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  • For starters, Lemmy -- which uses open source ActivityPub protocols -- is decentralized and comprised of thousands of independently-run servers, so it's theoretically impossible to take down Lemmy completely. If lemmy.world goes down today and never comes back, the "Lemmy" network will still be online because of the other servers like lemmy.zip and sh.itjust.works that use Lemmy server software (which is currently at version .19 or around there).

    Worth nothing: Lemmy is part of the Fediverse, which is an umbrella term to describe all ActivityPub software types. Yes, other software packages also use ActivityPub protocols to communicate... for example, Kbin (the "main" site is kbin.social, it's sorta like their lemmy.world) is a news aggregator like Lemmy and interacts with Lemmy almost seamlessly. There's also Mastodon, a Twitter-like service that currently Kbin users can interact with (but not Lemmy).

    In short: it's kinda complex at the moment, and many parts of the Fediverse (which Lemmy belongs to) don't interact with each other directly because they provide different services, but it's important to note that it's really hard to take it down completely because the Fediverse is independently owned and run by different people in different parts of the world. Contrast with Reddit, a service that does have many servers but is owned and run by a single company in America.

    Edit: I was wrong, Mastodon users can post on Lemmy instances, but Lemmy users can't post on Mastodon instances. Thanks Baku@aussie.zone for the info!

  • I think it's mostly subjective or anecdotal, but what comes to mind:

    • The community generally is more friendly. Absolutely, there are still jerks or trolls around, but the ratio of jerks or trolls feel way less than reddit.
    • I feel more active here myself. This one I can't explain. The community is smaller, so maybe I'm not subconsciously worrying about being drowned out by other comments? On Reddit, I'd average about 1 comment a month at best. On here I usually leave a few comments a week.
    • This point might not mean much if you didn't join reddit when it was younger: I joined reddit when it was still young. I think back in '08? Lemmy feels like a young reddit, back when I enjoyed it most. Again, I can't really explain this since it's just a feeling, but one example of what I mean by "young reddit" is community wide memes. Wayyyyyy back in the day, everyone on Reddit was ravaging about "The narwhal bacons at night" or something like that lol. There were also a bunch of dickbutt memes.. if you know, you know. Well, my first week on Lemmy everyone was posting beans for a good couple of days. No reason. Just beans. A few weeks ago there were a bunch of "Taylor Swift going to Australia," Taylor Swift taking a swim," "Taylor Swift spotted at the airport," titled posts, but all those posts were pictures of airplanes. The rotating meme right now I think is Jeans??? Idk. This is just a symptom of a younger community, and why I like it more, but there's more to enjoy about it than rotating memes. This place just feels more genuine as opposed to artificial if that makes any sense.
    • I feel like I'm not missing out on anything on Reddit and I have a healthier relationship with social media on this site than with reddit. Every once and a while, I log back onto Reddit to see what's going on. Most of the "Big news" that's posted on there is also posted here, but the experience now feels more bloated compared to here so I don't stick around as long. As for this site... Yes there is less content. Yes there is less to scroll through. At the same time though, you can scroll for a very long time if you really want to. This eventually led to me being on my phone less and being somewhat a little more productive as opposed to doom scrolling.
    • Lemmy absolutely has better third party support for well, anything. Sure, it doesn't have official apps, but go to the app store and count how many different Lemmy apps there are vs reddit. Nearly all of these apps are better than the reddit app IMO. Most of these apps are also FOSS; they're free with no ads. Yes, there are still few paid apps as well if that tickles your fancy. I know Sync for Reddit came over to Lemmy as Sync for Lemmy as an example. This shouldn't stop at apps though. I wouldn't be surprised if there are browser plugins.
    • You have more say in your experience here. Again, with the smaller community, your voice is louder. On top of that, is your server's admin doing something you do not support? Your instance is doing something you don't like? Create an account on other instances! Lemmy is federated, so most of what you see should be the same as in other instances, but you aren't under the rule of one toxic CEO anymore. I myself have like 4 accounts on 4 different instances lol.
    • Piggy-backing off of the previous point: if reddit is down, it is down. If your instance is down here? Sign into another instance!
    • On the opposite end of the spectrum, does some instance have a bunch of members or just communities you don't want to see? Lemmy might not have native tools out of the box, but some Lemmy apps will let you block entire communities.
    • One fun thing I like about Lemmy is you can post pictures in comments!

    If anything, the only reason why I still use reddit is for smaller, niche, communities. To that end, yeah Lemmy is smaller, thus the smaller reddit communities are even smaller here. If I find myself wanting to make a post on a given niche topic, I typically post on Reddit AND here. Sometimes, my post on Lemmy will somehow get more comments than reddit still though. Reddit posts seem to fall off after a day or so, that's not typically the case for Lemmy if you do trend something.

    At the end of the day though, this is just a social media platform, and the enjoyment you get out of it comes down to you. ☺️ One tip I do have though is to sort by "Top of 6h" or "12h". I don't like the "Hot" sorting on here that much.

