Since a lot of folks sort by “all” on Lemmy, popular posts get overwhelmed by people who don’t daily drive operating systems like iOS or MacOS.
I like outside perspectives and all, but when the majority of the “community” discussion is coming from people who aren’t even using these products, it is pretty hard to have informed conversations.
Moreover, I feel like this type of engagement creates a lot of threads that get pretty combative and catty. They’re often started by people who are trying to argue and convince iOS / MacOS users that they’ve picked the wrong side of the fence.
Anyone else feel me on this? I imagine this is a problem for other communities on Lemmy as well.
Some of Apple’s biggest fans are also sometimes Apple’s largest critics. I’m all for critical discussions, but the “herp derp finally getting what Android have for years” kind of comments are certainly getting old, and I wouldn’t mind seeing less of.
Agreed, but I will say that it’s pretty clear that a lot of these upvoted threads are from people who don’t use the operating systems very much, if at all.
For example, I frequently see highly upvoted threads with people complaining about something missing from iOS or MacOS, and in reality, that has actually been prominent in the OS for half a decade a more.
A lot of people literally don’t have very much familiarity with what they’re commenting or voting on. They’re just letting confirmation bias take the wheel.
They also love to reference the “cult of fanboys,” all the time. I honestly can’t say I have ever seen evidence of this cult, or have ever met anyone I would classify as a fanboy.
I’d argue that the “cult” was totally a thing back when Apple was a small player in certain markets, and people liked pulling for the underdog. The Apple evangelism was also pretty high back when a media player or phone with good experience and industrial design was actually a new concept. But now the bar has been raised, and everyone strives for good industrial and experience design.
IMHO, people aren’t really going around and preaching the gospel of Steve like they were 10 or 15 years ago. Those days are kind of gone.
The only cult I ever see IRL is the cult of Android and Linux users that feel like their unwarranted opinion is something anyone asked for. Lemmy tends to have more tech-savvy people in its communities so even Windows doesn’t escape the wrath of these people. For all the complaints of fanboyism, the worst fanboys are the anti-Apple ones.
Anyone else feel me on this? I imagine this is a problem for other communities on Lemmy as well.
nah mate. Would describe me as an enthusiast but still think that Apple shits the bed pretty often, is charging way too much and could do a lot better in hardware and software.
So as already mentioned, Apple’s biggest enthusiasts are also its biggest critics.
exactly, I’m not an apple enthusiast so I literally don’t care or even know enough to troll.
that’s actually a good point.
My wife recently started using an iPhone mini because she likes the size and on android there is nothing in that area, but she sometimes criticizes things that really make me believe she’s trolling me.
But then I realize that she’s just used to a, at least for her, better function or interaction done in her old android phone. And if she explains it to me I actually have to agree and wonder why apple’s solution is so strange.
But people like you aren’t the ones making the “Android had this years ago” posts. Those are the problem. Nothing wrong with real criticism, keep it coming, but I am tired of that same comment without any substance.
but I am tired of that same comment without any substance.
block or ignore them or make the mods aware of low quality posts, maybe we need some adjustments in the rules. I personally am not bothered by them but everybody is different…
You are right, but instead of blocking like half the user base I just unsubbed. I hope the mods will look in to this, it seems like a lot of people are bothered with this. Let the trolls and fanboys have this sub, there are better ways to follow tech news.
You guys have my sympathy. I’m a pretty strong critic of Apple and their products but I’d never go out of my way to interfere with communities of Apple users. That’s just kinda pathetic.
Unfortunately, I don’t see that there’s much you can do about this apart from strictly moderate the comments section and just try to ignore the up/downvote discrepancies.
Yeah, I think the real solution would be to require a subscription, or a subscription for at least n amount of days before you can comment. Reddit used to have options for that.
Anyone can still join in, but it cuts down on the noise from c/all.
Unfortunately, Lemmy’s community and mod tools are truly terrible.
Yea, with the lack of mod tools here you don’t have that many options really.
