this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2023
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Fediverse

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A community dedicated to fediverse news and discussion.

Fediverse is a portmanteau of "federation" and "universe".

Getting started on Fediverse;

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My experience with the Fediverse has only been through Mastodon, through which I struggled to find a community I really gelled with. Either it was supper overwhelming with meme posts or NSFW, or it was too chill to the point of nothing. Or, it was hyperfocused like FOSS/Linux and became uninteresting after awhile. May try again, but I think I will explore the other fedisites like Plemora or Calckey to see if I like it better.

I love the pace of a forum. I grew up primarily with GameFAQS and some lucid dreaming forum, and honestly it was very formative in teaching me how to write and use critical thinking skills, as well as how to respond to a variety of temperaments. I stopped participating in online forums awhile ago, and while I loved Reddit as a resource, I never felt inspired to participate. In the same way, there are an incredible number of forums dedicated to a certain topic, and are extremely valuable, it would be annoying to make an account for all the things I am interested in.

I like what lemmy is becoming. Glad to find system that makes interacting with people enjoyable.

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[–] XPost3000@lemmy.ml 41 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Yeah same here, Reddit is my mindless scrolling app of choice, not Twitter, so when I tried to use Mastodon I just kinda stood there not knowing what to do

I love being able to read and immerse myself is specific communities and whatnot, and specifically I love Reddit for the discourse, people posting in a community, replying to posts, and replaying to those replies, and so on

So Lemmy has just become my jam, so happy that Reddit has an open source federated alternative now, even if they reverse their API debacle I'm still gonna keep using this app

[–] 7heo@lemmy.ml 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)
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[–] simple@kbin.social 34 points 1 year ago (14 children)

I never really liked Twitter as a concept. It feels like it's built on an "old man yells at cloud" concept where people just shout their thoughts and nobody gains anything from it.

By comparison forums are there to foster discussions and communities. I thought Mastodon would be better but I spent 5 minutes and it's exactly the same nonsense.

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Same, same. If I follow 3 high-volume posters on mastodon or twitter, there goes my entire day.

I prefer to follow topics / communities, not people / celebrities.

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[–] mustyOrange@beehaw.org 10 points 1 year ago

Thats my feel as well. The whole idea of small text blurbs that arent conversational and not grouped by topic never really worked for me. It also just feels too personality driven, where large accounts are what gets major precedence - I prefer when a small account or whatever can make a great post that gets a lot of attention.

I can already tell the Lemmy is going to fit me a lot better than Mastodon, even tho I did enjoy that for a few months

[–] DidacticDumbass@lemmy.one 9 points 1 year ago

Yes! I remember A LOOONG time ago when Twitter was just beginning, and the articles about it were very confused about how to use it. It was described like a kind of social telepathy, where the sharing of thoughts brought about a quick intimacy with strangers. Now it is just a playground for corporations and narcissists. Well, I suppose it was always like that.

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[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 31 points 1 year ago (3 children)

They're different kinds of experiences.

Forum-type things like Slashdot, Reddit, Hacker news, Reddit, etc. put the focus on the topic or community.

Micro-blog type things like Twitter, Mastodon put the focus on individuals.

If you want to see what your favourite author is posting about, or what your favourite musician is working on, or maybe behind the scenes pictures from a sporting event, microblogging platforms are great for that. Journalists also loved them because they could follow specific other journalists or other key people in the area they cared about, and get direct info from that source.

OTOH, if what you care about is a certain topic (F1 racing, beebop jazz, etc.) then forum-style platforms are better because the focus is the topic rather than the individuals.

[–] b0b89@midwest.social 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I didn't like Twitter for that reason. Often I'd follow someone because I saw some posts they made about something I'm interested in. Then suddenly they're flooding my feed with stuff I don't care about and often being really annoying while they do it.

I rarely find someone who I like all their posts. So it's like do I just put up with the furry porn retweets because this person is a genius who occasionally posts about really interesting hacks?

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[–] CalcProgrammer1@lemmy.ml 29 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I like Mastodon, but I like Lemmy more. That said, I liked Reddit a lot more than Twitter so it makes sense I'd prefer Lemmy. I'd rather follow topics than people, and Mastodon/Twitter are about following people (yes you can subscribe to hashtags on Mastodon, but it isn't the same).

That said, I still have and use both.

[–] raubarno@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Insert meme 'I like you both equally ... that means I like YOU much more' here...

IDK, I never used Twitter and never understood it: why would one ever want to share short messages? What can you express/explain with 160 characters? This is why I see no point in using Mastodon either...

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[–] Rumblestiltskin@lemmy.ca 24 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Micro blogging like Mastodon I like more for following the personalities. I don't have a big attention seeking personality so I do not get a lot of followers on that type of social media. I am more of a reply guy so Lemmy style content aggregator with comments I am able to participate more in.

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[–] SkyNTP@lemmy.ml 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I tried Mastadon too, it didn't gel with me. Turns out I don't care to follow people. I follow topics.

