This might not be the right place for this, but it seemed appropriate to me.
I’m not sure about the fediverse in general. I’ve been interacting with it here and there for a while, and of course, since the strangeness on Reddit, I’ve been interacting with it more. But something seems… strange. What do I mean? Well, I’m not sure exactly, but let’s see if I can put it into words.
I think the idea of the fediverse is excellent and truly better than a centralized approach. But, to me, much of the content on the fediverse seems different than the content on other centralized networks. Maybe Reddit content is more relevant and engaging to me because there is just more to choose from. Maybe that’s just what you get when you have some algorithmic influence. I can hop on Reddit and find something interesting and enjoyable to engage with very quickly. But to me, it’s just not the same on the fediverse. My guess is that my experience would be better with a far larger user base–maybe some critical mass of users needs to be achieved or something.
I suppose the lack of users could be an appeal rather than a drawback–a community could form that’s tighter and more engaged. But what’s the point, then? Is it simply meaningful human connection? For some, might it be to have intellectual stimulation that we can’t get with the people around us? But this just shows what I mean: the experience in the fediverse, to me, is an altogether different one than on the centralized platforms we are running away from.
My purpose for going to Reddit wasn’t a sense of community or anything like that. Maybe it was for some of you! I just wanted to find and engage with interesting stuff, and that’s definitely more challenging for me in the fediverse. For now.
What are your thoughts? It could just be me!
I’m just confused by how I’m supposed to track communities from different instances. I know you can subscribe, but it’s a lot of work to look for all the communities you might be interested in across different instances.
Am I missing something?
Right now Lemmy and the fediverse in general is suffering from an acute influx of new users, especially users who aren’t accustomed to how things are currently laid out.
I’d say be patient, give it a little time, and communities will probably settle into “de facto” leaders so that things are easier to find. It’s happened on Reddit before where subreddits merge or split as it makes sense.
I’m sure the same will happen with various communities or magazines in order to make usage a,d finding things easier.
What would you say is better practice (from a user p.o.v.)? Create an account in each instance you want to participate in, or have one main account on one instance and subscribe from there?
One account, IMO. It’d be too annoying to manage multiple accounts across various instances. But I’m sure some people will prefer it that way.
But that’s one of the benefits of decentralized, federated services like this. You have some more freedom to choose how you want to interact with things. Hell, you could run your own instance and make an account there if you wanted. That way your account is truly YOURS
Finding communities is a bit easier with tools like the Lemmy Community-Browser, but there’s definitely some friction. After some initial time of subscribing to stuff, it’s not so bad.
For me the problem is the content and the general feel of the platform itself. Free? Sure. Less toxic? Mostly. But certainly not all that engaging.