I went back to Reddit this morning. Yeah I know, but I just wanted to check the place out after all the blackouts. As I was scrolling through my typical stuff I was down voting dumb things as is pure habit and it struck me… after being here only 2 days and not having any down vote button, what was just a pure habit suddenly felt a little dirty.
Those people I just down voted didn’t do anything wrong I just didn’t agree with them. But by down voting them I’m basically doing one little part in actually silencing them. It felt bad. In fact all of Reddit felt bad… like, it was just such a habit and I was ready to go back, but once I did it wasn’t as good as I remembered it.
All it took was 2 days away using a different platform that gives me essentially the same stuff I want to read and this no down vote thing somehow has resonated with me more than I would have thought. I actually went back and removed the down votes. Those people have the right to feel how they do whether I agree or not. I don’t need to silence and invalidate people over things that are so incredibly minor.
I’ve decided I will use Reddit only via Google search if it has the content I’m looking for, just like any other webpage, but I think Lemmy, and Beehaw specifically, are my new home. It no longer feels like “the alternative.” It feels like a place I actually chose to be. I wrote in my application that I wanted less toxicity in my life and I think that’s already happening. I’m really grateful to have discovered this place.
I popped into one of the few subreddits I participate in and the consensus was mostly, “Who cares about the API/third-party apps, I just want my Reddit back.” Whatever, they can have it.
I’ve been working to curate my RSS feed in the last couple of days so I never need to visit Reddit at all (outside of being directed there by a Google search result).
I’ve been working to curate my RSS feed in the last couple of days so I never need to visit Reddit at all
Ironically that would make Aaron very proud! He was one of the Reddit founder, but also a creator of RSS, and his prosecution for basically accessing an API led to his suicide…
So many don’t understand that the mods need those tools, and don’t care about people who need the accessibility (although I suspect that argument is popular more for having the moral high ground).
When people say “modders need those tools” does that mean:
- modders like to mod from the 3rd party apps cause they have easy buttons for stuff like, PURGE and BAN?
or
- Modders are using bots and stuff that use the API to find and auto-delete posts with racial slurs or something like that?
[they] didn’t do anything wrong I just didn’t agree with them
And that’s why it’s disabled! That’s not what it’s meant to be for, it’s meant to be for things that don’t add to the conversation. If it’s factually wrong then fine - downvote, but don’t do it to suppress others’ opinions.
Yes, I completely agree with you. Reddit could become such a nasty place, and I fully admit that I was part of the problem. It didn’t feel like a problem because it was so socially accepted, even encouraged, within Reddit’s own culture, but I was definitely part of the problem down voting people into oblivion for “being dumb”. I never thought twice about it until the last two days. Now it feels dirty. Now I recognize I don’t want to be a part of that culture any longer.
Haha, I think I just had a little rant at you there even though you were saying the same things I was saying. Bad habits… I don’t think I’ll be on reddit much now, hopefully enough people stay around to make this place quite active still.
It should be fine - it was busy enough before the blackout, and of course all the good apps will stop working soon, along with a bunch of essential tools for modding, etc.
What’s sad is that back in the old days of Reddit, Reddiquette was actually a thing and people followed that rule more. In recent years, though, it feels like Reddiquette is completely dead.
Post any kind of dissenting opinion and you’ll get downvoted into absolute oblivion. And I’m not just speaking about politics. You can write a well thought out comment in any sub that goes against the grain, and the culture is just totally to downvote for disagreement. I think my most downvoted comment of all time on Reddit was on r/juicing when I questioned whether carrot juice was actually effective for depression lol.
I’m not on an instance with no downvotes, as I do think they have SOME purpose (though you’re right that it is usually a bit of a disagree-so-shut-up button rather than anything else), but I agree with the rest. The content here is certainly slower. On reddit, I could just refresh the main page and have dozens of new posts to interact with- here, not so much. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, though. I still get my mindless scrolling when I’m poopin or something like that, but I’m spending a lot less time online than I did. I’m reading more, I’m working on my novels, I’m WAY more productive at work. I used RiF exclusively on my phone, and so I decided pretty soon after the API announcement that I was done. All the protest and reddit’s hilariously mismanaged response has done has cemented my resolve.
I’m spending a lot less time online than I did
Removing Sync from my phone was huge in terms of changing my habits. Without ready access to the dopamine drip, I am using my phone so much less than I did even a week ago. And as you said, I’m reading more and scrolling less.
I’ll admit it’s very much like getting over an addiction.
Everyone else has already hit the culture points, but I want to touch on how smooth and snappy lemmy’s web UI is. Maybe my home instance is just overpowered, but even old.reddit.com is a slug in comparison to how fast this feels. One of the most unexpected wins for me so far.
I really think it’s just a toxic culture thing. I’ve seen similar instances in people coming from places like League of Legends of World of Warcraft to other games or communities.
When you hang around in a toxic environment and the powers that be do nothing to curb that behavior, you begin to feel like you have to also be toxic in self-defense. It becomes your only recourse.
Then you go somewhere that’s not toxic and it’s like a culture shock: people actually get banned for bad behavior, other people aren’t nasty to you all the time, and you suddenly realize that you don’t have to be defensive.
I have a lot of hope for Lemmy. I hope it keeps growing and I hope people don’t just join the platform, but join the culture and contribute in positive ways. Reddit is dying and people need to let it and make something better.
you begin to feel like you have to also be toxic in self-defense […] Then you go somewhere that’s not toxic and it’s like a culture shock
This is exactly what I’ve experienced! I’m not looking to make any excuses for my time on Reddit but seeing the cause just laid out like that makes me feel… maybe not better, but differently, about why that behavior didn’t seem wrong at the time. I’m sure at some point early on I was downvoted and mocked and thus started the cycle of retaliation downvotes until it became normalized.
Then I come here to Beehaw and I can’t even downvote you. If I disagree, I have to actually engage with you. And in this instance at least, if I just treat you like garbage the mods are going to notice. That means if I want to engage, then it needs some thought behind it. All of this leans in the direction of starting conversations instead of silencing them.
It makes me very glad to hear that Lemmy has this effect on people! It gives me a lot of hope for the platform. I also came from Reddit. I joined yesterday, actually. Immediately, I didn’t miss it. I still don’t. I miss the resources I had there, but I’m not gonna wait around while they slowly bleed out.
But I did notice what you said here. The disliking something just because people didn’t like it. Reddit is infected by pervasive, toxic elitism and sophistry. I hope Lemmy does better in those regards, and your post here reassures me it will. Or that at least Beehaw will.
I remember playing Fallout 76 and being sooo untrustworthy of people out of pure habit after a lifetime of “toxic” games. People on there ended up being very wholesome. I didn’t meet any “lifetime” friends like some others did, but most people just wanted to give me stuff and give me good advice since I was new. They didn’t even have to, they just wanted to because I was new to the game.
