New here. Migrated from Reddit. Still trying to figure out Lemmy - what’s everyone’s experiences like coming from Reddit and does Lemmy serve as a good alternative? Pros and cons/differences?
I was a fairly active member at Reddit with a good social standing, I made 1 “controversial” comment and I got perma-banned… this sucks. I mostly followed music pages like r/TheBeatles and loved to just rant about Beatles albums, Paul McCartney’s latest tour, discuss new releases from other artists and also movies/TV shows. I can’t think of any other website that offers that kind of forum-like discussion other than Lemmy?
I really did always hate that Reddit felt like a massive echo chamber. The way the system works with upvotes and downvotes, if I said anything people don’t agree with, I’d get massively downvoted. I once got temporary ban for saying I preferred Zelda Breath of the Wild over Tears of the Kingdom… it really felt like I was treading on egg shells. My perma-ban happened in a discussion within the r/EveryoneKnowsThat search for a lost wave song. Really petty.
I’ve always hoped somebody would create basically a clone of Reddit, but without the politics and without being overly-policed. Where people aren’t pushed away for respectfully voicing their opinion. Is Lemmy the answer?
Lemmy is significantly smaller. Because of this:
+Trolls are easier to spot
+Interactions tend to be friendlier and more wholesome/respectful
+Far more originality shining through
-less engaged communities
-fewer niche communities
-no rich history to comb through
Trolls are easier to spot, except for the fact that lemmy.ml is the default instance for many users and communities eventhough the entire setup of that instance is very politically influenced. You could be in for a bad experience when you try to post a fairly reasonable comment on any slightly political post there.
-Fads aren’t as easily called out/quashed, there isn’t much push back on the meme of the minute, wait I just described social media in general…
First of all, welcome.
Depends what you’re after, really. I find that lemmy has less of an echo chamber, but the average political stance is a lot more left-ish than reddit.
If your opinion is considered garbage, you’ll probably be downvoted for it, but banned is another thing; You can find an instance more to your liking, for example if you post tankie stuff on lemmygrad, you’ll probably only get praise from there.
It mostly comes down to how a platform with many people tend to naturally operate - garbage people get treated at such by the rest. So whatever your leanings might be, I suggest you find an instance that is somewhat reasonably close to share your values.
Other than that, one of the main differences from reddit is the content quantity - Smaller user base means less content. And I’m perfectly fine with that, as I can keep up with the feed without scrolling for hours.
Also, here I can say that I don’t give two shits about neither Zelda nor Link, without fear of backlash. At least yhe contemporary games - Everything since Link II for NES has been kinda meh in my book.
And if you want to filter out politics, blocking lemmygrad takes away most of the tankie-spam.
I find that lemmy has less of an echo chamber, but the average political stance is a lot more left-ish than reddit.
This is true once you’ve blocked Lemmygrad and Hexbear, which are as much echo chambers as r/The_Donald ever was.
The thing I find most perplexing about those communities is that although they themselves support marginalized communities, they also defend highly authoritarian regimes (Russia, China) that actively persecute said groups. It’s very strange to see that horseshoe wrap-around effect where at times they have the same things in common with the right wing but for entirely different reasons.
I haven’t blocked hexbear (yet). As annoying as I find their views, they do produce some funny shit now and then.
You’re fine as long as you don’t decide to jump in and offer a contrary opinion.
I made 1 “controversial” comment and I got perma-banned… this sucks. … Is Lemmy the answer?
That’s really going to depend on you. What sort of “controversial” comment?
If you engage in ableist, racist, or LGBTQ-phobic commenting, you’re going to have a bad time. Other than that sort of thing, you’ll probably be fine, with some exceptions:
- There are two Marxist-Leninist instances that can be problematic (mainly a minority of their users, tbf).
- Some mods and instance admins can be ban-happy.
- There’s a larger than average population of neurodivergent people here so, that is sometimes a cause of the second item and miscommunication (we’re trying!).
- You may run into unexpected rules depending on where you’re posting. Individual instances (kinda like “reddits”) have server-wide policies. Communities (aka comms, the equivalent of a subreddit) usually also have their own policies. This means being aware of where you are posting and commenting (ie. don’t expect shitting on communist ideals to go well on an M-L instance, even if the community is related to something else).
- It’s important to be aware that Unix Surrealism is the best comic in the Fediverse.
- There are a lot of Linux users and tech nerds here. Don’t be frightened if you find yourself getting a bit FLOSS-curious. We’re generally happy to try to lend a hand to people who hit bumps at the beginning of their open-source journey.
If you’re good with that stuff and can find out start a comm for Beetles discussions, there’s a good chance that you’ll have a good time.
From what I gather, the “controversy” was about his preference for one Zelda game over another. I think he’s going to be fine.
No, that was the temp ban. The perma ban had to do with a lost song thread
Thanks, all really good feedback. I’ve managed to find a few ‘somewhat’ active communities to join like for my local city which has about 1000~ subscribers. Not as bad as I was expecting to be honest… that’s enough user base for me to give Lemmy a shot I think.
I guess every social media platform has its politics
You should also check out the Lemmy third party apps like Mlem or Voyager as they’re gorgeous.
https://alexandrite.app is nice for the desktop.
Idea: Try exclusively using Lemmy for a week.
If you love it, switch. If you hate it, don’t. If you miss Reddit, use both.
I use both. I like both. But I also want Lemmy to become the norm.
I like using reddit is fun app. So I’m hoping for a Lemmy is fun app.
I’ve heard Sync for Lemmy is a bit similar.
I’ve been using sync for Lemmy since the 3rd partocalypse of 23, and I haven’t been back to reddit since. It’s been enjoyable being on Lemmy, and the folks are usually pretty awesome here. I can second the niche interest thing though, but I’ve always used reddit in a curated general content fashion, so Lemmy is plenty sufficient in that regard.