Is this so hard for big tech to understand?

[–] baronvonj@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 year ago

You can follow hashtags on Mastodon. You can also follow Lemmy communities from Mastodon! Search @<community>@<instance> (ie @fediverse@lemmy.ml)

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[–] Kronusdark@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Mastodon is WAY better if you follow tags. that said, I am very optimistic of Lemmy, it just needs a quality app.

[–] SammichParade@vlemmy.net 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (10 children)

I'm currently using Jerboa (edit: Android). Seems pretty good but I've only been here a couple hours. Have you tried it?

[–] KreekyBonez@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm on Jerboa now, and I think it's got good bones, but it still needs some work. Minor stuff tho, like how setting the overall font size affects pages slightly differently.

I also miss how RIF would open articles/media natively, instead of utilizing my default browser for everything. It's actually nice using reader view in firefox for some stuff, but the extra loading and app-swapping is a little clunky. I'm sure it's something I could get used to if I stick with it.

I also need to figure out what pages/instances to follow so I can curate what shows up on my home page. I'm on day 2 here, so a grain of salt is needed for my commentary on a project that I can nitpick, but could not build on my own.

[–] SammichParade@vlemmy.net 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

I hope the devs from the third party apps that Reddit is murdering are able to get similar/better jobs elsewhere. Maybe the dev teams whose platforms are now getting flooded with Reddit refugees could use the help.

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[–] araquen@beehaw.org 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I kind of see Mastodon as a Twitter replacement and Lemmy as a Reddit replacement. Each has specific use cases. I can see both platforms having value in my online engagement.

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[–] open_world@lemmy.ml 19 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Yeah in general, I like forums better than the format Twitter is in. I like topic-based discussions more than discussions spawned from short, potentially out-of-context messages.

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[–] lee@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yeah, so far I fucking love lemmy! Open source software for the fucking win!

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[–] Mcballs1234@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm gonna be honest Lemmy feels like a very chill place unlike Reddit or Facebook, it feels like defusing a bomb when talking on certain subreddits

[–] Acester47@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 year ago (5 children)

People are very chill here. However, we are all going through the same thing.. we are trauma bonding over the loss of a loved one lol. As the site grows I am sure the vibe will change.

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[–] honk@feddit.de 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (11 children)

Damn I really miss forums.

I had the greatest times in the internet 20 years ago in forums where you could be part of something that felt like a community built over years. Found some long lasting friendships on forums. Sadly then came myspace and facebook and caused every single forum I used to die.

Honestly the fediverse somewhat can replace that because the instances emulate that feeling of community a little bit.

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[–] Joker@beehaw.org 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I do too. Mastodon is great software, but I’ve never been much of a user of the micro blogging format. The Reddit/hacker news format has been my preference for many years.

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[–] Moonrise2473@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Similar. For me it's almost a drop-in replacement for Reddit, while mastodon not really

[–] dogmuffins@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Well yeah but they're two different things.

Lemmy is a forum like reddit.

Mastodon is microblogging like twitter.

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[–] cowleggies@reddthat.com 16 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Another Reddit refugee here: lemmy makes much more sense to my brain than mastodon ever did. So far, this has huge promise.

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[–] CanOpener@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I'm from Mastodon and trying Lemmy to explore more of the fediverse, liking it so far too 😃. My Mastodon feed is almost all politics so I'm liking the different content on here.

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[–] DarraignTheSane@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well yeah, Lemmy is to Reddit what Mastodon is to Twitter. Never cared for Twitter pre or post-Elon.

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[–] nimnim@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Yep, Same here! When things went south with Twitter, I tried switching to Mastodon, but after several months, I haven't become fond of it. Its interface is so terrible and difficult to navigate. When I heard of Lemmy as an alternative to Reddit, the first thing that came to my mind was, 'Oh, please don't be like Mastodon...' and I'm glad that it is not! I like the fact that it is kinda' similar to Reddit (interface-wise), but at the same time, it is decentralized, which means it is (hopefully) going in the right direction.

[–] cambionn@feddit.nl 14 points 1 year ago (7 children)

If your issue with Mastodon was mainly the interface, maybe you could try using a third party app like Tusky. Mastodon's own app isn't great, but when using Tusky it's quite nice.

I was never a fan of Twitter, but I use Mastodon quite a bit. Both for following news and projects as for just posting random crap. I never used Reddit much either, only read when it would come up on an online search. But Lemmy so far has been nice, if not a bit silent. I've got good hope for it.

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[–] dingus@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Similarly, I wish Matrix/Element would grow in popularity to compete with Discord, who will also eventually be pursuing and IPO and will allow enshittification to swallow them whole.

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[–] BlinkerFluid@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Lemmy and Reddit promote engagement, discourse and even arguments... ok, especially arguments.

Mastodon feels like a list of billboards that I am disconnected from.

"Oh, that's news"

But no one talks between eachother about anything. I almost feel like the nature of the layout of Twitter and it's alternatives are almost by design to make the users a little more self serving.

