this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2023
675 points (91.1% liked)

Asklemmy

43737 readers
1198 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Or at least less so than Reddit. It's good, but, I can't put my finger on it. Even when the content is good, the servers are up, and I'm getting notifications responding to comments, it's never come to me doomscrolling for hours.

Edit: Guys, guys, I'm not trying to say Lemmy should be addictive or Reddit is better because it is. The opposite. I thought being addicted to something was always a bad thing? I was just curious as that I rarely ever see the content droughts people talk about, so I can scroll for as long as I want to with no interruptions, but unlike with Reddit, I don't, and I would want to know a reason why. Is it psychological? Something behind the scenes? The type of people here?

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 464 points 1 year ago (12 children)

It's not supposed to be. It doesn't jam endless recommendations in your feed once you've gotten at the end of the new, fresh content. I feel like it's a feature, not a bug, to have platforms that don't optimise for time spent on them, because they don't need our attention to show us ads.

[–] [email protected] 117 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm so happy this is the top comment when I came in here. We're not centralized social media that requires constant content generation to acquire more views and we shouldn't try to treat it as such. Donate to your instances when you can, contribute to communities you care about with posts/comments, and then when you reach the end of your feed log off. How forums are supposed to be imo.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago

I never realized all this but it’s so true. I browse and comment until I’m caught up, then log off.

Wow

[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 year ago

Exactly. Places/communities like Lemmy can and should serve different functions for different people - newsfeed, forum, meme collection/dumping ground - but the fine line between value and addiction gets obliterated by moneyed interests.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (4 children)

There is no karma system so no people shitposting and reposting as much to pump up their score. Without this kind of gamification there is less noise.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

Basically, no dark patterns built to keep you scrolling.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (9 replies)
[–] [email protected] 107 points 1 year ago (11 children)

Agree'd, people aren't contributing enough so it seems dead after a 30min check per day (might not be a bad thing).

If lemmy is to thrive and survive, post, comment and start discussions. That's what is addictive and provides value.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There are algorithms working in the background on Reddit to keep you there. Same with pretty much all “social media”. They aren’t on Lemmy. The point of Reddit is to keep you there, and shove as many ads down your throat as possible. Ads don’t exist here, and no one (as far as i can tell) is making money from you being here.

Yeah, there is less content, but that’s not really the biggest reason.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There are algorithms working in the background on Reddit to keep you there. Same with pretty much all “social media”. They aren’t on Lemmy. The point of Reddit is to keep you there, and shove as many ads down your throat as possible. Ads don’t exist here, and no one (as far as i can tell) is making money from you being here.

I agree with what you're saying about the algorithms sucking you in, but disagree that's the biggest reason. Lemmy just doesn't have a lot of content, browse HOT or go through your subscriptions and you're done pretty quick.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you run out of items to view on Lemmy, you can always go out and, like, engage with family, or hobbies, or grass-touching...

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

Na, you're being silly now.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thunder's latest update added a dismiss read posts feature, it lets you remove read posts on demand as you scroll, "refreshing" the feed with content you haven't seen, but without actually refreshing the page.

Lets you scroll a lot deeper into the feed without it feeling "dead" or "stale".

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (9 replies)
[–] [email protected] 80 points 1 year ago (4 children)

For me at least, there’s just not enough content. Not enough communities, with not enough posts with not enough comments. Lemmy still hasn’t reached that tipping point where it can replace sites like Reddit. It fluctuates, but I think it is on the way.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It's very similar to old Reddit

Reddit eventually got super-specific subs because so many people showed up and made more and more niche content that suited the needs of subgroups in communities. For example, lots of big subreddits banned memes, prompting the rise of specific shitposting groups

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But I am shocked to see the pace it's growing with,and content quality is just(chef kiss)

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 70 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Social media addiction comes from algorithms designed to psychologically manipulate you into scrolling endlessly to maximize ad impressions. It's not a good thing.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago

I truly appreciate the fact that I can browse Lemmy for my entertainment, and easily walk away when I need to be an adult and don't auto smash the button when I open my phone.

To me this is a very, very good thing.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For me I think it’s the niche communities aren’t built up yet. If I’m looking for a conversation about a specific football team or game, etc there isn’t as much content here that I can find on Reddit.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Because it’s kinda dead… I won’t go back to Reddit but Lemmy doesn’t scratch the same itch Reddit did. This is my first comment on Lemmy by the way.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I feel that I am wasting more time on Lemmy than on Reddit because here the community is more to my liking (foss and linux)

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago

Don't even get me started on 🏴‍☠️

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago

Only because I can read the whole thing significantly faster than Reddit.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago

I see no videos or gifs on here, which is a huge addiction factor

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Be patient.

