this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2023
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Boost For Lemmy

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The experience that I love isn't Reddit but the one that I get with Boost. Lemmy is growing and there are some subs I miss from Reddit but the number is constantly decreasing.

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah honestly wasn't compulsively opening lemmy like I used to with Reddit until the familiar boost logo and interface appeared. Now it's been back to sit on the toilet and immediately open up boost. It's a great app but I feel like I need to not use it lol.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

There's not much else you can do on the toilet.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Seconded, and very appreciative that Boost was ported over.

Until the drama on Reddit started I had never heard of Lemmy, but I knew reddit was becoming increasingly hostile towards its users and the content more and more bot reposts instead of new ones.

Lemmy seems to have kept a lot of the things I used to enjoy about reddit, but for now is smaller and more personal interactions on posts and within communities. It reminds me a lot of the old phpbb/vbulletin days when communities were smaller and more tight knit than Facebook/Twitter/Reddit ever were.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 10 months ago

You just made my week. I have missed the UI of Boost for so long and didn't know it existed for lemmy until just now.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 10 months ago

Same but sync! Crazy the difference a good app can make! I have boost installed but I'm already diehard for my own app, so don't really use it 😅

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Is Lemmy actually growing? Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see it, but it feels and seems like things are slowing down a bit recently.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

https://fedidb.org/

Edit: Sorry hit the button too quick lol. If you click on Lemmy you'll be able to see the stats for various instances, its been basically constantly growing, can't speak as to quality lol.

Edit: Nerp, I derp'd.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

That’s the fediverse though, ~80% of which is Mastodon. Lemmy itself has been in decline recently (Screenshot).

After an explosive growth (I think that’s always how things go), but still, recently it hasn’t been growing.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I don't want to make it sound like the Lemmy situation is rosier than it is, but considering how sharply users dropped off, say, Threads... I think Lemmy is doing alright. There are a number of factors that might contribute to user counts dropping, but mostly it's unavoidable when you have a sharp uptick of anything. I think accounts and activity are going to flatten and then start trending back upward. If Reddit keeps fucking around, that'll definitely bring more people in and this cycle will repeat. I'm actually fairly pleased with how many people have been sticking around on Lemmy.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

Yeah I think that’s to be expected and I didn’t want to imply that Lemmy is in a bad place, I don’t think it is. That’s just the life cycle of these things, as you said.

I also think Lemmy is in a much better place than it was when the big move during the Reddit blackout happened. Especially apps, but also the communities and the infrastructure.

I can imagine that with the next Reddit fuckup, which will surely happen sooner or later, it’s going to be quite comfortable to switch over.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

Wasn't referring to the Fediverse as a whole, just that Lemmy page you linked to, but I did indeed not scroll far enough down. I just saw the mass list of increasing users and posts and missed the section below lol. Definitely slowing down a bit.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

It is slowly growing but there are still a lot of more users needed to have more wide topics like Reddit had... and I'm not even talking about niche stuff....

For news and current stuff it's fine.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago

Same! It's easy to pick it back up and start adapting to the slight adjustment to my home screen. I just need my snark subs to come back (yes I'm a terrible person) and I'll be perfect.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Any subs you can recommend to me on lemmy? I have a few but I'm still trying to find things 😆 🤣

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

I just created one called Rabbit Holes (idk how to tag them on here, perhaps [email protected] ?) that is all about sharing engrossing content you like to read late at night to spook you out. You should check it out (and contribute if you have anything!). Figured I need to be the content I want to see in the lemmyworld.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

When I joined I searched for a bunch of subs that I frequent on reddit, added those, then trawled through /local and /all for an hour and subbed to everything that looked interesting. I spend more time on /local and /all than I did on Reddit and I think that'll be the case for some time until there's more overall activity.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Just search for stuff you enjoy.

Commodore 64? Pixel Art? Linux? Music? Communism (like really there are very active ACTUAL tankies)? Software Piracy? Denmark?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

I’ve been liking mlem, it’s cool to see the app kinda get developed in front of my eyes. Started off as a beta user and have stuck with it over the months to see it really turn into a well polished experience.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

How does Boost differ to Liftoff. I use the latter and it's pretty good I miss the old Reddit is Fun layout though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Same for me. I started using Reddit because I tried Boost and it felt like a good replacement for the RSS reader I've been using. For one thing, I didn't have to look for the content places I wanna add to RSS and most have difficulty showing full-page content kinda defeated the purpose for me.

I made a Reddit account because of Boost. I didn't know web only features of Reddit because I never used web version.

I originally didn't migrate to Lemmy but kbin. Seeing Boost back for Lemmy, I followed Boost.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I still browse from time to time, but my usage has absolutely tanked after moving over from reddit. I'm just not browsing social media like this much anymore. I actually ended up using YouTube more now? It's weird. In some ways I feel like my mental health has improved. But I also feel like I'm out of the loop. I don't know what's going on outside my immediate bubble for the most part. For better or for worse, I'm not really sure.

One negative thing I suppose is that I'm feeling less connected with others. I feel more isolated now

All that said, boost has made browsing lemmy a much better experience

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Youtube won't be good for your mental health. Their algorithm pushed you into really dark content if you give it time. I still use Reddit for some communities (ex. r/soccer) . But for others Lemmy in Boost scratches the itch.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Ah yeah I've heard it can send you into a spiral if you aren't careful. I get pop ups from time to time but I think the algorithm knows exactly what I like now. I mainly get food videos, science, cute animals, gundam, gunpla and crafting, travel, video games, anime and streamers lol. I guess it's just visual junk food.

Anything political, or news related I avoid and spam the "don't show me this" button lol. It's really weird seeing the main page of youtube when you're not logged in. It's so different!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Just be careful there. 😁