• Lizardking13@lemmy.world
      8·
      7 months ago

      It’s just as bad of an echo chamber as other sites. I have to actively “stop” browsing lemmy after a bit because I get annoyed at the repetitive nature of everything.

      I’ve very much tried in the last few years to limit social media. I think it’s been a benefit for me. I like social media, but having “stops” makes it more enjoyable and prevents the doom feelings.

  • ter_maxima@jlai.lu
    59·
    7 months ago

    Not enough people for even slightly niche communities. Wanna talk about smash brothers ? 732 people, only 2 posts in the last month.

    This is why people still use reddit on the side.

  • cm0002@lemmy.world
    54·
    7 months ago

    The lemmy.ml instance not being treated the same as the rest of the Triad in regards to defederation

    Some highlights from the link:

    "Don’t worry guys, the Uyghur Genocide was REALLY just birth control! ~dessalines, .ml admin, dev https://lemmy.world/post/30580167

    “See! nobody died IN Tiananmen Square, just AROUND it, so it doesn’t count!!” ~ Davel, .ml admin https://lemmy.world/post/30673342

    .ml admin, Nutomics continued transphobia https://lemmy.world/post/29222558

    CW: Original transphobic Comment from Nutomic

    “NK is actually good and anything counter to that is Western propaganda!” ~dessalines, .ml admin, dev https://lemmy.world/post/31595035

    General negative sentiment to other instances who haven’t “seen the way” yet ~davel, .ml admin https://lemmy.world/post/27426510

    “If you don’t support Russia then you just don’t understand geopolitics” ~dessalines, .ml admin, dev https://lemmy.world/post/27352415

    And a long list of bans/censorship and allowing the proliferation of known propaganda and misinformation outlets clearly demonstrating use of their instance and recognition to force a political narrative

    • Mearuu@kbin.melroy.org
      27·
      7 months ago

      I am currently working on a report on vote manipulation and the early results are showing clear signs of the some most prolific .ml accounts participating in brigading and vote manipulation.

      • Ledericas@lemm.eeEnglish
        2·
        7 months ago

        that was so pervasive on reddit, you either get banned, or ended up arguing more and then get banned.

        • exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          6·
          7 months ago

          I think the parent comment is talking about piefed the software, compared to Lemmy the software, not the specific piefed.social instance they’re posting from.

            • exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com
              3·
              7 months ago

              The developers of the Lemmy software are the admins of the lemmy.ml instance and are problematic. The complaint is that the software itself can’t be separated from the priorities of the .ml instance.

              Piefed doesn’t have the same issue, even if the flagship instance federates with .ml

    • Ledericas@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      7 months ago

      i block the whole instance, so i dont have to deal with any of those posts, but the single .ml accounts can still be problematic.

  • intelisense@lemm.ee
    44·
    7 months ago

    Duplicate communities posting the same content over and over again.

    Communities are tied to an instance. How many communities will die because lemm.ee is shutting down? There is a slightly mad rush to migrate communities already.

    Lemmy should have used usent style naming for communities.

  • 6nk06@sh.itjust.works
    33·
    7 months ago

    The lack of content compared to reddit. If you look at !learn_programming@programming.dev for example, there is only one post this week, and 4 posts this month. How is it that, with all the web developers and AI vibe coding shit, no one is actually asking questions?

    When I was on reddit, I had to hide posts because there were 10 or 20 interesting questions every day.

    • Nosavingthrow@lemmy.world
      17·
      7 months ago

      It’s a negative feedback loop. There is a good chance programmers asking questions NEED the answer (homework, work-work) so they don’t risk asking in low pop forums, making the forum low pop because there are no questions.

