At least in a short time frame (2w? 1m?) I don't think that Lemmy got meaningfully better or worse. However from APIcalypse times to now it got way better.
this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
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what was the APIcalypse?
Reddit event from July 2023, when Steve "Greedy Pigboy" Huffman decided to demand exorbitant amounts of money for API access, effectively killing most third party applications used to access the site from a phone, and neutering the leftover. It had a huge impact on Lemmy, for obvious reasons.
It's why I'm here! Reddit and their IPO can suck it. Started looking for a replacement and found Lemmy. I always think of the Koopa kid, though.
I believe that most people are here due to the APIcalypse, like you.
And... really, before that, this place was a ghost town. Then you had all that huge influx of newbies, so Lemmy became actually usable, albeit messy. Now things settled down and, although plenty users still behave like they were in Reddit, I feel like Lemmy already has its own culture.
I always think of the Koopa kid
I usually think of this:
Fucking Lemmings. I lost a good chunk of my childhood playing it. (I don't regret it.)
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The reddit API cost change that killed all popular third party apps.
RIP Apollo, one of the best pieces of software i’ve ever used that was made by one guy. So many features, dev listened to users, always quick to fix bugs, incredible pricing.
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Yes, it's gotten stable and there's good content. Still a lot of 0-comment threads, but the comment threads I am involved in are much better overall. It's not teen-mob-mentality over here and I've been surprised many times over my 4 months. Thanks to all of you guys and gals that make it happen.
I've noticed when threads do start they are usually engaging conversations instead of the typical one-liner meme bullshit.
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For me, it’s not great. The web interface and apps I’ve used are kind of bad, there isn’t a lot of content in the topics I’m interested in. I’m mainly here because I refuse to go back to Reddit.
In terms of ui and apps it's perfect because I was using boost for reddit and now using boost for Lemmy and it's nearly identical.
Definitely agree that there's not much content, or at least much variety. Pretty much all I see is news, nauseating amount of memes and communists, frankly not much thought provoking content honestly. I'm really wishing for the hobby subs to grow, after that I'd be way more active.
For me the level of interesting content is just about spot on now, but obviously it depends on your interests.
I do have one suggestion though. Whenever you feel the urge to comment about how "hobby" communities are too dead, be more specific. Which hobbies? Which communities? Every time you mention one, the chances that someone who didn't even know it existed sees that comment and finds the community increase.
Look I'll start. I wish there were more crocheters around to liven up [email protected] a bit.
Word of mouth is how niche communities grow.
(p.s. also spend some time blocking the news communities if you're not into that stuff, it makes a massive difference)
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Use Sync! I used it for years for reddit. They had to shut down with the other third party apps, but they just came back with Lemmy.
I'm kind of the same way, though I've found most of the communities I'm looking for.
My main complaint is just how many leftists there are here, which wouldn't be an issue if the selection of communities was a bit better. I have no issue with leftists in general, I just get a little tired of low effort posts like "because capitalism" or "unions ftw" on any post where it's remotely relevant. I get it, unions can be cool, and capitalism has its warts, but those comments aren't constructive. Fortunately, this is mostly on the more popular news communities, so I just don't sub and it doesn't bother me.
I'd love a handful of well moderated communities similar to the following:
- /r/neutralnews - strict limits on acceptable sources, and all comments must include sources for factual claims
- /r/neutralpolitics - similar to neutral news, but specific to political discussion
Reddit also has a huge leftist slant, but it at least has moderation tools to help make certain types of community moderation feasible.
I just want to point out that I'm far from a conservative and I don't want to go the opposite direction and have mostly conservative viewpoints (that would probably be worse), I just like seeing multiple opinions for a topic, and that seems to happen less here because moderation tools kinda suck, which means poor quality sources that agree with the predominant opinion tend to get more attention than more reputable sources that have a more mixed view of things.
Regardless, I'm not going back, but that doesn't mean lemmy has better content, it just means I refuse to support Reddit anymore.
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It's still kind of a mixed bag. I'm getting tired of talking about Linux all the time.
I find comment threads to be more engaging than reddit but the hivemind mentality has definitely started to take hold here.
