1mo ago

I really want to like Lemmy

I hate big tech controlling social media. I desperately want social media to be federated.

I really love community-driven social media like Reddit. Lemmy feels… too small. I really loved that Reddit let me jump into any niche hobby, and instantly I had a community. Lemmy, you’ll be lucky if that community even exists, and if it does, chances are nobody has posted in ages.

On the other hand, Lemmy is full of political content lately. I’ve basically been doom scrolling everything US election-related, and it’s really starting to take a toll on my mental health.

I know I can filter content. I know I can post and be the change I seek. Yet, it feels like an uphill battle.

Not sure what the point of this is, or if it’s even the right community to vent about this. I just really want to replace Reddit, but I find myself going back more and more (e.g. r/homekit is very active compared to Lemmy version).

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267 comments

Unpopular opinion: it's okay to like Reddit, if that's how you feel. I don't - it's far too toxic overall, and that was affecting me to the point where I made the decision to leave it, regardless of the outcome of the protests (based in large measure on having read this article that further developed the thoughts that I was already starting to think: https://medium.com/@max.p.schlienger/the-cargo-cult-of-the-ennui-engine-890c541cebcb ). And I don't like where it's going in the future - you may use it for awhile then be surprised when yet another horrendous decision by Huffman or the people behind him sends content creators fleeing to other platforms, again.
But if you have found a particular niche group there, and they are not willing to leave Reddit, then you go to where they are, right? Perhaps you can also help make moving here more welcoming by starting a similar community of your own here, even if you are the only one posting there for awhile. That said, we simply don't have the userbase here to handle e.g. most individual games (some fairly major exceptions such as Minecraft aside:-) or sports teams or some such, and you may want to enjoy interacting with more generalized content, possibly in addition to rather than fully replacing Reddit.
Conversations here tend to be better than there. Deeper, richer, and fuller. But to each their own - if Reddit meets your needs while Lemmy does not, then it sounds like you have your answer. But perhaps read my link above and think about what it means: Reddit is predatory, and you'd be willfully walking back into that, hoping against hope that the leopard would not eat your face off (spoiler alert: it will:-D).
- Thank you! I would say I like the people in certain niche groups on Reddit, but I hate Reddit as a company. I wish I could snap my finger and move those communities to Lemmy.
  
  Many people lead busy lives and don't use Arch btw (you know that funny saying here on Lemmy? well if not, you'll learn it soon - in fact you're hearing it now!:-P). They use what works best for them. We could improve our tools to entice them to want to come here, but we can hardly blame them (imho) if they don't want to yet, if Lemmy (or Mbin, PieFed, etc.) does not meet there needs (yet).
  We are growing though. e.g. check out !loops@midwest.social, which I would guess probably has no counterpart on Reddit atm? (their internal video player sucked, and presumably still does since they seem so focused on profits rather than usability)
  
  Ew you use arch? Real smart people use templeOS.
  
  I am fortunate enough that my workplace offers me a Mac OSX:-). Which I promptly use to ssh into a Linux ofc, but that one I do not have privileges on. And I don't do much rooting or OS replacing on my Android at home lately.
  My point is that they all are "under God" (from templeOS perspective?). Except Windows ofc, which is under Satan:-P.
  
  Lol, I agree that Windows is the only true villain, lol. I’m actually a macOS user. I have recently come around to Vim (technically Neovim), and I’m trying to get better at basic terminal utilities like grep. These mostly work the same on macOS, so I don’t feel like I’m missing out at all by not using Linux. I tried daily driving Linux, but Mac really satisfies all my needs. But I am very grateful for Linux and all its open-source contributions.
  
  Mac is awesome!:-) Sorta. Apple has become "The Man" that it used to despise but... the product, I mean the desktop product, is still good. For now.
  The GNU utilities are some of the most highly optimized on planet Earth. Actually they probably are the most highly optimized!:-D
  Also, Mac OSX is POSIX compliant, making it more fully "Unix" than even Linux itself is - or at least, some flavors of Linux are allowed to not be POSIX compliant. templeOS is not POSIX compliant, and some parts of Arch (e.g. fish shell) are not either, reportedly.
  Whenever I say that I enjoy using Mac OSX, the only pushback I tend to receive is that it typically runs on expensive hardware. However, it is unix with a pretty candy shell - e.g. that Preview program if f-ing amazing! and the Anti-aliasing everywhere, and the Spotlight search, and... it has much wow factor overall!:-P - and I think a good fraction of people who like Linux would enjoy using it, if it were free (which technically it is, the OS I mean, and that doesn't even get into Darwin...). The major caveat being Arch users, who want to customize every tiny thing to their heart's content. Which is fine - we don't all have to enjoy the same things:-).
  