    • Wangari_Maathai@feddit.uk
      1·
      7 months ago

      Yep, I had same reaction. Since there are so many tech nerds on here, as most early adopters are, I thought that community would have a lot more content. But I’ll be adding to it soon enough since I just started to learn programming! :)

  • squaresinger@lemmy.world
    22·
    7 months ago

    Issues that would be solved by time/gaining more users

    • Not nearly enough people to cover all the niche interest communities that Reddit does. At Reddit you find an expert on almost any topic to help you with your problems and you’ll find information on pretty much anything. Lemmy isn’t there yet.
    • Not nearly enough history. A lot of content is still good and informative after many years. Lemmy doesn’t have a library of old-but-still-relevant content to search.

    Issues independent of user count

    • Search sucks. Reddit’s search does too, but reddit is easily searchable via Google. Lemmy isn’t.
    • Onboarding is difficult, because you have to choose an instance, which is hugely important, but a newcomer has no idea what makes/is a good community to join

    Issues that get worse with more users (aka, the potentially deal-breaking issues)

    • Lemmy scales terribly. Every larger instance needs to retain a copy of pretty much all other content out there, and each comment/like/delete/update/… needs to be propagated to every other major instance out there. Adding more instances thus increases complexity and cost instead of decreasing it. Running a major lemmy instance is already prohibitively expensive now, with just about 50k monthly active users. If Lemmy was to scale to Reddit numbers (1.1 billion monthly active users, roughly 22 000x the number of users), everything would just break down.
    • Moderation work scales just as terribly. Not only does an admin need to make sure the communities on their instance are moderated, but they also need to moderate all other communities on all other instances.
    • Related to the last point, there’s some legal issues as well if an admin doesn’t moderate all other instances. Since content is copied from other instances to your instance, illegal content (e.g. illegal pornography, copyrighted works, …) are also copied to your own server without your active participation. That makes it legally mandatory to moderate all other communities.
    • Legal pitfalls in general. If lemmy becomes sizeable enough, all sorts of laws in regards to social media platforms will apply. That’s one thing if the social media platform is run by a huge corporation with a legal department, but it’s an entirely different story for a tiny group of non-profit idealists running the social media platform.
      • squaresinger@lemmy.world
        2·
        7 months ago

        That’s honestly not very helpful.

        • It’s not exactly at a place where someone joins lemmy. Most people likely join via downloading an app, and if they are lucky that app links them to join-lemmy.org, and more often than not, it doesn’t link them anywhere and just asks them to either select an instance from a dropdown without further information or it asks them to enter an instance name from memory.
        • The advice is very questionable and not really helpful without context.
        • Lemmy.world is too big

        There are Lemmy-reasons for why that’s a problem, but in any other context, the biggest is the best. And even in regards to lemmy, bigger instances have a higher chance to remain, to be decently moderated and to be decently stable. Before joining Lemmy.world, I was on Feddit.de, and we all know how that ended. And even before they vanished without a warning or an explanation, Feddit.de servers were always outdated, slow and unreliable, and moderation was arbitrary at best and non-existent at worst.

        Lemmy.world is stable and works just as expected.

        That’s a somewhat decent reasoning, though not immediately understandable as a new user. And not relevant anymore because Lemm.ee will shutdown within a week or so from now.

        • sh.itjust.works names contains “shit”, which can deter users

        Thanks, I’m adult enough to know whether I’m offended by the word “shit”.

        lemmy.ca is Canadian-centric feddit.org, is German-centric, but technically English speaking too programming.dev is topic-centric blahaj is queer-focused infosec.pub is topic-centric aussie.zone is country-centric midwest.social is region-centric

        None of that really matters thanks to federation.

        dbzer0 federates hexbear

        Like Lemm.ee, apart from the fact that it still exists

        beehaw is way outdated

        That’s some relevant reasoning.

        sopuli.xyz (neutral name

        See also:

        discuss.tchncs.de has a difficult name

        Sopuli.xyz isn’t any easier than discuss.tchnics.de, and jet discuss.tchnics.de was excluded for the name only.

