How do you feel about the massive influx of users?
I honestly can’t say about the influx. Since I’m part of it.
But man…
This does feel like home.
I was already loving Mastodon.
Honestly, the real question is:
What took us soo long…
I was lurking on Lemmy for a long time now read only mode, not signed up, but never had the urge to actually making an account.
I try not to have so many feeds where I’m active at once, to try and better manage the time I spend on this feeds.
Twitter and Reddit were the ones I engaged the most
Twitter became Mastodon and Reddit became Lemmy on that matter, so that I can focus on being active and helpful whenever possible.
So, what took me so long…?
Definitely something I will be asking myself for a while, since so far the experience here have something that reddit just don’t. The quality over quantity aspect.
Finally…
Thanks for having me here, I hope I can contribute the best I can to maintain Lemmy awesome as it is. I don’t post or reply like a madman, but I like to participate on constructive discussion every now and then.
what took us so long
“Inertia is a property of matter” -Bill Nye the Science guy
What I mean by that is that it takes a force to move a large mass. People behave in much the same way. It takes a push to get people to move in large numbers from one place to another. I personally have been philosophically very pro-fediverse ever since I heard about it, but I was waiting for it to reach a critical mass before really switching over.
That, and for Lemmy specifically, its history of being a tankie forum. Without the Reddit refugee migration, if you joined Lemmy as a single user, you would be alone among communists and eventually get bullied into leaving. Already in 2020-2021, Fediverse users knew about Lemmy, but they avoided promoting it because of its userbase. This Reddit situation provided the push to get many normal users over to Lemmy at once to drown out the communist users.
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That’s a good point. Personally I like when there’s a diversity of political opinions that are able to have reasonable discourse. My favourite political subreddit for a while has been /r/stupidpol. It has lots of Marxists, but lots of internal variety in terms of viewpoints, and respectful debate has always been allowed there while also maintaining a lighter atmosphere.
Hey man, I’ve felt mostly the same than you migrating to lemmy. A while ago I tried mastodon but it really didn’t click with me, how do you do to find people to follow and so? I was only getting recommended the same like 10 guys. I like gaming and programming if it helps.
For Mastodon?
I use it the same as my Twitter, mainly googling mastodon lists of know profiles there, the I copy/paste in the search and follow them.
On Lemmy it’s easier, just do a search for the communities you’d like to join, for example:
Gaming at beehaw.org is amazing. Subscribe to that if you didn’t already.
Sometimes understanding how to cross instances can still be a bit cumbersome though.
There is pretty cool support for relative links though! As long as your instance knows of a community, they’ll work.
And if your instance doesn’t know a certain instance exists, you just have to paste the url into your search bar to get it working: https://beehaw.org/c/gaming
I’m a reddit refugee, Apollo was my most loved and most used app for years. I was really disappointed about this situation, but after checking out Lemmy, I’m starting to feel really excited about this. I like what I see so far and I think there is a lot of potential, and it is kind of fun to be here now while communities are still smaller. Onwards an upwards! I’m also checking out the beta for the iOS app Mlem, more work to be done but also good potential here. I’ve also been doing iOS dev work for about a decade so maybe I’ll see if I can help contribute to that project in some way.
I’m starting to be grateful to Reddit for giving me the nudge that I needed to explore the fediverse. I did have a look at Mastodon a while back (and I may have even joined an instance there, I’m not sure!) but was overwhelmed by not understanding it. I think being part of an exodus where there is lots of advice and support being given specifically for us is really helpful in making me feel like this is somewhere I’ll stay.
Welcome! Not an iOS user, but kinda frustrated with reddit either way.
how can i install the mlem app? i didn’t find it in the app store :/
same this is me too
I just joined Lemmy because someone on reddit mentioned in it a comment on a thread regarding the blackout. It’s kind of cool getting into a community while it’s still relatively small. I’m excited to see how things grow.
I hopped over here permanently tonight. Uninstalled boost on my phone, and I made Lemmy.ml my homepage. Reddit is just too depressing right now to keep it as my default.
