this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2023
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Im joining in on the reddit ditching thing, and was kinda worried at first that i wouldnt be able to like use it the way i did reddit as it feels like a whole new place, but after engaging with posts and people and actually being a part of lemmy rather than being lurk mode all the time i was pleasantly surprised with how easy it is to become a member of the community, theres a reasonable amount of subs (or whatever the other word for em is) that fit my interests, enough linux content and shitposting for my liking, and the overall random posts made by people equally fed up with Leddit. (also i admit i used reddit a little cus there was this post on the fedora sub showing how to fix a sound issue i been having after a recent update)

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[–] jarrod@lemmy.one 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Now I've got my head around how the instances work and how everything is connected but not connected at the same time I'm growing to like it. Once more communities pop up I think it's going to be good

I like it a lot too, the fact that I can roam around servers from my home server is really cool

[–] harbo@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 year ago

I really don’t like the cringe tankie culture here, hope that gets diluted as more people come in

[–] Manticore@beehaw.org 11 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I'm rapidly coming to appreciate it.

Maybe it's the demographic of users (young vs old, tech savvy vs casual, w/e) but threads here have far more activity in ratio to the number of subscribers and members.

Reddit just feels like a popularity context. Tell your 'I also choose this guy's dead wife' joke, get your karma, and for god's sake DON'T USE EMOJIS! Subs rapidly became echo chambers, or lose identity as they get larger.

Lemmy however... while not all threads have activity (it's small after all), the activity is legitimately interactive. People actually discussing ideas. We're talking like thinking adults, and I'm enjoying it.

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[–] wtvr@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hey I'm new here bc fuck spez. There's definitely potential here. Would like it to be easier to find communities (sublemmies?) And the app needs work but I'm ready to go all in. Did I mention fuck spez yet

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[–] SuspiciousUser@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I appreciate the fact there is no infinite scroll on the front page.

[–] Manticore@beehaw.org 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

One of many examples of how profit-driven platforms care about engagement quantity over product quality. A lack of stopping points feeds FOMO and keeps people trapped longer, but I doubt many people actively enjoy it.

I disable it on any platform that lets me - besides, pagination can be cached to return to later. Doomscrolling can be binged but not suspended.

[–] SuspiciousUser@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Exactly so. I'm about a third way through Stolen Focus by Johann Hari. It had a section on infinite scrolling which made me realize it didn't have it. The book talks a lot about social media's grip on us.

[–] Manticore@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago

Sounds like an interesting read; thanks for putting it on my radar.

[–] sunaurus@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Great point, lack of infinite scroll is one of the key reasons I always kept going back to old.reddit.com (other than the speed, of course)

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[–] sanguinepar@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

The thing that's confusing me most is links, whether to communities or individual posts.

I see links in a format like this:

!communityname@instance.whatever

Sometimes the exclamation mark is part of the link and it works, and sometimes it's there but not part of the link, and my phone thinks the rest is an email address.

Is there a guide anywhere to how to do links properly? TIA.

EDIT - yeah, so in my example above, the exclamation mark is not being treated as part of the link for some reason?

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[–] Skimmer5728@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

great, i've really liked lemmy so far. its really the first alt big tech platform like this that i've gotten into, was never big on mastodon or any of the others out there.

lemmy is honestly a breath of fresh air. really great platform so far, i think it has very strong potential.

i still use reddit for some things, but overall i'm starting to use lemmy a lot more. great work from the devs, can't wait to see the future!

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[–] honk@feddit.de 5 points 1 year ago

At least on my instance everything is running fast, snappy. I like the clean interface. Haven't encountered any major bugs yet.

The only downside for me so far is that there is not a lot to see yet. The only active posts and communities are about lemmy itself. Which is understandable of course but I can't wait to actually get to the phase where I actually get to experience real content lmao

[–] Scheissberg@feddit.de 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

My biggest gripe is that there isn't a working Lemmy iOS app in my region, yet.

I have spotty metered mobile internet connection, and while the web app is lightweight enough, it requires the downloading of page structures each time and it adds up after a while.

I do hope we'll eventually get high-quality apps to interface with the fediverse, much like Apollo with Reddit.

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[–] gaytswiftfan@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

this app I'm using is pretty bad (no offense to the dev) but once there's better ones on the market I'm sure the experience will be more enjoyable

I'm not a fan of the whole wordnews ppl banning anti-CCP/anti-russian content tho

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[–] bocchi_but_male@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I'd like an optimization for Jerboa as well as more customization for our accounts. Jerboa is fine as it is functional, but sometimes text boxes just extend all the way to the edge of the screen and makes it not visually appealing. I'm still learning though as I'm currently figuring out how to visit the communities in the other servers.

