There have been multiple accounts created with the sole purpose of posting advertisement posts or replies containing unsolicited advertising.

Accounts which solely post advertisements, or persistently post them may be terminated.

Is it just me, or have the comments on Lemmy become extra aggressive over the past 3 months?

I feel like things on Lemmy were pretty chill several months ago, and that’s started to change.

People used to talk each other like they would talk to a neighbor. Now I get the sense that people have become quick to be negative, attack, and not be constructive.

Am I crazy in feeling like the vibe has changed?

boatsnhos931 ,

Why don’t you shut hell up nerd

LunarVoyager ,

deleted_by_author

    •
    boatsnhos931 ,

    It’s just you

    _sideffect ,

    Holy cow I thought I was the only one running into rude people.

    I’m dealing with that right now, and also what I noticed is the abundance of downvotes on facts, but upvotes on feelings.

    auzas_1337 ,

    I think downvotes on facts and upvotes on feelings is just people wanting to feel validated, but not having the energy to engage with content. It used to happen on reddit too a lot. A lot of communities there are based on dealing with human emotions and situations in life. People seeking advice and validation about their lives being the primary motivation for even creating an account on the site.

    I have a little pet theory backed by some reading that people are overstimulated by junk content to the point where they just can’t meaningfully engage in serious discussions anymore and that leads to the phenomena of populism on a political scale and simple, emotion-based upvoting on a Lemmy scale.

    _sideffect ,

    Interesting theory; what also plays a big factor is mob mentality I find.

    And if someone comments after you correcting one small thing, you’ll then get downvoted as well.

    noobdoomguy8658 ,

    I like your theory and wanna agree.

    In 00s and 10s, my friends and I used to engage with the Internet and each other in a very different way than in the more recent years: We basically were the content generators for ourselves, making conversations based on our ideas fueled by movies, books, or pure imagination, with a lot of jokes and other content that, compared to today, probably took much more effort; we made ambient music with a shitty mic, gathered together, somewhere away from our homes, to talk and watch shit on some weak-ass laptops, maybe game and talk on said laptops, maybe game online, share stupid proposals for our art projects like making music or writing stories or drawing, sharing results.

    Of course, we recited some jokes, rein reenacted some, and ironically enough, the most repeated were the ones coming from short-term content, like the z0r.de flashes or skits from collection-type videos like the GMOD Idiot Box. Back then such short-form content was more of a rarity, it seems, so we still had a lot room for creativity and something more meaningful and such, while now this type of content has filled way too many spaces, with much lower quality, too - we’ve seemed to have stopped creating, despite having arguably much more fuel for it thanks to the many changes our lives brought.

    Thinking about this makes me browse the Internet a little less and focus on writing or reading, two things I’ve been most creatively engaged with since I was a kid, hoping that can bring creating stuff back to my life and the lives of my friends and family, at least to some degree, as opposed to just consuming lazy content and having even lazier, meaningless, dull conversations with people I care about.

    auzas_1337 ,

    I was just commenting on this to my gf a couple of days ago - I’m browsing and posting on the internet less so I feel more free to do things in a way that I like without thinking about the what audience they’re for.

    In a way the awful state, and what I view as a downfall (remains to be seen), of big sites that everyone has been tied to for essentially a decade feels like shedding chains. I hope more people quit and spend their energy elsewhere. It doesn’t have to be another site, it can be any offline endeavour.

    I’m on Lemmy because I’ve come to a realization that the reason I enjoyed internet back in the day was, as you said, a different type of engagement. And I don’t think it will ever be as it used to be. But a big part of that engagement was conversations like we’re having right now. At least in my algorithm enclosed corner of big social media sites I don’t see people reacting and having a conversation. It’s just a reaction, thanks, like, bye. Sometimes there’s arguing. But never a conversation.

    httpjames ,
    @httpjames@sh.itjust.works avatar

    I disabled votes on my clients. I don’t want a number to potentially sway my opinion on a comment or post

    _sideffect ,

    I wonder if that’s why Youtube did it also, for downvotes at least

    AVincentInSpace ,

    Lemmy users discovering that human nature doesn’t change just because the name of the website isn’t Reddit:

    lseif ,

    thats something a complete idiot would say

    lemmy ,

    😝

    Hackerman_uwu ,

    The halcyon days of Lemmy lasted a week or so. As soon as you have mods coming over for Reddit you have all the shit they are schlepoed along with them. I’m only in here when I’m shitting and then only because I’ve memorised the blurb on the back of the air freshener can already.

