OK, let's try this again. My post got auto-filtered. Maybe the image triggered something? Anyways, apologies if this isn't the right sub for this. I wanted to get an outsider's perspective on my experience on Lemmy.
Every. Single. Thread. has the word “capitalism” or “Trump” in it somewhere. I’m sick to death of it. Even though I agree with a lot of the sentiment, the erosion of the middle class, the concentration of wealth, the consolidation of media, the “you will own nothing and be happy” mentality permeating the consumer space. In many ways that’s why I joined Lemmy, but dang it that doesn’t mean I want to talk about absolutely nothing else. Someone once defined a fanatic as "Someone who won't change their mind and won't change the subject" and that fits the average Lemming to a T.
And the only communities devoid of politics are also devoid of content. I do a lot of worldbuilding stuff, and I’ve tried to make the worldbuilding community there more active, but sometimes I feel like I’m the only poster. Then I look at r/worldbuilding, and there’s a glut of really interesting posts showcasing people’s imagination and creativity, and nary a mention of Musk or Epstein in sight.
I understand that people's political opinions are bound to show up obliquely in even unrelated communities, but I can't overstate how monomaniacal Lemmings are about it. The pic I originally tried to post was a screenshot of a completely non sequitur post in an unrelated community (sorry for the vagueness I think the specifics may have also tripped the auto filter). And Lemmings are always "on". If you go to mildlyinteresting on lemmy.world right now, you'll see maybe one or two posts about things like yellow stop signs or three-chambered peanuts, you know, stuff that's actually mildly interesting, and every other post is stuff like "French president explains the political consequences of AI". Is that important and worth discussing? Absolutely. What it isn't is mildly interesting.
When I bring this up on Lemmy, the response is always "Politics is everything and we should never shut up ever!" But even Anne Frank wrote about other stuff in her diary sometimes.
And then there’s the tech side of things. Hope you like Linux, cuz that’s all you’re going to see. And if you dare suggest that Linux may not be the right choice for your blind grandmother, you get eviscerated in the comments.
Granted, Reddit itself used to have a similar problem. It attracted a very specific type of user (neckbeards) and the experience wasn’t great if you weren’t one, but ironically the same popularization of Reddit that lead to its platform decay also solved this homogeneity problem. Similarly, Tankies and their ilk seem to flock to Lemmy, explaining the tone of the discourse.
Others have pointed out that Reddit alternatives tend to attract people who were banned from Reddit (remember Voat?) and I think that explains a lot.
In summary, Lemmy seems great if you're a Marxist who uses Linux, but pretty much nobody else. Am I crazy? Should I try to stick with it in the hope it gets better?
so how do we get this guy on Linux? lol
In my response to this post earlier, I mentioned that one of the problems (which unfortunately reddit shares too) is hostility to other viewpoints, and this is a good example of how that is perpetuated. When a culture on a platform is too homogeneous, disagreement becomes so shocking that it's seen as "trolling", "bad faith", "offensive", etc. I think it's partially a symptom of the reddit-like structure of voting + active moderation, but it's also very much the culture.
You presented your points well and fairly, and even if you hadn't, I think we all need to get comfortable with the fact that normal humans sometimes interact in a manner that doesn't sound like an HR mediation session, and that's ok too.
Voting is a cancer upon social media. It was extra bad on Reddit because you had a cumulative karma score that was just begging to be farmed, and it's only slightly less bad on Lemmy because there's no global karma here. Voting encourages echo chambers because the top stuff is stuff that the majority likes and contrary opinions get buried. It also creates a Mathew effect by ensuring posts that are already popular get even more visibility.
It's also terrible because IMO it promotes social media addiction. It's way too easy to tie your self esteem to a number. Modern reddit is banking on this hard. Between the time I left in 2023 and returned a few weeks ago, they started sending you notifications every time your post or comment hits certain upvote milestones.
There's exactly one legitimate use for voting systems IMO and that's in practical or technical Q&A spaces (think Stack Exchange) where there are definitive right or best answers. Voting in this case allows people unfamiliar with the topic to zero in on what's good advice vs what's nonsense.
Yeah, and it encourages self-censoring too, on top of the punishing effect of downvotes.
It's frustrating because I really like the readable structure of Reddit-style platforms and find stuff that follows the Twitter model chaotic and disorganized. The classic forum style is fair, but it's also hard to keep up with high activity threads unless you spend time to read the whole thing in chronological order. I don't know what the ideal setup would look like.
nodeBB is a classic forum platform that has threaded comments. It also uses ActivityPub. Of all the federated platforms I think I'd prefer nodeBB if not for how comparatively small it is. It predates the popularization of AP and only added it a few years ago so whether it's part of the fediverse or not I suppose is up for debate.
I've heard the name before, but unfortunately I never really used those forums back in the day. If it's still going, I might have to check it out.
I really want to see federated, non-corporate social media succeed.
So do I. I wouldn't be complaining about its problems if I didn't want it to get better. I think it needs three things to succeed. First I think is better messaging. We need to be crystal clear that you have to be your own algorithm, which is what most of the responses here and on the original reddit thread were saying. This starts by picking an instance that you vibe with, then aggressively filtering out the rage. Second (and possibly most controversial) is better moderation, especially on communities that cast a wide net. I know I pick on mildlyinteresting, but it really is a microcosm of what's wrong with Lemmy. I think a lot of mods are either reluctant to come off as too strict, or just happy their comm has content at all, so noting gets regulated. Good moderation will help communities develop a distinct culture and identity instead of being slightly differently flavored rage factories. The third thing is a larger more diverse user base, which can only exist if the first two things are taken care of. If only Tankies hang out on Lemmy, than the Pokemon or metalworking communities are just slightly differently themed Tankie communities.