I've switched to Lemmy for about 4 days now. Here's my opinion on the platform:

Is it good?

Yes. I found many common communities I follow, such as Degoogling, open source, Linux, self-hosting, history, maps, space, Minecraft, etc etc. Many of the more obscure communities are a bit off-limits, tho, like Polandball or alternate history. I was able to find more underrated Degoogling things on this platform more than on Reddit, which is a huge plus

What caveats do I have on this platform?

Again, obscure communities are a bit off-limits, and while I was able to find SOME, most were non-existant. Other than that, I haven't encountered any other issues other than not being able to create a community

How's the universal community?

They are really helpful. At times even moreso then on Reddit. Again, I found more obscure and underrated things on this platform than I do on Reddit

Is this viable for casual people and would I reccomend it?

If they don't care about the specifics, then sure, this is a viable option. But if they follow obscure communities and care about the specifics, they would have to push through. I so far did, and it's a great experience so far. Would I RECCOMEND it, tho? Yes, I would. Again, tho, it depends on wether you care about obscure communities or the specifics

Conclusion

Lemmy is, so far, great for my experience. The communities are good, the platform is good, and overall it feels fresh that I don't have to be tracked by a centralized platform at all times to fuel their greed. I love the idea of it. I just don't think I'm gonna ever switch fully to it, however decentralized Reddit frontends like Redlib help with me viewing the obscue communities I follow without having to use ths proprietary platform directly

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[–] 19 points 3 days ago (32 children)

so far, it's been kinda empty. not nearly as many comments as I'm used to.

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  • [–] 23 points 3 days ago (3 children)

    So far!? I've been here since the Reddit API collapse (RIP RIF) and it's miles better now than it was.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

    Back then half the comments were just me trying to get the ball rolling.

    Edit: I don't comment nearly as much as I used to, but if you look back i'm confident I made significant strides toward making this space on the net more relevant/significant. Take from that what you will. I don't claim that as a point of pride or superiority: just stating things as they stand.

    I was there in the early days, for better or for a worse, making this space what it has become.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 days ago (1 child)

    Inversely, less comments means it's far more viable to actually engage in the comments yourself even hours after a post has been made, whereas on Reddit if you don't make a comment within the first hour, your comment is often buried.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 days ago

    The threadiverse grows organically, by word of mouth. It has zero marketing budget, so it will never be as popular as corporate social media platforms. But the quality the comments are better, there are vastly fewer bots, and there is very little embedded advertising.

    Also your data isn’t being sold, at least not by us. Content does get scraped by bots, and nothing can be done about that. But the threadiverse is pseudonymous, so it’s not likely to be linked back to you.

    Our content may get incorporated into some large language models. If there’s a silver lining to that, it’s that more English language LLMs will train on more anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist content.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 days ago

    I still go to reddit when bored at work, but to be honest, the comments are all basically the same. There is only so many times you can read the same reductive comments before you get bored.

    It'd be nice for there to be more activity, but I'm happy that its at least humans (mostly) here.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

    If all the people who said "Lemmy doesn't have enough users" had joined Lemmy/PieFed/Mbin instead of complaining, we wouldn't have these issues lol

    But also Reddit has way too many comments, or too many bots. If I leave a comment on something big I usually never get any replies or even upvotes. It's kinda pointless. On Lemmy I pretty much always get some interaction.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 days ago

    I find it a little charming to be in a smaller forum, though. I'm still on Reddit for when I want to talk to thousands of people (and bots) about any obscure topic, but I appreciate that on Lemmy, it matters if you post and it matters if you comment. It's like the difference between boating on a lake and in the ocean, both are nice for different reasons.

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    [–] 5 points 3 days ago (3 children)
  • [–] 6 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    Polandball is a comic like things where countries are drawn to be orbs of their flags. They talk to each other sometimes joke sometimes just commentary.

    So Americaball might be taking to Japanball about fishing or something. It's cooperative in the sense anyone can make and post them, like the SCP wiki.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 days ago

    Polandball should be more well known.

    The main artists who run the subreddit have complained that the reddit algorithm which promotes posts is biased against posts from their subreddit for some reason. They'd do well to make a home over here.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 days ago

    Welcome! The more, the merrier

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  • [–] 8 points 3 days ago

    Welcome, have fun! fellow man with great tastes for software 🤣

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  • [–] 6 points 3 days ago (2 children)

    I haven't encountered any other issues other than not being able to create a community

    .world doesn't limit community creation to my knowledge. What trouble are you having in creating a community?

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    [–] 4 points 3 days ago (1 child)

    I would encourage anyone to give the Photon theme a try. Lemmy+Photon is the perfect combo. If your instance doesn't have it installed, you can use it through its own website, phtn.app.

    It looks and feels much better than the default theme. It even beats every App Store app I've tried, in my opinion. If you "add it to your homescreen", it runs flawlessly as a web app.

    This is not a sponsored comment lol. I just think Photon rocks.

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