    0ops , (edited )

    I feel like peek peak positivity and optimism was during the weeks between the reddit protests starting and the actual app ban

    littlebluespark ,
    @littlebluespark@lemmy.world avatar

    Agreed. Also: “peak”. Sorry. 😅

    GoodbyeBlueMonday ,

    I must be ancient here, because nobody has claimed this is like September 1993 all over again…

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

    Justas ,
    @Justas@sh.itjust.works avatar

    I am not that old but I know that reference. :)

    Mango ,

    I was 2. I’m still traumatized.

    rab ,
    @rab@lemmy.ca avatar

    Yeah I’ve given this place an honest try but people are so quick to downvote, it’s not exactly encouraging me to actively post here

    Also I notice the same 10 assholes in every thread

    BlackPenguins ,

    You notice people? Even on Reddit I never noticed people’s names when they comment.

    rab ,
    @rab@lemmy.ca avatar

    Yeah but it’s usually because it’s the same people having a go at me every time

    JimboDHimbo ,

    After a quick scroll through your history, I see why those people are on your ass. 😂

    rab ,
    @rab@lemmy.ca avatar

    Example?

    HardNut ,

    I took a look at your comments purely because his reply made me curious. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with your comments. The only downvoted comment of yours I saw was that Trudeau has the worst approval rating ever, which is a matter of record, not opinion.

    It’s not on you, you’re fine. I’ve had a similar experience here, people just don’t seem to be able to take disagreement as anything less than personal

    unreasonabro ,

    right? i say the most general things and people act like I’m a personal friend who knows them inside and out, offering vicious criticism of some crucial personality trait.

    Like, why the fuck are you acting like I know you? How could I possibly? Monkeyass motherfuckers having a hard time with teh whole interwebs thing

    unreasonabro ,

    lol rekt

    rab ,
    @rab@lemmy.ca avatar

    You guys just prove my point, this place sucks

    JimboDHimbo ,

    I mean, you could just leave? 😂

    spaduf ,

    You should consider blocking them. Especially if they’re consistently bugging you

    rab ,
    @rab@lemmy.ca avatar

    Or just not post anymore

    spaduf ,

    I guess if you want? But this is definitely the intended usage for blocking

    unreasonabro ,

    First thing I did here was use an adblocker to hide the “somebody responded to your post” button due to cunts. But I’m old and genuinely don’t give a shit any more. ;)

    Sekrayray ,

    Exact same thing happens to me, and it’s why I don’t really post anymore.

    negativeyoda ,

    Strap in. It’s an election year

    NigelFrobisher ,

    Every year is an election year somewhere.

    vulgarcynic ,
    @vulgarcynic@sh.itjust.works avatar

    Yeah but this is an AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION YEAR!!!

    that’s like the super bowl of elections

    Sent from my freedom phone motherfucker

    nitefox ,

    What the fuck is a superbowl

    Fur_Fox_Sheikh ,

    A really nice owl

    nitefox ,

    Can I pet it?

    dumpsterlid ,

    Only if you twist your hand all the way around like an owls head before you pet it, otherwise the owl won’t recognize it as a friendly entity and will bite.

    vulgarcynic ,
    @vulgarcynic@sh.itjust.works avatar

    You mean a brave patriotic eagle! America’s awesome upgrade to the bog standard owl.

    dylanTheDeveloper ,
    @dylanTheDeveloper@lemmy.world avatar

    Yep it’s time for the entire online world to suffer for 3 months

    WanderingVentra ,

    3 months? Ha! Try a whole year. American election season, baby!!!

