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How is Lemmy better than Reddit?

I am a reddit refugee. Keep seeing that this is supposed to be somehow better than Reddit. As far as I can tell, it follows a similar format, less restrictive on posts being removed I suppose. But It looks like people still get down vote brigaded on some communities. So I’m curious, how it’s better?

Paradachshund ,

In terms of variety of communities it isn’t better, but the hope is over time people will continue to come over here as reddit decays and eventually it’ll catch up.

I left reddit when they killed the 3rd party app I used. I didn’t want to switch and I ended up here. in my opinion Lemmy still has a long way to go to be as good as what I left, but I don’t want to support reddit anymore and I find it to be good enough here to still be enjoyable. I can still look at memes, and there’s still some good discussion to be had.

The biggest thing Lemmy is missing is niche communities and a broader and less techy audience. I think both of those will happen overtime if the platform keeps growing. Crossing my fingers we get there.

Blaze ,

Nice comment

f2sfljLhdtTZ ,

It’s pretty pretty hard to have this achieved with how the platform is today. Content is one (communities and posts) but lack of WTF is going on even for tech savvy people is another thing. Try asking a non user to go to the main entrance place for Lemmy (like googling it). Then ask them to find something of interest. Then ask them to create an account so they can comment. Those pretty fundamental things are non-existent.

Pretending that they exist or are easy to use is like saying Arch Linux is easy or even driving is easy. It is not. You need tons of preparation. The above take 1 minute in all common social media. Unless those three things are clear for people 20 to 40 yo, Lemmy will never gain traction.

Boozilla ,
@Boozilla@lemmy.world avatar

Lemmy’s barriers to entry are a problem, there’s no getting around that. Personally I don’t think they are that bad and requiring a bit of effort / research is, oddly, in some ways, kind of a good thing…? The people who want to be here have put in at least a little work. But you make a very valid point. It needs to be easier and more intuitive. I would also point out that reddit sucks for new users, too. People are constantly complaining on there about how hard it is to get a new account going because of prerequisite karma, wildly varying sub rules, etc.

frunch ,

I realize I’m a bit late to the conversation, just wanted to say i agree with your sentiments.

I kinda felt that the whole tech world was a little better when it had a certain gatekeeping element, in that you had to know how to operate a computer to at least some degree to do anything with the Internet. While that does reduce the amount of potential users dramatically in its own right, it also cuts down on the signal-to-noise ratio similarly. Giving everyone phones didn’t necessarily make the Internet a better place, imo. But it also has given a voice to many who never would have had one (for better or worse, as well)…

Not every place needs an enormous user base to make it worthwhile or enjoyable. Too many comments def leaves you feeling like you don’t have a voice, but i guess too few and you wonder if anyone’s listening…

Boozilla ,
@Boozilla@lemmy.world avatar

I mostly agree. I don’t want a “highly exclusive, only for elites” type of vibe (and I’m not saying that you do). But yes, there’s probably a sweet spot of “obstacle course” to get here somewhere. Not that I claim to know what that is in precise terms.

Paradachshund ,

I think you’re spot on with those hurdles. I’m somewhat techy (not nearly as much as many on here), and even I found it to be a major turn off for a long time before I finally decided to figure it out.

The way I would approach this if I was trying to improve it would be to create a way for people to essentially skip the instance selection process. Perhaps instance owners could opt in to this pool of “open servers” let’s call them. The user would create an account on a neutral website created for this onboarding purpose, and by default there would be a checked box for “automatically select server”. It would sign them up for an instance based on their IP address and the size of the instance to try and spread out population a bit.

If you want more control, you uncheck the box and it gives you more things to select from like region, population size, and anything else relevant, and then gives you a list of servers fitting your criteria and you pick the one you want.

Rentlar ,

Welcome to Lemmy! Enjoy your stay.

The functions are more or less supposed to be like how Reddit used to be (a link, comment, information and sometimes image aggregator). Here are some differences, though:

  • Many varieties of apps to access the Lemmy API (the reason why many people had migrated from Reddit in 2023 to begin with). It’s even partially compatible with Mastodon apps/accounts (the Fediverse’s closest analogue to Twitter)
  • Power tripping asshole mods and admins exist here just like anywhere else, but they alone can’t ruin all of Lemmy, unlike Reddit. Even the original creators, despite holding a couple of disagreeable and harmful views, has made something that’s larger than themselves.
  • There’s isn’t a dedicated team tied to deepening the owner’s pockets by finding ways to make the experience worse. Development progress is slow but it is continually in the interest of the community.
  • No ads! But please try to support your instance if you can!
  • A public modlog makes a huge difference, even if the mod action originators are still anonymous. By being honest with which of your account(s) were unfairly banned/silenced, you can make a public appeal (just in the form of a post from another instance). If it is a case of the aforementioned power-trippers, extreme bias, or tyrannical rules (but some instances like Beehaw have strict rules for good reason), then it is easy for everyone to see that, and you can make your home on the new Lemmy instance and have a good time. If you’re just a piece of shit troll, that’s also clear as day and then none of the networks will want you and ban you independently or you will get such notoriety that you will be blocked/banned/defederated.
TheRaven ,
@TheRaven@lemmy.ca avatar

Everyone’s talking about the tech, but I’ll talk about the user base. When you make a post or comment on Reddit, it often feels like you get lost in some black hole of other posts or comments. No one sees your comment because there are 1000 other comments on the same post.