Mastodon has every user standing on a soapbox yelling at crowds, Lemmy is more of a public forum.

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[–] stefenauris@pawb.social 14 points 1 year ago (8 children)

the nice thing about the fediverse is that you can still interact with the other platforms if you so choose, so you aren't limited! I'm glad you found something that works for you and i hope you have a great time :)

[–] Kichae@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago

I love that you can follow PeerTube channels from Lemmy. This user influx on Lemmy could mean big things for PeerTube.

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[–] _ed@sopuli.xyz 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It’s quite interesting as I think the twitter migration put the focus on mastodon for a while and this place became quieter and then Reddit didn’t want to be left out so the spotlight is now here and kbin. If only Instagram could join the fun pixelfed would get a bump.

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[–] mstrbtr@kbin.social 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (24 children)

Personally I find Kbin more usable (while still being reddit-like) as it also has functionality letting you follow on normal microblogging content from Mastodon and other places, making it more intertwined with the whole fediverse.

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[–] raresbears@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Strongly agree. Mastodon is alright and I use it a little, but the twitter-type format never really worked for me. I feel like when I have to follow individual people I usually end up either following no one or being forced to follow people who post things that interest me sometimes but a lot of the time post things that really don't. Following particular topics or threads just seems much more natural to me; I can look at exactly what interests me and nothing more.

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[–] lightrush@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I think the main difference comes down to the sorting algorithms. In Lemmy we get the organic content sorting done by collective human appreciation or lack thereof of said content (↑, ↓). Generally better stuff rises to the top, and worse stuff sinks to the bottom. You can still see either if you like by changing the order. That coupled with sorting by community does a great job at sifting through the noise. In Mastodon you have hashtags that can serve as communities but there's no organic sorting within that. If you subscribe to #Linux, you'll get pretty much everything with #Linux, whether one or a thousand people found it valuable.

[–] dropmiddleleaves@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Either it was supper overwhelming with meme posts or NSFW, or it was too chill to the point of nothing. Or, it was hyperfocused like FOSS/Linux and became uninteresting after awhile.

I’ve never been able to find the meme posts on mastodon, therein lies part of its core issues, federation makes discoverability iffy at best. It hasn’t yet reached mass yet.

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[–] thisjustin@beehaw.org 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This does feel a lot like the reddit I missed, only better. I will also agree that I find myself more likely to engage here, versus reddit where I exclusively lurked.

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[–] DrQuint@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I don't mind a community having low amount of content. It's easy to just join multiple and hop around. I don't mind a UI not entirely matching my preference, that stuff is "matter of time".

But Mastodon made it VERY hard to find the little content their communities did have. They have an anti-Trending philosophy, and that drove me, and most people I know, away. When I joined, they didn't even have proper tag searching, and to this day, the activity in a tag is still reported wrongly. When asked, I got aggressively told off that Text Search is evil and I'm evil for asking and no, I didn't even talk about twitter but I'm evil for even daring to make requests even lightly resembling a Twitter user's UX preferences (Aka: Discoverability and UX). I just wanted to hear a "oh that's broken and being worked on" but no, it was always a "no, we don't like that" instead.

No such thing here. I wanted to find the gaming subs, I found the gaming subs. I wanted to find a desolate abandoned community for Dota 2, bam, I found the desolate abandoned community for dota 2. Within 2 minutes I was on grounds with /c/PatientGamers.

It got slightly better. But won't ever fully fix itself. To me, and to a couple colleagues, Mastodon was a bad website, with bad gatekeepers and a bad advert for the Fediverse. I don't care about it and I hope Rhynodon some day comes, implements text search and steals all their users.

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[–] donelias@mastodon.cr 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

@DidacticDumbass I love liking this from Mastodon and the fact that you are more comfortable with a different platform interoperable with the rest of the Fediverse

[–] markipol@beehaw.org 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I love how cool this is. Imagine being able to read and comment on a Reddit thread from twitter and Facebook and have it all work seamlessly and visible to all parties. That's literally what this is and that feels amazing to me

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[–] Thedogspaw@midwest.social 11 points 1 year ago

I agree with you mastodon is to much like Twitter and Twitter sucks reddit has always been much more fun to me so I'm hoping lemmy can get some traffic going

[–] strypey 9 points 1 year ago (8 children)

I think I will explore the other fedisites like Plemora or Calckey to see if I like it better.

Servers running these apps connect to the same fediverse Mastodon servers connect to. As does Lemmy. All these apps just give you different ways to view the same social network, so which software you use makes less difference to what you can see than which server you use. Because there is no global view of the network, what you'll find in hashtag searches or federated timelines in the micro-posting apps (Mastodon, Pler/Akkoma Miss/CalcKey) depends on which accounts are being followed from the server hosting your account.

I'm new to Lemmy's way of viewing the 'verse, so I'm not sure what the equivalent is here. But I think what @dave describes in this thread about Communities hosted on other Lemmy servers taking a while to show up in searches here is relevant: https://lemmy.nz/comment/28480

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