It feels like people are a lot nicer here than on Twitter and Reddit, and even when people disagree, it’s generally civil and not an all-out flame war. Also, there’s no algorithm promoting outrage all the time.

For me, the anticipation of toxicity was a huge deterrent for me ever participating in real discussions, but here I feel like I can be myself.

I think it’s healthier this way.

    • GCanuck@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Not enough people remember pre-Digg Reddit. It was a lot like Lemmy is now. It will all come crashing down eventually.

      • ilickfrogs@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        They always do. Though in lemmys case I imagine it’ll be bigger instances running off with delusional admins thinking they’re some exception to the rule.

        • dudebro@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I can see some corporation coming along with a very strict adherence to whatever rules they set out becoming a major player in the fediverse.

          Usually it’s when mods moderate with an agenda that their instances go to shit.

      • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Fark?

        Also, pre-digg, most people used webforums like vbulletin or phpbb. Which, honestly, I prefered to this centralization of information you have today on reddit/discord/etc.

  • ettyblatant@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I already see it and it bums me out. People are already stepping in a discussion just to be aggressively mean for no reason. I hope we can reply to them with patience instead of feeding the monster (or, just, y’know, don’t engage)

    Grumblegrumble this is our chance to be different!

    • Veltoss@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yep, that and people bringing along all the mindless echo chambers and circlejerking I was hoping to leave behind on reddit.

      People hated reddit for these reasons, and many of us left reddit for these reasons, and now these toxic assholes are doing everything they can to make lemmy just like reddit.

      I wish those people would just stay on reddit. If they want to make lemmy like reddit why did they even leave??

      • dudebro@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        So… people should disagree with each other just to disagree?

        If you’re talking about biased mods, then I completely agree. But as far as the community, of course people are going to agree with what’s popular and disagree with what isn’t.

        That’s what makes things popular and unpopular.

        • Veltoss@lemmy.world
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          This is a real braindead take and I’m not sure what point you are trying to make here. If you can’t tell the difference between circlejerks and echo chambers, and people simply discussing things they mostly agree with, that’s your own problem.

          Doesn’t mean it’s not a real issue or a thing that even exists, that’s just a silly thing to even say.

    • B1naryShad0w@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’ve been trying my best to reply to such comments with kindness and what they could have done to make their comment more constructive. Lot’s of people react on emotion and sometimes they just need a bit of guidance to engage constructively. Others that are both unhelpful and rude get a report also.

    • dudebro@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You should just block those people when you come across them.

      Eventually you’ll start seeing them less and less.

    • MrMonkey@lemm.ee
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      I was aggressively downvoted for saying conservatives aren’t all greedy selfish assholes, and providing links to liberal sources to back up my claims.

      The left hates it when people who aren’t the left are allowed to speak.

      • ettyblatant@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Do you think -and I really mean this in earnest- that saying people unfairly slander conservatives and then unfairly slandering the left is counterproductive?

        • MrMonkey@lemm.ee
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          I didn’t slander shit. I posted two facts. Facts can’t be slander. You know I’m right, and you’re perfectly capable of using a search engine so don’t even bother going that route, I’m not here to teach you.

    • GoodEye8@lemm.ee
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      It also comes down to what instance you happen to visit. Lemmygrad for example is a legit tankie cesspit. There’s currently a popular post about Greta Thunberg and it pretty quickly devolves into calling her a traitor, because she met with Zelensky: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/902175?scrollToComments=true . Among other things you will find plenty of justification for the Russian invasion and their war crimes. And the admins openly support trolling outsiders. I’m on the left and I don’t have an issue with Marxism or the concept of communism, but fuck that instance.

      • aaron_griffin@lemmy.world
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        I had no idea what “tankie” even was until recently. The internet is so weird.

        I think the broad problem with reddit and the like, which will leach into Lemmy with time unless we change things, is the slicing and dicing of the topic that is to be talked about.

        When you do this (“oh sorry this is r/typewriters, you should post in r/typewriter_repair instead!”), you treat people as vehicles for content. We make echo chambers and don’t communicate as whole individuals.

        So far Lemmy doesn’t have this divide. So far…

        • varzaman@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          When I was on Reddit, I responded to a guy in latestagecapitalism who was talking about how Stalin wasn’t that bad, and how everything we hear about the Soviets is fake information, made up as Western Propaganda.

          I chimed in telling him I’m Romanian, and how my grandpa was in WW2. I told him that my grandpa would always tell us anecdotes about how the Russians acted vs everyone else, and if anything it was worse than what we usually think of. Then I said that Stalin is too well known for it to all be fake.

          Well the response I got was the guy called my grandpa a liar. Then like 10 minutes later, I got permanently banned from the subreddit.

          That is when I learned what a Tankie was lol. And that the subreddit was infested with them.

          I took one look at Lemmygrad, and oof.

          • kd637_mi@lemmy.sdf.org
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            1 year ago

            Didn’t Romania fight on the Axis side for the majority of WW2? Wouldn’t fighting against the Soviet Union potentially colour someone’s thoughts on them?

            • varzaman@lemm.ee
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              It’s complicated. A military coup happened against the King and put fascists in power. That’s when getting friendly with Germany happened. Later on the King regained control and that’s when Romania switched sides to the allies.

