Reddit delivered strong earnings, but the numbers beneath the surface tell a different story. Slowing logged-in user growth and AI-powered search could threaten the platform's long-term value.
Lemmy isn’t perfect, but it is more honest than Reddit.
Lemmy’s problems stem mostly from tribalism, as different instance admins ban and censor anyone they don’t like. That makes the environment hostile to users who came here expecting to be able to speak their minds like they did in the old days of the internet.
The tribalism causes the niche communities of Reddit to generally steer clear of Lemmy because, even if you have the technical knowledge to get here, you may find that your fandom or interest is fractured between six or more instances, with three of them being defederated from the other three or being moderated with such heavy bias that the community is almost unusable. You can be shadow banned, silenced, or just plain banned from an instance at the whims of a bad admin, which is really disheartening. Reddit is a mess, but it’s all in one place still. With Lemmy, you honestly need multiple accounts on different instances, or else you have to choose between your favorite crochet communities or your favorite tech communities. Say one wrong thing, and suddenly you are robbed of interaction.
I love Lemmy. It reminds me of the Reddit of old. It’s also broken and sick. I had to be in five different Star Trek communities because my instance got targeted by vindictive admins. I have to have multiple accounts because some fandoms are locked into highly toxic communities. Some of the best queer memes I’ve laughed at were in a community that is outright pro-Russia and pro-fascism.
Reddit felt like a grand bazaar for a long time. You could find a community for everything, and it would be active. While there was drama, it usually boiled down to you having a new sub added to your list to interact with. Lemmy is more like the high school cafeteria. Everyone is cliquish, and even if you have something to add to the discussion about Stargate or TTRPGs, if you voiced the wrong opinion in a completely different space, then you can find yourself a digital pariah.
At least with old Reddit, the Reddit of 2010, that didn’t happen. We were still a community trying to run things the way Aaron Swartz envisioned. Even if you said something that upset people, the upvote system often allowed that comment to be judged by the community and not one person with an agenda. That’s what I miss. Being able to say something or share something and have the community decide its worth rather than a minority voice deciding what people should see and think. It happens on Reddit, and it happens here on Lemmy, just for different reasons.
Really well said, thank you. I haven’t used Lemmy long, and only recently started actually posting and commenting much. I’ve never used another instance, or account. I need to do a lot of actual reading on how Lemmy/Mastadon/Fediverse works and how things interact… honestly, I was just missing Reddit and looking for a place to bullshit, read fun stuff, and make lame jokes.
I’ve definitely noticed a bit of tribalism. That seems to be the entire internet lately. It’s like all the algorithms pushing user retention by only showing people things they’ll totally agree with or totally hate has… yeah, caused everything to break down to high school cliques. I’d say intensified, but I vaguely remember drowning in anxiety back then. If you don’t agree with something on a topic that the group has an established condoned and expected outlook on, then you can get tons of down votes before anyone could possible even read your message.
That makes me sad. Not because I care about internet points, want to be Mr. Popular, or can’t accept that not everyone will like or agree with me. It kills genuine thoughtful discussion, open and honest exchange of ideas and differences and points of view. That was always what drew me to places like this. Sucks to see the internet grow but become so much smaller and less welcoming. It’s the internet. It’s connecting the bulk of the human population. It should be a melting pot of endless ideas and cultures and points of view, not a ton of relatively small groups of very similar people who have decided it’s moral and right to hate anyone with thoughts and ideologies that don’t align with their own.
Ironically usually while virtue signalling and insisting it’s the folk they hate who are hateful, not them.
Lemmy isn’t perfect, but it is more honest than Reddit.
Lemmy’s problems stem mostly from tribalism, as different instance admins ban and censor anyone they don’t like. That makes the environment hostile to users who came here expecting to be able to speak their minds like they did in the old days of the internet.
The tribalism causes the niche communities of Reddit to generally steer clear of Lemmy because, even if you have the technical knowledge to get here, you may find that your fandom or interest is fractured between six or more instances, with three of them being defederated from the other three or being moderated with such heavy bias that the community is almost unusable. You can be shadow banned, silenced, or just plain banned from an instance at the whims of a bad admin, which is really disheartening. Reddit is a mess, but it’s all in one place still. With Lemmy, you honestly need multiple accounts on different instances, or else you have to choose between your favorite crochet communities or your favorite tech communities. Say one wrong thing, and suddenly you are robbed of interaction.
I love Lemmy. It reminds me of the Reddit of old. It’s also broken and sick. I had to be in five different Star Trek communities because my instance got targeted by vindictive admins. I have to have multiple accounts because some fandoms are locked into highly toxic communities. Some of the best queer memes I’ve laughed at were in a community that is outright pro-Russia and pro-fascism.
Reddit felt like a grand bazaar for a long time. You could find a community for everything, and it would be active. While there was drama, it usually boiled down to you having a new sub added to your list to interact with. Lemmy is more like the high school cafeteria. Everyone is cliquish, and even if you have something to add to the discussion about Stargate or TTRPGs, if you voiced the wrong opinion in a completely different space, then you can find yourself a digital pariah.
At least with old Reddit, the Reddit of 2010, that didn’t happen. We were still a community trying to run things the way Aaron Swartz envisioned. Even if you said something that upset people, the upvote system often allowed that comment to be judged by the community and not one person with an agenda. That’s what I miss. Being able to say something or share something and have the community decide its worth rather than a minority voice deciding what people should see and think. It happens on Reddit, and it happens here on Lemmy, just for different reasons.
Really well said, thank you. I haven’t used Lemmy long, and only recently started actually posting and commenting much. I’ve never used another instance, or account. I need to do a lot of actual reading on how Lemmy/Mastadon/Fediverse works and how things interact… honestly, I was just missing Reddit and looking for a place to bullshit, read fun stuff, and make lame jokes.
I’ve definitely noticed a bit of tribalism. That seems to be the entire internet lately. It’s like all the algorithms pushing user retention by only showing people things they’ll totally agree with or totally hate has… yeah, caused everything to break down to high school cliques. I’d say intensified, but I vaguely remember drowning in anxiety back then. If you don’t agree with something on a topic that the group has an established condoned and expected outlook on, then you can get tons of down votes before anyone could possible even read your message.
That makes me sad. Not because I care about internet points, want to be Mr. Popular, or can’t accept that not everyone will like or agree with me. It kills genuine thoughtful discussion, open and honest exchange of ideas and differences and points of view. That was always what drew me to places like this. Sucks to see the internet grow but become so much smaller and less welcoming. It’s the internet. It’s connecting the bulk of the human population. It should be a melting pot of endless ideas and cultures and points of view, not a ton of relatively small groups of very similar people who have decided it’s moral and right to hate anyone with thoughts and ideologies that don’t align with their own.
Ironically usually while virtue signalling and insisting it’s the folk they hate who are hateful, not them.