    CultHero ,

    I just started a few days ago and already had to deal with a transphobic troll. Online is so toxic that I’m afraid eventually all social media platforms end up on trolls radar and they seek to destroy them. It’s a shame because they ruin social media for everyone including themselves.

    So many people lack a basic sense decency that they actually think it’s ok to cause harm to other people simply for their own amusement. It’s usually straight white american males too.

    fellowmortal ,

    It’s usually straight white american males too.

    Can I ask why you wanted to add the last sentence? You might be right, statistically, but the tone sort of implies that you judge the group rather than the behavior. (apologies if that was the joke).

    CultHero ,

    Personal experience.

    From personal experience about 80% of the harassment I recieve is from straight white american males, not kids either, many times they’re middle aged. There are some females in the mix, rarely people of colour but there have been a few.

    If I were to guess I would imagine it’s because women and people of colour also belong to vulnerable communities and run the risk of attracting the wrong type of attention and becoming targets themselves.

    Not every white american male is a troll or violent obviously but since 2015 the ones who are continue to become active threats.

    Honestly I see them almost as victims themselves. No troll, stalker, mass shooter, etc started out that way. They became radicalized online by getting wrapped up in online activities they were not emotionally nor intellectually equipped to handle.

    An example is the Christchurch massacre …m.wikipedia.org/…/Christchurch_mosque_shootings

    He didn’t start out as a mass murderer, he was radicalized online in places like 8chan. He even posted on 8chan that they needed to keep an eye on Christchurch because something big was going to happen.

    It’s not just americans and it’s not just white males but so many get caught up in the culture of trolling that there are going to be those who become fundamentally damaged by the continued activity to the point that they take it too far and sometimes that leads to things like mass shootings, or swatting, stalking or other criminal behaviour.

    fellowmortal ,

    Thanks for your response - I think that we agree. My point was just that your post was about being decent, then you randomly dunk on a group.

    It’s not that your personal experience isn’t representative - I think that there is a contingent of privileged people who feel left out by progress towards a level playing field. That sort-of makes sense, right? There are also strong echo chambers pushing those people towards radicalization. I suppose I’m asking you to feel empathy for these, very privileged, victims of a society that doesn’t know how to engage with them. Egalitarianism has to bring everyone along - I don’t know if that can be done.

    vulgarcynic ,
    @vulgarcynic@sh.itjust.works avatar

    It’s so easy for them to fall in to those holes. I’m currently half way though my 19th year of being a father to a what is now a fellow man.

    That’s a loaded statement, but trust that he arrived there on his own. We had some amazing conversations along the way about; what gender meant to him, what the words gay and stright meant, hell we discussed what his fursona “could” be.

    That one scared me, I was on b long enough ago that furf*g (sorry y’all) was still a term that I had defined 20 years ago without reassessment until the moment the 13 year old that was my favorite human brought it up over greasy appetizers at Applebee’s during a 4 day LAN party. Man, those kids that were sightly older than him with tails and ears were his everything at that event. Haha

    Anyways, all along the way I’ve been part of his dialog with “the Internet”. I’ve done it as a very active user and a long time lurker. I still have irc channels I idle in and I still remember epic gets going back to 1 million. I was a boxy hater and you’ll never convince me otherwise even as the shoe head shit comes back as lame ass Q pedo baiting for 40 something neckbeards with poor relationship skills and amazing commander decks. (trigger warning for keyboard warriors that are really going through it, I hope you find grass some day).

    I digress. What I have seen and tried with all my ability to do is steer him from being someone incapable of true human interaction and empathy despite natural bias. I think I got there but it wasn’t without tours through Wikipedia articles about misogyny, incel culture and feminism. It wasn’t without incredibly frustrating moments where I didn’t get why the fuck you’d spend hours a day on YouTube being fed what ever shit the algorithm served you. But I asked if we could go over his watch history and I had honest conversations with him about Andrew Tate and that culture. We did. I think I made things better by doing it too. Either way, there’s millions of dudes out there who never had that and it sucks. But advertisers know that nothing sells better than anger, unless it’s loneliness.

