• Jeredin@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Honestly, that’s fine - Lemmy is now a known alternative and best of all, has time to grow more naturally and be better situated for the next eventual migration (I’m a Reddit migrant myself).

    • Polydextrous@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Not to mention, I spend way less time mindlessly browsing lemmy—Reddit was like a compulsion. To the point that, when I knew I was leaving July, I was actually getting worried about my ability to do so. I never want to feel that way about another app. I get on lemmy, I browse around for a bit, but I don’t feel the utter need to keep scrolling. Some stuff interests me, some doesn’t…but the stuff that doesn’t is usually relevant to someone in my life. So I send it to them, and sometimes these are people I don’t typically talk to regularly.

      All in all, lemmy has been a net positive in my life. I still get the app I can scroll when I’m looking to kill time, I can still write about stuff I care about, I can interact with other people…it’s the perfect balance for me. I don’t need that “everything all the time” shit. In fact, I’ve been trying to pull away from that entirely baseless desire in my life, which is nothing but a capitalist mindset. We don’t need everything. I don’t want to think I want everything.

      • SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Lemmy still has the natural limit of content being posted to the platform at a slower rate than you browse them.

        • Polydextrous@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Oh, that’s not my experience. Every time I log in I’m seeing new content. I’m seeing a few of the posts from my previous log on, but I’m never logging on and seeing only the same shit.

  • mvuvi@baraza.africa
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    1 year ago

    But who, exactly, is supposed to create this “niche content” for them? I think this is something we underestimate—large swaths of people see themselves as consumers of quality content. It is not for them to bring in comments or interesting finds to the communities. This I think is what makes the internet ripe for centralization. You can’t be a non-paying consumer and choose your menu. You can pay with your behavior datapoints and get fads packaged to you, or you can help create an ecosystem where you don’t have to be spied on every click and tap of the day. Choose your path and make peace with it. The worst would be to help create content for a community and be spied while at it.

    • Custoslibera@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      When Lemmy has a critical mass to support communities that aren’t the main ones the niche content will come.

      It’ll just take time.

      There’s no rush because reddit is not getting better.

      Lemmy will only improve with more people who will come after each successive reddit fuck up.

      Reddit didn’t start with niche communities, that was the tail end of years of community building.

      • mvuvi@baraza.africa
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        1 year ago

        Agree with you.

        One thing I have always found precious for my 10+ yrs on forums like reddit and 3+ yrs on fediverse is how high quality conversations are by people who usually don’t obsess about numbers and publicity in likes and upvotes etc.

        Genuine communities here on the fediverse will evolve at their own pace.

      • Enigma@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Yeah people don’t realize a ton of the niche communities are only a few years old, if that. Even 5 yrs ago Reddit wasn’t used as often for Google searches. Reddits popularity is recent.

    • Mechaguana@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      That niche content is built up over years of the right person finding the right thing, which all in all is pretty rare, because only a percentage of thoses people will actually post and make their knowledge known. It’s institutional knowledge, and institutions arent built in a day.

      It will happen. It will be slow. It’s how it works everywhere. The community needs to prove itself after all!

  • hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Both suck.

    Reddit has the base and the niche communities and the activity, but is scummy for its own reasons.

    Lemmy has the structure/organization but none of the niche interest activity that kept me on Reddit for so long. Plus it’s got all the weird pro china shit and an even worse problem with the hive mind bullshit than Reddit.

    With the death of third party apps, I would say that my time that was formerly spent on Reddit is now spent 10% still on Reddit, 15-20% on Lemmy, and the rest just isn’t spent on that sort of thing anymore.

    I’ve been reading more, maybe a 2-5% increase on Facebook of all places, going to the source for news (Axios, Washington Post mostly), gaming with the computer time, maybe a 15% increase on YouTube time…started streaming more shows and stuff, and spent more time outside, even in the sweltering summer heat.

    So basically for me, Lemmy has turned out to not be a reddit replacement, and instead that time has just been split up many different ways.

    I do miss Reddit, and wish that Lemmy had indeed been a workable alternative, but it’s just not. I won’t go back to Reddit because I accessed it 95% on a mobile 3rd party app…but just because I won’t go back doesn’t mean that Lemmy is just as good.

    As time goes on, I’m starting to realize that the time I still spend here is mostly because I want it to be better and I’m trying to be active long enough to see that change happen…but the longer I just kill time here waiting for it, the more I see shit I don’t like.

    I would expect that while I’ll still keep my account open, I’ll probably be done with Lemmy by the end of the year.

      • Stuka@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        And that a sizable portion of that small user base are batshit extremists

      • FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Agreed. I see a lot of the same names around various different subs. My only complaint is the sports subs have a lot fewer folks and thus less engagement on GDTs but otherwise everyone seems to be more real and less toxic as a community, hopefully that vibe stays as the numbers grow.

