Honestly I don’t think so. I want the fediverse to grow, but the vibe here can be exhausting sometimes. Whenever I say I can’t use Linux because I’m blind I get a bunch of downvotes. Whenever I say I’d love to talk about cats or vintage computers without someone bringing up Trumpa-Lumpa in the comments I get shouted down as well. I can’t imagine Joe Social Media User wanting to be around people like that. I could say a ton more but I’ve rehashed it elsewhere.
And that’s not getting into the (comparatively) high friction nature of first choosing an instance to sign up to. Heck, I didn’t understand how the fediverse worked for a while, and I’m in IT. The world is full of people who don’t have that background that will find the very concept impenetrable.
Rage-bait drowning niche communities is poison to the Fediverse (and the graveyard of alternatives before it).
Also, information hygiene here is terrible. No mods seem to care.
And I just saw someone thinking Lemmy has an “algorithm,” asking why it hasn’t “figured out” to deprioritize furry posts from their scrolling feed yet. I bet they’re in the 99th percentile of the population in tech fluency, yet the way Lemmy works is completely alien to them.
Also, information hygiene here is terrible. No mods seem to care.
I think a combo of better moderation and a larger and more diverse user base is what Lemmy needs to succeed. The former is hard to achieve because you have to straddle the line between too lax and too strict, and everyone’s going to have a different idea where that line is. I get the feeling people just copy-pasted all the popular subreddits without enforcing the rules that gave each sub its identity. Askreddit was about open-ended questions meant to elicit discussion or shared experiences. Nostupidquestions was about seeking information. Showerthoughts was about quick realizations or observations. Mildlyinteresting was about odd little coincidences or anomalies you run into going about your day. But here on Lemmy there’s no quality control so they’re all filled with varying degrees of ragebait.
Growing the user base is even harder because the “politics is everything” folks repel any normal human being who just wants to talk about Pokemon.
Honestly I don’t think so. I want the fediverse to grow, but the vibe here can be exhausting sometimes. Whenever I say I can’t use Linux because I’m blind I get a bunch of downvotes. Whenever I say I’d love to talk about cats or vintage computers without someone bringing up Trumpa-Lumpa in the comments I get shouted down as well. I can’t imagine Joe Social Media User wanting to be around people like that. I could say a ton more but I’ve rehashed it elsewhere.
And that’s not getting into the (comparatively) high friction nature of first choosing an instance to sign up to. Heck, I didn’t understand how the fediverse worked for a while, and I’m in IT. The world is full of people who don’t have that background that will find the very concept impenetrable.
+1
Rage-bait drowning niche communities is poison to the Fediverse (and the graveyard of alternatives before it).
Also, information hygiene here is terrible. No mods seem to care.
And I just saw someone thinking Lemmy has an “algorithm,” asking why it hasn’t “figured out” to deprioritize furry posts from their scrolling feed yet. I bet they’re in the 99th percentile of the population in tech fluency, yet the way Lemmy works is completely alien to them.
I think a combo of better moderation and a larger and more diverse user base is what Lemmy needs to succeed. The former is hard to achieve because you have to straddle the line between too lax and too strict, and everyone’s going to have a different idea where that line is. I get the feeling people just copy-pasted all the popular subreddits without enforcing the rules that gave each sub its identity. Askreddit was about open-ended questions meant to elicit discussion or shared experiences. Nostupidquestions was about seeking information. Showerthoughts was about quick realizations or observations. Mildlyinteresting was about odd little coincidences or anomalies you run into going about your day. But here on Lemmy there’s no quality control so they’re all filled with varying degrees of ragebait.
Growing the user base is even harder because the “politics is everything” folks repel any normal human being who just wants to talk about Pokemon.