Has the Reddit exodus killed the former Lemmy culture?

When I first started using Lemmy it seemed like such a nice place with interesting discussions. It seemed like the first group of people to join after the app exodus were being quite careful to be respectful of the existing culture.

Now, it seems as though the culture from Reddit has completely replaced it. Toxicity and all. I will say I do follow a lot of communities from a wide range of instances so it’s clearly not everywhere.

Am I the only one who’s feeling like we’ve just stormed in and bulldozed Lemmy?

amio,

No. Apart from the relentless political posting, you-know-what-instance and a small handful of other people being obviously bad faith actors, I actually think it's a chill, relatively nice little place. A bunch of people will have Opinions and not be too shy about them, I figure that's fine as long as they're not aggressively off-topic, offputtingly angry or shared in a douchebaggy way. I haven't seen much outright incivility so far, whereas Reddit is a fucking constant shit blizzard.

I do hope we'll stay vigilant about astroturfing and bad faith participation, though, because it wouldn't take much to ruin the whole thing. "Redditism" is a natural-ish development for any large website if there's not a strong culture for resisting it, but it did become abruptly and noticeably worse once it turned into a pawn in the 2016 US election. Politics, as always, is the mind killer.

wesker,
@wesker@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

It’s the politics, and the siloing as a result.

JasSmith,

Anything politics related is incredibly toxic. I've received death threats for having the wrong political opinions.

echo64,

Maybe don’t go around expunging your weirdo transphobia, hate against Muslims and refugees, and you won’t encounter as much toxicity.

givesomefucks,

Lots of people think “free speech” means they can say anything they want and everyone has to pretend it’s a rational well thought opinion…

Their version of “free speech” ends when they stop speaking, and they want to force everyone to listen to it and not call them a dumbass or bigot.

It’s that low empathy thing.

They want free speech for themselves but not anyone that disagrees with them.

Not to mention social media is private corporations. Like, if you go to Walmart and start screaming about how birds aren’t real, Walmart don’t have to let you stand there and scream all you want. They can just make you leave. Which is the equivalent of banning.

Chozo,

It's always the 'phobes that have the biggest hard-ons for free speech. I wonder why that is.

Ensign_Crab,

It’s always the 'phobes that have the biggest hard-ons for free speech.

Until there’s a book about gay penguins in a library.

FARTYSHARTBLAST,
@FARTYSHARTBLAST@kbin.social avatar

Expunging? Doesn't that mean to get rid of?

squiblet,
@squiblet@kbin.social avatar

I have received a death threat for having opinions about medical conditions, so... it's just sort of how it works talking to the public on the internet. People who work in retail may now and then receive death threats for serving coffee.

starlinguk,
@starlinguk@kbin.social avatar

Ah yeah I'm afraid we don't take the high road anymore. It's not worked. Probably because "the libs" have realised that y'all don't have a better nature to appeal to.

(And something tells me you're projecting)

Gnubyte,

Things are fine man. There’s just a lot of de federation lately which I don’t think is exactly right.

EremesZorn,

That depends entirely on what instances we are talking about. Lemmy.grad and Hexbear users have no business existing anywhere but their own shitty tankie bubble.

AlexTheTurtle,
@AlexTheTurtle@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

TRUE. fuck tankies.

Gnubyte,

Are those the super communists that are like fuck any place that’s not Russia and China? Lol

If so I guess I feel the pain but I just give em the block

RickyRigatoni,
@RickyRigatoni@lemmy.ml avatar

I do too but my fingers are starting to hurt with them infesting every corner of the fediverse.

zeppo, (edited )
@zeppo@lemmy.world avatar

I am relatively new here, having embraced Lemmy after fleeing reddit in June. During my short tenure I have observed a change in culture and decline in politeness and respect for others. However, I think that some claims about the rise of toxic behavior are overstated.

In any event, it’s like a city growing from 500 people to 5,000, or from 50,000 people to 500,000. Of course the culture is going to be changed. Such growth is important to avoid stagnation and death by attrition, however. I think at this point Lemmy has achieved a critical mass where it is likely to continue growing. When people ask “how can we grow Lemmy faster or further”, though, I question whether that is really a good idea. Sites like reddit are somewhat too large, which is great for niche interests but fairly horrible for the most popular communities.

sexy_peach,
@sexy_peach@feddit.de avatar

I don’t think so. I used to post every day so there would at least be some content. Now I don’t feel like that’s necessary anymore. I like it more now.

Spiracle,
@Spiracle@kbin.social avatar

Kbin user here. It does not federate downvotes from lemmy. So far, I have a total of two (2) downvotes and every single interaction, including the one I got downvoted for, was quite positive.

No toxicity in normal interactions so far. The only (slightly) toxic comment sections were regarding meta topics of users complaining about toxicity elsewhere and/or wanting to defederate more communities. Even those discussions were nearly entirely polite and productive.

