As a long time Reddit user, there’s something about Lemmy and the fediverse that feels really refreshing and new. I think it has to do with a few things…
- People are more respectful of each other and interested in discussion and being social.
- Less trolls (users are probably older?)
- Due to it not being absolutely huge, I feel like people will actually see my posts and comments instead of being lost in a sea of content. I suppose once Lemmy grows this will change, however the cool thing about the fediverse are the new servers. So you can stick to the server when you want smaller community discussion and go to “all” when you want more populated threads.
- The clean UI feels refreshing and clean, almost like the early internet.
What have you noticed? Do you find it refreshing too?
By now, we’ve all been around the internet long enough to know that good things never last. That’s really life: Everything’s impermanent. Lemmy will probably suck someday, as will much of the fediverse. But I’m grateful it’s good right now and for the foreseeable future.
It could suck someday, but it doesn’t suffer from the same things that made myspace -> facebook -> reddit suck. No money hungry executives profiting off underpaying employees to implement features no one asked for and selling astroturfing as a service. At least it doesn’t seem that there’s astroturfing as a service here yet.
You’re right. The fediverse is definitely in a better position to ward off the suck.
We didn’t think those things would suck initially either. Facebook was amazing around 2004 - 2006 before it opened up to the general public.
I don’t think I know a single person who ever thought Facebook was “amazing”… Even back then.
Before it opened up to the general public, we used it to organize parties, share photos without concern, and keep in touch with friends that went to other colleges. There wasn’t anything else like it.
I think the only thing it had going for it back then really was the exclusivity.
Everyone else pretty much used myspace for the same stuff at the time.
I think that’s going to be the key difference. You can destroy something good, but to really destroy it takes an executive.
I have hope that as the big corporations enter the Fediverse and start enshittifying it, some of us can sneak off to new instances that just don’t federate with them. Then the masses can enjoy their Meta-branded Fediverse, and the tech bros can make their money from it, while the rest of us carry on quietly in a parallel one.