Any tips for a new user?
Any tips for a new user?
I’m finally making the switch from Reddit. The Voyager app seems like a pretty seamless transition, but I’d love to hear any tips about using this platform, or what quirks distinguish it from Reddit as a whole.
There are no recommendation algorithms for content, you are one! Search for communities based on your interests and subscribe to them. The Communities view of your home instance and Lemmy Explorer are good for that. Because Lemmy is decentralized, all discussion isn't centered around one site like on Reddit, which may at first give an impression of emptiness.
I also wrote an extensive guide about Lemmy few weeks ago.
Welcome!
You're gonna look around and see a few old accounts and think you missed the early bus. You didn't. We're still pioneering.
If you think "why isn't there a community for this" or "why isn't anyone posting to this community" it's because we're small and we need people like you to fix those issues!
You have to curate your feed yourself. Personally I use the all feed and block what I don't like because I enjoy seeing new communities. I also recommend the jerboa app if you have an android, its free, open-source, made by lemmy devs, and doesn't have ads.
Also many of us are communists or anarchists so prepare for political takes you aren't used to.
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Read the global feed. There's lots of content if you spread the net wide.
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Block annoying posters and communities.
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Be nice to other lemmites.
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It's small now, but growing. You can't scroll infinitely for new content. It's grown a lot in the time I've been here. The smallness can be a positive if you work to have genuine interactions with people. There's no "karma" and some instances have disabled down votes entirely. You have sometimes subscribe to more than one community of the same topic (each on a different instance).
Gonna go against the grain, and recommend browsing the instance list and browse whichever instances look interesting to you locally, and then make that your "home" instance. Lemmy's connectedness is equal in importance to its disconnectedness, niche instances thrive and create interesting experiences, while federation allows crossover and further engagement.
Using Lemmy for its "all" sort is more of a replication of Reddit, while leaning into the strengths of federation can create a more unique experience IMO and usually a more pleasant one.
And finally, welcome!
Understand this is not reddit. There is no "reddit hivemind" on Lemmy because Lemmy is federated. You will find that this type of thing still exists within certain instances in various ways, but know that you are leaving a single large echo chamber and entering into a series of smaller, federated echo chambers. There is much more representation of human beings with differing morals, ideals, and beliefs here as compared to reddit.
Based on my own experience, you would do well by yourself to learn to not take what other people are thinking personally. You don't have to believe in what anyone else thinks, but other people don't have to believe in what you think either. Don't make the mistake of believing you know what is best, or that you know everything.
I have seen this have a culture shock effect on newer users, because they often expect that everyone thinks, says, does, or feels all the same or similar things as them about anything and everything, and quickly find out that it is not necessarily the case here.
An example of this I have seen on multiple occasions is where new users are shocked when they make a post about wanting some kind of change to the entire platform "to attract users", and are quickly informed that many user's do not necessarily want, or care that the platform attracts users, because for many, that is not the point of the software Lemmy, rather that is the point for a business like reddit. If a user really wants some huge change, usually the response is for them to make an account on an existing instance like what they are looking for, or to host their own.
You will find much more actual individualism on Lemmy. It is important to be aware that not only is everyone not the same, but that they don't have to be either.
People are also less likely to react positively to comments that are not offering actual thought. If you enter a thread to comment "this", or just to make jokes without a point, you may find you receive a different reaction than what you would receive on reddit.
Do not read a title or a comment, hammer a reply into your keyboard, and then hit send so that you can move on to more content faster, like other social media has trained you to.
Read posts and comments and think about them. Weigh your replies. If you think you know the point you want to get across, consider what responses others may have, adjust what you are writing until you believe your reply thoroughly covers what you actually think about the subject matter as whole with consideration to what you think might be follow up questions and others thoughts, and then send it.
Of course if you have further thoughts later on, feel free to edit what you said to clarify or add to your thought (as I am doing this very moment, 40 minutes later).
Lemmy is an excellent opportunity to practice communication, because as it stands, you will find the degree of conversation is much more engaging than what reddit turned into over time. If you have a well thought out, beautiful, or powerful thing to say and go through the trouble of saying it well, you may find you are rewarded by someone else doing the same in return.
Just because the format is similar to that of reddit does not mean that Lemmy is the same platform.
In short I feel that Lemmy is not a platform that is there to work for you necessarily, instead it is a platform that enables you to work on yourself. But only if you will let it.
I think (absolutely IMHO) Reddit commenting is more confrontational. Sure, we have that here, but on Reddit I would get slapped down often, because I'm not that smart and I make mistakes. My clumsy way was chum in the water for the sharks.
Not here. I feel like people here, EVEN WHEN THEY GET MAD, can be spoken to, even apologized to, and together you can be okay. Not agree necessarily, but not ugly or unkind.
I've seen a few new people here try the "smack em for being stupid" technique, and mostly it gets them downvotes and criticism. I really love that about being here.
It feels much safer for the sensitive.
No awards, so you have escaped the cringe "thank you, kind stranger!" comments.
In all seriousness, I would curate a bunch of pages that interest you so you have a home page relevant to your interests. There's a lot of competing communities but I just add all the big ones that are relevant.
Welcome to Lemmy, here are a few pointers to help you settle in
Welcome in from the cold. We have hot cocoa and blankets.
For some reason nobody gave any suggestions for a client to use. If you are familiar with Apollo for Reddit, there is a spiritual successor here on Lemmy called Voyager: https://vger.app/
I recommend browsing /all to find popular active communities
Here is a great 30 min explainer presentation on the activitypub network in general: https://conf.tube/w/d8c8ed69-79f0-4987-bafe-84c01f38f966
It covers a lot of the philosophical and design differences that a lot of us are very passionate about. Welcome.
Another tip I haven't seen yet:
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It varies by client, but Markdown generally works, here.
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Spoiler tags seem to still be a separate extension from regular Markdown.
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Many of us try to be more careful to include ALT Text with images, as it supports both blind users, and anyone whose server is just being slow to load images:
Example of Image with Alt text in Markdown:
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Here's one I haven't seen mentioned yet: many of us explicitly state our intended tone after our comments, to avoid miscommunication. Particularly in busy threads.
We have some great accessibility outreach communicators here, some of whom have shared how much it helps them or people they know.
Some examples:
- (Sarcasm)
- (Genuine)
- (Joke)
Sometimes these are abbreviated, but we often even avoid abbreviation - for general clarity, but probably mainly because we're always gaining new users who might not recognize the abbreviation.
