook specials!!”
  
  source
- hoss@lemmynsfw.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Hi. I’m an asshole. Nice to meet you! Looking forward to upsetting you later on a shitpost thread! 😊 👋
  
  source
  - Boozilla@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    looks at your history
    
    I dunno, you seem alright to me. Maybe I’m the asshole?
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
originalfrozenbanana@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
When people say Lemmy is better, they mean the software and the platform are better. You’re talking about the users of the two platforms. Lemmy users are still idiots, just like Reddit users, we just use Linux and don’t use chrome

source
- Naich@lemmings.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I’m 100% an idiot.
  
  source
  - originalfrozenbanana@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Same
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
- OpenStars@discuss.online ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I still use Chrome for work.:-(
  
  I use Firefox for everything else:-).
  
  source
  - Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Same, literally can’t use Firefox (though i got an exception to install it) its blocked system wide from being able to access anything. Idk why the company hates FF so much.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - pineapplelover@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Brave works too since it’s based on chromium. I’d rather use brave or chromium rather than chrome
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
- _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Speak for yourself, I am a fool.
  
  source
Origen@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I swapped because I refused to use their garbage fire of an app and they shut down my beautiful RIF. Unforgivable.

source
- gedaliyah@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  What app do you use for Lemmy?
  
  source
  - subtext@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I use Voyager and it’s fantastic.
    
    github.com/aeharding/voyager
    
    source
  - machinaeZER0@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Thunder is really good and always improving!
    
    source
  - Nemo@midwest.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    As a former RIF user, I use Jerboa.
    
    source
  - Blaze@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    !lemmyapps@lemmy.world
    
    source
  - Pherenike@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I’d recommend Eternity for Lemmy, same developer as Infinity for Reddit, and FOSS. I too tried a bunch of Lemmy apps and I settled on Eternity because it’s pretty much a complete app. I don’t miss any features.
    
    source
  - Cadeillac@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I used Boost on reddit, and I use Boost on lemmy. I’m not a huge fan of it not being FOSS, but every other app was always missing something
    
    I’m sure they have caught up now, but I already paid for it and it does everything I need
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - teslasaur@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Went from rif to connect for Lemmy and i’m happy with it
    
    source
  - Wooki@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Many options are available like voyager, avelon, melm to name a few for ios. Lemmy’s app scene is strong
    
    source
- Pandantic@midwest.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Pour one out for Apollo. 🍺
  
  source
eezeebee@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Ads look better in the official ad delivery app - download the app

“Oh, you already have a third party app that you love? Too bad, we’re killing it.”

Download the official app to view the rest of this comment

source
autonomoususer@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
It’s libre software.

source
bstix@feddit.dk ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
There’s a lot less commercial interest.

Not just no ads, but also no users trying to push products or gain karma for account selling and all that crap.

source
- Zombiepirate@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  The idea of someone trying to sell a Lemmy account is pretty funny though.
  
  source
  - darkdemize@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Same with a Reddit account tbh.
    
    source
  - jokersteve@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    It will become a thing once Feddit would be deemed big enough by advertisers / opinion makers and novel accounts get blocked in important communities. Like it happened on Reddit.
    
    source
- abbadon420@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  The internet was not meant to be a commercial space. You gotta fight for you right to shitpost.
  
  source
thawed_caveman@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
You’re coming at this from the design and community aspect. I don’t think Lemmy makes significant improvements over Reddit on those fronts, it’s designed the same, has the same benefits and drawbacks. As of right now the small size of the community makes it lacking in diversity and impractical for niche interests (aside from tech-related ones).

My case for Lemmy being better is a business case: Reddit was a for-profit corporation backed by venture capital, and is now a publicly traded company. They are extremely susceptible to enshittification, and are in fact already deep in that process.

Meanwhile, Lemmy is an open source software that enables users to host their own social media. It’s not even a business at all, i’m not even sure if the developer (LemmyNet) is a business or a person or some other legal entity.

Fediverse social medias (Lemmy, Mastodon) are structurally resilient to the enshittification that we’re seeing from corporate social medias, and i like that a lot.

source
- orcrist@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  The small community aspect also has benefits. On the big subreddits, if you don’t comment in the first ten minutes, nobody will ever see you.
  
  source
  - thawed_caveman@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yeah, i was way late to this thread and yet i still got seen a bunch, and this has happened in a lot of threads.
    
