cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1795192
Take this screenshot for example. This is the front page of Lemmy right now. Virtually every post will make the reader feel bad and depressed. It’s all doombait, ragebait - and if it’s a meme, it is usually a meme that leaves an annoyed taste in your mouth at someone or something.
This is what drove me and many others away from Reddit, and a decentralized platform does not have to have this problem in theory - but it Is currently experiencing it now. Reddit has no reason to change their depressing content because it drives much engagement and creates revenue. But, for a decentralized platform to just be filled with ragebait and doombait is not good and exposes inherent problems with the platform right now.
What’s more is that most of these posts are posted by accounts created in the past month, leading me to believe that people from Reddit who are used to getting karma dopamine from getting people riled up are just doing the same thing here.
I don’t really know how Lemmy can fix this problem - it is something that we really need to be aware of as a community. Don’t just upvote something because it makes you annoyed and you want more people to see it - perhaps we need to downvote ragebait and doombait when we see it so that the platform doesn’t become a depressing echo chamber.
Was Lemmy just a MAGA and Lemmygrad shit show before the Reddit people got here?
So, if I understand… You’re upset people are talking about climate change?
Not the op, but I think I get what they’re getting at. I have been scrolling lemmy a lot this last week and everytime I see something about the climate catastrophe, unions being fucked over, terrible politicians etc I up vote it. These are all important things, and by up voting I feel like I’m čsupporting the cause" and “raising awareness”.
But I do wonder if it’s actually very helpful, for whatever cause, for me, or for lemmy. It makes scrolling lemmy stressful and depressing, which is accurate for how the world is, but it doesn’t really make things better. I feel like I’d rather be reading something interesting or informative that might make the world a better place, whether it’s by actually making real chnage, or just me learning something meaningful.
“Starbucks fucks it’s employees!” “Trump lies about soemthing!” “the world is on fire!” are always going to drive engagement because these things upset us and we want to do a small act to make ourselves feel less powerless. But I’m not sure they’re really doing more than preaching to the choir, and leaving said choir frazzled and distracted.
Nothing in that screenshot is as you describe. If it was, I could see the argument.
Extreme climate change is in the news a lot right now. Should world news communities ignored it?
The world sorta is, metaphorically, on fire. Canada is quite literally on fire. Can we post about that? When the air outside my house seemed like I was in a forest fire, even though I’m not where near it, is that valid?
Can’t you just subscribe to communities you like, and block communities you don’t like? That’s what I did.
Problem solved.
Or, you could publicly complain.
Or go create your own community and block any content you don’t want to see there. That’s kind of the beauty of Lemmy, don’t like the content you see? Block the users, unsubscribe from the community, go make your own, or bitch about it publicly in an unproductive post. 🤡
I’m surprised blocking news communities isn’t something most people are doing. Reddit (and Lemmy) are great for entertainment and specific topics like tech, but terrible at everything else. Start blocking them, you probably won’t regret it much.
Seeing the same post in 5 different places is what drove me away from Reddit.
Who browses the local timeline on a large fediverse instance lol.
Anyway, reality is bad and we’re living in it, so I have relatively little patience for people who complain about doomposting. There’s a lot of doom out there.
If folks want to only see good news, start an “only good news” community (assuming this doesn’t already exist) and just stick to your subscribed communities view.
