Why do you lurk?
I used to be a lurker when on Reddit. I’d post here and there but mostly just kept to myself. It was because something as large as Reddit felt like shouting into the void.
On Lemmy, the communities are small, and so are the instances. Is it lack of something to say, anxiety, or you’re a bot? What’s up!
I find myself being way more active on Lemmy & Mastodon than on Reddit & Twitter.
I think it’s partially habit, Reddit became so big that it felt more like passive entertainment a lot of the time and then that physicy carried over when I got a lemmy account and realized it’s going to be a lot smaller
Generally though I do post and comment a bit more but of course the content is also quite different so it’s just going to take a little bit of time to settle in
TL,DR; you’re not my real dad
While you’re under my internet roof, you’ll live by my internet rules!
It does feel much different. Reminds me more of the MySpace days. I’m loving Lemmy and the fediverse as a whole.
I second this. I was a pretty classic lurker on Reddit. It just felt like what is the point. When I got over here and started interacting and seeing it is not a void was pretty cool. But yeah still trying to flex that muscle starting slow with comments haha.
On reddit I tracked a few subs with news and memes, but I didn’t even have an account. On Lemmy I actually posted few articles and news. Being an active user is quite a challenge for me since I’m such an introvert. I have similar concerns to @frogfruit@discuss.online, and because I overthink too much, it takes too long to decide to publish anything. It’s often much easier to simply upvote someone’s opinion, which I mostly agree with, than to create a new reply. Plus I’m not a native English speaker: I’m constantly forward all my messages to google or deepl to make sure that they are grammatically correct. I know that it’s important for growning community not only to have constanly fresh posts but also growing discussion underneath them. I try my best :)
It’s also great to have differing cultures. You could install something like Grammarly, which would help you as you type. Besides, most English speakers don’t do it correctly, either.
I’m introverted. People don’t believe it. My Psychiatrist says I’ve learned to adapt, and every one can appear as an extrovert in certain circumstances. It’s like being “in your element”.
I feel comfortable on Lemmy. I didn’t feel comfortable on Reddit. I had thought that others might be the same. I was a little surprised to see how many lurkers there are.
Not a lurker on Lemmy, surprisingly. I did, however, almost always lurk on Reddit. If I ever needed to ask something, I’d make a throwaway.
Reason for this was anxiety. People downvoting innocent posts for reasons like “oh they want a queer character in a book? fuck em” or “they phrased something badly and I don’t want to correct them” didn’t encourage discussion to me, it made me feel like I did something wrong everytime I posted. So I stopped posting.
I didn’t feel like I could be myself on that site, either. There was a community for ADHD folk, sure, but it was split into two major subreddits, and the more popular one was a negative minefield of self-hate and gatekeeping. As for the queer community, any time a trans person is mentioned on /r/all, the drama is immense.
What was the point of posting on that site? I started using it just for tech support, eventually.
It’s just how people interact in social groups and online communities.
I’ll have to give this a read later. I was a lurker before and changed with Lemmy. I was just wondering what is holding others back, like I felt held back on Reddit.
It will probably be different for everyone. I’m sure voting is add much as some people want to do to participate and others will find their community and participate there.
I generally kept to my subs and only on occasion participated in the larger Reddit.
I’m probably participating more widely now because of the smaller communities and as our if things grow I will probably go back to my more narrow interests.
Do you look forward to that more narrow interest, or do you believe that’s how it’ll become?
I’m hoping Lemmy doesn’t become like Reddit. I hope there are a bunch of little villages or communities. We’ll see what happens.
O man, loaded question. In some ways yes I want a place like Reddit where every community I want to be a part of exists. In other ways I am really enjoying the small aspects of Lemmy so far. This feels like the “old” internet to me where the community owns everything, we build the software, the hosting, the support methods, the rules… I cant tell if my nostalgia for the old wild west internet is bias due to age, or if its because we have spent the last 10 years living under “benevolent” corporate overlords and are just now seeing the risks to the internet that came with allowing them to have all that power and control.
One thing I like is that instances and communities get to control the ingress into their community the way they want. There will always be a place for small communities with narrow focus and entry, and because of that I think its possible that we can have the big communities that feel like Reddit along with the small ones that feel like old IRC channels, usenet, BBS’s, forums of yore.
Yes, I’m all about bringing back the old internet.
Matrix is the new IRC. We’re going full circle! Bellbottoms are back!
Im old, but im not that old…
I was around when they came back in the 90s.
Usually because what I was going to say was already said or I otherwise have nothing noteworthy to contribute.
Interesting, sometimes people like to hear that you agree with them. Other than a passive like. I know I do!
The communities I used a ton on reddit simply aren’t here. All I see is nerf stuff. I was active in /r/Maritime /r/Military /r/Guns and /r/GunAccessoriesForSale
There are some related communities here but they’re not nearly as busy. Less people are on Lemmy now.
I did a quick search on https://browse.feddit.de/ and found these:
For sure a lot less active. You could start one if you think you could grow it. It depends on what you’re looking to get from it and if anyone is providing it yet.
On Reddit everything I saw usually had thousands of comments already since I never sorted by new. Nothing really to add that would be seen by anyone. Over almost a decade on Reddit I think I posted at most 20-30 times.
Lemmy definitely feels more approachable because of the smaller size of the communities. But then If it becomes massive I’ll probably slow down my activity again because of the same reasons mentioned above.
I hope the communities stay little. There doesn’t need to be only one Apple community, for example. I’m hoping people build smaller subset communities. People are having trouble leaving that Reddit mindset.
I have multiple lemmy accounts, which kind of dilutes my efforts, maybe. I do try to post comments (and occasional new content). I think reddit beat me into a state of lurking and being afraid to participate very much, because a large percentage of redditors are know-it-all jerks just waiting to pounce on you for almost any reason.
Honestly since leaving reddit for lemmy, I’m also kind of enjoying not doom scrolling so much. I do like to stay on top of things like tech news, politics, sports, entertaininment, etc, and reddit was always my go-to for that stuff. So it’s a mixed bag…I don’t miss the jerks, I don’t want to be addicted, but I do want to help lemmy thrive. It seems much nicer here (so far).
I’m thinking a lot of people have the same reasoning. There has to be a paradigm shift for folks moving to Lemmy. It’s like going from a large public speaking event to a family reunion. You’re still presenting something to some people you may not know but the family reunion will be much more inviting and forgiving. At least, that’s how I see Lemmy.
I don’t browse All as often other than just seeing what’s being posted. I follow communities I actually want to participate in rather than just consuming whatever is most popular.