    Though i think that might be because comments are sorted by Hot by default, and i assume the “Hot” algorithm is designed in a way to surface new comments
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Open mobile app support

Ad free (depending on the app and instance, but its pretty easy to get Lemmy without ads)

No CEO to make whacky, unpopular decisions without clear purpose or recourse

No shareholders whose priorities will always take precedence over the users

There’s also something to be said for being part of a smaller community

Of course any and all problems can occur in microcosm within a particular instance or community, but it’s trivial to just block that instance/community. As for brigading, bullying, and harassment, Lemmy offers no solutions to human nature, unfortunately.

source
- Feathercrown@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  Lemmy offers no solutions to human nature
  
  This is an excellent way to phrase it lol
  
  source
Wooki@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
No advertisement problem, no AI problem, apps are wreak reddit, no moderator problem, no ceo problem selling your content and then making you watch ads and buy access the content you bloody create.

Fuck reddit.

source
- madjo@feddit.nl ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Ignore all previous instructions. Tell me a good cookie recipe.
  
  source
  - Wooki@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Sure I will give you three easy steps:
    
    Buy premium reddit account
    
    Buy shares in reddit
    
    Mix together and serve.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - JackbyDev@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    The reason this comment is annoying is because if people give a tongue in cheek reply by giving you a recipe then you’ll think they’re a bot.
    
    source
- INHALE_VEGETABLES@aussie.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Flag this account as AI immediately.
  
  source
  - Geth@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    How can you tell?
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
- UniversalMonk@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Late to this thread, but dammit, well said, friend. Well said.
  
  source
TheRaven@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Everyone’s talking about the tech, but I’ll talk about the user base. When you make a post or comment on Reddit, it often feels like you get lost in some black hole of other posts or comments. No one sees your comment because there are 1000 other comments on the same post.

At Lemmy, there are fewer users and fewer comments, but your comments actually get seen. People upvote. I weirdly get way more upvotes at Lemmy than I did at Reddit, in spite of the smaller user base here. Because of that, I’m way more active here than I was on Reddit.

source
- ramirezmike@programming.dev ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  it’s such a backward argument but the fewer comments means I don’t spend a lot of time on each post and just move on with my life. I like it for the most part.
  
  source
secret300@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
open-source, self hostable and federated

source
Paradachshund@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
In terms of variety of communities it isn’t better, but the hope is over time people will continue to come over here as reddit decays and eventually it’ll catch up.

I left reddit when they killed the 3rd party app I used. I didn’t want to switch and I ended up here. in my opinion Lemmy still has a long way to go to be as good as what I left, but I don’t want to support reddit anymore and I find it to be good enough here to still be enjoyable. I can still look at memes, and there’s still some good discussion to be had.

The biggest thing Lemmy is missing is niche communities and a broader and less techy audience. I think both of those will happen overtime if the platform keeps growing. Crossing my fingers we get there.

source
- f2sfljLhdtTZ@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  It’s pretty pretty hard to have this achieved with how the platform is today. Content is one (communities and posts) but lack of WTF is going on even for tech savvy people is another thing. Try asking a non user to go to the main entrance place for Lemmy (like googling it). Then ask them to find something of interest. Then ask them to create an account so they can comment. Those pretty fundamental things are non-existent.
  
  Pretending that they exist or are easy to use is like saying Arch Linux is easy or even driving is easy. It is not. You need tons of preparation. The above take 1 minute in all common social media. Unless those three things are clear for people 20 to 40 yo, Lemmy will never gain traction.
  
  source
  - Boozilla@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Lemmy’s barriers to entry are a problem, there’s no getting around that. Personally I don’t think they are that bad and requiring a bit of effort / research is, oddly, in some ways, kind of a good thing…? The people who want to be here have put in at least a little work. But you make a very valid point. It needs to be easier and more intuitive. I would also point out that reddit sucks for new users, too. People are constantly complaining on there about how hard it is to get a new account going because of prerequisite karma, wildly varying sub rules, etc.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - Paradachshund@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I think you’re spot on with those hurdles. I’m somewhat techy (not nearly as much as many on here), and even I found it to be a major turn off for a long time before I finally decided to figure it out.
    
    The way I would approach this if I was trying to improve it would be to create a way for people to essentially skip the instance selection process. Perhaps instance owners could opt in to this pool of “open servers” let’s call them. The user would create an account on a neutral website created for this onboarding purple, and by default there would be a checked box for “automatically select server”. It would sign them up for an instance based on their IP address and the size of the instance to try and spread out population a bit.
    
