But who, exactly, is supposed to create this “niche content” for them? I think this is something we underestimate—large swaths of people see themselves as consumers of quality content. It is not for them to bring in comments or interesting finds to the communities. This I think is what makes the internet ripe for centralization. You can’t be a non-paying consumer and choose your menu. You can pay with your behavior datapoints and get fads packaged to you, or you can help create an ecosystem where you don’t have to be spied on every click and tap of the day. Choose your path and make peace with it. The worst would be to help create content for a community and be spied while at it.
Both suck.
Reddit has the base and the niche communities and the activity, but is scummy for its own reasons.
Lemmy has the structure/organization but none of the niche interest activity that kept me on Reddit for so long. Plus it's got all the weird pro china shit and an even worse problem with the hive mind bullshit than Reddit.
With the death of third party apps, I would say that my time that was formerly spent on Reddit is now spent 10% still on Reddit, 15-20% on Lemmy, and the rest just isn't spent on that sort of thing anymore.
I've been reading more, maybe a 2-5% increase on Facebook of all places, going to the source for news (Axios, Washington Post mostly), gaming with the computer time, maybe a 15% increase on YouTube time...started streaming more shows and stuff, and spent more time outside, even in the sweltering summer heat.
So basically for me, Lemmy has turned out to not be a reddit replacement, and instead that time has just been split up many different ways.
I do miss Reddit, and wish that Lemmy had indeed been a workable alternative, but it's just not. I won't go back to Reddit because I accessed it 95% on a mobile 3rd party app...but just because I won't go back doesn't mean that Lemmy is just as good.
As time goes on, I'm starting to realize that the time I still spend here is mostly because I want it to be better and I'm trying to be active long enough to see that change happen...but the longer I just kill time here waiting for it, the more I see shit I don't like.
I would expect that while I'll still keep my account open, I'll probably be done with Lemmy by the end of the year.
A bit of downtime is good. Gives me chance to work on Sync until the next wave joins.
The lack of niche communities is one thing, but the real long term drag is the fact that most of this place is just c/Linux or c/linuxmemes even if it's just c/memes or literally any community.
Can't go anywhere without some "Microsoft bad, Chromium bad" content or comments clogging everything up. Keep that shit in the places it belongs or you're going to see more people abandon the site as they realize it's all just the same people with the same three interests in every place.
That and it really feels like the worst of reddit came here, I've seen people get downvoted to hell over obvious misinterpretation of their comments by people who have almost zero reading comprehension skills.
Lemmy needs to fix its shit.
It's a bit disappointing that most of the communities for specific content are so inactive on here, but I still prefer it to the types of banal, waste-of-time, repetitive content and comments that plague reddit and have caused my eyes to roll in a tailspin.
Do I really have to choose one or the other, though?
I am just never going back, lemmy has less content of course but the comments on what is here is just a totally different level, reddit just feels dirty and corrupt in comparison,
I'm really trying to be positive, guys. I'm daily driving Lemmy, watching all the content here. I've only logged to reddit once thinking "at least old.reddit.com works", and it does, but after clicking on posts it goes back to new so I said "screw it" and I'm sticking with Lemmy for now. But all communities I've followed on Reddit are either small, non-existent, or just bots reposting Reddit posts. I know about this site, and I'm guessing a lot of you too, by googling "reddit alternative". Hate on Reddit will only get you so far. Maybe I'm wrong here, but in my opinion main problem of Lemmy is a lack of reach. I like Lemmy and I'll definitely stick with it, but I don't think it will be as big as reddit. Lemmy needs something that would make people go to it, and "it's not reddit" is not enough.
I used to use Sync for Reddit. Now that you can use Sync for Lemmy, it's easy for me.
With the exception of a few of the "grad" communities, Lemmy has just been a whole lot less toxic. I don't deny occasionally slipping back into reddit for exactly two subs that don't seem to have any chance of taking off in Lemmy. But Lemmy has really killed my reddit urge permanently. Every time I enter reddit, I see a message trolling or attacking me or whatever.
I will probably leave eventually. I won't go anywhere else. I'm pairing down my social media. More specifically the ones that i use too much. I want to keep it for a few more months and see not some kind "shiny new toy" thing.
You'll be back, soon you'll see, you'll remember that you belong to me 🎶
I can't go back. I was ina ban purge and I wasn't even a mod.
Nah. I think I'll stay.
I, a manifest Redditor, have sat down, and shall refuse to go back to the empire. I have satted, and shall remain seated.
For all those returning to the grave where the Snoo once stood, good luck. I hear the bots are awful this time of year.
Isn't Lemmy itself niche?
Nah. Once Apollo got the cold shoulder I nuked my account and have not returned. I occasionally read stories about it here out of morbid curiosity and hope I’ll get to watch the Hindenburg going down, but otherwise that’s an ex and I’m not inclined to go back and chat.
I'm pretty much off reddit entirely. Popped back the other day to ask a question to a sub that doesn't exist here. I'm on this too much anyway but there little to zero content a lot of the time.
I'm trying to think what it is that I used to comment on in reddit. I can post the exact same articles but it's the comments that make the feed and the comments are because of the range of people.
Numbers are what make it good and ultimately bad as well. You need users to create the content but then you get too many and it becomes too big.
Gotta be a sweet spot and ai in all it's magnificence should be able to work it out
Hear me out, a good portion of Reddit posts are reposts anyways so what if we did a one time import of Reddit community top posts of all time to seed communities so there's a place people feel more encouraged to post to? I don't like bot posts generally, but if it's a one time thing I think I'd like it if the communities here had some extra seed content to browse so you wouldn't reach the end so quickly like you do now.
I'm a filthy casual but I'll be staying here. Reddit is a prime example of what happens when corporations get to decide what free speech is, and what happens when companies founded with good intentions sell out.
I'm not leaving lol
I haven't seen anyone really saying that. Reddits a cesspool of hyper moderation. They'll ban their own users and Lemmy will literally be default
The main thing Lemmy offers over Reddit is opportunity.
Reddit is a business. Spez's hero is Musk. That's the direction Reddit is heading in and they will (because they have) fucked over anyone who interferes not with the quality of their future content but with their potential profits. They fucked over the curators of their content, they fucked over r/blind and they insulted and lied to them into the bargain.
What we have here then is opportunity. We have an opportunity to build something that isn't subject to the idea of a profit margin. We're right at the very start of this process. It was only 3 months ago that the reddit API shitstorm hit and a lot of people ended up using this software. Software which is still pretty barebones but already has a better UI (and in fact various better UI's) than Reddit. And if you're finding certain communities or people insufferable - block them and move on.
Reddit has over a decade of content behind it. Lemmy has had 3 months. The way to make the most of this opportunity is to participate. Find the niche communities and post interesting stuff. It doesn't have to be the best post ever made, just an interesting one that people might engage with. Keep doing that every day and other people will join in. At the moment it feels like we're all a bunch of people standing on the edge of the pool, wondering how cold the water is and waiting for someone else to jump in first.
Bottom line - do you really like using reddit? No, me neither. So here's our opportunity to build something better but we have to actually put the hard graft in and create the content. If we do that over a long enough time period, Lemmy will reach a tipping point.
There is a singular community I've been returning to Reddit for. Thankfully a (very) small subset has mograted here, but the day to day conversation just isn't there. I definitely need to interact, comment, and post more on the community here though. Gotta help it grow and all that.
Staying on topic and not commenting about James Franco. Yeah, this isn't reddit.
that's OK with me 👌
The only subs i go back to in reddit are the giveaway subs i joined, and i use my pc browser when visiting. Its all lemmy on my phone.