        While down in the comments it says

        Sopuli doesn’t support gifs

        Which is a really hard reason to avoid that instance, much more so than “has a difficult name”. That’s got much more practical implications.

        But what’s left regardless is: Even that link that is supposed to make instance selection easier isn’t exactly easy to understand for a newcomer.

        Relevant XKCD:

        • Blaze (he/him) @lemmy.dbzer0.com
          1·
          7 months ago

          ut what’s left regardless is: Even that link that is supposed to make instance selection easier isn’t exactly easy to understand for a newcomer.

          Newcomers are supposed to just read

          " Lemmy has 47k monthly active users

          https://discuss.online/ if you want a server located in the USA (content is still accessible from any server, the most difference latency)
https://sopuli.xyz/ if you want a server located in the EU
https://vger.app/settings/install if you want an app

          Feel free if you have any questions "

          The rest was up for debate, feel free to copy paste your comment in that thread so that other people can see it as well

  • HeyJoe@lemmy.world
    19·
    7 months ago

    As everyone has pointed out, people and content. Its good in some ways since not every post is drowned out with one thousand replies nobody will ever see, but at the same time, you’re not getting much of anything at all sometimes. Not even very niche ones either. Even groups that represent entire states has limited info or replies still. If it can grow to that size and see some more unique and local content more I think even that would be a much better place for it to be.

    • JakoJakoJako13@piefed.socialEnglish
      8·
      7 months ago

      Yeah this is my issue with it. I can find all the arts, Linux, and political stuff just fine. Sports, music, and places communities are seriously lacking. They exist, but are a shell of what you’d hope they’d be. Engagement is so low, it’s not worth bothering. The sports and music communities being so small and sparse is a real bummer.

      • Skavau@piefed.socialEnglish
        2·
        7 months ago

        This is more to do with most Lemmy users being shut-in nerds not inclined to sports tbh.

        • Wangari_Maathai@feddit.uk
          1·
          7 months ago

          This is more to do with most Lemmy users being shut-in nerds not inclined to sports tbh.

          Totally this. The amount of shut-in nerds on here, with strange obsessive habits of stalking people who disagree with them, is wild.

          I’ve seen people mention wanting to talk more sports on here, and some of the hate and downvotes those posts get is insane.

    • Skavau@piefed.socialEnglish
      2·
      7 months ago

      To be frank, in many cases communities were simply picked up by the wrong people who proceeded to not actively feed it with content. So they simply die.

  • NonFamousHistorian@lemmy.world
    19·
    7 months ago

    The same issue Bluesky and other app-killer platforms have/had at the start: momentum. Momentum explains everything else. If you leave out the vapid content on Reddit, it’s still the premier place for asking questions and getting them answered by enthusiastic amateurs or actual experts in the field. The moment Lemmy gets the same quality tech support and DIY responses, it will have its place. Or, like with Bluesky, Reddit needs to become as alienating and disgusting as X became after the Elon takeover.

    • myrmidex@belgae.socialEnglish
      14·
      7 months ago

      That’s the beauty about Lemmy, it’s not too reliant on momentum as it doesn’t need graphs to go up at all times. The fediverse will always be a refuge when other platforms crumble. We’ll just have to be patient and make sure the platform and the communities are as good as they can be at that point in time.

    • hexonxonx@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      3·
      7 months ago

      Reddit is useless for questions. If you’re a subject-matter expert in something, find the subreddit for it and prepare to be horrified.

  • redsunrise@programming.devEnglish
    18·
    7 months ago

    The lack of continuous and backlogged content. For some this is a benefit because it gives them a reason to stop scrolling, but for others who come here to look for answers, find entertainment, or anonymously voice their opinions, this can be something of a downside.

    Of course this platform is as anonymous as you make it, but I’ve seen some people say they refrain from commenting more often because they don’t want to be known as a regular, instead wanting to “blend in to the crowd” as one would on more populous sites like Reddit or Twitter.

  • NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone
    17·
    7 months ago

    Niche communities. Also, attempts at niche communities getting dogpiled by everyone else (no, “this administration” really doesn’t have anything to do with the pedestrianisation of Norwich city centre.)

  • 9point6@lemmy.world
    16·
    7 months ago

    User volume and diversity is probably the main thing right now.

    We just need more people posing shit, the fact that one or two users can dominate my feed if they choose to is not ideal. (Though often I appreciate the content anyway)

    The diversity aspect is around how we have a lot of people in a small handful of demographics on here. It’s getting better every day, but the thing that made Reddit great before they ruined it was everything you could think of had a community of people posing stuff about it, doesn’t matter how niche.

    One leads to the other though, more users naturally will mean increasingly diverse interests in our userbase.

    It’s about time Reddit fucked something else up anyway, it’s been a few months

    • Wangari_Maathai@feddit.uk
      1·
      7 months ago

      We just need more people posing shit, the fact that one or two users can dominate my feed if they choose to is not ideal.

      That’s because so many on Lemmy would rather downvote than post anything.

  • selkiesidhe@lemm.ee
    13·
    7 months ago

    I have trouble finding um what are they called here… Communities?.. for the subjects I’m interested in. When I search, all I find is old posts or unrelated posts.

    That’s my biggest problem

  • reddig33@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    7 months ago

    It’s too difficult to block huge swaths of things you’re not interested in. Like sports, or memes, or music. You block one community and 99 more about the same subject appear in your feed.

    Adding some sort of Usenet-style organization or sublemmy tagging might help.

  • hexonxonx@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    12·
    7 months ago

    Trying to be a Reddit clone.

    Reddit was shit to begin with. It was a dumbed down forum site for people who found sites like Plastic or Kuro5hin too intimidating or complicated(!).

    Slashdot-style upvoting would instantly solve a lot of “Reddit”-type problems, because instead of just good/bad, or like/dislike, the reason for the vote is noted, such as “insightful”, “funny”, etc., and you can then filter and sort comments much easier. Just filtering out “funny” comments saved soooooooo much time.

    Another thing: Why don’t creators of threads have the option to admin their own threads? It’s their thread! It wouldn’t be appropriate for discussion threads (for obvious reasons), but for interpersonal posts and questions, it makes perfect sense for the creator to be able to have control over what appears in the thread to keep it on topic and the trolls at bay. It’s pretty rare to see a post where someone asks a question that doesn’t quickly devolve into an offtopic mess, and the creator is usually attacked for trying to bring it back on topic. This has made Reddit useless for question-answering (and besides, the most upvoted answer is almost always wrong.)

    Is the purpose of these forums to enable authentic conversation, or just to farm content regardless of quality (to be sold to AI companies, presumably)?

    • Blaze (he/him) @lemmy.dbzer0.com
      7·
      7 months ago

      Another thing: Why don’t creators of threads have the option to admin their own threads? It’s their thread! It wouldn’t be appropriate for discussion threads (for obvious reasons), but for interpersonal posts and questions, it makes perfect sense for the creator to be able to have control over what appears in the thread to keep it on topic and the trolls at bay. It’s pretty rare to see a post where someone asks a question that doesn’t quickly devolve into an offtopic mess, and the creator is usually attacked for trying to bring it back on topic. This has made Reddit useless for question-answering (and besides, the most upvoted answer is almost always wrong.)

      This would probably quickly devolve into OP removing any comments they disagree with

    • Skavau@piefed.socialEnglish
      1·
      7 months ago

      Another thing: Why don’t creators of threads have the option to admin their own threads? It’s their thread! It wouldn’t be appropriate for discussion threads (for obvious reasons), but for interpersonal posts and questions, it makes perfect sense for the creator to be able to have control over what appears in the thread to keep it on topic and the trolls at bay.

      How do you determine if a threads an interpersonal question and post as opposed to a general topic-related post?