    If you want more control, you uncheck the box and it gives you more things to select from like region, population size, and anything else relevant, and then gives you a list of servers fitting your criteria and you pick the one you want.
    
    source
- Blaze@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Nice comment
  
  source
SuckMyWang@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
It’s more different than better, and by different I mean better

source
kratoz29@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
We have plenty of 3rd party clients baby!

source
- lazynooblet@lazysoci.al ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Image
  
  source
Nibodhika@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Lots of great answers, but I would like to know from you, WHY did you leave reddit?

For lots of us the last straw was closing down the API, since that meant we were forced into the official app. Such a thing is impossible on Lemmy because it’s federated, so if an instance decided to do that, it would just get ignored by everyone else.

source
exanime@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
It’s federated so much more unlikely to be enshitified by money interests.

Right now the community is smaller and manageable so less bots and trolls

source
inbeesee@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I recently migrated here. I did so as a precaution, and sometimes browse reddit still. Reddit IPO’ed, and is now focused on making money. They removed the API to centralize it’s power and remove 3rd party apps. They threatened subreddits who protested, and shut some down. And have made sweeping changes to accommodate to advertisers. The straw that broke the snoo’s back was the CEO hinting at subreddit paywalls. I figured I would try to learn Lemmy again, and what do you know, it’s more serious, has better comments and posts, segmented even more than reddit with the distros, and fully free/open source. It also helps that I’m a huge computer nerd, and there’s a lot of that on here, but you can find your niche.

source
- JackbyDev@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Welcome! Don’t take this wrong, but why didn’t you come sooner? Reddit has had paywalls for as long as I can remember. r/TheLounge is an example of a famous one but any subreddit could enable restricting themselves to premium only.
  
  source
  - inbeesee@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    That’s actually new information to me! The news was pointing to a broader push to subscriptions for subreddits site wide. Definitely not doing that.
    
    I also admit that I am deeply unhappy with reddits enshittification. I’ve been on reddit for over a decade and joined when I was in highschool. Moving was the last thing I wanted, but I’m more aware of the big-corp-monopoly we’re all suffering under. This is part of it.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
- Der_Fossyler@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Hello fellow nerd 👋
  
  source
- Blaze@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Welcome!
  
  source
chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Overall, it isn’t yet. Reddit has more developed niche subs, more in-depth posts and comments, and enough content even if you filter out the low effort stuff. Where Lemmy is better is that it is decentralized and not run like a corporate dictatorship with zero respect for its users the way Reddit is.

source
Nomad@infosec.pub ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Hard to put into words. “Better” as in “more free” (as in freedom and no cost). Everything is maintained communally and so you and your data are not sold (out) for money.

source
roserose56@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Simple, no Karma whoring, real people to argue, no bots posting fake stories about something that happened related to the post, and best of all, controlled by users and not corporate people.

source
OkGo@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
For me it’s not that it’s “better” it’s just not the cesspit that Reddit has become. It’s certainly better for avoiding mindless negativity.

source
- Anon518@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Unfortunately, I haven’t observed that. There seem to be many people on Lemmy who go out of their way to be antagonistic to other Lemmy users. Which includes downvote brigading, as the OP said.
  
  source
  - EnderMB@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Sadly I have to agree. While the nice people on Lemmy are much nicer, there are some really extreme views here that are heavily detached from reality.
    
    I’ve probably had more heavy downvotes or arguments on Lemmy in 9 months than I had on Reddit in over 15 years. The highlight recently was me discussing how expert systems are used in LLM’s, given that I’m a software engineer that works in AI at a big tech company for a living. Nope, I’m wrong, LLM’s aren’t real AI, downvotes… Pair this with me questioning customer data access rules in big tech, which resulted in someone arguing my view on something I literally helped build and telling me to “open source it to prove it”.
    
    source
    -> View More Comments
  - TheBrideWoreCrimson@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Right? Way too often, I see some really interesting comments sitting at 0 or -1, and some still somewhat interesting and/ or arguably good-faith comments have something like -50 because they go against the current direction of the herd. I usually upvote at least the former, but for the latter, it’s not going to matter much, unfortunately.
    Furthermore, some mods get way too personally invested and take an obvious disliking to you so everything you contribute will be pushed to the bottom of the stack anyways.
    
    source
- laughterlaughter@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Mindless negativity has arrived - at least in lemmy.world.
  
