Reddit is still a lot more crowded, but I prefer Lemmy simply because of no ads and the actual conversations that you can have with people.
This is exactly how I feel. Reddit is so full of bots, spam, and ads that it’s really only good for checking a few niche subreddits. I can browse Lemmy at random and be pretty entertained.
Damn bruh, why won’t you click on my OF?
Honestly, I root for lemmy and use it daily. However, Reddit still wins on pure content and niche communities.
Idk it got worse when all the porn subs started dying
rip
Why did porn subs start dying?
Lemmy absolutely.
- no algorithm
- no ads
- actual real people in the comments
- the ability for third parties to make apps
- the fact that it’s not mainstream means most of the people on here are at least a little nerdy which I am here for.
- feels a lot like what reddit used to be 15 years ago before the age of algorithms and bots everywhere.
Lemmy 100% has an algorithm. It’s not a complicated one but any method for determining what content shows up is an algorithm.
No the commenter but I think it’s one of those language things where algorithm (at least in the context of social media) has come to mean a personalized feed, like two people have different all feeds versus an algorithm like sorting by hot or active posts that every has the same posts. To your point both are algorithms but it’s one of those thing where the word has taken on its own meaning
Precisely. The colloquial use of algorithm indicates a form of targeted content delivery where your personal preferences are weaponized against you (aka TikTok)
Yeah pretty much exactly what I was thinking about. I like being able to curate and have some legitimate control over what I’m seeing
An open source algorithm that the user base can see and understand how it works is different than a closed source algorithm that serves to benefit advertisers more than users
That always comes with a double edged sword. An open source algorithm can be gamed more easily. IIRC, that’s why Reddit moved to closed source for theirs originally, spammers were specifically targeting it. I don’t think Lemmy’s big enough yet to attract that sort of detailed inspection, but it happened in the past. I’m not saying Lemmy should close source its algorithm, of course. Though maybe a pluggable algorithm would be a good idea, to make it so that people could use a diverse set of algorithms that would be more difficult to target as a whole?
Yep, Trump’s campaign figured out how to game Reddit’s algorithm. Sticky a post and essentially tell anyone in the subreddit to upvote any stickied post on any visit which would quickly drive the stickied post to the top of all quickly.
Fair enough, but I’d say the other commenters have articulated what I meant pretty well
Once I started using Lemmy I never touched Reddit again. So I guess Lemmy.
I prefer lemmy but miss the niche communities. The Swedish national community for instance, roleplaying communities, niche game communities etc.
Same. The thing lacking is user base and content. Also a backlog of older content as knowledge source, but that would come overtime with through the former.
As far as usability goes Iemmy is just as good as reddit was for me. My instance (lemme.ee) is stable and the app experience (currently “connect”) is just as smooth as it was for reddit (where I used “relay”).
I sadly have to admit that I don’t contribute enough in terms of creating and posting threads.
I haven’t used reddit since the announcement of the API changes
Lemmy. Federation and the lack of a profit motive makes it much better.
I would also rather be surrounded by leftist vs liberal drama, rather than liberal vs fascist drama.
The latter is actually a good point. I had almost forgotten how constant and combative reddit was at times with the far-right peeps and incels and whatnot. At the time it had become so normal, one didn’t even think about it. Maybe offer alternative ideas (= argue) a while or just ignore, but now that you mention it, I don’t think there has been many situations like that here, for me at least. Not to say that the enlightened centrists aren’t very much the same in practice, and those I face here every now and then. They just aren’t nearly as bad in substance.
honestly, I preferred reddit. But I’m here out of principle.
Scrolled through a ton of comments but honestly this sums it all up for me. Lemmy isn’t large enough to support niche memes and content.
After almost a year of being Reddit free, I have been peeking back in there lately. It just doesn’t hit the same but I do lurk in some subs just because of the volume of content.
I do enjoy Lemmy though. I don’t feel as intimidated to make comments and like to feel we’re building something from the grass roots here.
Same for me. There are some interests I have (mostly niche games) that just don’t have the population to have any sort of traction here. I don’t comment or vote there anymore, and I’m only still logged in on my main PCs because I didn’t bother logging out. Deleted all my old comments and posts.
