When I first started using Lemmy it seemed like such a nice place with interesting discussions. It seemed like the first group of people to join after the app exodus were being quite careful to be respectful of the existing culture.
Now, it seems as though the culture from Reddit has completely replaced it. Toxicity and all. I will say I do follow a lot of communities from a wide range of instances so it’s clearly not everywhere.
Am I the only one who’s feeling like we’ve just stormed in and bulldozed Lemmy?
It makes sense.
Most people who came here two months ago did so because they explicitly wanted to leave Reddit, but not because of Reddit content or the site culture. It was because admin decisions on third party apps and the API.
They still wanted Reddit, just with different Admins and different apps. Ideally, they’d have wanted communities to fully migrate over.
lemmy.world specifically became basically a lifeboat, having been linked to from original third party apps.
Yes, it was created and had the technical and resource requirements to keep up with the new influx of users without constantly crashing (in the beginning), but nonetheless, that meant it got the largest influx of the migration.
It’s honestly a bit strange for me to see people in here with two month old accounts saying “oh yeah the culture has just changed so much”.
You all were the change. It’s that influx of users that basically brought Reddit here.
Anyone who came here before the API changes did so either because they had some kind of issues with Reddit, whether it was the dominant culture or what, and wanted an alternative or because they were interested in the open source and federated nature of the project regardless of Reddit’s own decisions.
Though tbf, pre migration, this place was basically dead. Posts would have a handful of comments at best and it was mostly Lemmygrad users and also FOSS enthusiasts. Hexbear was the most active Lemmy instance and was a chapotraphouse lifeboat formed in 2020 but it didn’t federate so it was really mostly just Lemmy.ml as a general instance and Lemmygrad unless you explicitly knew and cared for Hexbear. Neither was very “toxic” in their own communities and there really wasn’t much inter instance fighting, even if there still were people on lemmy.ml who didn’t care for grad, as far as I remember. I honestly mostly lurked and didn’t participate often.
The apps also were much worse.
Things started picking up as the API announcement happened. That’s probably when we had the best balance of positivity and user growth.
It exploded when the API changes went into effect and voila.
Still, I would say it’s mostly still a bit better than Reddit and there’s more effort in commenting for the most part.
I don’t think I’ve seen a pun chain or a “he’s not your buddy, guy” or anything like that.
Tbf many of us, myself included, had had a problem with the general reddit culture for a very long time (in my case dating back to 2011)
The API change and Sp*z’s libelous lies (egregious even by his abysmally low standards) finally gave me the motivation to leave, and I’m genuinely happy that I’ve never checked back on my old account (which is still up, but has been mostly scrubbed of content)
I didn’t come here to find more reddit. In fact, I tried switching back to tumblr at first before learning more about the potential of the fediverse
And that’s only the first migration. Expect a way bigger one once Reddit sunsets the old reddit interface.
I changed my account to reduce traffic on my my former server when the Reddit refugees came
I don’t think I’ve seen a pun chain or a “he’s not your buddy, guy” or anything like that.
And no Schnoodle guy either! No more annoying pseudo-emotional poems followed by celebrity worship, which didn’t add anything to the conversation, except for making threads long and wasting screen space on mobile devices.
After blocking most of the meme subs, I find it a pretty nice place.
As communities grow from obscurity to populated change is inevitable. I used to use reddit and the #1 thing I hated was the condescending, holier than thou attitude that was rampant. I have seen it occasionally on here but for the most part Lemmy is a breath of fresh air, so I personally don’t think reddit culture has replaced it. I can definitely see a strong cultural influence from reddit but I personally think Lemmy culture is significantly different, in a good way.
Yes!
I’ve noticed it in political discussions especially. I often find the nitty gritty of my political opinions at odds with much of the apparent consensus on both Reddit and Lemmy. But on Lemmy I generally find people to be a lot less dogmatic, and more open to constructive discussion, rather than repeating the same slogans over and over. Not that it doesn’t happen on Lemmy, but I can’t really remember the last time I heard someone say “It’s not a bug, it’s a feature” unironically.(I have heard “orphan crushing machine” thrown around a bit, but at least that one is kinda funny.)
Overall, the mainstream on Lemmy feels like an upgrade from Reddit, though I do miss more niche communities catering toward my interest.
As a Digg migrant now Reddit migrant, the “has <new user base> killed our culture?” thing is a heavy dose of deja vu. No mockery intended; I think it’s a reasonable question.