There’s no point in trying to build a community with a very hostile environment for anything that doesn’t align with the very odd hostile-against-everything-not-OSS zeitgeist.
Wait until they come to correct you by saying that’s not true, they’re actually hostile-against-everything-not-FOSS, how the F is very important, and why certain licensing standards are better than others. And any time anyone tries to call out deficiencies in their favorite FOSS, they’d be greeted with swarms of “you don’t understand FOSS” comments and have no room for any constructive discussion. Then, to top it off, they’d always default to the “why don’t you just go find your own instance instead” comment. It’s almost as if they don’t want a community for discussions, they want echo chambers, and they’ll be hostile and unwelcoming to everyone who’s not aligned with their believes.
Edit: oh, look, we have the go fund your own instance comment in this thread already! Called it.
Yeah, i used to think this wasn’t the case when i just joined here, but the longer i use the more frustrating it get. People downvote and brigade on seemingly harmless thing, from post that they don’t understand, to language they don’t speak, to technology they don’t use, to idea(that doesn’t involve extremism) they don’t agree. There’s been people telling me why they stop posting and developing the community in my instance, and all boils down to the random downvoting and brigading.
If the admin of the top 10 instance didn’t turn off downvoting, then you can be sure that this platform will slowly die off before Reddit even got its own just desert. It’s impossible to build a community and recommend friend for a place this hostile. This place used to be super wholesome when i join.
I think it would be probably a good idea to globally hide negative votes from the all feed until they reach a certain threshold. There are communities for topics that aren’t popular on the fediverse that definitely get drive by buried in the all feed.
The downvote definitely has its place as a way to penalize offtopic and spam discussion, but it also requires some thick skin because people use it as a disagree button for better or worse. The scores don’t really matter.
I know it’s an unpopular opinion, but I feel strongly that downvoting itself is a problem.
Social media is powered by little bits of endorphins that come from clicking the response buttons, and a certain type of person seems to get a thrill out of the downvote in particular. That personality type does not seem to be conducive to building a strong community, but we give them quite a bit of engagement anyways to keep them coming back.
I don’t think anything of value would be lost by dropping that action all together.
I slightly disagree because it can be a good way to track people who only traffic in bad faith. If there were some other way to flag them, I’d be all for it but it’s almost completely bad options for ways to flag that sort of anti social behavior.
Ngl I laughed at this, everyone knows votes are public, but actually calling someone out? Pathetic. But since you’re not pulling any punches, I’ll tell you why your comment is useless fodder.
This is an endemic problem on Lemmy
This shows you have little experience in internet fora, small or poorly moderated communities are not a lemmy problem but on every corner of the internet. It also shows you are actively missing the point of lemmy, make your own corner, make it interesting and people will come. You don’t agree with the admins of a community? Others will too so actually put in the effort yourself. But you don’t want that, you want a large platform of your likeminded people. Then use that platform ffs. And meanwhile, slow and steady your niche will have better representation on lemmy as well.
There’s no point in trying to build a community with a very hostile environment for anything that doesn’t align with the very odd hostile-against-everything-not-OSS zeitgeist.
Curate your feed, you own an instance, use it and defederate from instances you don’t like. Don’t like any? Then get off lemmy instead of being so petty because you thought lemmy was an exact drop in replacement for reddit. So please, leave the door open on your way out, so people who have actual value to contribute can come in.
Edit: Ofcourse they delete their comment lmao
What do you mean my lurking? You posted 5 times today and apart from a 2 week break you took (vacation?) you at least post daily and amassed 600+ comments in 10 Month.
Yes you can. It’s a tradeoff/balance and not limited to just Apple (see neurodivergent, women, trans- oriented communities). If you gatekeep too hard then you lose out on vibrant discussion and it’s a ghost town. If it’s too popular on All then you get many of the same “popular” narratives being voted up, lots of arguing and so on.
I try to be aware of the community I’m on before commenting and follow in spirit. So I try to keep my opinions relatively brief in areas I’m not involved in.