Honestly also some very non niche things that are big on reddit aren’t much of a thing here. Like the Netherlands subreddit is the second largest non English speaking sub. It’s barely a thing on Lemmy.
Most of the time, lemmy.
Obviously, the difficulty with very niche communities not being useful here can be annoying.
And, being real, the lack of robust moderation tools makes moderating a pain in the ass.
But, overall, I find the people on lemmy less prone to bad behavior, and the discussions more rewarding. That makes up for the underlying missing functional things worth it.
Reddit, even before they went full asshole as a company, had the major problem of being big. Humans are assholes for the most part. The more people you have, and the lower the bar for entry, the more of those assholes are going to be a problem.
Lemmy has assholes too. The usual knee jerk reactionaries, trolls, and that sort of thing. But the very minor extra effort of having to pick an instance reduces how many of the brain dead assholes will put in the effort. The assholes are a better quality of asshole lol.
But damn, there were some long established communities on reddit that simply can’t be reproduced here because you can’t make old communities. There are a ton of subs that had been around since subs came around. You can’t duplicate that kind of organic growth. There’s very few C/s on lemmy that have a real sense of community yet. I think it’ll happen, but it hasn’t had time for a lot of real cultures to spring up the way reddit had.
I miss the hell out of those long established neighborhoods.
Prefer Reddit’s volume of posts. Prefer lemmy in general. Disappointed that lemmy resembles reddit way too much.
Expand on this if you don’t mind. In what way does Lemmy disappoint you in how it resembles Reddit?
- “/s”
- “SLAMS!”
- “Neckbeard” or “fedora” etc. Grow the fuck up.
- Groupthink.
- Low-effort shitposts.
- Obvious propaganda.
- Arbitrary removal of comments.
- Copious white knight bullshit.
- Downvotes for facts that go against the zeitgeist.
Just off the top of my head.
- performative pearl-clutching level seems higher on Lemmy
Can I ask why you dislike /s?
Because it’s unnecessary and ruins sarcasm. If people are offended because they mistake a comment’s intent, that’s not my concern. I cannot relate to those who need intent spoon-fed to them. It invites lazy, light thinking.
It’s really a nice feeling when strangers on the internet can read your comment and get what you’d written in the right context - even if that context is an obscure in-joke. But there are a lot of people on the internet and a lot of real assholes that might non-sarcastically say whatever crazy thing you’re joking at…
Especially when it comes to neuro-divergent folks, I think the /s is quite helpful. People want to be in on your joke. It’s fun to connect with humor on the internet… and omitting a /s makes it extremely unlikely that some folks, especially those on the autism spectrum, will be able to share that moment with you… instead, it’s more likely to be read as an attack or at least yet another disappointing failure of humanity and compassion playing out over the web.
So if people don’t seem to get your joke when you omit the /s, please do realize that you’ve made your speech less accessible and some people are getting offended by your speech and it isn’t their fault - it’s yours. That said, if you enjoy having more arcane jokes and occasionally being downvoted into oblivion, then nobody is going to force you to /s.
Fair enough. I’m not into most of that behavior either except for maybe the occasional low-effort shit post.
Lemmy. Reddit has become what it was a bastion from.
This is exactly how I feel
I would prefer Lemmy/Kbin but all the communities I actively followed on Reddit are still there
I much prefer Lemmy, when RIF shut down I migrated and never looked back. Lemmy isn’t as crowded as Reddit became and reminds me of how Reddit used to look and feel.
I also signed up to Mastodon and between the two (Lemmy and Mastodon) get all the information and entertainment I ever got from Reddit without all the dickheads that now populate Reddit.
I avoid reddit out of principle even though I would prefer it. It’s only going down hill from here on out and they’ve neglected their app so much it’s too painful to attempt to use it.
My main reasoning is content and sometimes the comments. Content here is a bit slow but a lot commenters are kind of a-holes and painfully obnoxious. Especially from lemmy.ml, always a little anxious when I comment.