Can you link to a few comments or posts that you think represent this nasty reddit culture?
The important thing to understand is that Lemmy doesn’t have an inherent culture. Nor does Reddit, or Twitter, or Mastodon, or any other platform.
They are communities, and communities naturally change as they scale.
So yes, of course Lemmy had changed. But I’d argue that the inherent strength of the whole concept of “federation” is that any one particular instance only has to witness as much or as little of that change as they want to.
If you don’t like where Lemmy as a whole is going, find (or create) an instance that agrees with you and de-federates from most others. win-win.
The point is that you are responsible for your own particular Lemmy experience in ways that you never were on Reddit.
Hexbear and lemmy.grad were there before and are as toxic as any reddit sub I’ve ever been in.
lemmy.ml on a good day had like 15 to 30 upvotes on the front page. There wasn’t much of a culture before.
See the traffic in April this year, a little over 4 months ago. Lemmy.world only been around for like 2 and a half months now. That’s the most active it’s been since before the exodus. The exodus definitely helped jumpstart the site.
- Rikudou_Sage ( @rikudou@lemmings.world ) 11•11 months ago
Except for a few power-tripping mods and admins I haven’t seen much of Reddit culture here. And the blatant copy of r/place was a little cringe (especially as it was introduced with “let’s create our own customs!”).
Beehaw is still pretty nice :) The moderation is part of why I joined it. I’ve definitely noticed other community getting toxic comments in the past few weeks, though
If a place is moderated so heavily that is has no nasty comments, I wonder what else is being moderated away?
Just look at the modlogs and you can see what is deleted
Lol k
You mean the circle-jerk of six tankies talking about how the West is the definition of evil? Is that the former Lemmy culture you’re talking about? I don’t remember there being anything worth mourning.
🤓
I love when people say they are glad they are bot on reddit anymore and create a new one. Suddenly everything sounds like reddit again. Artporn, foodporn, earthporn we get it you are 16
Unpopular opinion, but I really hate the soft bubble space every social media is becoming and welcome the freedom of speech. I’m not saying people should be harassing each other, but it is nice knowing I could call someone a fucking dumbass when they’re being one and not expect an IP ban.
What if instead of that we asked why someone thinks a way, and what led to their conclusions?
Yes and no. I’d prefer user choice/curating your own list of instance you interact with.
However, each community also adds further burden on moderation. The communities you allow affect the culture, and some are very clearly more trouble than others.
My current solution would be to have multiple accounts for different sections of the fediverse. Currently I only have a generic Kbin and a Lemmy account, but if you find a Lemmy instance that’s federated with the broader free-speech spectrum without just veering into insane territory itself, I’d be interested.
I think radical and hateful people should be called out but just insulting each other is going to radicalise them even further. The best way is to have a civil discussion and see the other’s pov, and when they can’t do anything but be an asshole, just ignore them.
Everyone wants to pretend like the ones who left reddit where the good guys. Most of them just want the same thing: attention, controversy and bad memes. We where a part of reddit and as such, we brought reddit here too. Maybe is not you or me, but there’s people out there who will bring their toxicity everywhere they go. Be it Reddit, Twitter or Lemmy
As a movement/fandom/website gets bigger the more bad actors there will be within it. There’s also less consequences to ones reputation for being rude to others when a community gets larger because there are more people in the community you haven’t been rude to yet that you can still have positive interactions with.
I don’t think it’s something carried over specifically from reddit or its community but rather just what naturally happens (which also happened on reddit,) as communities get larger. They become more and more reflective of people at large, and right now people aren’t doing so hot.
Yes it has. You can see this in political discussions very easily. There are too many people (mostly Americans) who are accusing everyone of being a Russian bot. This did not exist a year ago.
When I see the term “Russian bot” I can’t help but think of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FEDOR and that video of it awkwardly and inflexibly shooting guns
American here and I’ve seen it. The biggest turnoff is “tankie” bashing.
I had heard the term before, but I never figured out wtf a “tankie” was supposed to be until about a month ago when I joined Lemmy. It seems to be part of the Europification of US politics, which is interesting but perhaps not a positive trend.
My point is, you don’t have to accept an idea to consider it. I’ve heard good and bad from them. You know, like most people.
People very often decide and insist that someone is a “repost bot!” with absolutely no evidence, as if someone couldn’t do that manually. Repost? Sure. Automated? Not necessarily.
I haven’t seen a platform that can have political discussions in good faith.