From purely practical point of view, what is the selling point of Lemmy for the average user who does not care about the theoretical benefits of software or the open source software movement?
Assumptions:
- The average user will never host a instance.
- The average user is not interested in volunteering or moderation.
- The average user is not looking for NSFW communities or any controversial communities.
I really like the UI a lot better than reddit. So far I’m finding the single-page app architecture works really smooth.
So far it seems to me like the troll instance here is much lower. There are definitely reddit-esque people here who will reply to comments by demanding that you refute their ludicrous misinterpretation of whatever you said. But overall I think there’s much less hostility.
Lemmy vaguely feels like Reddit when it wasn’t really popular. When you could comment and it wouldn’t be buried under 10,000 others. Participation almost feels pointless there.
Here, there’s little to no benefit in boosting posts or up/down vote manipulation
Yeah I like the lack of cumulative karma scores, which I think will disinterest a lot of people who see discussion forums as a competition.
Vote manipulation definitely has a benefit, comments and posts are still voted, and public sentiment is still swayed by votes.
- no ads
- no addictive algorithm
- free speech
- cleaner ui
The biggest difference I’ve noticed is that while Reddit may have a lot of large active communities, I would rarely get a quality response if I posted a question or a discussion topic.
Here, I can post to a community that hasn’t had a new post in a few days, and within an hour I have several people offering help or discussion.
Reddit is far more active, but Lemmy users are far more helpful.
I wonder if that’s because there’s a load of bored nerds waiting around to help people, lol
You say that like it’s a bad thing
Creativity flows when people are bored
If you have an issue with the Reddit admins, you either suck it up or stop using Reddit. If you have an issue with the Lemmy admins, you can migrate to another instance and forget about the old admins.
Communities being smaller is a double-edged sword. Yes, it’s harder to find the content that you want, but it’s easier to be heard here. And it’s overall easier to have a meaningful conversation here, that doesn’t get flooded with sea lions, irrationals, or 11yos. (Note: I’m saying that it is easier, I’m not saying that everyone here is sensible or acts sensibly all the time.)
If you’re left-wing you’ll have an easier time discussing politics here. And if you want/need a safe space there are some good instances for you, like Beehaw or Blåhaj, in Reddit they’d be simply flooded with entitled newbies until the mods give up.
So TL;DR: unless you’re one of those “lol! lmao!” kids or a right-winger, Lemmy is quality while Reddit is quantity.
Lemmy is quality while Reddit is quantity.
Unless what you needed was specific niche information - but yeah in terms of general overall quality, of discussions, in particular not as an encyclopedia of knowledge but as a social media platform, then definitely. Though with that caveat rather than universally.
I went for a federated option specifically so that it’s resistant to one company going rogue like Reddit did with the API fiasco and the banning of every third party app that made Reddit great. That’s really the killer feature, if you’re tired of your admins you go to another instance. No need to protest and switch your subs to private, just move the whole community elsewhere.
Yup - the benefits of federation are usually abstract, until someone in power goes rogue, then those benefits become solid as a brick. And since people in power here know that we have an easier time migrating, they aren’t too willing to go rogue as the ones in Reddit.
Free speach baby. Its an escape from corporate censorship.
In addition to what everyone else has said in the comments, I find that the posts on Lemmy are far more creative. It’s akin to browsing people’s blogs vs Medium articles.
Based on my experience (.ml, World, sh.itjust.works).
Differences
- Overall nicer user base
- No ads/algorithms
- Better UI
Same
- Echo chambers. To be fair, this can be said about very website.
- Politics. Both are very Left leaning. I was hoping for something more neutral.
Less bots, less adverts.
Seriously, half the posts/discussions/replies on Reddit aren’t even real.
SubredditSimulator leaked out all over Reddit a long time ago.
Possibly they were real at some point… before they were endlessly copied and modified by chatbots:-).
The community is the main selling point for me. Further left than reddit. Fewer bots and recycled bot posts. Generally less defensive and aggressive posters, though the US election has made things a bit more contentious, I’m sure it’s still better than reddit on this.
I actually think all the posts talking about the size of communities, amount of memes on the frontpage and so on are wrong, since those will naturally change over time and are not fixed.
Every platform will see changes in their user base to some degree. Reddit now is very different to Reddit 10 years ago. The same thing will happen to Lemmy: If growth continues we will see more engagement in niche communities, but also more low effort posts and reposts.
Considering it doesn’t do anything fundamentally different to reddit in the way of being a content aggregator with comment section it will be a similar experience. It would be different if it e.g. had a function to make older posts resurface and stay relevant longer to foster longer conversations, or structure comments differently since right now the further down a chain you go, the less people will engage with it.
Even if the average user doesn’t care about open source or federation, they’ll still benefit (and suffer) from the consequences.
On a centralised platform like Reddit you are beholden to their will for better or worse, and incentives might change over time such in their case with taking investor money and going public. This can have consequences such as forcing out third party software (one of the events that brought a lot of people here), but also censoring specific content or taking away powers from moderators.
There are downsides to it, since smaller, less professionally run instances might disappear at some point or have less reliability. But The upside is the option to choose and the resilience that should things change at one instance/community, you can switch without having to leave the whole ecosystem. And for that you do not have to be a moderator or volunteer
The existence of different instances also to some degree helps identify users to some degree, the obvious choice being political instances like hexbear.
The average user is not looking for NSFW
That’s an assumption i’ll challenge. Looking at the amount of porn on the internet, the average person most definitely is looking for it. But that is probably a bit offtopic.
I actually recognize usernames and people try to write thoughtful responses the vast majority of the time.
This feel could change, but for today, it is so.
To me, the toxic culture of Reddit is a dealbreaker. Over here, you’ve got some folks that came from Reddit and didn’t quite get the memo that they don’t need to enter into gladitorial combat anymore when they disagree with someone, but overall, it’s a lot more relaxed.