    No matter what though, we may be an anomaly. And I understand why some can’t help but yell online in impotent rage. The only path they see to actualizing that is through a barrel. My neighboring high school senior year was the site of one of the first mass school shootings in America some 25 years ago. Now I’ve normalized active shooter drills and had legit discussions with my ex-wife about bulletproof backpacks. The fuck are we doing?

    It’s a travesty we don’t have the support systems in place for anybody that doesn’t have the means for self sufficiency and it’s ever more so that we have created systems that further deny that for those that would benefit most from them. I don’t have an answer. Wish I did because it would sure give me something to write a manifesto about and possibly even inspire a lifestyle change to the Vegas strip with a belt pack microphone. That always seemed like an interesting reality. Alas, I’ll continue to live in a medium sized town, building a bug out NAS and hoping shit doesn’t get so hot I’m too exhausted to enjoy the fallout.

    Stay safe out there. And thanks for letting a 40 something CIS dude monopolize the Internet once again.

    /rant

    WanderingVentra ,

    Good, high quality comment. It’s these discussions that I like Lemmy for, and makes me confused about why everyone complains about it.

    Even though I was on the other side of you in the Boxxy wars (lol feels so quaint now), I think we’d agree about a lot. You sound like you’re taking a very active part in your child’s life, which is key nowadays in this age of the internet and social media. So many people are letting their kids get half-raised by the algorithms without any oversight or context. Just wanted to say that though I don’t know you personally, I can tell that you care and are doing your best, which is all we can do in this crazy world, and I’m happy we still have parents like that who are able to adapt to raising a kid in this “information age”.

    vulgarcynic ,
    @vulgarcynic@sh.itjust.works avatar

    I won’t hold the Boxxy against you. Lol. Thanks for the reply and encouragement. Trying is the best we can do and hopefully it makes a difference in the end. I advocate for all the other parents I encounter to try and be aware of what’s out there, it’s not like it was when I was growing up where the worst that could happen is you’d end up cybering with some creepy old dude. But that’s hard for folks to do when they too are distracted by the asshole parade that is most social media.

    I appreciate a thoughtful response as well. If we’re all diligent we can keep that discourse as the standard here and maybe continue to live in that early internet era that Lemmy had in the beginning. Much like Portlandia, the dream of the 90’s is alive on the fediverse.

    Cheers friend!

    Holyginz ,

    So I am also a straight white American male and the ones I blame for this culture is the old rich white American males. They don’t want to lose power so they use their money (Rupert Murdoch as an example) to radicalize those who don’t have the education and/or training to tell real from fake. Yes there will always be the “deplorables” as well. But i do feel for those who fall for the bullshit. Doesn’t mean they can be allowed to drag everyone else down, but I at least understand how those who might have initially had the best intentions could be radicalized into more extreme mindsets. Propaganda and peer pressure is far more powerful and insidious than a lot of people give it credit.

    spaduf ,

    I imagine you’re at least in your 20s and so I’ve got bad news for you. The younger folks in their teens now are absolutely skewing right in a big way.

    Omega_Haxors ,

    Can I ask why you wanted to add the last sentence?

    cracker emoji

    prole ,

    Because it’s true? And this is coming from a straight, white, American male.

    dumpsterlid ,

    Yeah, another straight white male agreeing here. I’m sorry, it’s just not punching down to target my demographic because we are the ones traditionally that have been given all the power to do the punching.

    unreasonabro ,

    look at you pretending you don’t use heuristics

    vulgarcynic ,
    @vulgarcynic@sh.itjust.works avatar

    As a straight white American male, word.

    And, sorry (that’s my greeting, lol. no one seems to ask why when you’re 40, bearded, chubby and white, they just nod in silent agreement).

    Some people just don’t like others to have nice things. Even if it’s something that should be as simple as tolerance at worst and acknowledgement and acceptance at best. A diverse community creates a better world, it can also cause stress for folks that are afraid of change. Thank you for being part of this one and sharing your experiences so any of us that are listening can self analyze and be better in the future. Please be patient with the slower ones as they are drug Cialis first into the modern world.

