It feels like people are a lot nicer here than on Twitter and Reddit, and even when people disagree, it’s generally civil and not an all-out flame war. Also, there’s no algorithm promoting outrage all the time.

For me, the anticipation of toxicity was a huge deterrent for me ever participating in real discussions, but here I feel like I can be myself.

I think it’s healthier this way.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    251 year ago

    Yet. I think there’s a critical mass aspect to this. The Eternal September of Lemmy is yet to happen

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      171 year ago

      It also comes down to what instance you happen to visit. Lemmygrad for example is a legit tankie cesspit. There’s currently a popular post about Greta Thunberg and it pretty quickly devolves into calling her a traitor, because she met with Zelensky: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/902175?scrollToComments=true . Among other things you will find plenty of justification for the Russian invasion and their war crimes. And the admins openly support trolling outsiders. I’m on the left and I don’t have an issue with Marxism or the concept of communism, but fuck that instance.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        91 year ago

        I had no idea what “tankie” even was until recently. The internet is so weird.

        I think the broad problem with reddit and the like, which will leach into Lemmy with time unless we change things, is the slicing and dicing of the topic that is to be talked about.

        When you do this (“oh sorry this is r/typewriters, you should post in r/typewriter_repair instead!”), you treat people as vehicles for content. We make echo chambers and don’t communicate as whole individuals.

        So far Lemmy doesn’t have this divide. So far…

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          121 year ago

          When I was on Reddit, I responded to a guy in latestagecapitalism who was talking about how Stalin wasn’t that bad, and how everything we hear about the Soviets is fake information, made up as Western Propaganda.

          I chimed in telling him I’m Romanian, and how my grandpa was in WW2. I told him that my grandpa would always tell us anecdotes about how the Russians acted vs everyone else, and if anything it was worse than what we usually think of. Then I said that Stalin is too well known for it to all be fake.

          Well the response I got was the guy called my grandpa a liar. Then like 10 minutes later, I got permanently banned from the subreddit.

          That is when I learned what a Tankie was lol. And that the subreddit was infested with them.

          I took one look at Lemmygrad, and oof.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            11 year ago

            Didn’t Romania fight on the Axis side for the majority of WW2? Wouldn’t fighting against the Soviet Union potentially colour someone’s thoughts on them?

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              21 year ago

              It’s complicated. A military coup happened against the King and put fascists in power. That’s when getting friendly with Germany happened. Later on the King regained control and that’s when Romania switched sides to the allies.

              And lol no, I don’t think fighting on the axis is the reason why people have a sour view on Russians and the USSR. I think the way the Soviets treat people is the reason they have a bad reputation.

              You think it’s an accident that as soon as the USSR broke up the bordering countries tried to join NATO asap?

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        71 year ago

        I can’t stand lemmy grad and I hope every instance defederates soon. They’re absolute scum of the earth edgelord contrarians and nothing more.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          21 year ago

          I haven’t seen them until this was mentioned.

          I hope users one day have the ability to block entire instances on their own.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      81 year ago

      I sincerely hope it doesn’t. If Lemmy reaches the same levels of toxicity as reddit then I will be moving to a new platform with less people and hopefully less toxicity. Lemmy has opened my eyes to the fact that I don’t have to constantly deal with assholes in order to engage with people online. There are tons of good quality, friendly communities online, you just have to find them.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        41 year ago

        If Lemmy reaches the same levels of toxicity as reddit then I will be moving to a new platform with less people and hopefully less toxicity.

        That’s called “defederating”. The strength of a federated platform, is you don’t need to switch platforms just to switch communities.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        11 year ago

        Err… can’t you just stick with smaller instances that don’t federate with the ones you don’t like?

        Isn’t that the point of decentralization?