I am theoretically switching over from Reddit to Lemmy. Finding myself spending more time on Lemmy than on Reddit. Maybe it’s because I am limited to using the desktop and can’t aimlessly browse Reddit on my iPhone. Of late, the only subreddits I cared for were on sports and their matchday threads and r/watches. I found myself aimlessly browsing through r/AskReddit and asking and answering pointless questions.
I have to disagree. It has its problems but the upvote and downvote system can be really useful when you’re talking about things that aren’t subjective. For technical and practical matters, it’s a good way to sort the most comprehensive or relevant advice to the top of the discussion. I don’t really want to go back to facebook where I get shown things because people are spamming the angry react.
This question has got me thinking for quite some time. I don’t know what kind of topics you have in mind when you say “comprehensive” and “relevant”; I personally think about scientific topics right now. Unfortunately I’ve seen situations where scientifically incorrect answers get upvoted – simply because they’re put in a charming way for example, or they sound technical and expert (but the jargon is actually misused), or enjoy other purely rhetorical aspects. In the end what’s correct is not detemined by a majority vote, but by logic and experiment (that’s how the scientific method started).
But maybe you are speaking about other kinds of topic, because “comprehensive” or “relevant” don’t fully apply to my example. Yet, I’m doubtful.
Cool book tangentially related to this topic: The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs Spread by O’Connor & Weatherall.