Or at least less so than Reddit. It’s good, but, I can’t put my finger on it. Even when the content is good, the servers are up, and I’m getting notifications responding to comments, it’s never come to me doomscrolling for hours.

Edit: Guys, guys, I’m not trying to say Lemmy should be addictive or Reddit is better because it is. The opposite. I thought being addicted to something was always a bad thing? I was just curious as that I rarely ever see the content droughts people talk about, so I can scroll for as long as I want to with no interruptions, but unlike with Reddit, I don’t, and I would want to know a reason why. Is it psychological? Something behind the scenes? The type of people here?

472 points

It’s not supposed to be. It doesn’t jam endless recommendations in your feed once you’ve gotten at the end of the new, fresh content. I feel like it’s a feature, not a bug, to have platforms that don’t optimise for time spent on them, because they don’t need our attention to show us ads.

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121 points

I’m so happy this is the top comment when I came in here. We’re not centralized social media that requires constant content generation to acquire more views and we shouldn’t try to treat it as such. Donate to your instances when you can, contribute to communities you care about with posts/comments, and then when you reach the end of your feed log off. How forums are supposed to be imo.

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30 points

I never realized all this but it’s so true. I browse and comment until I’m caught up, then log off.

Wow

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49 points

Exactly. Places/communities like Lemmy can and should serve different functions for different people - newsfeed, forum, meme collection/dumping ground - but the fine line between value and addiction gets obliterated by moneyed interests.

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28 points

There is no karma system so no people shitposting and reposting as much to pump up their score. Without this kind of gamification there is less noise.

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18 points

Basically, no dark patterns built to keep you scrolling.

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5 points

So then what are the up/down votes for?

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12 points

Individual post/comment votes. They would only get used for post/comment sorting at best. Nothing more.

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12 points
Deleted by creator
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2 points

Fiscally right?? Does that mean you write a check to Jeff Bezos every month?

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0 points
Deleted by creator
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7 points

Honestly an optional recommendation feature would be cool.

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2 points

Yeah, I’d like it too, but I suppose it’s a lot of work.

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1 point

The only person here answering the question lol

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107 points

Agree’d, people aren’t contributing enough so it seems dead after a 30min check per day (might not be a bad thing).

If lemmy is to thrive and survive, post, comment and start discussions. That’s what is addictive and provides value.

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47 points

There are algorithms working in the background on Reddit to keep you there. Same with pretty much all “social media”. They aren’t on Lemmy. The point of Reddit is to keep you there, and shove as many ads down your throat as possible. Ads don’t exist here, and no one (as far as i can tell) is making money from you being here.

Yeah, there is less content, but that’s not really the biggest reason.

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29 points

There are algorithms working in the background on Reddit to keep you there. Same with pretty much all “social media”. They aren’t on Lemmy. The point of Reddit is to keep you there, and shove as many ads down your throat as possible. Ads don’t exist here, and no one (as far as i can tell) is making money from you being here.

I agree with what you’re saying about the algorithms sucking you in, but disagree that’s the biggest reason. Lemmy just doesn’t have a lot of content, browse HOT or go through your subscriptions and you’re done pretty quick.

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14 points

If you run out of items to view on Lemmy, you can always go out and, like, engage with family, or hobbies, or grass-touching…

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25 points

Thunder’s latest update added a dismiss read posts feature, it lets you remove read posts on demand as you scroll, “refreshing” the feed with content you haven’t seen, but without actually refreshing the page.

Lets you scroll a lot deeper into the feed without it feeling “dead” or “stale”.

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8 points

Good to know!

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8 points
*

post, comment and start discussions. That’s what is addictive and provides value.

Just want to +1 this. You’d be surprised how “addictive” it can be to get active. And probably more valuable to you too.

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7 points
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Massively. If you can contribute, ask and learn on a discussion then you get WAY more out of it.

Lemmy is perfect for that atm, reddit you’d get immediately drowned out or some dickhead just dismissing your point and that’s it, done.

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6 points

Despite being a smaller community, I find I’ve been getting significantly more replies on Lemmy. Maybe it’s easier to get noticed.

