Take this screenshot for example. This is the front page of Lemmy right now. Virtually every post will make the reader feel bad and depressed. It’s all doombait, ragebait - and if it’s a meme, it is usually a meme that leaves an annoyed taste in your mouth at someone or something.

This is what drove me and many others away from Reddit, and a decentralized platform does not have to have this problem in theory - but it Is currently experiencing it now. Reddit has no reason to change their depressing content because it drives much engagement and creates revenue. But, for a decentralized platform to just be filled with ragebait and doombait is not good and exposes inherent problems with the platform right now.

What’s more is that most of these posts are posted by accounts created in the past month, leading me to believe that people from Reddit who are used to getting karma dopamine from getting people riled up are just doing the same thing here.

I don’t really know how Lemmy can fix this problem - it is something that we really need to be aware of as a community. Don’t just upvote something because it makes you annoyed and you want more people to see it - perhaps we need to downvote ragebait and doombait when we see it so that the platform doesn’t become a depressing echo chamber.

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[–] Wiz@midwest.social 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can't you just subscribe to communities you like, and block communities you don't like? That's what I did.

Problem solved.

Or, you could publicly complain.

[–] khoplex@lemmy.one 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Or go create your own community and block any content you don’t want to see there. That’s kind of the beauty of Lemmy, don’t like the content you see? Block the users, unsubscribe from the community, go make your own, or bitch about it publicly in an unproductive post. 🤡

[–] khoplex@lemmy.one 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Also, make sure post the fit in 3 different communities to make sure people see your own rage baiting…

“FOSS Social Media BAD”

[–] Ohthereyouare@lemm.ee 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Was Lemmy just a MAGA and Lemmygrad shit show before the Reddit people got here?

So, if I understand... You're upset people are talking about climate change?

[–] Acamon@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

Not the op, but I think I get what they're getting at. I have been scrolling lemmy a lot this last week and everytime I see something about the climate catastrophe, unions being fucked over, terrible politicians etc I up vote it. These are all important things, and by up voting I feel like I'm čsupporting the cause" and "raising awareness".

But I do wonder if it's actually very helpful, for whatever cause, for me, or for lemmy. It makes scrolling lemmy stressful and depressing, which is accurate for how the world is, but it doesn't really make things better. I feel like I'd rather be reading something interesting or informative that might make the world a better place, whether it's by actually making real chnage, or just me learning something meaningful.

"Starbucks fucks it's employees!" "Trump lies about soemthing!" "the world is on fire!" are always going to drive engagement because these things upset us and we want to do a small act to make ourselves feel less powerless. But I'm not sure they're really doing more than preaching to the choir, and leaving said choir frazzled and distracted.

[–] Godspeed@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 year ago

Seeing the same post in 5 different places is what drove me away from Reddit.

[–] simple@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm surprised blocking news communities isn't something most people are doing. Reddit (and Lemmy) are great for entertainment and specific topics like tech, but terrible at everything else. Start blocking them, you probably won't regret it much.

[–] kukkurovaca@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 year ago

Who browses the local timeline on a large fediverse instance lol.

Anyway, reality is bad and we're living in it, so I have relatively little patience for people who complain about doomposting. There's a lot of doom out there.

If folks want to only see good news, start an "only good news" community (assuming this doesn't already exist) and just stick to your subscribed communities view.

[–] spaduf@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Pretty sure this is just because the community here leans left and also the world is ending.

That said I would not be disappointed if more of the climate talk was focused on dedicated instances. See slrpnk.net

[–] stardust@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

It picked up a ton this week! Very irritating.

[–] DmMacniel@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

If what you think about those posters is true then those posts will eventually stop since there is no karma dopamine to get on Lemmy.

[–] Emperor 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

a decentralized platform does not have to have this problem in theory

Not just in theory but in practice.

There is no one "front page of Lemmy", switch to another instance and you get a radically different local feed. lemmy.world has soaked up the majority of users fleeing Reddit and so is going to also have a lot of the issues Reddit had and if you didn't want the old Reddit experience then you are definitely on the wrong instance. The beauty of the threadiverse is that you can find an instance that works better for you - there are ones focused on specific interests that don't really have much news and current affairs outside their remit, there are more right-leaning instances if you want some climate change denial and pro-corporate posts, there's there are ones just focused on NSFW content and on and on. Shop around until you find something you like.

All this before we get onto the topic of the threadiverse being more left-leaning for historical reasons (as the early developers were) or that people are often driven to the Fediverse when they become sick of corporate shenanigans.

And all that before we take into account that the world is burning, a lot of politicians are corrupt and big businesses are taking it in turns to fuck most of us in the ass. So is that "ragebait" or genuine rage against the late stage capitalist/early stage Neo-feudalist dystopia we seem to be sleepwalking into?

However, if you don't want to hear that then you don't have to.

edit: just looking down my home instance, there's posts on football, coffee, cycling, films, canals, music, games, etc along with a scattering of posts about politics. If you wanted less politics or a different flavour of politica, I am sure there's an instance out there for you. I have seen a few people regretting moving over into a large, general instance because the "local" feed starts to look a lot like Reddit's "all" and that's not a problem with Lemmy, that's just the nature of the instance you are on.

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