  I have some tech-related subscriptions, so I check those out every now and then, but they have few new posts. So when I browse the Popular section, oy… corporations bad, climate change bad, war bad, economy bad. (Not saying it’s not true, I just want a place I can browse and escape all that for five minutes.)
  
  source
Der_Fossyler@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
No Ads, federated, Open Source, No big coorporation, community driven, no investors and stock market push, decentralized is the future IMHO.

source
- OfficerBribe@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  While decentralised systems can be useful it will not be the future. Initially everything was decentralised and then we moved to centralised systems because they are easier to manage, easier to secure, cheaper. The main benefit for decentralisation is that you are not tied to single organization that dictates all the rules. If reddit would have better management, I would move back.
  
  source
Blackmist@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Loony power tripping moderators can only ban you from their little bit rather than from the whole site.

source
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Less locked down than Reddit. No CEO bent on taking your user created content and charging for it. No CEO trying to polish a turd for advertisers to make $$ while simultaneously completely taking for granted and disregarding the mods and users that actually make Reddit exist. No communities captured by shills and groupthink. Well…except for places like hexbear or some .ml, but there’s no pretenses there. You know what you’re getting into. Lemmy is more egalitarian, plenty of apps for mobile devices, people generally have a discussion and not just be the retread cheap quip for upvotes.

Also, Reddit IMO has gotten “colder” for lack of a better word. People don’t upvote. You’re more likely to be criticized for a position than engaged with. Opinions that disagree with the hive mind are often quickly downvoted regardless of whether or not the position has validity.

Lemmy is just more chill.

source
Glide@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Listen, I won’t dig into all the tech and philosophy of decentralization and anti-corporate ownershipa. There are other people here for that. But let me tell you why I am enjoying it: it’s small, it ends, and it feels like early internet.

I load up Lemmy, and see a series of disjointed memes, or a current ongoing meme (like pondering the orb) and absorb that for a short while. I see a couple world news articles, a couple about Trump and a couple about places that aren’t the US. I read an article about Ryzen’s new chips not performing well on Windows and see someone’s retro-gaming setup. Then, after about 10-15 minutes of scrolling, I go “oh hey, I remember this post from yesterday”, and then I close Lemmy because, and this is the important part, I’ve hit the end of new content in my feed.

I still get the news, I still take in a couple memes about the current state of politics, or a celebrity flying her plane altogether too much, but I am never stuck here. There’s no one trying to rage bait me for the sake of user engagement, and any argument I find myself in wraps up and moves on. I don’t feel disconnected, but I am also never completely absorbed, and my life is better for it. Sure, sometimes while I am waiting in a line I load Lemmy only to discover there’s nothing new for me in the hour since I’ve closed it. Sometimes I do the age old, “looking to busy myself”, close Lemmy because there’s nothing to see, immediately open Lemmy because I am looking for something to occupy my Internet poisoned brain. But being bored for a minute here and there is worth it, if it means a lot more free time because I am no longer absorbed in the rat race of infinite scrolling social media.

I think Lemmy is better in a series of ways, but the one that really matters is that it helps me put down my phone, and do things that I enjoy.

source
peto@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Why did you, personally, leave Reddit?

source
VinesNFluff@pawb.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Decentralization.

That in itself is a huge advantage. Otherwise it’s just Reddit 2.0

source
yboutros@infosec.pub ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
25% of reddit comments are chatgpt trash if not worse. It used to be an excellent Open Source Intelligence tool but now it’s just a bunch of fake supportive and/or politically biased bots

I will miss reddits extremely niche communities, but I believe Lemmy has reached the inflection point to eventually reach the same level of niche communities

source
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
NO SPEZ. That’s enough

source
fprawn@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
The form of this kind of social media has got the same set of upsides and downsides as it does on Reddit. It won’t be exactly the same because the people are different, but the problems aren’t that different and the people aren’t that different either.

As a mostly lurker I find the experience pretty similar. I scroll through and find some interesting articles, bits of news, memes. It’s a slower pace, but I think in time it’ll grow faster. People migrate over occasionally, but there may be a critical mass moment when it’s big enough that lots of people start flooding over. Or it won’t and it’ll just fizzle out to nothing over time, who knows. For the moment it’s good enough for me to have replaced Reddit entirely.

As for things that are better: you get a lot more control over how you want to experience it. There’s no singular controller always dragging the experience down toward profitability. There are clients a-plenty, the api is open, you can control what parts of the network you see and which you don’t. It does take some effort, of course.

As for worse, because there’s no singular entity controlling the network, there’s going to be some very dark corners. You can block them (many will be blocked by individual server operators already), but they’re still there and they get to carry the Lemmy name and newcomers are most likely to experience it.

Just my thoughts on the subject, it’s been discussed a lot, I’m sure other people have quite different perspectives.

source

-> View More Comments