I like it here, I only lurked on reddit. There isn’t much reason to comment when it seems that everyone was in a competition for “who can post the best zinger comment first”

there are increasingly a greater number of nutjobs, spammers, and hostile/miserable/angry people. my block list is like 300+ now. 6-9 month ago it was like 12 people.

2 years ago it was mostly super nerds just nerding about.

Diversity has increased by a lot. It’s not just circlejerking about Linux anymore. Only positives in my book.

It feels more like reddit now, but still is populated by a certain type of person that would seek out Lemmy. Mostly techy, left of center+, over age 30+, etc. I enjoy it.

My main gripe with mainstream Reddit now is the engagement baiting that people are falling for all the time. “What are you thoughts on [Controversial Topic]?” If there is a new exodus from Reddit coming, I really really really wish all the baiting to be left behind and moderators to remove it on the Fediverse.

Lemmy didn’t have much content at first so you would run out of things to read after a while. It felt friendly at first, but certain topics still set off people at lemmy to the point I thought about leaving. Then lemmy seemed to improve and I could talk about those topics again, but now there are more trolls (even ones that seem to follow you around since they troll each post or comment talking about something) and spam bots that weren’t there before. I think a lot of conflict on forums like this has to do with miscommunication, but sometimes people are just mean and there isn’t a fix.

I’ve been in fediverse since API debacle, I feel the same vibes as I do on Reddit, both the good parts and bad.

For example, same controversies on Reddit also exist here, and have the same talking points and flamewar nature. I had an opinion about Pitbulls (that an owner should be far more responsible than the average owner - I know, controversial take), which got me banned from that sub and several other furry related subs. Which is something that also happens on Reddit when you tick off a moderator of several subs

So for the most part, I’m just a lurker that comes here to get some memes. Sometimes I share my opinion if I feel like it. But I don’t necessarily feel that it’s an upgrade from Reddit in terms of communities.

I feel it’s changing positively, as instance admins and our tool-sets mature, and more and more people are becoming permanent residents as they’re either permabanned on reddit (so they have no alternative) or they recognize the value of a system that is not and cannot be controlled by a corporate entity and they US billionaire interests behind it.

However I’m also concerned that our yet small size has protected us from truly existential issues like dedicated spam and propaganda orgs, especially those who would utilize GenAI to be more covert. I’ve already published tools like the fediseer to help prepare for this, but I really hope to see more people per-emptively getting ready for this. I see way too many doe-eyed admins firing up instances without a care in the world, open registration, no captchas, no botnet protections etc and they either burn out and close shop after a few months of firefighting, or get defederated, or they have to re-learn a painful lesson the rest of us did.

This does give me an idea, we do need a more holistic “So you want to open a threadiverse instance” guide to give such pointers to new admins and way to get support from others. Hmmm…

Lemmy or Reddit?

Lemmy hasn’t changed much at all.

Reddit OTOH is pretty unrecognizable now.

(and before you ask: This is a different account than what I initially joined with because my old instance shut down)

Doesn’t actually seem much different to me. Would be nice to have a few more people for the niche communities - but I do kinda worry that Lemmy becoming popular will lead to an influx of bots.

Very recently I have noticed some extra misogyny that I hasn’t noticed before I wonder if it is due to a new exodus