this post was submitted on 22 May 2025
122 points (97.7% liked)

Asklemmy

48166 readers
646 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy πŸ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
 

In other places on around the web, (chiefly /r/RedditAlternatives) whenever Lemmy is brought up, invariably I see the exact same complaints from brand new accounts.

Lemmy is too complicated, it wont gain traction, can't figure out how to use it, can't log in, etc.

Now, I'm definitely more tech savvy than the average redditor, but I just don't see the complaints. You can go to any Lemmy site, instantly start doomscrolling with a familiar UI, and sign up on all the instances I've tried has been frankly more simple than making a new reddit account. The only real complaint I have is the generally smaller volume of users and posts.

My only thought here is the words like federation and instances getting people hung up. Maybe join-lemmy.org being a highly ranked site is doing more harm than good by creating an additional barrier to the instances and content.

Ideally, the first link someone sees when googling Lemmy would be a global feed on a fairly generic instance, with a basic tagline akin to 'front page of the internet.' End users don't need to care about the technical details, at least not until they're interested in the platform.

So is this "Lemmy is too confusing" sentiment even real? And if not, what motive would there be to astroturf this?

If it is a real issue affecting would-be users, how can we address it?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Just a reminder that Reddit was once difficult for people to understand.

To be honest though, I'm a bit disappointed by the other users here. The quality of comments is really poor, both idiotic and adversarial. I'm talking fox news comment section level.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

That's weird because people here are super fun and clever according to my experience. Of course the debates are seldom in-depth but it's still interesting and eye-opening for the most part.

I would love to create a group chat to analyze right-wing rhetoric, underline its hollowness passed the racism and ethnocentrism and generally talk about books that are interesting. Social emulation to go further in political science as a passion ! I need to make that group someday

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I've been seeing waaaay too much unwarranted vitriol and anger in comments lately, for things that really aren't that big a deal (like Linux vs windows) and I find it disappointing. As a community we should want Lemmy to grow, and yes that does mean we will get more "normie" posts, but imo that's good and if someone doesn't like it they can use more niche community spaces, which there will be more of with a larger userbase.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

lemmy, reddit and such types of forums are literally made for this kind of discussion.

i do agree people should tone down with the unjustified anger a bit.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

for things that really aren’t that big a deal (like Linux vs windows)

LOL, Linux vs. Windows flame wars are literally as old as the World Wide Web, and UNIX vs. DOS flame wars are even older than that. Welcome to traditional Internet culture, undiluted by normies.

(Also, I would argue that copyleft Free Software vs. proprietary software riddled with spying, ads, and other user-hostile dark patterns is a way bigger deal than you're giving it credit for, but that's a topic for a different thread.)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Push back when you see it. Remind them that we have a chance to reset, and they don't have to act the same way here that they did on reddit.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Just a reminder that Reddit was once difficult for people to understand.

I honestly don't believe this at all.

Snapshat was popularized by a generation that grew up only using apps, and it was designed to be obtuse, mysterious and difficult to learn in comparison to other apps as a feature. It grew regardless.

To be honest though, I’m a bit disappointed by the other users here. The quality of comments is really poor, both idiotic and adversarial. I’m talking fox news comment section level.

Yeah so is reddit. The best moderation and engagement in fediverse typically exists in the highly moderated communities that people constantly complain about not respecting their freeze peach and antisocial tendencies.