At Lemmy, there are fewer users and fewer comments, but your comments actually get seen. People upvote. I weirdly get way more upvotes at Lemmy than I did at Reddit, in spite of the smaller user base here. Because of that, I’m way more active here than I was on Reddit.

ramirezmike ,

it’s such a backward argument but the fewer comments means I don’t spend a lot of time on each post and just move on with my life. I like it for the most part.

barsquid ,

The mods and admins aren’t usually far-right radical preppers, that creates a more pleasant environment.

Bishma ,
@Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

spez has no power here.

Ephera ,

You’re on lemmy.world, which is pretty much exclusively Reddit refugees, so you probably won’t see much difference in culture there, but that’s what I consider the main advantage.

As in, I left Reddit when I noticed the toxic culture was fucking with my mental health.
Lemmy isn’t particularly great anymore in this regard either, but still magnitudes better.

Boozilla ,
@Boozilla@lemmy.world avatar

lemmy.world is too popular (I know, I know, I also have a lemmy.world account). But the nice thing about the greater lemmy “galaxy” is you can still subscribe to communities from any instance, no matter what your home instance is.

lvxferre , (edited )
@lvxferre@mander.xyz avatar

The main point is that nobody owns the whole, so nobody can fuck it whole up, not even admins - like Steve “Greedy Pigboy” Huffman did with Reddit.

Past that, it’s mostly community tendencies and software differences, not “hard” contrasts:

  • Yes, you can be vote-brigaded here. There’s no global karma though, so no big consequence for being vote-brigaded.
  • Disingenuous, whiny, assumptive, fallacious, “lol lmao” users (you know… like the typical Reddit user) are present here, but I feel like the ratio of those users vs. decent people is smaller here.
  • Some mods are arseholes, some are decent, nothing changes in this matter. However it’s easier to get away from arsehole mods here.
  • Blocking here is not a way to prevent being contacted further. It’s just a way to remove an annoyance from your sight, like it used to be in Reddit. If being harassed, contact the relevant admins.

Additionally people often say that echo chambers here are stronger, but I might not be the best person to ponder about this (as I’m left-wing in both social and economical matters, so… if there’s an echo chamber I’m part of it).

ChocoboRocket ,

Less chat bots on Lemmy, and they seem to be easily identifiable and ignored/reported.

Lemmy isn’t quite at that sweet spot where there are enough daily users to get niche content and information from a group of knowledgeable people - but some communities seem to be quite active and helpful already.

I’d love to get to the point where we have a big science/history community and get some non-celebrity AMA’s that have genuine interaction.

I’m more than happy for Lemmy to stay “underground” for a good while, slowly building communities. Once things hit a critical mass and wind up on corporate radar, lemmy will get swarmed and another migration will happen with the same core groups that joined lemmy early.

ivanafterall ,
@ivanafterall@lemmy.world avatar

I’m not a celebrity. AMA!

cheddar ,
@cheddar@programming.dev avatar

It’s the same format with the same people. The only difference is that Lemmy is decentralized. Besides, it isn’t monetized at the moment, so there are no ads or other nuisances.

jerkface ,
@jerkface@lemmy.ca avatar

Federation

artemisRiverborne ,

It tells you when there are new comments on a post u already saw. Getting down voted and whatnot is a reflection on the ppl doing it not the system they’re using

henfredemars ,

It’s not what it does — it’s how it does it.

Lemmy is a form of social media that truly belongs to its users, including you, not a soulless commercial entity. You want to change the code? You can do that. Run your own instance? Host your own community? Make your own moderation rules? There are instances at all corners of the political compass each with the freedom to use Lemmy how they so desire.

Lemmy is yours, to use however you see fit, and with the mutual consent of other server operators and their users. It’s radically different from a business.

aasatru ,
@aasatru@kbin.earth avatar

I like the choose your own adventure element. If you want strong content moderation you can go to Beehaw; if you want something more catch all, Lemmy.world is good; if you're a Stalinist, you have at least three solid options.

The instances talk to each other, but many fulfill slightly different functions.

At Reddit, it seems the stupidest posts often get thousands of upvotes. Here, they're lucky if they get 50. So that makes me feel less crazy, I guess.

UniversalMonk ,
@UniversalMonk@lemmy.world avatar

if you’re a Stalinist, you have at least three solid options.

And what options are those?

aasatru ,
@aasatru@kbin.earth avatar
  • Lemmygrad: classic crowd longing for the Soviet Union
  • Lemmy.ml: The catch-all version of Lemmygrad, like Lemmy.world except criticizing Putin or Xi can get you banned
  • Hexbear: Like Lemmygrad, but for memes and shitposting
UniversalMonk , (edited )
@UniversalMonk@lemmy.world avatar

hahaha, wow, I had no idea. Ick.

aasatru ,
@aasatru@kbin.earth avatar

Thank god we have gotten to a point where it's possible to hang around here without being immediately aware of the Stalinists haha

snekerpimp ,

It’s not better, yet. It’s not owned by anyone, except the server owner, you can block any instance you want, join any instance you want and still access the same data. It will be better once it is the knowledge repository that Reddit became before all the “line must go up” entered into it. It’s mainly memes and news, but there are a ton of growing communities that are accruing a wealth of information every day, so I don’t think it will take much longer for it to be better.

Nemo ,

Users are kinder, discussion is better. There’s no need to drive engagement so there’s no algo pushing conflict and outrage to the fore.

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