    • woeboet@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I just see too much of the same posts and I’m not sure if it’s a user issue or not sometimes i reopen the front page after 3 days and 25% of the posts I’ve already seen plus a lot of posts are about reddit anyway :(

      6/10

      • Trarmp@feddit.nl
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        1 year ago

        Thing is that is a fixable problem. It’s technologically very possible to set up a simple algorithm to try to get like 3-5 posts max from one community, have them be as recent as possible, and return the most popular ones.

        Reddit has a problem that is rooted much more deeply; their CEO.

        • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          I think this is unironically a big problem with Lemmy. The sorting is way, way, way too fixed and inflexible. You can sort by active which ends up being the same few communities. Hot is too much like it’s kinda new. Top Day is usually what I use since I want to see the most popular posts first each day, but then more niche content is just hidden.

          There is no best sorting order, because the best sorting order would be a combination of multiple sorting orders. This is one thing reddit really excels at with their sorting orders, they seem to have like a “combined” approach, like an intelligently-designed system of sorting algorithms to show people good, active content while not hiding important things.

          On a community/platform like Lemmy where it’s less popular and less active, having proper sorting is even more important.

          Like you said though, this is entirely fixable, and something Lemmy definitely can improve. The question is, will they improve it? I certainly hope so.

          • Trarmp@feddit.nl
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            1 year ago

            I feel like this is where 3rd party clients can really shine. Offer a good default algorithmic sort, and let users configure it themselves as much as they please – it’s their feed after all.

            I’d do it myself if I didn’t have enough work on my plate already lol.

            • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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              1 year ago

              That’s true but this is the kind of thing where it’s important enough that it shouldn’t require a third party client, it should just work on the main website itself.

    • StantonVitales@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This is basically me, but reverse the lemmy and reddit percentages. I’m halfway through the Vampire: The Masquerade Clan Novel series 🤘

    • MrSqueezles@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I commented that China’s state sponsored hacking probably contributed to their new processor looking surprisingly like competitors’. The responses… were disappointing. The China thing and stale content have been my only issues. Stale posts are a problem, but has meant that I’m done earlier and put my phone away sooner, which isn’t great for engagement, but makes me feel better.

    • BCsven@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      I mean we can build niche comtent, just going to take a lot of time. For now lemmy is refreshing because most are here toconverse on topics and not 100s of trolls like

      • hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I mean we can build niche comtent, just going to take a lot of time.

        And in the mean time?

        Also “can” doesn’t mean “will”. And most, myself included, aren’t going to be willing to just…hang around…for months or years or however long that takes to happen. And every time that happens, the timeline gets pushed to the right.

        At some point it just won’t happen.

        For now lemmy is refreshing because most are here toconverse on topics and not 100s of trolls like

        Hah! Good one.

        In my experience so far here, there’s significantly better odds of running into trolls on Lemmy than Reddit.

        Sure, in (some unspecified amount of) time, Lemmy might get more and varied and more populous communities, and it might see an overall improvement in the broad makeup of the overall user base…but for now it’s less diverse, less busy, and less friendly than Reddit, and unfortunately, those deficiencies are self-perpetuating.

    • PutangInaMo@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s wild how digitally lost I’ve been since I left reddit. And they deleted one of my favorite subs so there is no going back…

      It’s funny you mention Facebook. I deleted mine years ago, without grabbing all the photos I had, which I regret big time.

      I had hundreds of folks I knew in real life on there, and I’ve considered going back a lot in the last few weeks.

    • Che Banana@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      HEY, there were tens of us! I honestly didn’t know about any other app until far too long to admit…but that was the only one i liked, so once it was gone so was I. I do appreciate the diversity of posts here, a LOT more than the algorithm of reddit (or any other social media). I have my setting at all, new and there is some wild shit going on around the world. Except for the russian/chinese simps, this is pretty good. (FWIW, since i stated that I should explain myself: anyone who thinks any single current government is better than another is completely compromised by that governments propaganda)

      • Globulart@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        To your last point. If that were true then it follows that all governments are exactly as good (or as bad) as each other. You don’t seriously believe that every single government on earth have equal merit though? Plenty of people have unjustified opinions of certain governments but that doesn’t mean that every opinion is unjustified and there are no better/worse governments.

        If I asked you which government was better, Sweden or North Korea, it’s not exactly a stretch to say there is an objective answer. A governments job is to manage the nation for the people, and some countries do a far better job of that than others.

        • Che Banana@lemmy.ml
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          I think the point I was trying to make was that making your whole persona about one government over another is…well…shit. I mean each one has good/bad points, however I do not see the point in working myself up over who is currently exploiting the majority of people.

  • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    Me: I am the niche content now. Starts up 10 communities and actually posts to them.

    Like, I need help, I can’t keep this pace of posting up forever… Please contribute!

    • clearedtoland@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’m not a creator (certainly not very good at it anyway) but I do my best to engage with content and comment. Especially those lonely, lowly posts with little traction.