When on a Lemmy site on mobile, in Firefox you can go to the three-dots menu and select “install”. You get a shortcut on your phone that will take you to an app like version of Lemmy.
Im using the Jerboa, official Lemmy mobile app on Android
Is Jeroba official? I thought it was third-party
I think it’s supposed to feel that way, since it’s not on the official LemmyNet github org, and located on one of the developers’ accounts instead afaik
AFAIK you are correct. I don’t think lemmy has an official app and the only 3rd party app that exists of any substance is jerboa so I suppose right now it is kind of the official Android app while mlem is the iOS counterpart. But only because there’s nothing else atm
Reddit is just too depressing right now to keep it as my default.
It really seems like the front page is just a list of politicians, companies, and people doing terrible things.
I’m a new user but I’d love to see this place explode in popularity!
I went from Digg to Reddit and now I’m looking for a new home. I’m really liking what I’m seeing here!
Came here looking for a new home too!
Agreed, it feels really similar to Reddit but in better :)
I am also part of the influx, but I’m worried that this is going to be a short lived thing and people are going to go back to reddit.
people are going to go back to reddit.
Realistically, there is no reddit to go back to. After the company goes public, Reddit as we knew it, will cease to exist.
The shareholders will want to be make maximum profit. This means that ads are going to be everywhere. They are going to outsource hosting services to horrible companies, in order to cut down hosting costs like video hosting and image hosting. Features that existed in 3rd party apps are going to be paid features in the official app/webapp, etc.
Reddit is gone. It’s lost. It will not be there as you knew it to go back to. It’s now a case of where to next and for the time being, lemmy and feddiverse looks the best.
I think the concept of “enshittification” will become more apparent to more users. Younger people, who are more technically literate, and have seen social media rise and fall I think will be more willing to adopt platforms like Lemmy. Reddit was a “place for weirdos” for a long time until the general public noticed it and began to post comments and posts to YouTube/Instagram/Twitter. Lemmy just needs time.
One thing I always like to say to people, is “The internet was cooler when your parents didn’t understand how it worked.” I think the concept of Lemmy appeals to and will start to appeal to a lot of people soon.
sidenote, i really love that “enshittification” has more or less become the proper term for this
Yeah Cory Doctorow really nailed it with that article.
I look forward to the announcement by Merriam-Webster.
AKA The profit motive
Same. That one article changed the lexicon for a lot of people.
Jokes on you because middle-aged people are the children of the people who built the internet.
Source: I am middle-aged and also 25 years younger than Tim Berners-Lee
All that may be true but that doesn’t mean there’s enough people who are motivated enough to put effort into a reddit alternative – all the reddit design updates suck for the informed user but the whole point of the updates is to keep the much, much larger casual audience hooked, and it’s yet to be seen if a reddit alternative is viable today without the casual audience. Hopefully there’s some good signs over the next few days when the blackout gets rolling
if we pull a critical mass of those that create and consume quality content, organic effects begin to compete with entrenchment. if not, I am ok-ish with that too. if I have to exepriece the world burning down around me, I would prefer to do so in better company than reddit.
It’s very unlikely that Lemmy will ever be as big as Reddit, but this influx might have it reach a tipping point where it can start to grow users organically.
Indeed, for this kind of service users attract users. I’ve been checking in on Lemmy periodically for years and the content just wasn’t there (for me). But now, with plenty more users, I’m seeing a lot more value in spending more time here.
Yep same here, I’m hoping this is the watershed moment for Lemmy and I can start spending more on here and eventually stop using reddit (or be forced to when they take away my third party app). I don’t generally create much content, but like participating in the community via comments, so it’s hard to be a force for change when nothing is getting posted and no one is commenting.
Unlikely. Why do you say that? Wasn’t reddit once small?
As one of the new users, I’m broadly in favour
I also approve of me joining Lemmy.
The approval rating has never been higher!
Yep same :)
As someone who is also new, I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes!
I would love for the federated model to become a gold standard for how successful platforms ought to be run.
