I made the hard switch with a lot of other users on June 13, 2023. I haven't looked back. It was a bit weird to wrap my head around lemmy and federation at first. Lemmy also grew astronomically in those initial few months. More communities opened up, etc. A lot of those communities have died off, but the point I'm trying to make is that there is more than enough content here, if you look for it.
Another commentator points out ComMuNisT propaganda; I don't find it that bad. there's a couple communities that are tankies, or definitely hard left. There's also a lot of middle ground. I do find Lemmy more left leaning than Reddit, and much less likely to tolerate people with nationalistic views, but, as with all things internet, vote with your feet. Don't like it, then leave.
Overall, Lemmy is a lot more chill and I encounter a lot less persnickety users on here.
but the point I'm trying to make is that there is more than enough content here, if you look for it.
If you're looking for Linux memes, American politics, or tumblr crossposts, absolutely. Lemmy has you covered in spades. But I miss some of my more niche communities. I miss memes and discussions about Deep Rock Galactic and Guilty Gear. I miss discussing Elden Ring pvp. I miss the Warhammer 40k nerds. I miss /r/JustRolledIntoTheShop. In the meantime I've been making do (ineffectively) with Discord groups but it's not a good replacement.
I'm not going back to reddit, especially now after recent news, but even you have to admit some types of content are lacking. For certain subjects, we've got it handled. For many, many others, we just don't have the mass of users required to build that community. And in some ways that's good. Not having Lemmy become the seething mass of infinite strangers that Reddit was helps keep us more personal, more manageable. I recognize names here sometimes that I'm happy to see, that rarely ever happened on reddit. But I've had radio silence on some of my favorite hobbies and communities for about a year now and it kind of sucks. It sucks to the point that I'm frequently tempted to return to reddit just to check up on some communities, but I'm always turned away by their most recent user-hostility.
Dude you hit the nail on the head right there. I've been thinking of installing Reddit back because some of the content I enjoyed there is just not here.
Ive tried to recreate the subs I had on Reddit to here, but it's empty. So I just browse All and block anything that has to do with politics, but it's impossible because everything is just lefty politics in some way. Like I'm a liberal person, but I feel like I'm considered right leaning from some of the shit people say on here.
And if I don't have NSFW off it's just trans everywhere.
Like do what you wanna do, be who you wanna be, but I don't wanna see THAT lol
I mean i get it. My local city subreddit is a good source of information and lemmy just isn't big enough for stuff like that or niche hobbies yet. I've been doing readonly with an app called stealth, though, and I nuked my old account's comment history.
I feel that way. I haven't felt the need to be pre-emptively aggressive when I post here because in most communities I post to people don't tend to jump down your throat if you get 1 thing wrong or say 1 thing they don't like.
It has made me reflect on what kind of person I was when I was posting more on reddit. It's also made me feel more ok getting on reddit with my one non-banned account occasionally and making a "fire and forget" comment where I'm not quite as obsessed with getting everything right from the get-go. I will try to wait at least a few days or a week before I check for replies. So if somebody happens to get really aggressive with me, it feels less urgent and like it matters less.
I really like the vibe of Lemmy overall, and I hope we can keep it this way.
I think the chat bots are, but the upvote bots sure know how to push the most rage-inducing and high-engagement posts to the top. Twitter, youtube, and reddit are very good at that now.