TL;DR: I wonder why we always have the same 2 posts as top posts of the day.
They appear a bit unnecessary and mildly annoying to me.
Do you think the same? Or do you like them, and can explain me why, so I can change my view?
Please don’t just blindly downvote, writing this post took a lot of time. And if you feel the need to do it anyway, tell me why first.
Maybe I am the only person who thinks that.
I probably am, at least according to numbers.
Basically, I’ve got the feeling that every top post of the day for the last weeks is something like “I’ve freed myself from evil Windows’ shackles and finally switched to Linux.”, or “What distro do you recommend?”.
Don’t get me wrong.
I feel super happy for every newcomer discovering the wonderful world of Linux and FOSS.
I, just like most others here, always try to help them in finding their right distro and guiding them in their first steps.
We all have been there.
And I’m super proud of us all, as a community, that we happily embrace every new member. We definitely have to keep that behaviour, it’s what connects us and makes us strong.
I just think we should redirect them a bit onto the specific communities.
Not by banning or censoring, just as friendly reminder, e.g. by a sticky post, comments like “Hey, check out !linux4noobs@lemmy.world” or something else.
It doesn’t help much if there are the same threads every day, with people circlejerking on hating Windows and recommending Mint a hundred times, just like 100 people before did on the same thread.
I hate Windows too, but it feels like we’re identifying and comparing ourselves with the bitter ex-partner we had a while ago. No, not being Windows shouldn’t be the main reason Linux is great.
There are so many great posts and discussions, that are all going missing in this swamp of “Winblows bad, hehe”.
We should focus on what makes our software great, and not what the “bad ex-partner” did wrong.
Same with newcomer posts.
I think if the posters get redirected to the correct sub, they will receive more help, since the people partaking in the community are there because they wanna see exactly that.
At the same time, I’m afraid this would undermine our openness and friendliness of this community, and result in being as shitty as Reddits’ sub.
!Just as an anecdote, when I was a noob, I posted a question there, and, like 5 minutes later, I got a dozen of non-constructive, offensive comments. 10 minutes later, my post got removed. This was my first contact to the Linux world btw. Guess who switched back to Windows for another half year because of that?
We have to prevent this at any costs.
Anyway… !<
I really enjoy this community here and wanna keep it this great.
I just wanted to ask you, what you think about those everyday-top-posts.
If you like them, please try to change my mind and explain me why :)
Edit/ Additional stuff/ Learnings:
- I don’t hate those “I switched to Linux”-posts, just to clarify. They’re fine for me, they just feel like white noise. But I’ve read many times in this thread that a lot of people enjoy those posts. If that’s the case, I’m totally fine! :)
- I think putting those posts in a weekly sticky thread could be worth an idea? Then everyone could describe their experience of this week of switching from one distro to another, e.g. “My first week of Gentoo” or something like this. Would be an interesting read for everyone.
- I also believe those “Fuck Windows”-posts can be kind of therapeutic for some people, since Windows became really shitty and annoying in the last years. And when you feel the relieve from finally getting rid of it, you tell that everyone. Understandable.
- Splitting the community isn’t the best idea too. We can always learn from each other and I like the diversity of this community.
- Thank you for your kind and constructive answers! ✌️
Personally, as a noob myself, I enjoy reading about others’ experiece when they switch. No idea why. Just fun to read usually.
I will install Windows and remove it again just to annoy you.
Do that and keep my updated ✌️
What having issues looks like:
Post better content to the community that is more interesting. The problem isn’t these posts, it’s the lack of other engaging discussions.
No I don’t mind them. I am a linux noob myself and these kinds of posts are what helped me decide to switch.
While we’re complaining, you know what I don’t like? Completely incomprehensible posts about some super specific subsystem. “fdplq updated to 0.5.pi.007.69!” Wow, that will change my life the next time I boot up my computer to read some Lemmy and play a game for an hour or two.
But they are all part of the linux community. I’m not gonna say the way I use linux is any better or worse than anyone else.
And fortunately, nobody is forcing us to click on those posts we don’t care about.
Idk, I try to be there to cheer on people that make the switch and post about it.
I get that the same type of thread several times a week is annoying. However, sometimes I think there is stuff to learn/remember about people switching over now, since there are things I would have long forgotten/gotten used to since initially switching 8-ish years ago, the new user experience is valuable and important to get feedback to help more people transition better.
As someone who recently made the switch (without posting about it woohoo!), I’ve found more information across the clone posts than in any one thread, I second the megathread idea mentioned above.
I’ve made a few comments regarding distros/switching on many of the aforementioned posts and I would happily dig them up and repost them as a comment on a megathread, on the slim chance my experience helps smooth out the entry for others.