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2 points

No, I will not discuss this with you, nor will I write a comment.

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6 points
*

Reddit’s continuous contributions were more shitposts and inside jokes though, so the little I do read here feels a lot more personal and more in depth. It’s pretty nice.

I needed excuses to get the hell off my phone more anyway.

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5 points

I browse about 5 hours a day according to my phone lol

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4 points
*

Not sure. Sort by “All” and “New” and there’s a lot.

Not sure how this statement will age, but I feel Lemmy is here to stay. At least for now. Means it will likely grow over time.

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2 points

We just need to get those mods from ask historians here and the millions will come I’m sure

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1 point

i think also u [sometimes] need to wait 6-12 hours because people arent viewing,commenting,upvoting when they are asleep,working, or busy with life.

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81 points

For me at least, there’s just not enough content. Not enough communities, with not enough posts with not enough comments. Lemmy still hasn’t reached that tipping point where it can replace sites like Reddit. It fluctuates, but I think it is on the way.

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18 points

It’s very similar to old Reddit

Reddit eventually got super-specific subs because so many people showed up and made more and more niche content that suited the needs of subgroups in communities. For example, lots of big subreddits banned memes, prompting the rise of specific shitposting groups

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3 points

We came there, from the digg exodus. Now we’re here, from the Reddit exodus.

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1 point

Honestly I feel like we’ve all known reddit would go down like digg one day.

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0 points
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I came to Reddit from Slashdot, like, a couple of months before the Digg exodus. It was cool to see it grow so quickly and become the hot new thing, but a lot of the more established users were quick to note the changes in culture. It probably took me those few months just to figure out how the UI worked. It was and is a website of mediocre design.

I always preferred Slashdot and its moderation system, but I’m far too much of a dilettante for its narrow range of conversation topics. I never cared for Digg. It felt too safe.

I know Eternal September brings problems but the large user base at Reddit made sure there was always fresh content and all kinds of weird subreddits. Too bad they went corporate.

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16 points

But I am shocked to see the pace it’s growing with,and content quality is just(chef kiss)

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0 points

Beans.

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9 points

Yep, it doesn’t take long until you start seeing posts that you’ve seen already.

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3 points

Minecraft communities seem to get a post a week at this point. Wish there was more interaction across the board.

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70 points

Social media addiction comes from algorithms designed to psychologically manipulate you into scrolling endlessly to maximize ad impressions. It’s not a good thing.

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22 points

I truly appreciate the fact that I can browse Lemmy for my entertainment, and easily walk away when I need to be an adult and don’t auto smash the button when I open my phone.

To me this is a very, very good thing.

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4 points

It’s not, but since Lemmy and Reddit seem the same on a surface level (and unlike what many people say, I sort by New and so never see old content), I can doomscroll and waste time on both platforms. However, with Lemmy, this bad habit of mine has been tempered severely, and I don’t exactly know why. It’s a good thing, but a good thing that just came out of nowhere.

Some people here say because there’s no recommendations, which I feel is a good answer, but it feels just a little short. Is that really it?

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64 points
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Removed by mod
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21 points

It’s like listening to the best band in your town and then comparing it to the music at the top of the global charts. The pure scale means you’re gonna get better bands if you include “everyone”. But I totally also hope Lemmy gets bigger. As a platform it isn’t inferior in terms of UX. We just need everyone to switch.

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Tbh, I find most of the music on top of the global charts to be obnoxious bullshit.

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3 points

That’s fair. Let’s rather go with a music platform. That has everything.

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6 points

Change sorting to “Top 6hr”. I browse by Hot sometimes but that’s my primary sort atm

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5 points

I find it’s better when I sort by top 6h

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4 points

The biggest issue is Lemmy shows old posts for too long on the front page

There is an easy solution to that:

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3 points

That doesn’t have to be a bad thing. I commented on posts that were weeks old or a month old. Reddit had this bad habit that everything older than 30 minutes was irrelevant already.

Sure, seeing old posts doesn’t help to create an image of activity. But don’t think that something old is irrelevant, unless it’s a news post.

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