this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2023
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Asklemmy

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I wanted to get a pulse check on how new members are finding the general experience/website. Is it more confusing than Reddit or are you finding the instance system a better way of doing things as it can give you more freedom of where you choose to create an account?

I'm a new user myself but have found the experience to remind me of Reddit back in the day, lol. It's definitely giving me old-school yet modern vibes and it's great to see something that isn't Reddit growing in popularity!

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

It's weird, a little confusing, and a little janky. Love it so far. It's not a novel observation on my part but it definitely feels new and exciting the way Reddit and Tumblr did back in the day.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Much like when I went from Twitter to Mastodon, finding "my people" is a lot more work. It's unpleasantly easy for links to a community to take me directly to that instance instead of leaving my on my instance where I'd be able to subscribe and interact. But also like Mastodon, the experience is much nicer once things start getting set up. Really nice not getting pestered to use the app constantly!

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Very similar to how Reddit used to be. I expect higher quality content here, and so far, I've found it. Just waiting on a few niche communities to be created, but I expect they will pop up in time. Good riddance to Reddit.

And the less said about other social media sites the better.

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[–] MajickmanW 8 points 1 year ago

There's a learning curve for sure, but I think I could get used to it. I'm hoping this boom during the Reddit black out helps pick up steam and we see a lot of cool features roll out in the mobile app/mornptions for fedoverse clients.

[–] freshhotbiscuits 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I like that it’s still so small. None of this karma farming just diluting from high quality content and conversations

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So far im still confused, but I’ve learned a lot in the time I’ve been here, so i think I’ll come around. I feel like the main issue I personally have is population of communities and actually finding communities. Ive found a couple ill look at in an asklemmy thread and im sure itll grow over time, but I personally dont have much I can contribute yet, so im not sure how much I can do personally.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's pretty cool so far. Takes some getting used to, little buggy here and there, but nothing intolerable. People are more respectful on here. On reddit and most all other platforms, I just lurked for the most part to avoid getting "aKsHuAlLy'D" by some angry poster. It's chill here and it's got potential ^-^

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I'm kinda hoping someone will point out this feature already exists, but I wish there was a way to subscribe to a topic. Right now it feels like multiple instances are forming their own, say, gaming community, and it feels like this is splintering the community rather than growing it?

Other than that, I actually really like the decentralised nature -- and, while this is likely due to the very early nature of things, man is it nicer here. Weirdly feels like early Slashdot days...

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Been here 6 days and here are some of my thoughts:

Pros:

  • the community is great. I've been more active here than on reddit and I noticed people answer your posts/comments more to discuss than criticize your POV.
  • it's nice to have a lot of options in terms of instances
  • the app is surprisingly good. It's no Apollo/Joey, but for something that's in its initial stages is surprisingly useable
  • on browser, kbin.social is nice (I don't use lemmy on pc)
  • many of the subs I follow on reddit have their own communities here

Cons:

  • it can still be confusing, specially for new members or people who aren't used to how the Fediverse is set up
  • I still miss the niche subs I follow on reddit. i know I can start my own but I don't have time nor the experience to effectively moderate communities
  • there is, of course, a big difference in terms of activity (again compared to reddit) due to the massive difference in the number of users

Is it a reddit replacement? No. Reddit is too big and established (and mainstream) to be replaced in such a short period. But imho lemmy is a great alternative. Like I've mentioned before, just participating here has drastically lessened my reddit usage. It can get better. I'm excited to see there it goes.

Edit: sorry for all the typos. I'm new at using flosiboard and it doesntl't have spell check yet lol.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I love the idea of Lemmy and I haven't found it too hard to create an account and get the gist of things.

BUT, the novelty will wear off and I'm not interested in general channels. I used Reddit for UX design, menslib, indieheads, OCD support, and lots of niche stuff that doesn't seem to exist here.

I know the answer is for me to get involved, but I work long hours and am a single dad to 2 .. I could set something up, but I don't have time to find quality OC and nurture multiple communities. I'd honestly be a poor mod.