Not at all. You seem to think there’s a more appropriate forum for people to join the Linux community, and introduces. Where is that? And how do new Linux users find it? Knowing nothing about Linux distros, where should they ask about distros? Distrowatch catalogs 274 distributions - how do newbies navigate those?
I do think having a “which distro” stickie or sidebar would be handy, but I don’t at all mind the “I ditched Windows” posts. It beats random venting, ranting, and flame wars.
I often do like these posts, because it usually shows their past suffering, and the new freedom they enjoy. It is also an opportunity to share the common community feeling with them.
After all, to me many years ago when I saw Linux booting for the very first time (no GUI, just lots of text from the kernel) that was one thing about Linux that I liked : names of human beings visible. If you look at software by Microsoft or Apple on computer installations you will normally see zero names, it is all very formal.
Social interaction between Linux users, starting with solving Linux questions, has been there for years in forums. I like seeing people help other people and move forward together.
Same with newcomer posts. I think if the posters get redirected to the correct sub
And what sub would you suggest ?
This is what I enjoy most about the Linux experience, like you say it is a very human experience that everyone likes to share.
When is the last time you had a noob online or anywhere tell you they booted up their system with a fresh new install of a new to them OS that they found called Microsoft Windows or Mac OS
To me, and I’m just a novice that is capable of knowing enough to destroy my system, any time I hear or read someone new who ditched a commercial OS to become a Linux user is an amazing accomplishment. It means the person who did so went out of their way to use something they had to work for, not with money but with knowledge, experience and trial and error.
Every time I hear that story, it makes me feel good and hopeful for humanity because it’s one more person who broke away from an all powerful corporate master.
I’ll never get tired of hearing these stories or seeing these posts.
Well said, and a nice read. 👍
Thinking about this I think that a lot of consumers who buy their new laptops will have ChromeOS, Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac OS pre-installed, and when they have problems with it, most of them might go back to the shop to get help, or even buy just another new computer. Another good feature of Linux is that it does not necessarily force you into hardware upgrades every few years, and it can even run on all kind of devices., making Linux flexible and sustainable.
This is a Linux community, so of course people will be moving away from other operating systems and installing Linux. I don’t see why everyone that does it needs to post about it. It’s like the people that make a big deal about leaving a party instead of just leaving.
It’s annoying. Maybe there should be a separate “SwitchedToLinux” community for these posts.
Every single story saturates the perception-pool a bit more. The more normal it appears, the more people will realize that windows isn’t all-present anymore, and that it’s not a weird thing to do to try Linux.
To me, that would be more like “I stopped eating junk” posts. The world needs more of those.
That is how I see it, at least.
Sure, I think the posts could be good for that, but they could go in a separate community specifically for those posts. It would be nice for this community to be for Linux news and discussions rather than “Windows bad, Linux good” for every post.
Would a non-linux user visit any such sub-community though? Perhaps Linux news and discussions would be better off in a sub-community? Actual users are more sensible to such distinctions. Many potential new users have a hard time choosing a distro already. Adding yet another choice might be detrimental to the cause.
I don’t mind them. I like to hear what drove people away from Windows and into Linux’ loving embrace. I’m still pretty new myself, so grain of salt I suppose.
If it is using systemd you are half way there
This was a solved problem on other sites via wikis and weekly threads. There’s no value in another “what distro should I use?” post. It’s great that people want to contribute, but there should be a more centralized resource we can refer people to where people can focus this energy.
As for the Windows threads, they’ve been a staple of every Linux-focused community for as long as I’ve been browsing them. I guess if it makes people feel better then I suppose that’s enough of a reason to keep them around.
Maybe they are, but this is the way the medium works - you don’t get to control what people post (unless you are mod). Scroll past and move on.
Personally, I’m not interested in the type of posts you mention. However, I don’t mind it. In general I think it’s great to tell the world if you ditch Windows for Linux, because it shows other (Windows) users that they can do it, too.
Though I have to agree that for a dedicated Linux community, it doesn’t add too much value. If I think a post is a bad fit for the community, I vote it down.
I feel the same way. Most of the feedback on your post seems to be from newbies who like it, so maybe we should start a new community for us advanced folks instead of referring everyone to !linux4noobs@lemmy.world.
Dividing the community is probably not the best thing to do right now… There’s also the intermediate power user, with specific question in regard of grub or how to update the kernel issues.
The kind of question that are easy for advanced folk but can be a big ? for intermediate people.
Do we also start a new community for them?
IMO that’s a bad idea…
Nah it’s cool.
I don’t remember seeing a single one, so they’re probably not annoying me.
Exaggerated complaint posts about non problems there are way to many, though.