As for communities, I just hope that a mass migration of even 10% of Reddit's disappointed users would help boost the growth of Lemmy communities and help make niche communities thrive. I personally am a subscriber to the writing and anime subreddits, so I hope there'll be similar communities here.

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[–] SpiderPig2000@lemmy.nz 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

A bit rough initially as you might expect with a new platform but I've now got an account on a (geographically) local instance and subscribed to some communities in general interest areas on other instances. Looks promising. Now I just gotta find some niche communities.

[–] viciousme@feddit.nl 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Greatly improved after I found out about https://mlmym.org/ (old Reddit UI for Lemmy)

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[–] DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Quite enjoyable and, since seeing the sub.rehab site someone else posted, even better. I've found quite a few subs that have made their way over to Lemmy.

My only gripe is that quite a few have made their way to lemmy.world, and it's buckling under pressure. I can't sign up on that instance, nor can I remotely sub to communities from my own instance. Once that's resolved, I think I'll definitely be happy to call Lemmy my new home.

Can't go back anyway - deleted my Reddit account.

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[–] TeaHands@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Pretty great tbh. The tricky thing with being an early adopter is you kind of have to be the change you want to see, but I'm old enough to feel no shame about just barging into places and starting new threads as needed.

So far started two accounts on two different instances (I like to keep different subjects somewhat separate) and had really cool interactions on both.

Obviously there are a few UX issues, trying to sub to remote communities is kind of a nightmare, but hopefully I've subbed to enough that other people on my instance will find it a bit easier to find them through search.

[–] pushka@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

I like it ~ I joined mastodon but I think it was way too slow to load images - probably joined some dodgy overloaded server (though I like the Reddit format and community better rather than Twitter)

It's giving me Reddit 15 years ago vibes - smaller tech-savvy and agile community - my Reddit use was on and off through the years; but I like the idea that each community in the Extended Lemmiverse can all have their own vibes and cultures and implementations of the platform and we can all chat and follow topics together πŸ•ŠοΈ

I've only been here a short while; but maybe one thing I'd love is not to see reposts in the /all section ; I know the communities are small and growing and can cross post for more stuff , but I'm sure there could be a way for the system to know that the title and url are the same - so only show one , or auto-merge the comments and prioritise posting your comment to your local community instance's post Edit - I might try install an instance on my website and try to make a merge function ~

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[–] starrox@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

It's a learning process. There is definetly a mild learning curve as to how things work here compared to traditional social media platforms. But maybe that's even a good thing as to pre-filter certain audiences.

So far the interaction possibilities seem very satisfying, community seems friendlier than current reddit (maybe that's just the size of the userbase) and there is already enough, I'd call it "base content" as to be a reasonable alternative to reddit. - Which is why I created an account here.

I especially like the threaded, color coded conversation view. Makes it really discernable who responded to whom. I also like the UI very much. Clear and easy to navigate. Only critique here: There is kind of a lot of wasted screenspace on both sides on a 4k resolution.

I think shortcuts for common mouseclicks and formatting like in RES (Reddit Enhancement Suite) would go a long way here too.

Well thats my 2c.

[–] TheCookieButter@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

Maybe I just haven't come across it yet, but I'd like to make threads left-aligned and everything smaller (text, thumbnails etc.)

[–] thisispaddy@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I mostly lurk on communities. But that's another matter entirely.

Anyway, enjoying being away from the depressing mess that reddit has become. Verrrry slowly getting the hang of things. Signed up in beehaw.org and Lemmy.ml mainly because I didn't know what the hell I was doing!

Main confusion for me is communities. Searched and found a few that are mostly on Lemmy.ml. But I can subscribe to and see from beehaw.org. But some just do not show up until I log into Lemmy.ml

I use jerboa which is a little clunky but I kinda like that. It's a learning curve I guess. How the internet used to be in a way. I'm 53 so remember the day of 33.3 modems and tweaking windows configs (get off my lawn)

[–] maniel@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

it's nice, but we need more content and more 3rd party mobile apps, i mean Jerboa is nice, but many of us are used to their favorite reddit app

[–] LDRMS@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago (5 children)
[–] stagen@feddit.dk 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm hoping Christian (the dev of Apollo) takes on making a Lemmy client. :D

[–] KronosaurusRex@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I would love if that happens but I don't think it could be worth it for him (appart from being a side project). And I bet that he is exhausted as hell after all the drama.

[–] stagen@feddit.dk 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Exhausted and probably devastated, yeah. Maybe if lemmy takes off in popularity. :) I'd love to support great devs like him.

