Cause we're small but mighty
this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
411 points (79.0% liked)
Asklemmy
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It's totally replaced reddit for me. Every community I'm interested is smaller than I'm used to, but much more positive. It's cool even seeing a lot of the same names occasionally as I navigate around the site.
I hope it keeps this level of quality as it grows.
What's really cool is seeing actual conversations taking place. I'm actually able to comment here and I'm not immediately being drowned out by being one of ten thousand comments or constant contrarian trolling.
It has also totally replaced Reddit for me. It reminds me a lot of the old internet and a bit of early Reddit. It's a really cool experiment, and if it continues as-is I will be thrilled, and if not then I will forever have a sense of pride of what everyone here accomplished. It's very cool.
Yeah, I never feel like I'm commenting/posting into the void. By my surprise, it has actually encouraged me to post more, which isn't something I expected when I joined Lemmy, and definitely not something I ever did on reddit.
My dude, you and Stamets are my Lemmy heroes. I can't imagine I'd spend that much time on Lemmy if you guys weren't around.
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I really do hope Lemmy can become sufficiently populous to allow for revitalizing all the niche subreddits and perpetuate+encourage that knowledge dissemination and truth-seeking function that Reddit (the community of communities rather than RedditCo) tends to do stunningly well.
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Same. Couldnβt have said it better.
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I've been trying out the other fediverse platforms, based on how cool Lemmy is, and they all pale in comparison. It really is a neat little thing we've got going on.
I really do like Tildes for certain more predictably high-quality answers when its something serious or technical but it can seem a touch heavy-handed. Ultimately, I appreciate the rigor where its important to have that and filter the memes and general+local ~~anaesthesia~~ nonsense we all love and know Lemmy for ;)
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It's only good because of all the hard work being put in by the moderators. Unfortunately, behind the scenes, Lemmy sucks and is severely lacking in moderation tools to deal with spammers, trolls and sick people who post illegal content.
See this post for instance, I feel pretty bad for the mods who have to deal with such stuff: https://beehaw.org/post/7943139
It's not just the mods but the admins going to lengths to keep their instances clean. The awfulness outlined in that post means I'm not sure I should keep hosting my own instance.
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I am biased saying this, but I really don't think Lemmy is bad behind the scenes. On the contrary, I think it's revolutionary from a technological perspective, not only because of the Fediverse but because of the way it's implemented and all the great new technologies used.
Keep in mind that this is a FOSS project, and there is obviously no budget to be hiring moderation teams for CSAM like software giants do.
CSAM was an obvious problem from the start, but when it comes down to it, it's a moderator job and not a job for the actual software to do.
Thankfully there are new tools now to help moderators deal with CSAM that are possibly going to be incorporated to Lemmy afaik.
TLDR: Don't blame the software for people being shit
Sorry, but I disagree. Note that I don't disagree with the idea or the technology itself (and the concept of Fediverse), the problem is the current state of development. Saying that it's the moderators job doesn't absolve the responsibility of the software, when the software, in it's current state, doesn't really provide any decent tools for moderation and user access controls.
CSAM was never a problem on well-configured traditional forums, which were based on forum software such as Invision, vBulletin etc. To elaborate, in traditional forums, you'd get a LOT of controls for filtering out the kind of users who post such content. For instance, most forums won't even let you post until you complete an interactive tutorial first (reading the rules and replying to a bot indicating youβve understood them etc). On top of that, you can have various levels of restrictions, eg, someone with less than 100 posts, or an account less than a month old may not be able to post any links or images etc. Also, you can have a trust system on some forums, where a mod can mark your account as trusted or verified, granting you further rights. You can even make it so that a manual moderator approval is required before image posting rights are granted. In this instance, a mod would review your posting history and ensure that your posts genuinely contributed to the community and youβre unlikely to be a troll/karma farmer account etc.
So, short of accounts getting compromised/hacked, itβs very difficult to have this sort of stuff happen on a well-configured traditional forum.
I used to be a mod on a couple of popular forums back in the day, and I even ran my own server for a few years (using Invision Power Board), and never once have I had to deal with such content.
