I’ve mostly left reddit and switched to beehaw, but I posted on somewhat of a niche tech-related subreddit today since there really isn’t a community for that here yet. And wow, I got instantly downvoted twice and the first comment response was rude and hostile. All I posted was a feature suggestion for software that I thought would be useful and that a good amount of people would like based on other feedback I’ve heard. This is not the sort of topic that should be controversial or aggravating, and it wasn’t like I made an ignorant post suggesting a feature that already existed or otherwise wasn’t well researched.
This type of instantly hostile response has happened numerous times on reddit for various different topics, but I just haven’t posted for a while, so I forgot just how shitty it can feel. It makes me really appreciate how friendly and respectful the community is here on Beehaw and on Mastodon. People seem to have good faith in one another similar to how the internet used to be in the old days.
Have you had similar experiences with Reddit and similarly opposite experiences here on Beehaw/Lemmy?
This is something I’ve noticed about the decentralized platforms in general. Mastodon is way less toxic and hyperbolic than Twitter. There’s no main character. If someone has a terrible opinion, they’re mostly ignored instead of dogpiled upon.
Lemmy and Kbin are the same way. If people disagree, they’re respectful in their disagreements and are by and large open minded and willing to learn something new. It’s honestly refreshing and positive.
I’m not sure if it’s the decentralized platforms giving each community a niche or that the ‘herd’ hasn’t made its way to the fediverse due to complexity but both lemmy and mastodon conversations are a breath of fresh air - it’s almost like the internet used to be on usenet and IRC.
I can’t wait for polite flame wars to start 😀
🧐 I beg to differ. What a preposterous suggestion!
Here’s a question though, do we still need an /s ?
I’ve always gone back and forth on the /s honestly. Sometimes, depending on the writer’s style it’s really easy to pick up in text but some text really needs the extra cues you’d get from facial expression and speaking tone to get it. It also depends on the receiver and the context of the conversation. My feeling is it’s here to stay.
If it helps, I love tone indicators. It saves me a lot of time puzzling over a comment and wondering if it’s sarcastic, genuine, disengenous, etc. It’s hard enough for me to tell in meatspace, let alone in text only. It’s why I also love gifs and emojis - they help me express, and in turn also understand, exactly what tone people are trying to convey. 😊
I would encourage use of indicators to help out those of us who struggle in this area. 😁