In terms of stability, sure, the platform has gone down way less. In terms of content? Feels more or less the same that it did when I joined - all we really talk about is tech news with a leftist slant.
I haven't gone back to reddit to browse since I left when the API changes happened, but it's still a way more conducive source of information on a myriad of topics that you get forwarded to through searches.
seems good. It's having way more posts than I thought it would have by this point. Big kudos to the developers.
And additionally, to the community at large - admins, moderators, people who post/comment - we all have played a major part in expanding Lemmy and the Fediverse in general!
One thing that I’ve noticed as someone trying to wean myself off of Reddit: Lemmy just feels more chill. Like no I don’t have to open it every few minutes and doomscroll, it’s going to be a lot slower coming than the firehouse that is Reddit.
Tbf I don’t think that’s a design as much as it is just smaller, but it still feels nice.
I deleted my 10 year old Reddit account and just left it behind. Lemmy is just Lemmy now. I don’t really tgink of it as a replacement. That’s just me.
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Imho the big challenge is just lack of throughput. I follow many communities, and it's still not at the point where my front-page is consistently new content every day.
Feed the beast. Until then, quit whining about how repetitive the content is - there just isn't enough of it yet.
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Just wait until v0.19.0, gonna be such a good update
Scaled sort is gonna be a game changer.
What’s the tldr of scaled sort?
Scaled: Like hot, but gives a boost to less active communities
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Found Lemmy’s mom!
Not really.
The high volume of unoriginal Linux content is getting old, and that's coming from somebody who uses Linux.
Behind that, there's very little in the way of niche communities/interests. But I suppose that's just because the total number of users isn't high enough for people with specific interests to reach some critical mass .
So for me, Lemmy hasn't been anything more than a news aggregator interspersed with the occasional funny meme.
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Apparently it just needed to get poked with a good stick
The only problem this site has is lack of content. And the only thing that would fix it is more people.
But it is steadily improving. A couple of months ago the everything feed would hardly change in 24 hours. Now when you refresh after 4 hours you already see a lot of new content. It's not a sprint, this is a marathon and lemmy has a highly engaged user base.
The mod tools are improving, the content is improving, the user base is active and engaged, the larger instances have become stable and there are a ton of third party apps available now. Things are looking up for lemmy, and the users will come whenever a large site like reddit screws up again.
It's been pretty stable and usable.
But has there been an increase in hiveminded threads and trolling?
At first it felt like dissenting opinions would lead to an informative discussion, but more and more having an unpopular opinion - or just stepping into the wrong thread - means someone resorting to insulting your mom. Ok, thanks Xbox live gamer.
Yeah I've felt that.
If your not joining the side the article or post is aiming to engage in, you get downvoted hard, even if you are correct.
I got nuked twice for correcting a fact which lessened the outrage the article posted was eliciting. Annoying, but could be worse.
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Using Avelon with a bit of constant filtering effort, my Home feed is quite enjoyable.
Its definitely improved a lot since I joined ~6 months ago, though I've also started to see more of the bullshit that makes all the other social medias icky. But, so far its been easy to ignore/block and its cool to run into familiar users across different communities that comes with smaller platforms.
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I personally enjoy it but I’ve been seeing a lot of posts / comments about people giving up due to lack of niche/interesting communities*. While I understand that I appreciate Lemmy for what it is. I get a lot more interaction here than Reddit.
Time ... it will just take time ... the same thing happened at reddit, the communities didn't just blow up overnight and they didn't have competition either ... Lemmy is evolving in an early stage and it is handicapped by a competitor, so it will probably take longer to grow.
I don't mind it though ... we'll probably talk about it all in four or five years that right now are the good old days of Lemmy.
people giving up due to lack of niche/interesting communities
This is where people need to start making theire own communities. If you dont see it, make it. Its not easy, and you will likely have to be active in its growth, i think its worth it
I was saying the other day there's been a noticeable uptick in activity in some of my favourite arts & crafts type communities over the last couple of weeks. Probably just a temporary blip, and our numbers are still quite precarious, but it's encouraging nevertheless.
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