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58 comments

  • There's no algorithm here, so use the different sorting options (for both posts and comments), as well as setting your favourite as default once you see what works for you.

    the different sort options are of course algorithms, but I mean there's no automatic, manipulative system like YouTube's "The Algorithm", Facebook, TikTok, etc.

    Voting doesn't tune your algorithm, so I'd say only use downvoting for things that are low quality, trolling, in the wrong sub, duplicate posts, etc. Your votes aren't private, by the way - although Lemmy itself doesn't display voters' names, that info is in every server's database, and some other software in the Fediverse does show them.

    There are quite a few apps available, I like Voyager on Android and I stick to the default website on my computer.

    • Out of curiosity, which sorting option do you prefer and why? I seem to use Hot a lot, but sometimes I switch to Active, honestly not sure what the difference is.

      • From the Lemmy docs:

        • Active (default): Calculates a rank based on the score and time of the latest comment, with decay over time
        • Hot: Like active, but uses time when the post was published

        My default is set to

        • Scaled: Like hot, but gives a boost to less active communities

        This is the newest sorting option, I think, and it helps me not miss posts from the smaller comms - particularly ones where people are asking a question and there's been no engagement. Ideally I'd like to have Mastodon-style lists so I could have "quiet comms" or something and check them all every so often.

        I will switch to new or top 6h/24h if I've been on recently and just want to see what's fresh. Top all time or 1y if I'm looking at new-to-me comms so I can see what type of thing to expect from it.

  • Read the rules for a community before posting or commenting. Take this community, for instance:

    1. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below

  • Most claims people make of others and other communities are highly personal and likely not true unless for specific circumstances

    • Classic example are the few people who go around flaming inter-community drama in comments, then someone else replies showing that poster had recently been banned from that community and clearly deserved it. Modlog ftw.

      It's rare, and mostly the same people, but I see it about a dozen times a year.

  • Main one is applicable to any online space.

    Hang back when you check out a new place. Get a feel for things before jumping in because, like reddit, not only does lemmy have a culture, each instance does, and each community on each instance does.

    You go to a meme community in one place and crack a dark joke, everyone laughs. You do it on another, you get banned. Yet another and you're in a flame war.

    But it doesn't just apply to things that controversial. It can be simple things like calling someone dude. Or talking about cars, or dogs, or weather. Sometimes, in some places, there's a culture that isn't obvious until you've scrolled through for a while. Again, this isn't specific to lemmy, or even only online.

    Always do a vibe check when you're new somewhere, anywhere.

  • Pick an instance you like browsing locally, and use that, rather than trying to browse as much content as possible. Specialized and niche instances are often way more interesting.

  • If you’re interested in something, do you since up for more than one instance in that topic? For example, if I want to read about Apple related stuff, would I want to sign up for a few different Apple subreddits or just one?

    • subreddits

      We ain't in Kansas anymore! They're officially called communities or comms for short over here.

      It usually helps to subscribe to more than one, especially if it's something simple like Apple comms, but you don't need to sign up for a new account just to subscribe to communities on other instances. Also no point in subscribing to all the dead ones with no posts in months, but I'm subscribed to some technology comms on both lemmy.ml and lemmy.world and they both get posts. (There might even be some users who are only able to see one of those comms because their instance blocked another instance, so that's a reason why one of those comms might not become the only one everyone is using.)

      There are a few exceptions like /c/196 or politics subs where different ones have different-enough rules and moderation where it might actually matter which one you subscribe too, but for general interests, might as well just sub to them all because the worst case is they just don't add any extra posts to your feed.

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