An idea so old is new again. The Internet and it’s early services (Usenet, email, IRC, etc.) we’re all designed from the start to be decentralized. After 20+ years of people consolidating into centrally-controlled mega platforms, I’m happy to see things coming full circle.
Agreed, platforms should compete by providing better UX and features, not by abusing network effects and walling off themselves to hold communities and accounts hostage. In a way the fediverse provides a common carrier that is neutral to the users and platforms connected to it, which enables competition in the same way that guaranteeing equal access to physical internet infrastructure to new ISPs is essential to preventing ISP monopolies.
It makes me hopeful for the future. Enthusiasts priming the pump for people embracing a more sustainable and less exploitative business model to organize the Internet. Instead of putting all the information on a big centralized locked down platform we share the load and costs between instances.
I love what is happening now, it is pretty much the biggest display of resistance against big tech I’ve ever seen in my life by a long shot. I’ve seen most of the internet gradually decay to a shadow of its former self so this is a return to form and a switch to a better model in the long run.
People are finally adopting the Fediverse and if the adoption rates keep up we might start going mainstream with all the advantages and disadvantages, but it will be alright since Lemmy is both federated and FLOSS. Lemmy is a Rust-based, AGPLv3 platform and that means it will be protected against corruption in the foreseable future, I hope.
EDIT: Over 30% of Reddit already went dark!
It’s close to 50 % now. You can watch the realtime stream here - https://reddark.untone.uk/
Is it of all Reddit or just of the subs listed as participating?
That tracker only covers the ones that go private though! There’s a bunch that are going restricted so they can automate posts that will still show in r/all and other feeds. That way reddit’s algorithm doesn’t just pull up other subs and effectively hide that a protest is occurring.
Subs listed I believe
That’s what I thought too
As a new person… no commit. Other than I feel obligated to not lurk after reading the plea to not lurk from other posr.
welcome! seriously… welcome!
12 years Reddit refugee here:
So far the concept is VERY promising but it still does all feel a bit wonky. Signing up was a headache and took me hours, sign in still sometimes work sometimes not… A huge of development will be required to get lemmy where it needs to be to really compete with Reddit, but so far, I’m very hopeful and happy!
It is also very hard to subscribe to other server’s community (or subreddit equivalent).
E.g.: i had account from beehaw, if i want to subscribe a channel from lemmy.world i need to see the list of community from lemmy.world comminity list, but I cannot subscribe from there because i dont have lemmy.worlda account. So i need to back to beehaw and search it again in community search bar.
In jerboa android, I didnt even see a way to search new community
Would be nice if there is a way to subscribe other server easily
I went through https://browse.feddit.de and subscribed to a bunch of communities that matched what I had on Reddit.
Yeah, just found that out the hard way myself. I got to lemmy.world and suddenly was no longer logged in etc… That is something that def needs improvement.
Agreed. There’s a similar issue on Mastodon that’s been confusing people for years and still hasn’t been addressed, let’s hope Lemmy prioritizes it a bit more!
In Jerboa, there is an icon on the bottom that takes you to the search function. I’ve been able to “join” communities from other instances using it
From the community page https://beehaw.org/communities you can click all, and search for communities everywhere. Except for instances beehaw blocks.
It’s a bit wonky but so was reddit. I expect it to improve quickly with it’s sudden interest.
At least for me downloading their app jeroba makes the experience much nicer. Haven’t had the issues I had on the website though it’s a bit taxed because of the influx of users. Expected.
Is Jerboa android only? Didn’t see in the app store
Yes, there’s an apple one but not sure if it’s official. Mlem or something.
Afaik Mlem is iphone’s lemmy client
Yes. For iOS there’s Mlem currently in Testflight but it’s very early stages. I’m just using the mobile browser for now.
Yeah, android only. For iOS, there’s Mlem.
Right? I can’t wait to see how it improves as time on. I didn’t have any real problems with joining on my end, though. When you signed up, was it the approval process on your instance, or just confusing? If it was the approval process, that’s probably specific to lemmy.ca.
I first tried signing up on lemmy.ml, that was impossible. Various hours of trying just got me the “click the signup button and it starts rotating and… nothing”
Then I went to lemmy.ca, there signup worked, but sign in at times gives the same “button rotating” thing and then nothing. Try again, and it works.
