I think it’s a boon that we’re a tiny fraction of Reddit’s size. Reddit is something like 30+ million MAUs and Lemmy dropped recently from 62k to ~50k. We’re a grain of sand compared to Reddit, and I think the community is better for it.
Lemmy isn’t really a Reddit alternative. We’re too small to have niche thriving communities, and depend 100% on sorting your feed by “all” or “local” to get new content. What’s nice is it feels like one close knit community vs closed off micro communities inside of subreddits.
I get exposed to more things this way oddly enough- viewing content I normally wouldn’t in favor of my smaller selection of subreddits. People are more polite, more informative, and far more original with their comments.
Keep on doing your thing, everyone! We’re building something different here.
To be honest, even Reddit doesn’t really feel like Reddit anymore. I have a certain nostalgia for how the site used to be a decade ago, it feels far too corporate now.
I am loving that it doesn’t feel like reddit, and it’s really weird to me that anyone does while they are also screaming about how terrible reddit was in every way. It seems like a lot of people are forgetting that the reason reddit sucks is because most of the communities are too big and have been around too long.
Large groups of people with a shared interest are not welcoming, they are condescending. They are jaded and have “seen it all” and have no qualms telling others that they are anything from inexperienced to inept. Any opinion outside of the norm is attacked with vitriol. New members questions might only get a response to “set them straight”. They reinforce echo chambers just to feel superior, while claiming that they aren’t echo chambers because they are constantly arguing with other people. The whole concept of a normal conversation is lost on them because they can’t separate their ego from their demeanor. They take circle jerking so seriously that they can’t even circle jerk anymore and have to uj/ every comment. They can’t use sarcasm because there are so many hateful people that would agree with them.
I’m not trying to say “back in my day frankfurters were a nickel” but even ten years ago, the infighting, briggading, downvote wars, smugness, and soul filled anger and negativity on reddit was so much lessened that it doesn’t even feel like the same website. It feels like I’m reading YouTube comments. What used to be a place where people might disagree with you, but at most they would just make fun of your bad grammar, or misspelling, is now just a website full of hate mongerers trying to divide people into groups.
Here on Lemmy feels to me like the old days of reddit. I can feel free to comment on whatever post I feel like and don’t have to worry about someone coming at me full bore, just to try to make me feel bad that I like to eat American cheese on my breakfast sandwich, or like the feeling of wet socks on carpet.
Sorry for the rant.
That’s why we need a new place that feels like reddit used to feel: like walking into a cocktail party full of interesting strangers having interesting conversations.