    Sometimes it’s hard to see yourself through a narrow lens.

    dessalines ,

    Report transphobic comments and we’ll get to them as soon as we can. No one should have to deal with transphobes.

    davel , (edited )
    @davel@lemmy.ml avatar

    I just started a few days ago and already had to deal with a transphobic troll.

    This is why a lot of trans people are on Hexbear, which aggressively polices such behavior and defederates from instances that don’t sufficiently moderate it.

    Masterblaster ,

    sometimes, people need to be told they're stupid/shitty/etc. it just makes me feel better. i'm not trying to win a debate, i just don't want to hold my tongue because fuck you. with everyone so afraid of being cringe or big mad lol, there's no room left for healthy expressions of anger. anger is a human trait. anger is a useful tool. anger gets shit done. don't be afraid of your anger. tell someone they're stupid today. they might need to hear it.

    federalreverse ,

    Let’s be needlessly toxic 🚀🤩

    In any case, welcome to my block list.

    speck ,

    You're conflating a natural phenomenon, anger, with maladaptive expressions of it. Name-calling is not owning your anger; it's disowning it

    sour , (edited )
    @sour@kbin.social avatar

    no you only hab anger issue

    Omega_Haxors ,

    If more people were like you we wouldn’t be a decaying society of sheep. It’s OK to be enraged at injustice, it’s moral to tell a nazi to kys.

    Ilovethebomb ,

    Holy shit, you’re everywhere in this thread.

    Omega_Haxors ,

    The power went out and I had to catch up on my posting quota.

    davel ,
    @davel@lemmy.ml avatar

    kbin.antisocial

    vulgarcynic ,
    @vulgarcynic@sh.itjust.works avatar

    On a related note. Is there an Android Lemmy app that allows me to view my subs as a homepage? It’s only local and all in Voyager.

    kuneho ,
    @kuneho@lemmy.world avatar

    You can set this up in Connect

    vulgarcynic ,
    @vulgarcynic@sh.itjust.works avatar

    I’ll give that a look. Thanks

    ji17br ,

    I have voyager and I have home, all, and local. Home being my subs. I don’t believe I’ve done anything extra to get the “home” option.

    vulgarcynic ,
    @vulgarcynic@sh.itjust.works avatar

    Cheers, thanks for the tip. I’ll like around and see if it’s a pebkac on my end.

    ji17br ,

    Those ID-10T issues are the worst haha

    vulgarcynic ,
    @vulgarcynic@sh.itjust.works avatar

    I might as well have support escalate it. Obviously the UX and UI teams aren’t overworked enough.

    ji17br ,

    If you go to settings > General > Default feed do you see home there?

    If you visit your instance on a browser do you have a home option?

    Maybe for some reason your instance itself doesn’t have a home.

    Good luck sorting it out!

    vulgarcynic ,
    @vulgarcynic@sh.itjust.works avatar

    That’s absolutely where it was at. Thanks friend! Now I have a more curated approach and can avoid the stuff that makes me have global warming, totalitarian regime panic attacks. Haha

    ji17br ,

    Happy to help! Definitely much better for the mental health to avoid all the doom and gloom

    vulgarcynic ,
    @vulgarcynic@sh.itjust.works avatar

    Agree completely. I had a well curated feed on Reddit developed over years and years of careful pruning. I miss a ton of those communities and forgot what the open funnel of Internet sewage was like. Even just a few minutes on the front page of any social media network is enough to send me back to books and blogs. Lol

    Tubics ,

    Eternity has this, great app in general

    vulgarcynic ,
    @vulgarcynic@sh.itjust.works avatar

    I’ll try that as well. I landed on BaconReader (RIP) for the other site. Haven’t found quite the same fit with Lemmy apps. Always down to try a new one though. Thanks!

    Facebones ,

    I don’t mind disagreeing and even bickering a bit, but when somebody gets extra or pointedly disengenuous I just block em. IDGAF. 🤷

    madcaesar ,

    There has been an uptick in right wing nutbags and bOtH sIdEs morons… Coupled with the fact that we have to deal with Trump AGAIN had made all of us angrier because we didn’t believe our neighbours could be THIS dumb to vote for a criminal that tried to overthrow democracy.

