this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
503 points (92.8% liked)

Reddit

20366 readers
119 users here now

News and Discussions about Reddit

Welcome to !reddit. This is a community for all news and discussions about Reddit.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules


Rule 1- No brigading.

**You may not encourage brigading any communities or subreddits in any way. **

YSKs are about self-improvement on how to do things.



Rule 2- No illegal or NSFW or gore content.

**No illegal or NSFW or gore content. **



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-Reddit posts using the [META] tag on your post title.



Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.

If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here. This includes using AI responses and summaries.


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 51 points 3 days ago (5 children)

In my limited experience with Lemmy I would say the problem here is worse, but different due to the whole instance and decentralized thing.

I definitely don't think Lemmy has much ground to stand on in terms of looking down on reddit for the echo chamber they created.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Not sure if you are correct. On lemmy we have several different echo chambers with many interconnections. Best seen in the .world .lm flame wars. This might be a rather unique situation tbh and quite interesting for a sociological study, I guess.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I have been on Lemmy for over a year, and honestly, Lemmy should be looking up to Reddit on the echo chamber topic, not down on them lol. Like, if you thought Reddit was bad with Witch Hunts / Block Sprees / Whatever other tactics to create an echo chamber, Lemmy makes Reddit look like it has the mose diversity of opinions and posts on the entire internet.

I first came here from Reddit. About 2 or 3 months prior to the API Shutdown, I deleted my Reddit account on my own. Wasn't banned, never had been banned, just didn't want an account anymore. Then I saw in a Discord server someone talking about the API Shutdown, so I went to read some posts on Reddit about it. This is where I saw someone mention Lemmy. They talked about it like this place that was open to any ideas, any ideology (obviously not disgusting criminal activity like CSAM, yes I was here on Lemmy for the CSAM raiding early on unfortunately), was not politically affiliated with any political group or government. Sounded great to me, since I don't care about politics and don't want to see it. I have to see it enough in real life and I just don't want to deal with that crap any more than I have to. Just Lemmy users talking about their niche hobbies or groups. Basically, I was sold the idea of Reddit without politics.

For the first maybe, 3 or 4 months, Lemmy was pretty good. Not politically infested, nearly everything was on topic, not a lot of bots or spam. Genuine conversations between people that didn't always agree but those conversations did not devolve into name calling or anything. Dunno what happened, but that Lemmy is gone.

And before anyone brings it up, yes, I am a Lemmy.world mod for c/cars. The LW Admins asked me to be a mod because I was one of the more active users in that sub, along with the other current mod. At first, I said no. I didn't want to be a moderator, and honestly I still don't. But after asking me more and me saying no more, eventually the admins convinced me to be a mod. Here's the thing: I have never had to take moderator action on anything. Don't know if I ever will because of how low traffic that community is. But my mod style is simple: I don't care if I agree with what is said or not. I only care if a rule is broken. Justice should not have an opinion, so when I need to take action I disconnect it from my own ideas and opinions. Kinda like what one is supposed to do as part of a Jury in the US Justice System.

Anyway, the point is, Lemmy and Reddit have pretty much become the same, because they are now both infected with the same basic problem. So I wouldn't say Reddit is worse than Lemmy or better. They both have pros and cons that make them more or less equal, just the pros and cons are in opposite ways. Perfectly balanced, if you will.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

I would say that Reddit’s problems are enhanced by complicit admins. I feel that Lemmy instances can get just as bad as any subreddit power tripping mods can be. The good news though is that users have much more power to start a fresh instance and get it popular as the main name of the instance before the @ can stay the same. This is a big deal compared to Reddit imo, as the ability to hold the name of the community gives a lot more leverage over legitimacy. Take r/manga for instance, I believe most of the mods over there are now inactive. Another head mod has not come in to fill the void, and the subreddit has not posted things like applications for new mods. The userbase feels stuck to that subreddit due to how impactful the name is in attracting users to the community. Sure can offshoot can slowly grow in popularity, but it may be missed by the people that stop their search after typing in ‘manga’ to the search bar.

TL;DR Lemmy has it’s issues, but it is much harder for any one instance’s mods to be overly harsh on their rules as the risk of users jumping to a new instance with the same name is relatively low.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I agree. Of course lemmy and Reddit are the same. The tech might be different, but the format and the people are the same. Reading all this “us vs them” nonsense feels silly.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Agreed. When I first came here I thought Lemmy would be open to all points of view.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Agreed. When I first came here I thought Lemmy would be open to all points of view.

