I’ve been using Lemmy and learning the ropes of the Fediverse and I’m really impressed - especially using wefwef which has replicated my Apollo experience very well.
There are posts and everything, just a lack of comments to read for hours on end is the only issue I have, but I believe that with more users this really could be the replacement.
Are you guys thinking the same thing? Is there evidence yet that Reddit is slowly failing and power users are migrating?
I’m going to copy my post from elsewhere here:
Not only did we let them monopolize niche knowledge we also let them completely supplant forums and other methods for discussion on the web while letting them slowly poison the quality of discussion overall through the wide spread use of bot manipulation. Imagine an internet with reasonable, easy to access, informative and kind discussion. That is where we will trend without highly corporatized outrage driven content algorithms and it’s not just a completely different internet, but a completely different world.
Yea the internet definitely has taken that trend to the extreme in recent years, especially with businesses which don’t make their own websites anymore and host their social media on platforms like Facebook; of course along with individual communities slowly being herded into the corporate mega forum that is Reddit. Definitely not healthy to have all our human interaction/information controlled by these entities especially as we move into the age of artificial intelligence.
Amen
I mod a 21 thousand member sub on Reddit and opened a similar one here. I put several relevant posts to get things started and let people on the sub know we are here with a tutorial on how to sign up and explanation on why it is good to have an alternate.
I now have about 20 members, a few coming each day. However no one has posted or replied at all.
Another community I created has a similar result.
I know there is a threshold of activity that stimulates more activity, but so far its not happening. I’ve started many active subreddits, including one in the 1% with half a million subscribers. I’m not new to community building. I’m honestly concerned.
I want to encourage everyone to post and comment in the little communities you have joined. You will be contributing to this whole project when you do.
I feel like the fediverse might take off, but not because of Lemmy.
I was a deep lurker on Reddit and a RIF user so when shit hit the fan I heard about Lemmy.
However I never use Twitter, but before learning about the fediverse because of Lemmy I already heard casual mention about Mastodon. I feel Mastodon will be the first to reach a really wide audience and once the public is comfortable with using federated networks then Lemmy might gain mainstream appeal.
Regardless of what happens, something has to give and I’m excited to see the old titans drop to their knees for once (and Twitter doing a faceplant).
A federated internet feels like a good balance between free speech and moderation. And decentralized non-profits feel like they’ll be more stable than the venture capitalist sugar daddies Silicon Valley has relied on.
I was skeptical of lemmy at first but it’s definitely growing on me. As apps and features mature I’m sure it’s going to be even better.
Was a chronic lurker on Reddit but hoping to contribute to communities here to help it grow!
I don’t think it’s the start, but I think something’s happening. The internet has just been through an incredibly stable period for 10 years or so, but I that finally came to an end a year or 2 back. There have been lots of smaller social media platforms popping up for a while now, and I think the landscape is finally becoming less stable and more dynamic again.
I don’t know that this will get as huge as reddit was, but the number of comments I’ve seen here has doubled/tripled in the past few weeks, to the point where if Lemmy doesn’t ever grow much more than this, I think this is a sustainable mass of people right now to keep a good network effect going
I don’t want to jinx anything but really hope this platform will continue to grow. love the atmosphere right now!
You weren’t around for Usenet. It was great, then social media took over.
Lemmy reminds me a lot of the way the internet used to be- smaller, independent communities with more real engagement and less of a content firehose. With so many instances, if you want something, you have to seek it out or start it yourself- with the added benefit of federation keeping everyone connected.
I’m really optimistic that this will get critical mass. I think the concept of federation is great, and I like to think we’re at the forefront of a whole new phase of online community.
It’s giving me strong ~2013 reddit vibes, which I always thought was around the peak of the site to be honest.
I think the community system starts to break down once the platform gets too big. As reddit grew, all of the big r/all subs lost any sort of identity and became the same amorphous community copy/pasted over and over.
The downside is that we don’t have as much niche content yet, but we’ll see how it’s looking in a year or so.
It’s the classic “Eternal September”: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September
Plus everything is just a bit broken and requires some figuring out. I’m definitely pretty tech savvy, but I’m having a hard time imagining non tech savvy people figuring out how to sign up and access these communities, at least not in the current state of things.
Agreed. But Reddit, along with most of the internet, was like that in the early days too. In the days pre-Digg migration, I feel like Reddit was down more than up. After the migration though, there was enough critical mass to encourage bug fixing and improvement.
I’m sure there will be growing pains though no matter the outcome.
The hardest thing about lemmy was signing up and figuring out how to access it and log my account into mlem but things are mostly smooth after that sure there are some bugs but i feel like i am learning quickly
The only big disadvantage i see in lemmy other than the sign up process is the lack of a dedicated video player but it’s understandable because they cost too much to maintain and run
No, this is going to be its own niche. And that’s fine.
The great thing about Reddit is that a lot of people are there.
The worst thing about Reddit is that a lot of people are there.
I don’t think the fediverse is ever going to be massive, but that’s okay! Smaller communities usually lead to better interactions. I’ve only been here a day, but the thing that jumps out at me is this place doesn’t seem hostile.
Early days on social services have always been my favorite. In a weird way, I’m glad Reddit led me here.
I’m doing MY part.
The fediverse is a return to something bigger, not something new. An influx of users will hopefully help things get to where they should be.
Email never went away, but for some reason has been the only federated protocol with real staying power so far.
The plethora of fully fleshed out apps in the next few weeks, and the ability to have instances that operate independently from the main ones will insure at least a significant popularity imo.
It’ll come and go like all the rest. AOL, AIM, IRC, message boards, myspace, livejournal, digg, fark, slashdot, reddit, lemmy…???
I am cautiously hopeful that fedi will become significant in a while.
Other than the lack of an endless archive of content to browse, so far I’ve been loving Lemmy and everything else the entire Fediverse has to offer. I really do think this migration from Reddit provides a decent chance for the Fediverse and Lemmy/KBin to take off.