    It’s resulted in a tone of “I’m sick of this shit!!” from the left

    Trump is a cancer.

    RickTofu ,

    You’re calling people nutbags, morons, dumb and cancer in the span of 4 sentences… Yes, for sure the “right wing nutbags” and “bOtH sIdEs morons” are the issue here. Stay humble buddy.

    madcaesar ,

    Did you miss the part where I’m saying that their stupidity is causing us to be more angry?

    I also find a lot of lemmy replies is idiots replying and criticising a comment without adding any corrections.

    Are right wing shooters NOT nutbags?

    Are both sides people NOT morons?

    Is Trump NOT a cancer?

    Unless you have something to add and refute my claim, kindly do fuck off with your grandstanding.

    TheGalacticVoid ,

    “Right wing nutbags” did not type out your comment. You did. If you can’t convey anger in a way that doesn’t straight-up insult people, all you’re doing is alienating people, and you really need to grow up.

    madcaesar ,

    I don’t give a shit about alienating people that see women as second class citizens and trans people as something to be destroyed.

    You can feel good about yourself being “grown up”, I’ll rather support those than need it instead of grandstanding on lemmy like some douche.

    dessalines ,

    Its often difficult, but important, to be respectful while disagreeing. You’ll find you alienate people a lot less, and win more converts if you do.

    If its an outright bigoted comment tho, no need to respond: just downvote and report it, and move on.

    TheGalacticVoid ,

    Exactly. The vast majority of people aren’t brick walls, they’re literally people with their own experiences and set of knowledge. They’re all going to make decisions using that set because they literally don’t know what other people experience.

    locuester ,

    So you’re targeting half the US population with this “dumb people” accusation? And you feel this is tolerant and polite?

    DragonTypeWyvern ,

    Half at a minimum.

    valgarf ,

    Tolerance always has a limit. And the one thing any tolerant society can never tolerate are intolerant people - because they will destroy that society. Trump and his followers are the very definition of intolerant.

    Thus the “if you are tolerant, you have to tolerate me” argument is often used by aforementioned nutbags or internet trolls, and I very much hope you fall into the latter category.

    And regarding stupidity - sadly there is no mechanism to ensure that it is fairly distributed. A less than ideal public school system paired with the propaganda of media conglomerates can easily result in a society with half the population considered “dumb” (not really stupid, but brainwashed / uneducated with a lack of critical thinking and/or a lack of basic scientific knowledge …) - but I would not judge the US population that quickly. Trump is probably also a symptom of the broken US democracy.

    locuester ,

    I certainly didn’t write “if you are tolerant then you have to tolerate me”. However what I wrote I can’t recall. Something about not being so nasty to dumb people. I stand by that statement. I don’t speak ill of dumb people or Trump supporters as a whole. The only reason to do such a thing is to incite anger from a group.

    madcaesar ,

    I don’t tolerate those who have no respect for others. If you hate women, gays, trans people… No I won’t tolerate you.

    Surreal ,

    I thought I was being targeted by trolls, so I wasn’t the only one

    fidodo ,

    100%. Seems like people are just itching to fight now and taking comments out of context constantly. They’re just throwing out insults instead of engaging or asking for clarification. Dunno what happened.

    milicent_bystandr ,

    What?! How can you say this about me!

    Sobs

    nycki ,

    This isn’t a new problem, Reddit was the same way. As a site grows, it gets harder to moderate, and that means more people trolling for attention. Go to your user settings and change the default view from “All” to “Subscribed”, and you’ll have more control over your home page.

    Squizzy ,

    Reddits comments were slow to deteriorate. It initially had very insightful and genuinely comical comments and slowly turned to common jokes and politicized arguments. But now that we changed to this I feel like we can’t go back, it is the discourse now.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • [email protected]
  • random
  • lifeLocal
  • goranko
  • All magazines
    •