The fact is Lemmy, in it's present state, is woefully inadequate to deal with such content. Dealing with CSAM should never be a volunteer mod's job - that stuff can scar you for life, or even trigger PTSD/bad memories for those who might've suffered abuse in their forgotten past. If people are involved, it should be a job for professionals who're trained to deal with this stuff.
Once again, I don't disagree with the general idea or the concept of Lemmy, it's just unfortunate timing the Reddit exodus happened when the software was essentially an alpha.
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Honestly I think lemmy is kinda meh but im just here cus fuck reddit...
I agree, but I sometimes check out reddit as well and it's also been meh now. It seems that social media as a whole is in a steep decline. No good content anywhere. Or maybe I'm just getting old.
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First weekend on Lemmy and Iβm loving it.
Iβm noticing a very strong hard-left bent though, which suits me just fine, but itβs interesting to see how progressive this space is
I think the center ain't working for folks anymore
I disagree. Too many people take one side or the other, take for granted that their side is 100% correct, and refuse to believe anyone could possibly be center.
If one side says that I should be imprisoned or dead for existing, and the other says I should live not in prison or not dead, I choose life
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People behave in normal distributions. By definition vast majority of people are in the centre. The extremists (outliers) scream the loudest and warp an observer's perception but the actual population is still a normal distribution.
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Progressives came here to build. The conservatives will be along to bitch about the place eventually.
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Communists built the platform, and far left spaces fled here years before the rest of us, after Reddit banned some leftist subs.
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Iβve commented more here in this short time than my 10 years on reddit. I feel heard and I feel supported. Most people are civil and respectful and I really appreciate it. Thank you all.
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Federation is just complicated enough to keep the dummies out. Also probably defederating the idiot instances and better content moderation.
Not only that, but the community is small enough that large corporations and marketing companies don't care about it. Yet ;)
I think this is the biggest reason. A huge amount of content on reddit is astroturfing / brand manipulation; both in posts and in the comments. And in addition to that, a there's a huge amount of 'karma farming', where heaps of popular but low-effort content is recycled over and over again to gain points and create a sense of credibility for accounts that will later be used for marketing / manipulation.
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I, for one, try real hard. But thanks!
I actually don't try very hard, probably coasting on your efforts. So thanks for that!
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I love that there are so many geeks with such healthy understanding about the world.
Religion? Pff, everyone pro-atheism.
Climate change? Pff, everyone against corps.
Open source software & privacy? Pff, lots of suggestions od what to do and what NOT to do.
Lemmy is great.
I just wish there were more hobbyists among us. I barely see any writing or art content on here.
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Lemmy has been helping me lots. Been feeling so isolated, this is the first social online platform I've been able to participate in years. Talking to actual humans. Being able to help other humans.
Giving you a non-creepy internet stranger hug.
Hell ya, party on, bruh
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Bc the people who really cared for a newer better platform migrated.
Lemmy is actually terrible software, but the people are mostly Reddit migrants so we're not all idiots thankfully
Genuinely asking and know very little about it... why is Lemmy terrible software?
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It does feel more like the old alien place before it became mainstream. I'd bet there are a lot of those old users that felt disenfranchised by the low quality bot voted stuff that moved to the various servers here.
Unlike places like Tildes which essentially has been trying to recreate the alien experience, lemmy provides a new layer as well with the fediverse.
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When I parted ways with reddit, when the API scandal happened, it was very timely. A lot of content from reddit was toxic for me. All the negative news, about environment, about how people are treated at their job, about how shitty companies are nowadays. Not to mention the rampant cynicism...
I left all that behind, and it really helped me get the high ground (hey Anakin) against my mental health problems. I was dangerously flirting with a burnout. This break was very beneficial.
When I saw that Sync for lemmy was available, I tried it. The facts that there are much less trolls here, much less cynicism (and also the fact that I'm now medicated) really help, and I feel now I can be among communities that aren't too toxic for me.
Thanks lemmy friends.
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Because I'm still here after the movie promotion for some inexplicable reason?
Don't get too excited, I am widely regarded as being considerably not awesome
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