Its a minor issue, but a very visible one that I would say should be fixed ASAP because its the first thing new people see and you don’t want the first experience to be tiresome.
The infinitely rotating button happens if their email settings are invalid- just discovered that on my instance. I have mine set to open but require email validation and everything seems to happen instantly, but if they require admin verification it may be bugging out and not telling you.
I felt the same at first too. The longer sign-up issue makes joining a pain, but I think it’s worth it.
Part of what I’m coming to love about the lemmy side of things is how free of filler and bots it is. By making a tiny barrier to entry, that’s going to prevent that kind of thing to a degree.
I just moved to a different instance and logged in there, browsing ml subs.
Think of it like moving to a new house rather than picking up your house and moving it to a new neighborhood. The excitement comes from the differences even if you miss the other place.
A little bit worried. I am a recent migrator myself so this may a bit hypocritical, but I feel a lot of people will want to “redditize” here, just like how people tried with mastodon a couple months ago or (in a larger level), how people want Linux to become “another Windows”.
These are not replicas, Lemmy doesn’t work like Reddit, neither does it try to be, and that is by design, not a flaw. Things work differently, over and under the rug, and I think users should be entitled to doing some small effort to readjusting and have an open mind.
I’m all for UI/UX improvements, like most community projects, the front design part is more of an afterthought, and in that matter Lemmy has a lot to improve, but always keeping in mind what it is aiming to be.
For example, I am thinking in working on some simple browser extension to rearrange the UI in a way similar to Reddit’s (nothing fancy, the upvote/downvote and collapse buttons locations, simple things). Maybe even some redirecting magic so if you open a link to another instance’s community, it instead opens it in your current one, so you can still interact without having to go to your instance and search this one.
If anything, as a FOSS and federated content advocate, I wish this project nothing but the best so that one day we can escape the clutches of greedy companies.
Lemmy doesn’t work like Reddit
Does it not? I’m not feeling much difference from an end user POV
Well it’s a link aggregator and forum, just like reddit, but I feel like lemmy needs time for its own culture to coalesce - rather than expecting reddit culture to be imported or just exist here.
I hope it does coalesce into something good. I was so tired of the toxicity on Reddit from both regular users and the power-tripping mods. Yuck.
Yeah, I think good / bad would be a generalisation. If lemmy grows then there will be good bits and bad bits. The difference of course is that anyone can spin up their own instance, so there’s much more likelihood that some instances will be predominantly well run and enjoyable to be a part of.
The good thing is that if an instance gets too toxic the users that don’t like that can just jump to another one. The ideal would be to move your already existing account to the new instance but I don’t how difficult or how much that would take to implement
Honestly its for the best, redditors would be rude af and incel-like as well. It was annoying to dealing with those people every time there was a talk of relationships and gender rather than thinking also approaching about those topics with empathy, respect, kindness and critically as well.
why not contribute directly to the project, given it’s open source nature rather than a browser extension? I’m also thinking about contributing some stuff, I think a lot of the federated part right now is really confusing and obtuse to new users especially.
As a new user, yes I’m a little confused on the federated part. I’m sure others are too
I think a lot of the federated part right now is really confusing and obtuse to new users especially.
I have no idea what it means in context or in the broader scheme.
ie. you don’t have to sign up to multiple instances, and finding and joining other instances from the one you joined
I like it, but I am part of the massive influx of users so I am admittedly biased.
Me too… But it’s great TBH!
I am excited by the prospect of new communities and not excited fo reddit groupthink
Yeah, the curse of success. Everyone seems to be hoping for the swift death of Reddit but I dunno. It getting shittier but still existing might be the best outcome.
It’s not going anywhere. I’m sure like 90% of people there don’t care at all what is happening. Probably more than 90, considering that about 5% used third party apps.
If I can’t use a 3rd party app, I’m done. Their own UX is terrible.
I’ve been hoping for a shift to decentralized social platforms for ages, so I really hope that’s the direction things are heading.