              And lol no, I don’t think fighting on the axis is the reason why people have a sour view on Russians and the USSR. I think the way the Soviets treat people is the reason they have a bad reputation.

              You think it’s an accident that as soon as the USSR broke up the bordering countries tried to join NATO asap?

      • Veltoss@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I can’t stand lemmy grad and I hope every instance defederates soon. They’re absolute scum of the earth edgelord contrarians and nothing more.

        • dudebro@lemmy.world
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          I haven’t seen them until this was mentioned.

          I hope users one day have the ability to block entire instances on their own.

    • davysnavy@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I sincerely hope it doesn’t. If Lemmy reaches the same levels of toxicity as reddit then I will be moving to a new platform with less people and hopefully less toxicity. Lemmy has opened my eyes to the fact that I don’t have to constantly deal with assholes in order to engage with people online. There are tons of good quality, friendly communities online, you just have to find them.

      • jarfil@lemmy.world
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        If Lemmy reaches the same levels of toxicity as reddit then I will be moving to a new platform with less people and hopefully less toxicity.

        That’s called “defederating”. The strength of a federated platform, is you don’t need to switch platforms just to switch communities.

      • dudebro@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Err… can’t you just stick with smaller instances that don’t federate with the ones you don’t like?

        Isn’t that the point of decentralization?

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    Add to it, some of us habitual lurkers (me for example) find it not as meaningless to comment. Didn’t want to do it often because most comments get buried and it would feel empty and kinda pointless.

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      I haven’t been able to quite put my finger on why I’m commenting more here and this nailed it.

      • asamson23@lemmy.ca
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        Yep, I can now see how much of a cesspool Reddit has become when going back and forth between the two platforms. Part of me wants to see the platform grow bigger and bigger, but I fear the same will eventually happen if it gets bigger.

  • ExtraordinaryJoe@lemmy.world
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    Give it time. Should it become more popular the trolls will come. In fact I’ve seen a few already (some anti Ukraine posts makes me think those were professionals trying to shift opinion, but what do I know).

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    I’d often type out a comment on the other site and the. I’d decide not to post it purely because I knew that I’d be flamed for daring to have an opinion of my own.

    I disagreed with someone once (politely) over something extremely minor and got told to go die in a fire. So why would I post just to get shit like that?

    Here though things do seem nicer and I really hope things stay that way. My fear is that with any large number of people you’re going to get those arse-hats who ruin it for others, but maybe they’ll stay on Reddit where they can act like wankers together.

  • Jackolantern@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Probably because all of us are real people struggling to find an alternative to Reddit where we used to spend our time in. No bots, no algorithms, just real people trying to make our new home a better place.

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    I like lurking, with a comment here or there. I have noticed the comment sections are giant circle jerks with everyone congratulating each other on how smart and civil they are. Better than aggression and trolling but still… ew.

    • KombatWombat@lemmy.world
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      So many posts right now are “DAE think Lemmy > Reddit?” If anything, people are more anonymous here, so it is only a matter of time before the amount of users brings in more toxicity. But just like reddit, users can avoid toxicity outrage baiting, and other issues by joining better (smaller) communities instead of echo chambers.

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      i used to love r/yourjokebutworse when it was still new. then people started doing the exact same thing in the comments that they were making fun of. im jerking myself off writing this i know

    • dudebro@lemmy.world
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      I’ve seen way more arguing than agreeing, but maybe it’s the communities I frequent.

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        Literally no one is acting any different than on Reddit, but somehow everyone is pretending they are.

        Like they didn’t just come from reddit themselves lol.

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    I stopped regularly using reddit years ago once i realized it was just a boring hivemind circlejerk. I’m pretty new to this lemmy and fediverse thing and I think it’s really cool and refreshing how down to earth and not circle-jerky the communities are. The potential for something awesome is exciting.

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    I’m surprised of how many replies I have had to my own replies with people actually adding to the conversation and being polite. On reddit I barely got any response and most of it was tangential to the subject at best.

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    Agreed. It’s peaceful for now at least, if the Fediverse becomes a huge mainstream thing; we’ll likely be right back at square one as far as community goes unfortunately. Right now, I guess people are nicer on the Fediverse because a lot of less-tech savy people believe there’s some sort of barrier to entry even when there really isn’t, essentially making the majority of people that join more deliberate in their intent to interact with a community as opposed to people on Reddit who might sign up just to insult everyone because in their mind, it’s just that simple.

    The big advantage that the Fediverse has is that due to its decentralization, instances can govern their own communities in all sorts of unique ways.

    So if the Fediverse ever becomes as big as Reddit and we end up with a bunch of trolls and toxic people; there could be your general public instances, but I imagine there would be more exclusive servers where the only way you could get in is perhaps by some sort of vetting that ensures you’ll be a good internet citizen so to speak; that could be anything from proving you have a good track record on public instances to downright having instances that aren’t meant to be interacted with anonymously such as small town communities and professional networking where you just get vetted with your identity.

    It opens up a whole new variety of possibilities that would’ve been so much more difficult with Reddit; especially with everything being at the discretion of a single entity; with the Fediverse. It’ll be ran by many different people hopefully and we won’t face those same problems :)

  • IonAddis@lemmy.world
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    I’ve been telling all my friends this feels like the old internet, like early 2000s. It’s been great.

    I’m hoping at least some younger folks are around so they can experience something they might not have before.