    I don't think this is definitively "better" than reddit. The functionality of the site is more bare bones. No big hidden features or anything like that. What you see is what you get as far as interfaces go. But I am enjoying it. It reminds me of a much younger Internet and much simpler times. I am loving that Lemmy servers are run by your average joe who just wanted to start up a Lemmy community. No single CEO who only cares about how profitable a site is.

  • I really enjoy the variety and diversity of federation. There are subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) differences each instance brings. It’s refreshing.

  • I think it's a huge plus that it's not run by big tech corporations. How many such things do we have today?

  • disclaimer: i am not a web developer or a programmer, so if the language use is semantically incorrect, i apologize—I am merely trying to provide a layman’s explanation.

    it’s just a bunch of little “reddits” (general discussion forum websites) that are independently hosted, but have the ability to cross post with one-another (so long as they are “federated”).

    lemmy is the underlying technology that lets that happen, not the top level entity (like how reddit is the name of the website that is the forum host). so what you have is a bunch of different independent websites running lemmy that users individually create accounts on, and a lot of those individual websites communicate with each-other to create cohesive “fediverse.”

    on the front end, whatever lemmy website someone signs up on, they are able to see all the content created and posted across all the separate websites that have federated together with the initial website the user signed up with.

    so in short, you may have signed up with Lemmy Server 1 that has 800 individual forum topics (communities/ or subreddits) but you can also post in and interact with Lemmy Server 2, which is separately hosted and a very specific forum that only allows forum topics about bunny tossing so there are two topics: /BunnyTossing and /BunnyTossingMemes. So long as lemmy servers 1 and 2 are federated you’ll see content from Lemmy Server 1 (your home server) and Lemmy Server 2 (rad tips on bunny tossing).

    if in the future your home server defederates with another server, you will no longer see content from that server or be able to interact with it as your user profile from that home server (in this instance Lemmy Server 1). in this situation however there is nothing stopping you from creating a user account on Lemmy Server 2 and continuing to see rad tips on bunny tossing by logging into lemmy server 2 directly.

  • You can pick an instance that aligns with the way you like to be. But those instances are still kept in check because if they get too shit, they get defederated.

    For example, feddit.uk can operate in a uk-style way for which words we do and don't find offensive, and the level of piss-taking we do.

  • There's no "algorithm" per se, so you can actually discover new things in your feed, rather than just being fed what they think will keep you scrolling.

    Also, you can use whatever app you like (I like Sync personally, but that's because it was my client of choice for Reddit) instead of using their RSS reader stapled to a Wish.com TikTok clone.

    • There’s no “algorithm” per se, so you can actually discover new things in your feed, rather than just being fed what they think will keep you scrolling.

      Well, there is an algorithm but currently they are quite simple. Certainly not taking any kind of personal data or advertisement data into account, which is nice.

      More advanced sorting algorithms could be made in the future to sort more personally, maybe based on the communities you follow or things like that. But the key point is that for Lemmy, the algorithm will always be open source and transparent, while the Reddit algorithm is a black box and you have no idea how much personal info its using.

      What I'm trying to say is, algorithms aren't bad. Opaque, closed-source, privacy-invading algorithms (or anything else) is bad.

  • Modlog, able to insert multiple picture/gif in comment without having to use the app, able to talk with people from another platform(like Kbin or mastodon, though limited), no ads, no tracker, animated profile picture, able to turn off downvote, no arbitrary shadowban(or no shadowban), plethora of apps to choose from without forced to use the clunky reddit official app.

    It's been a long time i didn't touch reddit so that's what i can remember.

    • You can choose an instance that gives you like-minded people and an intentional community (like feddit.de for a German instance, or programming.dev for all things development and programming related, or ani.social for anime communities, or beehaw.org for a more vetted signup and member approach for a more social and healthy userbase)
    • Lemmy is federated meaning despite this separation into instances users can read and participate in communities and posts of other instances
    • Instances can choose to not federate or to block other instances according to their choices (another reason to choose your instance according to your intentions and expectations or usage pattern)
    • You can link posts, add text to the post, and edit post titles after posting

    Those are probably the most obvious and usage facing differences. Additionally:

    • Lemmy is a platform of free and open source software, open to customizations and collaboration
    • Lemmy instances are run by groups and individuals, it's open to people and groups joining with their own instances
    • As such, both in software source and platform, Lemmy is a community project whereas Reddit is a private company (soon a public company owned by shareholders)
    • Lemmy has an open API allowing for custom client, bot, and other integrations
    • Lemmy uses the open ActivityPub protocol, so it can interact with many other platforms like Mastodon, KBin, etc

    In many other ways, it is similar to Reddit. Like having upvotes and downvotes. Lemmy is still young, so it will improve in terms of functionality and annoyances.

  • I find higher meaningful engagement and much less toxic culture here.

    It takes time to cultivate your community list here, just like it took time to build my followed subreddits back when I first started with Reddit, but I get posts that I care about and am interested in in my “Subscribed” list. I’ll admit that not every one of my interests are represented, but I’m still happy here.

    • The engagement is far better here for sure. Almost every comment I make has some form of reply. It’s especially good when you’re the first comment. People seem to respond well to that.

  • You can create a post with link, image and content all at once.

164 comments