I’ve been on lemmy for over a year now, and I just realized I used to read all those HackerNews articles + their comments, I haven’t done that in probably 6 months because the discussion here has gotten much better. What’s changed for you with Lemmy over the last year?
Given that this website has experienced the Reddit migration (I am one of those migrants), it has definitely started to feel a bit like Reddit, but it still differs in a lot of ways. There’s less bots, actually engaging conversations, actual content. To me, this website continues to capture the vibe of the early Web2 days of the internet in a way that Reddit clearly moved away from, definitely so that its executives can make more of them monies. It feels a bit nostalgic in a way, and that’s what I like about this website.
In my view, Lemmy ecospace became a lot more dark. People are snarkier, less prone to engage in polite conversation and divergent opinions get hounded.
I also sense an increased tendency for doom and gloom. Nihilism is on the rise, as well.
It’s become clear that Lemmy is not about to take off. For most users, it’s probably a fine Reddit clone, but it’s not about to replace the big R.
I’m sure that will change in 2025. 🧌
Lemmy doesn’t need to “take off” or compete with Reddit to succeed. Growth for the sake of growth holds little inherent value. Unlike commercial platforms reliant on VC funding to survive, Lemmy thrives on sustainability. What really matters is that there are enough developers to maintain the platform, people to host the server, and users to create content. With these elements in place, Lemmy can continue indefinitely without the need for explosive growth.
In fact, rapid growth could do more harm than good. A sudden influx of users often brings toxic behaviors, especially those migrating from platforms like Reddit. When new users trickle in slowly, they adapt to the existing norms and culture of the community. But when a horde arrives, they risk overwhelming and reshaping the community in ways that trample over its core values. A slow, steady stream of users allows for organic integration, preserving the essence of what makes Lemmy pleasant.
Unlike commercial platforms, open-source projects don’t rely on profit motives to survive. They’re driven by people who directly benefit from their work and are passionate about their vision. When disagreements arise, projects can be forked, allowing different groups to take them in new directions. Even if a project is abandoned, it can be revived by a new team as long as there’s a dedicated community. This flexibility and resilience make open source inherently more sustainable than commercial platforms, which can vanish overnight if funding dries up.
The Fediverse, and Lemmy within it, only needs a large enough user base to remain self-sustaining. I’d argue that it’s already well past that threshold. There’s no rush to grow rapidly. Steady progress ensures the community retains its identity and values, while the open-source nature of the platform guarantees its longevity. Lemmy isn’t just another platform; it’s a sustainable, adaptable ecosystem built to endure. I’m willing to bet that Lemmy will still be around long after Reddit crumbles to dust.
Started to participate in discussion more and pleasantly surprised actual conversations happen and the comment section is not flooded with generic bot shit within minutes.
When I first came here, I was so jaded, with the expectation that every account was a bot or an asshole. Seeing the actual conversation among humans has been nice.
Lemmy is my only social media interaction these days, the content has improved, and the communities feel more distinct than they did a year ago. That could just be me getting up to speed though.
It was a nice surprise finding out that the left wing instances on here are actually pretty chill, way more so than on Reddit these days.
I peaked into r/communism and it’s genuinely awful. Full of the most toxic people I have seen in the supposedly “Marxist” communities. Surprisingly Lemmy is way more chill than Reddit.
All of the “a vote for Kamala is a vote for genocide” spammers mysteriously disappeared
Edit: my point is that they seem awfully quiet about Trump
You shitlibs are still whining that leftists didn’t want to vote for your genocidal ghoul?
The liberals are desperate to blame anything and everything they can to justify not changing a single damn thing about the democratic party.
Because they know the blue conservatives won’t change. Their donors will not allow it.
“No, it’s the voters who are wrong”
I mean, the vote happened and she’s not running anymore, sooooooo not really a reason for them to keep talking about that issue?
Also, I remember a couple usernames from some of the most vocal and I just went and looked and it’s not like they up and deleted their accounts or stopped using Lemmy. They’re still active, so they didn’t “disappear.”
@queermunist@lemmy.ml was pretty loud about that opinion and they’re still here, for example.
I know reddit being flooded with bots for 10 years has made y’all jaded but real people with real opinions that differ from ours shockingly still exist.
1·5 months agothey’re still here
Her pronouns are she/her
Starting to see different people reposting stuff on similar communities, which reminds me a lot of that other site. Not a huge fan.
I’ve also started noticing people downvoting instead of engaging when they disagree with something as well, which is frustrating.
It’s not great, but at least downvotes barely affect anything other than visibility of top level comments on popular posts, and are easy to hide. Better that than people disagreeing using lazy insults and tired truisms.
I often think the place would be better with no downvotes.
If you think a post/comment is good, then upvote. If you think a post/comment is bad, then either get over it and move on or grow a pair and say why.
The freedom of expression means that you have to read/hear/see things that you might not like every now and again, but I’d much rather that than end up in another echo chamber.
I’m fine with seeing things I don’t like or agree with if it is a fully formed thought, but I still think downvotes are a nice trap for lazy inarticulate people to feel like they are doing the equivalent of dropping a low effort flame comment while actually doing basically nothing. I have display of vote scores disabled and don’t have to know or think about the approval of people who are only voting, which is nice. If they had something to say that isn’t already fully communicated by the downvote button, maybe they would say it instead despite downvoting being an option.
Yep, downvotes are usually an “I don’t know how to counter what you’re saying but I don’t like it” button.
