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?
I’m sorry this comes off as something that demotivates. I don’t want to demotivate you. I tend to be a bit of a stark realist and my intent was to help grapple with the reality of the situation. I’ve seen the cycles of this kind of thing happen over and over, not just on Reddit but on so many different platforms. For me, this is nothing new.
I say this not to diminish the feelings we have about toxic communities or that we should be okay with it. I’m right there with you, I am tired of seeing hate and aggression again and again. But I say this to have realistic expectations about online communities, because we do see this here on Lemmy already and we will see it more. Unfortunately there is no escaping that because thats just how people are. My intent is to hope that YOU don’t leave because of that and to give hope that even in communities where toxicity exists we can still have good interactions and shouldn’t just leave. I don’t think Reddit is to blame for this, but that doesn’t absolve Reddit from being a crap platform that we should totally abandon.
And that was my main argument for the original post. Just because toxicity exists isn’t a great reason to leave, because if that’s the case, we should leave Lemmy too because it exists here as well. I don’t think it was fair in the original post to cherry pick bad things from Reddit and compare them to good things in Lemmy.
I hope we can continue having experiences and discussions, like the ones in this thread, where we can disagree and still remain civil, supportive and positive. I hope you can be motivated to contribute to that despite the challenges of online communities and be a participant here so that we can all benefit from your opinions.