I can't think of an example but definitely yes in non-political tech discussions about subjects like 3d printing.
Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
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I think that just being exposed to other points of view is productive. I’ve had enjoyable back and forths about plenty of media I enjoy and others have enjoyed.
I think it has helped me have a more well rounded worldview. I consider myself more conservative that the average poster on the fediverse. I still dont think that I’ve moved that leftward but I’ve evolved from hating the term enshittification and not really seeing it as a big deal to be all in on the resistance to it.
I just enjoy being here and the conversations I have here.
Sure, on almost anything non political. Politics here is a pretty rough situation though. Seems like everyone is a teenage radical.
So far after about three years, it's mixed for me. I had positive interactions on communities that I'm here for, like bike packing, bike touring, or one of the numerous fuck cars communities. The bird pictures community is nice.
But I've also been told I should commit suicide, or that my comments are not worth posting. So it's mixed, and sometimes I refrain from posting comments on memes and or controversial stuff because I don't want those replies. I'm typing this and I'm thinking about deleting it before posting.
More positive than negative overall, but lately I've been thinking about commenting less on Lemmy because of those few negative interactions.
People are nice here imo
Yes. The people here are neat.
Not really, but also kind of all the time. I'm mostly here for memes and shitposts, just as a kind of substitute for actually having friends, and its doing that pretty well.
Nothing truly productive or useful, in the sense of somethings changed my beliefs for the better, or I feel ive made a positive contribution. Its been pretty negative in that sense, as the politically minded people online will jump at you if they suspect wrongthink, so ive learned to just avoid them as much as I can help.
This place is mostly doing exactly what I want it to most of the time though so its good.
Groups about animals, food & drinks are pretty chill and good places to have enjoyable conversation.
Tons of them. Just today I taught one person about bird biology in regards to feather replacement and another I am helping prepare their family farm to hopefully host a barn owl nest we desperately need in our state.
It is also due to the great conversations I had here with people everyday that encouraged me to get involved with wildlife rehabilitation 2 years ago and it's been one of the greatest adventures in my life. Everyone has been so supportive and has helped me develop my knowledge by asking great questions and sharing their enthusiasm with me about so many beautiful animals.
I've also participated in some political threads when the events were local and I'd been able to add nuance to the conversation. The trick is to just read the room and see if the thread is already trending hostile and just learn who is here to be combative vs to have real discussions.
I also just try to not be a jerk myself. I said something yesterday that got a more outspoken communists a bit insulated and I explained what my point of the original comment was a bit better and they calmed down when they saw I wasn't being insulting to their beliefs.
I just use the same guidelines for conversation I would in real life here, and almost all my interactions here are positive ones.
yes quite regularly. i wouldn't be here otherwise.. this place feels much less toxic than most other places online too.
though tbh it does feel like an echo chamber sometimes. i tend to agree with far too many things i read here compared to other places.
The womensstuff community has been quite a positive corner of the fediverse for me.
I’ve also had great chats about music, punk specifically, and food with other lemmings.
I see you in that community a lot. I can't participate in it myself, but it is always interesting reading it and seeing perspectives so different from my own. I'm glad you find it enjoyable enough to contribute to the space and keep it alive.
Regularly. Given your question, I imagine that hasn't been your experience.
What sort of responses are you getting? Do those responses seem typical for the community? Or are they more negative than usual?
I’ve had many positive interactions with other users on Lemmy and piefed—across various communities.
I really appreciate the Fediverse, but unfortunately I’m also familiar with the phenomenon where people go along with the majority and downvote comments or posts just because the opinion expressed doesn’t match their own.
I think the developers of reddit clones like Lemmy should change the system so that downvotes are only available to users who have already contributed helpful posts or comments.
The requirements for this should be left to the community.
In my opinion, this would significantly reduce the burdensome negativity of apps of this kind, and the discussions would be better. This is all the more true in the Fediverse, since it is much easier here to create multiple accounts to influence the discourse.
