this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2025
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Ask Lemmy

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[–] dandelion@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

we seem to be popular with reddit users that were banned from reddit, which on average seems to translate to less than wholesome behavior - so maybe lemmy's whole reddit-alternative branding works against us that way.

maybe developing a distinct UI so it's not just a reddit clone, and directing features in a way that is appealing more to particular communities or people we wish to attract would be a good idea, rather than trying to directly replace reddit as a whole?

for example, attracting academics by supporting built-in LaTeX syntax rather than requiring a browser extension

[–] Jomega@lemmy.world 23 points 6 days ago
  1. Try not to fall into the trap of groupthink. The "reddit hive mind" was one of the worst things about our predecessor, and it seems to have followed us here.

  2. Understand that humans are not, and never will be, perfect. Endless purity tests do not accomplish anything other than turning away newcomers.

  3. For the love of God, pick up a hobby. My feed on any given day is 99.8% US politics and activism. I'm not saying that these things aren't important, but it gets exhausting when it's the only thing people want to discuss.

[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 30 points 6 days ago

For replying: Give others the benefit of the doubt. If you're not sure, ask clarifying questions instead of assuming things and attacking first.

I see too many people fall for this basic thing.

[–] BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago

Let's talk about politics a whole hell of a lot less. Yes, things are awful and insane, but there is good stuff to discuss.

[–] cymbal_king@lemmy.world 15 points 6 days ago (1 children)

There's two subreddits I really miss: AskScience and AskHistorians. I was a regular and flaired contributor to AskScience, but its super helpful to generate a response when there's a good question. It would feel weird opining on a random science topic that I come up with. And I loved the well sourced AskHistorians posts. When I do see a c/AskHistorian post on Lemmy the responses are very low effort

[–] beejboytyson@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

Yup, that sub has high standard. You basically have to write in Chicago style. (academic standard for writing in history) I wanted to contribute one time but didn't want to spend hours writing.

[–] jadelord@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 5 days ago

Generously start using CWs (Content warnings) as folks used to do in the early days of Fediverse.

[–] RandomVideos@programming.dev 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It would be cool if people stopped thinking the only ideologies are their ideology and fascism

There are ideologies that are bad that arent far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist

[–] bathing_in_bismuth@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, I agree 100% but this also goes for the left. The tankies on some Lemmy instances are so vocal that it makes me appriciate the normal left more

[–] rip_art_bell@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

You and the person you're replying to are saying the same thing / agreeing

[–] bufalo1973 13 points 6 days ago (6 children)

I'll go for the technical side: having a distributed accounts manager so you only need one account to use every aspect of the Fediverse.

[–] glitchdx@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago

I thought that was part of the package when I made a lemmy account. Man was I disappointed.

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[–] stopforgettingit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 6 days ago (1 children)

My biggest issue with the fediverse and all alt social media in general is due to the current social climate and censorship on mainstream SM platforms, every alt platform is inundated with politics. Politics is very hot button, it breeds negative interactions and very often is worded in such a way that its very ragebait-y in order to increase engagement. I have this issue with Bluesky as well, even after blocking bad actors and bad communities, and muting keywords I still find myself overwhelmed with political content and I find it difficult to not engage even if I support the causes.

When I consume media that is not politically related, I find people are very positive and easy to connect with, the problem is that type of content is few and far between.

[–] match@pawb.social 13 points 6 days ago (1 children)

it's cool though because the fediverse has no incentives to increase engagement which means our ragebait is all organic and free of the profit motive!

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 11 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

"I am angry entirely for personal pleasure, not for profit."

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 13 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Please post more wholesome content

I tried some magic mushrooms the other day, has ab absolute horrible trip and decided to just watch something wholesome and funny.

I went to Lemmy

That did not go over well, all my content was cynical, sad, sarcastic... It made me feel even worse. I went on to try and watch some simply laugh Comedy, couldn't find friends anywhere, tried to find it on YouTube, big mistake.... Long story short, it was the longest night of my life and I'll bever ever try that shit again but for heavens sake, please try posting more actual positive and or funny content!

Any subs anyone could recommend for that?

[–] Krauerking@lemy.lol 3 points 6 days ago

If you want something great for being funny wholesome and weird while tripping I can't recommend a sub but I always really like this Jacob Wysocki video and just sketch comedy channels like Door Monster and Chris and Jack, etc...

Otherwise on here I like the comic communities. They have been pretty good.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

When you've been shown facts that contradict your argument, concede politely. People will respect you for it. In fact they'll probably respect you more than if you go down endless chains of trying to save face.

Remember, this should go both ways. There will be times when people concede to you, and other times when you need to concede.

I don't think it needs to take very many people doing this to create a snowball effect where it becomes the common way to debate.

[–] misteloct@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 6 days ago

We should upvote to the moon any comment that concedes their original viewpoint.

[–] Typewar@infosec.pub 9 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Hmm, maybe some more diversity? Right now it seems to be mostly hypernerds who use fediverse services. When was "Ask Lemmy" about web development questions.. you know

[–] Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Fix the world it exists in.

[–] Jomega@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

"To make a cup of coffee, you must first invent the universe."

[–] Asswardbackaddict@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

"If you can't say something nice..."

Shouldn't be regulated, but that's my advice for improving discourse and awareness.

Quit artificially upvoting US politics?

[–] altkey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 6 days ago

Sharing nice posts and personal experiences. We can discuss news pieces all day long under anonymous accounts with no need to really communicate with each other, just competing for a best take in the comment section, and it's something else entirely to discuss some OC with a person who shared it. Fedi is small and tight, so acting like we are a small community and not the Frontpage of the Internets may be beneficial to our existence there, leading to less toxic behavior and more quality interactions.

Ask youself, where have you seen the best comments and interactions? I've seen them when either post is OC, or if a person under a random post gives their expertise in something. While we can't predict the latter (if there's a Boing malfunction and there's a guy who worked with them who can go into details), we can encourage OC posters to do their thing and find if we ourselves can join them.

[–] omniman@piefed.zip 3 points 6 days ago

Can we all just post something instead of redirecting , every subreddit has this shit . I wanted to ask something about passkeys and i made a big post for that but all the technology sub just deleted it and I got the answer for it on reddit within 2 hr also there are no fun sub as well all the memes look shit and boring . No wonder nobody uses fediverse

Maybe dispense with the power-tripping moderators and also give me lots of money

[–] Fleur_@aussie.zone 1 points 5 days ago

Join/make communities that crack down hard on negativity

[–] amino@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 6 days ago (4 children)

we require men to read a single feminism book, just one /j

[–] pmk@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 6 days ago

The Will To Change by bell hooks. It was the first time ever I felt seen as a human by a feminist writer.

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[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I mean. Its pretty great compared to the rest of the internet.

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