Reddit is still a lot more crowded, but I prefer Lemmy simply because of no ads and the actual conversations that you can have with people.
Honestly, I root for lemmy and use it daily. However, Reddit still wins on pure content and niche communities.
Imgur was bought out and they nuked all the top all time photos and gifs, I call that the start of the downfall.
I generally prefer Lemmy to Reddit, although I do miss being able to find niche communities that are both populated and active. Smaller communities tend to become ghost towns around here, unfortunately.
Lemmy absolutely.
- no algorithm
- no ads
- actual real people in the comments
- the ability for third parties to make apps
- the fact that it’s not mainstream means most of the people on here are at least a little nerdy which I am here for.
- feels a lot like what reddit used to be 15 years ago before the age of algorithms and bots everywhere.
Lemmy 100% has an algorithm. It’s not a complicated one but any method for determining what content shows up is an algorithm.
No the commenter but I think it’s one of those language things where algorithm (at least in the context of social media) has come to mean a personalized feed, like two people have different all feeds versus an algorithm like sorting by hot or active posts that every has the same posts. To your point both are algorithms but it’s one of those thing where the word has taken on its own meaning
Precisely. The colloquial use of algorithm indicates a form of targeted content delivery where your personal preferences are weaponized against you (aka TikTok)
An open source algorithm that the user base can see and understand how it works is different than a closed source algorithm that serves to benefit advertisers more than users
That always comes with a double edged sword. An open source algorithm can be gamed more easily. IIRC, that’s why Reddit moved to closed source for theirs originally, spammers were specifically targeting it. I don’t think Lemmy’s big enough yet to attract that sort of detailed inspection, but it happened in the past. I’m not saying Lemmy should close source its algorithm, of course. Though maybe a pluggable algorithm would be a good idea, to make it so that people could use a diverse set of algorithms that would be more difficult to target as a whole?
Lemmy. Federation and the lack of a profit motive makes it much better.
I would also rather be surrounded by leftist vs liberal drama, rather than liberal vs fascist drama.
The latter is actually a good point. I had almost forgotten how constant and combative reddit was at times with the far-right peeps and incels and whatnot. At the time it had become so normal, one didn’t even think about it. Maybe offer alternative ideas (= argue) a while or just ignore, but now that you mention it, I don’t think there has been many situations like that here, for me at least. Not to say that the enlightened centrists aren’t very much the same in practice, and those I face here every now and then. They just aren’t nearly as bad in substance.