It would likely also prevent the inevitable misunderstanding that downvotes on reddit clones like Lemmy are not intended to express disapproval, but rather to flag a post or comment that are unhelpful, nonsensical, offensive, deceptive, or malicious—in short, not conducive to the discussion.
There are instances that don’t allow downvotes at all.
The shitposting is 🧑🍳🤌💋
Lots of funny, good natured people just doing the meme thing.
Someone taught me private space and profile best practices in GrapheneOS today. Really useful information.
Saving that 😄
Yes, advice from Lemmy helped me sort out my HRT regimen, and it's made a huge quality of life improvement for me :-)
Likewise, the community on blahaj has been so supportive and helpful as I’ve figured out my gender and started transitioning! It’s a great space
Oh that's awesome - well done on starting your journey!
I have, I've had several turn from relatively hostile to productive. Usually I just end up understanding their argument better, but that's still nice. For reference, these are usually about fairly contentious topics. It's one of the things that I like the most about this site.
I had a great discussion on Mastodon about the logic of making bike helmets a legal requirement or not. I learned a lot and actually changed my mind on the subject…
Unheard of! You are the chosen one!
So do you think they should be a legal requirement or not?
No. Obviously I think if you can wear them you should, but making them required reduces the willingness of people to cycle, so as a strategy for swapping from car to bike, it is less effective.
I’ve learned a lot about history, Linux terminal commands, wildlife, and even got manga recommendations from discussions with folks here.
I do my best to avoid antagonistic conversation towards other users.
Indeed I have. We recently got a used truck, and the windshield wipers and radio didn't work. After some outside research plus some discussion on Lemmy, I figured out the ignition switch wasn't activating the accessory systems, which require power from the yellow wire.
So, the truck is missing the dome light, but there's 4 wires hanging above the rear view mirror, black, white, orange, and yellow...
I touched the orange to the yellow, and guess what, the radio came to life! So I told my roommate to try the wipers, and sure enough they work too!
We now have a toggle switch for that dangling under the rear view mirror for that.
Thanks again @seathru 👍
I became a true believer in the pathway to a communist society. At very least I now understand how capitalism is so often doomed from within.
All the time and in many different communities.
A few times, about music or movies, someone nicely jumped in to defend a misunderstanding yesterday (ty again). I seem to perpetually have my foot in my mouth which doesn't help. I should seek out more things that interest me personally and just stay in my lane I guess. Now that I'm more at peace with myself I should let go of the need to have unproductive rants on political threads.
too many to go back and find. not all the time but it happens with regularity.
Groups about animals, food & drinks are pretty chill and good places to have enjoyable conversation.
No
Wanna discuss something?
No.
This is not an argument!
Yes it is!
No it's not!
It is now.
Are you enjoying this?
No.
yes, almost everyday. would not be here if otherwise.
i have also had many of these threads removed by mods, or end up in harassment/insults from other users who didn't like the content of the discussion being discussed. lots of people want to derail or silence productive discussion because it makes them uncomfortable or doesn't support their preexisting biases. especially about social or political problems.
the problem is certain users just HATE anyone who says anything they disagree with, and need to paint everyone who doesn't agree with them as irredeemably evil. I've seen people write fan-fictions about me personally, based on a few comments I've made. and further, they are OUTRAGED that anyone upvotes my comments or anyone agrees with them, and usually start reporting such comments to get me banned from that community. and these folks... are convinced they aren't the problem. It's me and my views that are the problem, and been to be silenced, rather than discussed.
I like discussion and asking questions and interactions... a lot of folks in life in general are incredibly threatened and hostile to this type of socialization. but it's cool when folks also share that mentality and share their insights and experiences or thoughtful speculations.
Sports fedi seems like it’s a lot more fun than the rest of the fediverse. Y’all okay?

Interaction is overrated.
If you feel that way, social media is no different at all from what legacy media used to be. The only difference is that you don’t want to pay for that content and take all of that for granted.
Stop interacting with me.
