It feels like people are a lot nicer here than on Twitter and Reddit, and even when people disagree, it’s generally civil and not an all-out flame war. Also, there’s no algorithm promoting outrage all the time.

For me, the anticipation of toxicity was a huge deterrent for me ever participating in real discussions, but here I feel like I can be myself.

I think it’s healthier this way.

  • @useralreadyexistsEnglish
    19•2 years ago

    My very first ever post on Reddit,12 years ago, the first commentor called me a fa**ot and the second commentor told me ‘KYS’. I posted a picture of a dog sitting in the driver seat of a car with his elbow hanging out and he was wearing a sweater. It was discouraging to say the least and burned me pretty bad. I deleted the post, tried to wipe it from my memory, continued on reddit for the next decade treading lightly knowing how toxic and mean it could be.

    • @useralreadyexistsEnglish
      40•2 years ago

      Here’s the picture in case you want to see it and say nice things. I thought it was worthy.

      • BionicSpudEnglish
        10•2 years ago

        What a disguished looking dog. Is that a cardigan? Thank you for contributing fellow lemming.

        • @useralreadyexistsEnglish
          4•2 years ago

          It is a cardigan with a collard shirt. The way his elbow is propped and the glare he’s giving me…one of the luckiest days of my life.

          • @MrsDoyleEnglish
            5•2 years ago

            I totally don’t see that as a glare - to me it’s more like “hey there”. Relaxed, bit of eye contact. Lovely.

          • @alvvaysonEnglish
            7•2 years ago

            I would like to see more of this dog. Have an upboat.

            • @useralreadyexistsEnglish
              6•2 years ago

              He is my spirit animal and reddit origin story. A friendly lemmy user suggested I turn him into a meme. He is so worthy of being seen. I parked next to this dog 12 years ago, took this pic, best day ever.

    • @zeppoEnglish
      3•2 years ago

      I’ve been at various points on reddit where I would open the replies in a background tab and just close it without reading them… or, and maybe this sounds weird, hold my hand up over replies so I could screen them without reading them so I could ignore insulting or provocative replies and not be tempted to engage.