I half expect Reddit to announce major changes to their official app, which may be enough to win a proportion of people back.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (9 children)

The webapp Is only fine on desktop. On Android I'm having to use Jerboa which works and does its job but still has an extremely outdated and unpolished user experience

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I've found searching for communities difficult so far

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

The website is super clean, the Mlem app is kinda not as great yet (presumably cuz it's in beta) but it runs really well! only worry is how easy it will be to find communities I want to join, I haven't been here long yet. That and moderation with how many people will be coming in.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've been a Redditor for more than 16 years, and it's a little complicated understanding how this works. But I'm sure I'll get the hang of it.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Like Mastodon, I'm getting used to the decentralized nature. Now that I found subscriptions and the option to change my view to subscriptions, things are easier. I'm just worried that topics are going to get big on disparate instances that aren't linked. But as I use it, I'm liking it.

For now it is nice to be outside corporate sanitation.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I've been here for about a day and I've been very impressed! I happened to pick a pretty decent seeming instance to start from and I've not had too much difficulty figuring out this whole fediverse thing

I've also had a very good experience in Firefox on Android for browsing

I do think Lemmy is going to need to implement more load balancing and I'd love to be able to spin up a server to donate some cycles and bandwidth to help load balance an existing Lemmy instance

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The app is good considering its in the early version. Have only been testing out for a few hours. The whole instance and server thing is still bit confusing regarding how it handles the post and comments in one server over to a user coming from snother instance. Any place to search for communities?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's an exciting re-imagining of a few ideas (usenet, digg) seemingly mashed together.

I'm finding a lot of content that I've voted on, and I'm maybe done-with. I'd love to know (where to find) an option to hide content I've seen and voted around, so I can just count on regular in-mail to chase the conversation. I'm sure that nit will go away once I find some menu-option I'm just not seeing!

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Joined last night and I'm already really enjoying it. I'm still learning, but that's just part of the fun right now! I really appreciate the smaller size, so if it really does take off in Reddit's wake, I hope that doesn't change too much.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I'm new to this. I've always been a lurker and never really had the urge to connect to Reddit or other social platforms like twitter. But this feels better. It's daunting at first but after being on the platform for a very short time I see something good and its interesting. Some new but very familiar. So I connected and I want to contribute. That's how it makes me feel.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I think it's got all the potential, and I really mean it. I want to be here and I will try to contribute wherever I can. The onboarding of the platform is confusing, but everyone already knows that. I can see the growing pains, but that's totally fine.

I enjoy the format, and I very much like what Lemmy is meant to become.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I find it easier than using mastodon for the first time tbh

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I've been here for a while and i still don't like it for a number of reasons, many which have already been mentioned here. The UI/UX isn't as nice as old reddit and there a lot of complexities due to the fediverse that are just not easy to overcome. Why i think reddit will ultimately win out in this because most users will go back to it after a few weeks.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I love it. I am genuinely excited to be on here, and it is literally the only social media I use at the moment.

The single feature I that I think would improve the site tremendously is some kind of indicator to know if I have posted in a thread before. It is silly, but sometimes discussions blow up and I cannot remember everything I write.

Like, just a colored dot next to the title in topics I have posted in would make the experience so much better.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It does remind me of Reddit when I first joined. I like federated services like Matrix and Mastodon, but Reddit was exactly how I liked interacting online. I'm really missing RES keybindings (in particular a/z voting, j/k navigation, x expandos, <Return> thread collapse) but the UX fits my needs very well otherwise.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

New user and reddit refugee here! The instance system isn't as straightforward as something like reddit where all of the content exists in the same place, but once I understood how the system works (via the first few posts I saw after opening the Jerboa mobile app for the first time) I got signed up on an instance that ISN'T lemmy.ml and I've just began surfing in earnest! Thanks to the community that's made this possible!

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I like it here a lot more than Mastodon and its so much easier to go and subscribe to other communities at other nodes/servers also to engage in other servers as well. Mastodon was a little more complicated, you do that but it was a little fincky IMO and of course I love Lemmy more than Reddit and I hope it blows up also stays that way too lol (RIP all the servers)

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The community has been way more friendly than any other social media I've been on. Th UI/UX is confusing and at times bad, but it makes do. It has been a nice experience.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Very happy and reminds me of the old pre-digg Reddit days! My main concerns are

  • If I pick a popular server it will go down due to performance issues, but if I get a smaller one it may go offline because it's just a small hobby project. I don't want to lose my account.

  • I'm worried about communities duplicating on other instances and me not being able to ask questions to the same pool of people with xposting

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