“Sometimes there’s a man… I won’t say a “hero,” because what’s a hero? But sometimes there’s a man who… well, he’s the man for his time and place!” – Sam Elliot (the Stranger) from the glorious The Big Lebowski
You know that classic quote about standing on the shoulders of giants (and pioneers)? Honestly, in so many ways, that’s how I truly feel about the good ol’ Fediverse.
So, to sum up-- who are YOUR heroes here, and what does keep you hanging on here, baby…?
EDIT: For people wondering about what kinds of ‘bumps & difficulties’ I’ve personally experienced, here’s a tiny sampler:
I’m not here despite what it is, I’m here because of what it is.
It’s good enough to keep me interested.
It’s not good enough to replace Reddit yet, in the sense that I’m still active on Reddit. But there is enough worthwhile content here that I can check in each day and find some stuff that I enjoy. And that’s enough to give me a reason to keep coming back.
The people here, and the vibe, is nicer. It’s like reddit was 15 years ago. Reddit has just gotten worse over the years as it became more popular, and especially after went public. Many subreddits are plagued with engagement bots that ping you with lame questions to get you to respond. Post a comment even slightly controversial and you get reported and banned, even if it wasn’t malicious. I just got tired of the shit show. I do miss the more robust traffic for niche subjects that reddit has, but not enough for me to go back.
it has accelerated this year alone, right when trumps started enacting his plans, plus MUSK is interfering with reddit. significant ban waves went after non-propaganda spamming that usually arnt the problem(of and link accounts), then it started banning people in large numbers, plus all thier old accounts were hit, and shadowbans have increased so much.
I think for me its about being around fellow travelers. I’ve been on the internet for a while. Started commenting forums, then in political threads via craigslist. Then fark, digg, reddit. Users and commenters made those places, and when one went to shit, we just moved along to the next.
I have to say that I think I truly see the fediverse as a place to build a home. It meets my values where they are, and I don’t have to make compromises.
And I think my fellow travelers would agree, if this place goes to shit, we’ll vote with our feet.
I don’t find that commercial social services are free of bumps and difficulties; they’re just different bumps and difficulties. They variously want me to:
- Log in to view this content
- Complete a captcha to view this content
- LOOK AT THIS AD
- Look at this other thing instead of reading through the rest of the comments on the post I opened
- Look at this other content instead of the people I chose to follow
- Consent to 237 different forms of tracking
- Pay for a premium account
- Don’t post anything too spicy for the advertisers
- Install an app
And people think picking a server to sign up or using an unpolished UI is a hassle? It’s a small price to pay to avoid that load of crap.
I use Lemmy and Mastodon because independent services that interoperate are how I want the internet to work. I still use some of the big commercial services because people or communities I value are there. It’s not all-or-nothing.
My anger for the destruction of the old internet. My hatred of those who profit from aforementioned destruction. My pettiness for going against the current.
I can share stories of my experience as an immigrant and almost never get a “go back to your country” comment.
Like if you tried that on reddit, jeez, they’ll dig up that one comment you made against the administration in power and send you death threats and try to get the authorities to swat me. Also, they ban proxies, so all they have to do is make a false accusation and trick reddit admins to revealing IP to authorities. I use Tor on Lemmy, and, while its not foulproof, its another barrier to add more effort, and usually law enforcement is lazy and aren’t gonna do much effort for a “lol donnie is so dumb” comment.
Because fuck Reddit
That’s been the whole Internet for a good chunk of my life. This feels more comfortable to me than slick corporate sites.
Yeah, being terminally online on my 4th decade has taught me that the polish usually comes with caveats, such as a ™
The issues get fixed, conversation happens, and there is content worth engaging in without feeling like an endless trap of doomscrolling.
The vibe is a lot like “the old internet”. Sure, you don’t get a lot of responses most of the time, but those you do get are genuine and in good faith.
On reddit you can post the most innocuous thing and be met with ridicule or disdain. Most of the posts I made were commented on in a negative way. Even harmless things like “I found this funny product at the supermarket” in the appropriate subreddit was met with insults and a bunch of negative comments. Asking for advice on a popular advice subreddit got me a bunch of insults.
Here I have few answers, but those are genuine ones and so far they’ve been in good faith, no unprovoked insults, no sifting through someone’s history to insult them based on a post from 3 years ago.
Expanding on this, because you have said almost the same I was thinking, I feel AI slop and bots aren’t really a thing here, or they are easy to filter.
On reddit, you can post the most innocuous thing and be met with ridicule or disdain…
Yeah, I hear you on that one.
Overall, I find Reddit to be a fairly well-informed, left-leaning (which in any other 1st world country would simply be ‘average centrist’) base, but the place is indeed also chock-full of dude-bros who form kind of a vast, ‘mean-girls’ clique IMO. And they like nothing better than to punish people (or in their juvenile words “shit on”) others for not conforming and communicating in modern ‘Reddit-speak.’
So, all-in-all something of a fascinating psychological study in to how people self-guide in to becoming deliberate weirdos, haha. Anyway, yeah, sorry to hear you had to deal with all that toxicity, as a newcomer. :/
I don’t accept the premise of the question.
Excellent, and well done.
Your reward is in the mail.
No you didn’t!
What’s wrong with the Fediverse exactly?
I don’t recall saying something was “WRONG,” but as with all such things, there will be issues of nuance.
So I’ve added a tiny bit more in the OP.
Interactions feel genuine. I like talking to people here.
Can confirm. I am a human and I love human things such as… um… breathing air, and um…
It is a great day to be a human, fellow human!
Totallynotrobots
I humbly confess I never watched that show
It can be brilliant, and I find it rare that it’s any less than very good. It plays with scifi tropes (any and all tropes really), is very self-aware… I am sure it stands to be criticized, but I personally love the show. Apart from season 5, of course
one of those things that’s quite funny and high production value but the fandom is largely obnoxious and some of the creators are jerks
it’s also not everyone’s style of humor. give it a shot sometime and see if it resonates though!
All social platforms get worse all around us. Fedi isn’t perfect or drama-free but around here every third post isn’t a targeted ad that knows too much about me trying to make me feel guilty or inadequate.
Plus, we’re not being monetized and our content exploited, as with all the commercial social media platforms.
Joined Lemmy because of the whole r€ddit API thing. I was only on there maybe a couple years at the end, so I had no real super attachment like people who have been there for years. Not much else to say.
Same.
Except my -oldest- account was well over 10 years old when the API thing shut down the Baconreader app for good. Joined the squabbles app which imploded when the owner decided to let ‘free speech’ be allowed and it basically turned into a hateful place in about two weeks . Then joined lemme.ee, which got shuttered a few months back. Joined sh.itjustworks annnnd, bam, here I am.Though I’m only on here for about half hour or so a day due to deciding it was time to have less screen time in my life.
What does this tell us? Hate speech is the natural state of humans.
We need a replacement…