      I admit when I join a community and I frequently see only one poster, I pretty much assume it’s dead and move on.

      • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        Lemmy does have the unfortunate problem, that even if you sub to a community, you wont necessarily see the posts from it if you also sub to something big. The bigger community just completely drowns out the smaller one in your feed.

        Hopefully this gets addressed in how sorting works, but for now it’s preventing small communities from getting engagement.

        I’m sorta gaming the system by posting regularly, and just, more. I’m basically edging on spamming, but this results in there always being a post fresh enough to be in people’s feeds. This leads to discovery, if not engagement. I also have alts across the big instances, from which I sub to my own communities to increase the reach of the community when it’s new. They have to manually be subbed to by a first user, to get federated to new instances and show up in all, otherwise.

        This is how I got !gameart@sopuli.xyz off the ground. Approaching 1k subs now.

  • R0cket_M00se@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The lack of niche communities is one thing, but the real long term drag is the fact that most of this place is just c/Linux or c/linuxmemes even if it’s just c/memes or literally any community.

    Can’t go anywhere without some “Microsoft bad, Chromium bad” content or comments clogging everything up. Keep that shit in the places it belongs or you’re going to see more people abandon the site as they realize it’s all just the same people with the same three interests in every place.

    That and it really feels like the worst of reddit came here, I’ve seen people get downvoted to hell over obvious misinterpretation of their comments by people who have almost zero reading comprehension skills.

    Lemmy needs to fix its shit.

      • R0cket_M00se@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Oh I understand why but as someone who uses Linux and doesn’t really put any data into social media, it’s fucking exhausting to constantly have people act like they understand the one extra little key thing that’ll save you from the government or private entities. Most of them just regurgitating random bullshit they hear and don’t know a fucking thing about.

        Oh you gotta have a DNS pihole, you gotta have Linux on everything or you like sucking Gate’s dick, no not that distro! Arch/Debian/Mint! Why do you need tab stacking/side bars/whatever else Firefox doesn’t have? Chromium based browsers bad!

        It’s clear why people hate Linux users, they’re insufferable. Truly the vegans of the internet.

    • VCTRN@lemm.ee
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      So many tankies, and an unhealty obsession with foss and anything foss related (if you don’t live off the land, you’re part of the problem yadda yadda).

      Disc: I love linux, Firefox, etc and use them everyday (but also use chrome, amazon, etc), but ffs stop the preaching and shaming.

    • Vespair@lemm.ee
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      It’s also why so many of the memes are boomer memes. I’m sorry, but a lot of the Linux userbase are 40+. I’m close to that myself, so I’m not criticizing or saying millennials shouldn’t be welcome, I’m just saying we also need an infusion of younger people here to keep things fresh and make sure the stale stuff gets tossed into the garbage where it belongs.

      • R0cket_M00se@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Oh there’s plenty of kids, who else would be legitimately convinced that the USSR was a good place? Lol

        • Vespair@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          …will I get called a nutjob if I say intentionally nefarious agents possibly aligned with certain governments and institutions?

          • R0cket_M00se@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I mean it’s possible, but we don’t have the population to really support the effort IMO. That kind of stuff usually sticks to the places it can get the most eyeballs and the quarter of a million lemmy users ain’t the place.

            • Vespair@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              I think you’re underestimated how widespread, advanced, and insidious those efforts are, tbh

              • R0cket_M00se@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                I think you believe lemmy is larger and more important than it is.

                There’s a reason everyday people don’t get hacked, because bad actors aren’t seeking out bill and his $1740 bank account, they’re going after Microsoft or coca cola.

                Russian bots? Sure. On reddit. With millions of people. Not lemmy with like 15 comments and a few hundred upvotes.

    • limelight79@lemm.ee
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      Ehhh if you have a serious question or a problem about some niche thing, and no one here can answer it, you’re just wasting your time. I had an issue with a tool I have, but I couldn’t find a community that it made sense to ask about it in. I’m not going to start a community for every sub I had subbed on reddit.

        • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Same. I like having alternatives. And now that Sync for Lemmy is up and running I only hit reddit very occasionally for various niche things I like.

        • limelight79@lemm.ee
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          I forgot to add that no one answered my question. LOL I’m not sure if I’m banned or if it was just so far out there, no one knew the answer. Or maybe the community is dead, I didn’t look closely to see if other posts had responses or not, but if it was, I assume they’d be here somewhere.

  • EtherealMoon @lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It’s a bit disappointing that most of the communities for specific content are so inactive on here, but I still prefer it to the types of banal, waste-of-time, repetitive content and comments that plague reddit and have caused my eyes to roll in a tailspin.

    Do I really have to choose one or the other, though?

    • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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      I think there’s a sweet spot in terms of population lemmy hasn’t reached yet. Reddit has surpassed it long ago and is now shit due to too many people.

  • Brekky@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It’s good for me, keeps me online for about an hour before I go out and get an irl life