But what I’m saying is, they are good because they likely deter toxic thoughtless comments.
They also deter good comments that go against the grain for an instance. Labeling comments as “toxic” even if they are fine but controversial isn’t good. Such toxic comments can be reported and removed anyways.
I mean they deter comments from the people leaving the downvotes. Anyone wanting not to be deterred by downvotes can adjust settings to not see them.
Lemmy has a bit more active users which is great. However, I have also noticed that Lemmy has gotten similar things as Reddit these days. Different opinions are not welcome, quick/ angry comments (politic community though)
However, Lemmy now has a decent app(s) such as Voyager. I also love that Lemmy does not restrict/ block users from using swear words (at least the instance I’m on does not).
Though in all honesty, I mostly use an RSS-feed such as Reeder and InoReader.
Different opinions are not welcome, quick/ angry comments
I feel like Lemmy is consistently hostile to different opinions. It’s a real disappointment.
Depends on instance, largely. Lemmy instances usually lean towards 1 or maybe 2 camps of the “liberal, anarchist, Marxist” triangle, and are hostile to the other 1 or 2 camps.
For me, Lemmy was a place where I mostly found like-minded people. Even if we don’t always agree (and we shouldn’t) I have had some genuine feedback to the thoughts that haunt me or tickle me. Nevertheless, I was surprised at the interinstance drama which I mostly ignore. And I think that the base probability of transphobia is higher than the sidebar rules would implicate. I am always surprised when I see naive and uninformed takes.
Although I do have found a place to share such thoughts with less harassment and backlash than Reddit, there is some unearned harassment and hating here as well, eg there are some consistent downvoters, to the effect I have a single downvote to anything I post.
Although I think that here in Lemmy I enjoy a higher probability of getting thoughtful responses and well-intended humor to what I post, I feel that a number of people I have interacted with me were highly prejudiced I was a troll or a bad faith actor.
This lack of trust to other users is one of the greatest achievements of fascists and spooks, and they have successfully used it with freedom movements everywhere.
I was also surprised at how conservative the privacy community is. Compared to the amount of radical content posted on every other topic, I find myself among those who think that c/Privacy actively discourages newcomers from developing advanced privacy and anonymity skills.
The privacy thing and some aspects of the Democrats situation pre- and post- election make me think that there is some “manufacturing of consensus” bad faith actors among us. This can lead to disbanding of any project, so we need a solid mindset, in which we assume good faith, but have exact methods for handling disagreement and genuine questions, but also look out for bad faith actors and take steps to build healthy online communities for anarchist and communist free and private software enthusiasts.
Afterthoughts
- The sitewide rules ask us to assume good faith, be civil, and discuss thoughtfully. As it happens, we fail to adhere, and I am to blame as well. I am quite uncivil to people I disagree, but it is often forgiven because a lot of other people are cheering. This makes us a stupid crowd by the way.
- As a Disclaimer, I switched sides wrt to Democrats. Although I had chosen not to post anything pre-election, I was like “Quit this nonsense and vote Democrats already”. I was radicalized after the election, and now think that Democrats are lobbying grifters and can stuff it.
I got banned from the Canada community and according to the mod log, it was for homophobia and bigotry.
That really rubs me the wrong way because I’ve never ever posted anything like that. I’ve been the subject of homophobic and bigotry based bullying my whole life and the only comment I posted on that topic there was an account of my first hand experience of being catfished on Grindr and then outed as bi on the towns facebook page and subjected to ridicule and harassment.
I believe you misunderstood why you were banned.
You were banned because of incivility and ableism. You were making derogatory comments about the mentally ill as though having a illness was a bad thing.
I can see why you were confused, as homophobia is also listed under rule 1.
Things I have been permanently banned for:
- Saying dragons aren’t real
- Referencing The Bee Movie
- Pointing out Kamala Harris was not the president
- Upvoting a comment
Admins and moderators of all stripes: you should be handing out three-day bans like candy. You can give people a month-long fuck-off time-out, and in the future, they will think twice. Even if it takes a few whacks. But all a one-step permanent ban does is chase people to new accounts. That’s why outright trolls do it - it’s not hard, and you don’t seem great at catching them. The experience for people who are merely wrong has to be better than for people who are actively malicious, or you will cease to see any difference between their behavior.
It’s become much more moderated and controlled. I think reddit is actually less controlled. I’m seeing conversations about Swedish immigration that would never be allowed on Lemmy.
On the other hand, I saw that Luigi was not allowed to be mentioned in Reddit now in some subreddit… So… Lol.
Change your instance. You can still use lemmy and see what you want. No need to switch to a new service.
That’s the beauty of this place. Make it how you want.
The visible buildup and collapse of anti-democrat propaganda pre- and post-election. Then blaming the democrats for trump’s win. The shift to pushing intergenerational conflict shortly after and blaming specific generations for trump’s win. Now blaming the democrats for everything the Republicans do.
Pretty much a steady undercurrent of individuals attempting to blame democrats for everything.
That wasn’t a Lemmy problem before. Sure, we had issues with grad or ml, but there really wasn’t such a uniform front pushing such monochromatic propaganda.
That, and I think some of the edge has come off of Lemmy as a techie/linux platform. It’s still there, but I think there’s a much better variety of discussions now.
Leftists existing and being critical of liberal right-wingers was not an organized campaign, rather, it was a salient discussion around the US Election. The Leftists are still here doing what they always do.