[–] CMDR_Horn@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I used Slide, not Apollo, but the amount of reverence that app seems to get here makes me wonder if he did port it over how much that would expedite/improve migration from reddit. If I were in his position, I'd do it out of spite.

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[–] Manticore@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

I haven't tried it myself yet, but I would expect that a platform without an app to push will have a usable mobile-friendly site at least. (Most users are mobile, so it would be strange if they didn't.)

[–] Akhuyan@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (4 children)

While not every community is on Lemmy yet that I visit on Reddit, by people migrating from Reddit to here, hopefully that issue will be solved soon. The community here seems way more welcoming than the Reddit community is too

[–] AineLasagna@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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[–] csm10495@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's generally ok. Though its tougher to use than reddit. To be honest I really wish that it did a better job of merging similar communities or something like that?

Like almost like a multi-reddit of cats to include all cats communities with dedups.. similar idea for other categories.

[–] Gray@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 year ago

To be fair, Reddit doesn't merge similar communities either. You could have /r/cats, /r/catpics, /r/cat_pics, /r/PicturesOfCats, and so on. The point is, Reddit also needed time to establish popular communities before they took hold. I think it's less a structural issue with Lemmy and more just a small forum problem. In time it should self correct so that when you look up "cats" on Lemmy, the overwhelmingly most popular community pops up and you can subscribe to it. The one downside is that you could have multiple /c/cats communities on different instances, but that still won't be that big of a problem. The most popular one will still be the first search result and it won't be too hard to remember that it's the Beehaw cats community that's the popular one (not literally - just to use a random example instance).

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[–] PurpleErestor@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

First day of browsing Lemmy. So far so good. It took me a while to grasp the concept of an instance, but it seems to make sense to me now. I'm just hoping more communities start filling up and that the iOS app can get more development. Mlem is functional but veeery barebones right now. The browser works fine though!

[–] illegalbat@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Like others have said I'm going to miss the niche subreddits and the thousand different cat subs lol

[–] Obeyyourbrain@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yeah, same. But that's why we're gravitated here. To grow those gardens back.

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[–] rusty_spoon@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

It's a bit clunkier than Reddit, and obviously a smaller userbase. I'm sure the experience will get better with time. The real key to success will be getting more users to create content

[–] mcribgaming@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

I'm excited for the possibilities, but daunted by the realities.

It's going to be tough to get enough foot traffic to start populating smaller subs. It seems like the Reddit API drama is the big break needed to hit a critical mass of users, but how many will take the time to figure out something like Lemmy? And are the Lemmy instances ready? It's strange to root for Reddit to go through with the API changes after using Reddit for so long. But if there was ever a time to pay a bit extra for additional hosting resources, June 11th (or now!) should be it. If a large influx of new users crash Lemmy instances, and no one can sign up, a golden opportunity will be lost.

Signing up was not a flawless process. You are asked to make a choice about servers with little guidance on what it all means.

Requiring a 10 character password with additional character conditions is going to turn a lot of possible new users OFF. It should be 6 characters, with no conditions. Yes, it's not secure, but we need sign ups above everything else. Users can choose to get as complex as they want, but simplicity should also be an option. If people later grow to value their Lemmy accounts, they can secure them at a later time. But extremely easy sign up should be the default for now.

Asking people to write an extensive answer as to "why you want to join this particular server" should also be suspended temporarily. Again, it's about ease of signing up. We should try to get as many signups in as quickly as possible, and weed out the problem people later. After the possible Reddit migration boom ends, you can go back to application essays as a requirement for entry.

The web interface is buggy. The site will often "reset" as you are reading a thread, and the whole thread will act if "refreshed". If this causes users to lose a long post they are typing, they might quit Lemmy then and there.

The community structure needs to be more unified across instances. It's confusing that there are local groups as well as "multiverse" groups across federations, often with the exact same name. It's a bummer that the communities can be splintered, and will have people not realize what's really available.

I think we're might see some weaknesses of a distributed system like Lemmy in the next few weeks. It's hard to organize and get everyone rowing in the same direction with no "CEO" or clear leader. It does feel like little fiefdoms doing their own things, and that makes it even harder to hit critical mass.

In terms of content and userbase, so far so good. It obviously leans heavily towards the technically competent. Lemmy sort of screens for the technology inclined since it's only well known to those who are up to date with the latest in tech. So of course it's easy to feel like everyone is like minded and cool for now. But we need to attract casuals if we want vibrant, non-tech groups to exist and flourish too.

I've only been exploring for 2 days though, so I can be very wrong.

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