Lemmy is still establishing itself as the goto replacement for Reddit. New communities are popping up all the time and more users will come.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Too much repeated content on my feed. I like it, but I need to be able to auto hide previously viewed posts for this platform to be the kind of doomscroller reddit was.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago

I feel like that's the point? Lemmy doesn't profit from wasting our time, so it has no interest doing so. This means more time for me to do productive things.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

Lemmy has zero monetary gain from you being addicted to the platform unlike Reddit.

Lemmy's smaller community means that there's not an endless stream of content to keep you hooked.

Even with millions of active users though I don't see Lemmy being nowhere near as addicive as Reddit

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I check it 2-3 times a day, feel happy. I don't feel the need to check it 30 times a day. I'm happy.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago

Yes exactly, thats what I want from my Lemmy experience. I dont want it to be addictive. The way it is now is honestly so refreshing. I find I am checking my RSS feeds for news and stuff now. I only go on Lemmy to see stuff I want to see. Not stuff that worsens my mood.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think reddit applies an algorithm to put content in your feed that they know you want or like or interact with. That will make it more addictive. Lemmy is just grabbing stuff for you, period, with no personalized algorithm as far as I know. I could be wrong but I think thats why it feels different.

reddit manipulates their users just like Facebook and tiktok etc.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (3 children)

On Reddit when i browse r/all I I keep getting surprised on the different communities that exists. On lemmy so far I mostly see tech related stuff. I've ended up browsing both reddit and lemmy.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I feel like it's visiting a friendly village I love rather than getting lost in a city that's interesting because it's awful. Honestly, I come here as much as I did reddit at this point. Less flashy. More endearing.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago

I have actually been using Lemmy a lot more the past few days. I haven't had discussions this good on the internet in years. There's no karma so people don't spam the same jokes over and over again, It's actually really good, well constructed discussion most of the time.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Browsing Lemmy is like traveling in a time machine. It's like the internet from 2012 to now didn't happen and people are worried about the Mayan calender ending.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (7 children)

There's way less content, and most of it is pretty nerdy due to the userbase.

There will never be a poop knife, or chili soap, or any of that here

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (2 children)

There will never be a poop knife, or chili soap, or any of that here

My brother in Christ, do you already forget about the no pooping meme?

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I mean, yea, there isn't nearly as much interesting content. And with the way the "Everything" sort works you end up seeing the same thing 100 times across the 100 different similar subreddits each instance has. Honestly lemmy kind of sucks as a reddit replacement. Trying to find the next option.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It feels the same to me, but with less jackasses. So it's better.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yes and no, I feels like it absolutely could be as addictive as Reddit but there just isn't enough content being generated for me to powerscroll for hours only to do the same thing the next day

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I thought that, then I put Sync on my phone, and now I can lost an hour or more unintentionally, just... scrolling...

But that's the app. When I'm desktop or web app, I find it much easier to check out without getting totally sucked it.

Which reminds me. Should probably get back to work now.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm not saying I want an algorithm, but "hot" or "active" needs to be better at showing things other than memes

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeh I agree. But also, this is good, no?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's a mix of not neverending content (yet) and it's not designed to keep you in. I'm sure Reddit has had people who only work on increasing the doom scrolling.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

Yes, but I consider that a good thing

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I took July off from any of this stuff. After Sync released (my preferred app before), I've come to lemmy to try to see how it's going, but honestly, I've lost most of the desire to blindly browse random stuff like I did.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Actually, I've found just the opposite - I've been more likely to spend more time on lemmy/kbin over the last couple of months than I spent on Reddit in years.

It got to the point that I'd just pop onto Reddit, look around, see the same basic variety of botspam, astroturfing and concern trolling, and go do something else. It wasn't even worth posting anything, since any response I got was almost certainly going to be from a bot or a human-who-might-as-well-be-a-bot, and it was going to be the same thing either way - just some shallow bit of stock rhetoric that at best might be sort of tangentially related to what I actually said.

But then I came here and rediscovered the pleasure of reading posts written by actual people who actually think about what they're saying, who will actually read and think about what I actually say in response, then write a response that they've actually thought about.

And that was it - I was hooked in a way I hadn't been for years on Reddit.

That said, it's nowhere near as good now as it was a few months ago, and I have been less active recently. The last big migration in particular, after the API changes went into place, led to both more bots and more humans-who-might-as-well-be-bots, and the quality here went sharply downhill.

It's still better than Reddit though. And it's been improving again of late.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›