The only somwhat toxic topic I participated in was when one car-enthusiast complained about the fuckcars community and got called out throughout the comment section. Piling on like that was probably not the best way and they deleted their post some time after.

INHALE_VEGETABLES,

It’s the circle of life. Something awful, the digg exodus, reddit, Twitter/x. Think of us shit posters as a sign of lemmy success.

roguetrick,

Us goons really shit up everywhere we show up don't we.

cstine,

Goons are responsible for the destruction of so many good things on the internet. Best $10 I’ve ever spent.

maegul,
@maegul@lemmy.ml avatar

From what I can gather it isn’t true that Reddit culture has completely supplanted what came before, but it has definitely shifted things overall, both mixing to some extent. Scale is part of that though, as is the filtering mechanisms provided by a relatively niche platform.

Antagonistic downvoting (I’m now basically against downvoting I think), superficial statements, especially those that are dismissively in disagreement to the point of unpleasantness or abusiveness … I’d say I’ve seen more of all these things.

One effect, I think, is the establishment of Reddit replacement communities and their gaining large membership which has shifted the centre of gravity here. The whole of lemmy.world being an example.

Besides all of that, I’d say I’ve seen the generally or more frequently presumed set of “obvious” opinions shift toward the mainstream, which isn’t surprising at all, but with a slightly ruder and superficial form of engagement (at times at least), it’s rather tiring.

schwim,
@schwim@reddthat.com avatar

Echo chambers are echo chambers, no matter the platform. As the voices grow, it gets louder. Just because it’s an alternative to the mainstream, I wouldn’t consider the members here smarter, more enlightened or savvier as a whole. Lemmy just got louder, that’s all.

polskilumalo,
@polskilumalo@lemmygrad.ml avatar

Yup, Reddit culture and redditorisms have very much taken a hold in Lemmy unfortunately. Hell I remember that well since I came over here after GenZedong got quarantined. If anything I’ve seen Lemmy culture maintained only in the places that have created and fostered it for years before Redditors came over and which were actively combating Reddit culture from coming over.

Those places being of course Lemmygrad and Hexbear, I would also include lemmy.ml here if it didn’t die a painful death. I remember it being a completely different place before, now I tend to avoid threads from there rather than take part. It just isn’t what it used to be, fortunately Hexbear somewhat offsets this problem by having a completely separate and distinct culture. I like them, and I like very much that they are Reddit resistant.

Greg,
@Greg@lemmy.ca avatar

You aspects of Reddit’s toxic culture have you observed on Lemmy?

Yoryo,

I've noticed trends like AttackBunny has described. Either you post a copy and paste response in a thread or risk the wrath of like 4 or 5 people just waiting to shit on your beliefs. Certain people aren't looking for discussions just opportunities to stroke their egos.

can,

SFW community with a “-porn” suffix. “updoot”.

rufus,

Yes. The old culture has completely been replaced. I still haven’t formed an 100% opinion on whether that’s good or bad. Maybe it’s neither.

atlasraven31,

The Reddit refugees came to Lemmy and made content. And everyone had a good time, except the occasional people that bitch about toxicity.

shinigamiookamiryuu,

It’s most likely just a phase, though it doesn’t help I made something for it.

Kissaki,
@Kissaki@feddit.de avatar

I don’t quite get what you made that community for?

Linking to bad content, that was downvoted, and then participating in a celebratory culture of them seems like an inherently toxic and negative thing? I don’t see how it’d help the issue.

though it doesn’t help I made something for it.

Are you saying you made it to help the issue, or irrelevant to it not helping?

shinigamiookamiryuu,

I’m saying I made something that’s more becoming of something that’s not a phase, and the way you describe it isn’t accurate at all. It’s not celebratory in the least, it exist to examine the why’s, and your perception having been cast, I will demonstrate for you and all your upvoters who probably have either never been on Reddit or want to taunt for the sake of it.

Kissaki,
@Kissaki@feddit.de avatar

You actually posted a screenshot of these comments? The -2 on your original comment counts as “downvoted into oblivion” as per the communities rules?

The community description says nothing about celebratory vs exploring as you claim it to be clearly one over the other here. And your example does not help that distinction either. It makes it more confusing / less indicative of your supposed intention - because rather than facilitating an open discussion and exploration you use a passive aggressive tone, and use this comment chain that was critical and started a discussion. You seem to be doing the opposite - specifically what I talked about - a toxic elevation.

shinigamiookamiryuu,

It’s because of what it’s based on. It should be noted OP asked a question based on a real issue, and I answered optimistically only to be have it deceptively demoralized, especially considering the whole point of Lemmy is to be another, hopefully better Reddit, and for that to be rewarded more than the optimism, all the while the post grading system many promised wouldn’t exist. Hence I said (not passive agressively) that I would use this as an opportunity to demonstrate what the average Redditor would already know, since it did leave the door open to interpret everyone as taunting me “for the safe of [demonstrating the community]”.

quinkin,

Tragedy of the commons.

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