  I really like your take! I agree Apple has amazing products, but I do fear that will degrade as they become more of a monopoly. I never thought of it as pretty Unix, but that makes a lot of sense. Admittedly, I don’t know the history that well, but I’m assuming Steve Wozniak was a big Unix guy, and Steve Jobs is responsible for it being pretty. So it makes sense.
  I spend most of my time in Vim and the browser, and those are both extremely customizable. So Mac has never felt too limiting for me.
  Though Apple is expensive, I bet you could pick up even an old M1 Mac and still have fantastic performance. I know people argue Apple sabotages their old phones, but I think their hardware actually holds up really well, except for a few exceptions over the years.
  
  I use Vim everywhere I go - Linux, Mac, even Windows:-). It's just beautiful. And also a command-line window, and like you said, a browser.
  Also MS Office bc unlike their OS, that one is fairly solid, and works well especially when collaborating with others, unlike open source offerings for so many years (I dunno the history either but apparently it's sordid, with "drama" and various forks being developed and abandoned, so sad).
  PCs get expensive as well - especially if you use them for gaming. I don't, but if you do, then a $1-2k (USD) Mac is nothing in comparison to a $3-5k gaming machine, and the former offers a fantastic experience in return for that value, whereas before Linux improved (and probably more relevantly Steam did - again I am not fully aware of the history but I think that's what I've heard), a Windows machine was something that you mostly had to spend hours and hours trying to disable as much of the built-in OS as you could manage. No wonder people prefer Linux these days - if you are going to have to delve into such details regardless! But with Macs, all of that is entirely optional bc it's a great experience right out of the box.
  I've given up on their phones though, bc iOS is really difficult. Then again these days so too are Android phones, and I don't know what to do about it all. An iPhone on a network with something like a Pie hole (I've never set one up before) could be a nice experience, maybe? But I just enjoy the experience of Android too much - except I won't pay the price for an expensive Pixel (I barely even use my camera!). I was thinking for my next phone to just buy any cheapie, or perhaps a Fairphone. I'm done chasing "good" phones though.
  
  Tmux is also super cool. I just dipped into tmux plugins for the first time the other day. Resurrect is sick.
  iOS is where I disagree. Overall, I think Apple has done a fantastic job. The hardware and software both feel top-notch as a consumer. But I honestly don’t know why developers keep coming back to Apple. Apple’s relationship with developers is hostile. I hope the antitrust lawsuits shake things up for them.
  I kinda hate Google and, by extension, Android. Maybe my hate of Android is irrational, but I really think Google is doing a wonderful job enshitifying search right now. And I just assume anything Google touches is spyware. I know it’s kinda impossible to stop, but if I can at least opt out of the entire OS spying on me.
  
  Google and Microsoft are not the only evil software corporations - Apple has become that as well. Fortunately desktops seem to have been made immune, while the iOS app continuous to lock everything down inside of its walled-garden philosophy. Apple makes it super difficult to send files to the device - e.g. if you wanted to transfer a file (like a PDF) from one machine to another using your device as a USB drive - and other things so that while yes, if every single thing that you want to do lies within this walled garden then you are fine, however if you want to set even one foot outside of it, you will quickly find the limitations unbearable. e.g. the experience using an Apple email account is amazing - you can start typing a message on your phone, then continue on your desktop, then continue again on your phone, back and forth as much as you like. But even just sending and receiving emails at all, or like working with calendar invitations, using a non-Apple email account provider, such as Google's Gmail or Microsoft's Outlook, it's absolutely abysmal. Every professional workplace I've ever been has given me a Microsoft email that is mandatory for me to check, so I don't have the option of simply not using Microsoft, and instead I find myself not using iPhones, as they do not meet my needs.
  Android is not Google. Android is open source, and there are many implementations of it - Samsung is very popular, OnePlus used to be, and yes Google Pixels are just one example of Android but they are by far not the only ones. They are the most "pure Android" versions of the software though, without added vendor-specific stuff like both Samsung and OnePlus have entirely separate stores to purchase apps from in addition to the Play Store. It gets a bit more complicated when Google has used the "embrace and extend" philosophy to somewhat destroy Android from within by poisoning its development from the inside to make it work the way that they want to - but importantly, anyone at any time could create a fork and continue its development along different lines (which routinely happens! these are the "custom ROMs", like Lineage OS), so it still lies within the realm of open source software, as opposed to Apple's walled garden that is entirely closed, both in source and in terms of you not being allowed to do with your Apple hardware what you wish.
  You might also like a Fairphone then. Or we may both end up hating it - I don't know enough about it to be able to guess, it's just that other than iPhone or a major Android provider like Samsung or Google or OnePlus, what else even is there, especially an option that is more purely open source?

267 comments