Lemmy already experienced Wolfballs, the de-facto right-wing instance, which their admin closed once they realized they were hosting a Nazi bar who were actually serious about White Nationalist nonsense and not just joking to "troll the lib snowflake". We tried it, it wasn't fun. Free speech absolutism is a pointless idealist approach to society - building a community where anyone can express anything will drive away people who want useful discussions and don't want to be regularly dehumanized for their existence (not their opinions or acts, but their existence). Diversity of opinion and the freedom to express is productive and constructive, but only up to a point. If someone came on here and persistently and seriously advocated that everyone whose name begins with an "M" should be publicly executed..... what's the point in tolerating that point of view? It brings none of the benefits of free expression. It's a waste of time that doesn't deserve to be taken seriously. And if it weren't so silly and people actually did get lynched for having a name starting with "M", it would be threatening and make people uncomfortable being here. If this "M" example seems too ridiculous, replace it with something equally pointless like "not being straight" or "not being white", which people do get killed for.

If this site were sprinkled with literal neo-Nazis and child abuse advocates (this isn't a mythical "what if", one can go to plenty of "free speech extremist" forums to see these people in action), then would you stick around? I'd go to somewhere else where I wouldn't have to see that pointless trash. And this isn't because of some mindless intolerance of political views - I've had serious political conversations with actual Mussolini-reading Fascists - but because some points of view are inherently antisocial, willfully repulsive and exclusionary, and they inevitably destroy communities. There's no material reason to be open to their antisocial points of view, it doesn't benefit the community or bring useful insight. It's an abstract right which causes more harm than benefit, more oppression than liberty. It's a waste of time and space.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 days ago

All points of view can exist on different instances. Doesn't mean that every instance has to federate with all other instances

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

Unfortunately no lol. Lemmy has a handful of stances that are "allowed" and if you stray from those you're toast.

You can get banned from entire instances just because the mod of that instance saw you make a comment they didn't like on a completely different instance and sub.

It's fine though. Each instance can do whatever they want. I do think it inhibits growth and actual discussions from taking place though. If you ban everyone that thinks even slightly differently than you it just means you're left with a bunch of people that all pretty much agree I everything. Not exactly a riveting conversation.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Not just bans. People in the Fediverse are knee jerk blockers too. Disagree with me? Blocked. Wow, now everyone agrees with me, so my take must be correct.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I dont see anything wrong with that.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

oh no, please not that...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Yeah ... I mean everyone is allowed to Taylor their experience however they want but I never block people because I never want to put myself into an echo chamber where I only ever see or hear opinions I already agree with.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

People arent at the best on anonymous internet forums. While I believe in free speech, I dont believe I am required to sit around and lend them my ear if they have proven themselves to be terrible. That being said, I dont ban right away, I make sure first. I dont feel bad about that at all-- I think it cuts down on slapfights. No one likes slapfights.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

good for you I want an echo chamber, listening to stupid mfs opinions for the last 10 years has done me no favors, the type of mf that I dont want to talk to is the one who refuses growth and doesnt change their mind off new information, instead they double down on their beliefs because of whatever stupid reason

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

See the difference between us is that because I never block anyone I might hear or see a perspective or idea I've never considered before and I might take stock of my current position and change. Whereas with your method you are cutting off that chance and then just locking in on your current stances assuming they are currently correct and will always be correct forever which I find to be an idiotic stance to have.

I can admit that all of my positions might not be perfect because I still haven't thought about every single thing or learned every single thing there is to learn. It is illogical to assume that I already know everything and no longer need to consider anything else.

I don't know about you but my political stances have changed over the years. Certain from a young kid to my teen years. And again from my teens to my young adult years. And yet again as I have gotten older. I am sure they will continue to shift and grow as I grow as a a person.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I research my opinions, I dont base them off conversations with strangers on the internet who all have their own agendas. Republicans are not changing their minds and arent open to new opinions unless the source is one of their own and even then theyll turn on them it its too far from what they know.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago (2 children)

The whole image seems made to be satirical. We're all in our own bubbles so for anyone to judge another person for the same thing is a wild take.

I don't mind being in a bubble here cause it is safe and nice to be among like-minded people, but at least I am aware I am in a bubble.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

The difference is the immense filters reddit use to ban people, now it's even a new account or a simple comment is a potential shadowban, aside from the right leaning of the site because of musk. I was visiting the shadowban sub, and majority of the people are just getting straight up banned, for creating an account or accidentally using a vpn

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

Most of the people I've seen on Lemmy do not react particularly well whenever the conversation of it being an echo chamber or a bubble comes up. I would say that most are either blind to it are in denial about it at the very least.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago

Maybe not everyone agrees with me that this is a bubble, but at least I feel like I am with like minded people and can be pretty sure that what I consider to be hateful shit will be downvoted, and I'm happy being in a space like that.

At the same time, I don't really blame people that don't realize they're in an echo chamber (whether here or on Reddit or anywhere), it's just social media working as intended.