Why does lemmy seem better for engagement and conversation then (I meant than) Mastodon

On average if I make a post on Mastodon whether I get a comment, and a continued conversation is either hit or miss.

On Lemy if I make a post it’s almost insane the probalility of actual comments, conversation and discusion with many users that can occur in a single post compared to Mastodon.

Is this because of the communities on Lemy making things more seamless and simple to find content I might want to consume and discuss as a user? Because say I join a Mastodon server, nothings really organized by topics or anything. Sure there are hashtags but, the user would have to know to search a specific hashtag and there’s the chance of even missing somes post that may be related even if the topic is similar to a hashtag searched for.

Who knows, what are Lemy users thoughts on this?

I know one thing, if you can make a good platform, then you can get great conversations in anything that people are interested in. It seems to me Lemy is the best at this for most users. While on Mastodon, while i’m not saying I hadn’t had people comment on my posts, it seems less likely then Lemmy. I don’t think I made a single post where no one has commented atleast something on Lemy.

rob299,

I am proud that one of my posts managed to get to 100 upvotes.

shinigamiookamiryuu,

I don’t know, but I’m about a year into Mastodon and haven’t found a single person to follow and interact with on a regular basis. I signed up during the surge so they specifically told me to go for the masto.a1 instance because it was the only one not overloaded, and I can see why. Currently I use my profile there as a kind of quasi-storage, as it’s not like it doesn’t work.

rob299,

if you like anime you can try Sakurajima.moe, the staff and users on that particular instance are conversaters.

shinigamiookamiryuu,

Do I have to re-register to get into it?

rob299,

if it’s a different instance.

Bebo,

You can migrate from your old instance to a new one

shinigamiookamiryuu,

How does one do that on here?

Bebo,

To clarify, I was talking about migration on Mastodon. There isn’t a migration option on lemmy yet. I have heard that migration function on lemmy is on the pipeline, though not sure exactly what it would entail (as in whether posts and comments would be migrated or not, since on Mastodon you can migrate with only your followers as far as I know).

clark,
@clark@midwest.social avatar

I’ve got nothing new to say except that I have tried Mastodon several times and it hasn’t stuck to me. Very difficult to get any interactions at all, let alone conversations.

shinigamiookamiryuu,

Who would you recommend following?

clark,
@clark@midwest.social avatar

I’ve got nothing new to say except that I have tried Mastodon several times and it hasn’t stuck to me. Very difficult to get any interactions at all, let alone conversations.

shinigamiookamiryuu,

Who would you recommend following?

thegiddystitcher,
@thegiddystitcher@lemm.ee avatar

It seems to depend a lot on the topic tbh, for example cross stitch is more active on Lemmy whereas knitting is more active on Mastodon. Memes, Lemmy. Gamedev, Mastodon. etc etc. I end up cross-posting a lot from Mastodon to Lemmy just to cover all my bases 😄

Your post kind of dismisses hashtags but given that they’re basically what all of Mastodon runs on, I’d very much recommend using them. Both to build your own follow list and feeds, as well as in your posts to reach other people.

And don’t be afraid to ask for a boost if you have something to say that you think is relevant to a much wider audience.

rob299,

I wouldn’t use mastodon without hashtags, but they have their limitations and potential short comings.

scytale,

Because Lemmy is a forum type of site, which is designed for discussions; whereas Mastodon is microblogging, which is designed for users to follow people they are interested in.

Appoxo,
@Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Basically Twitter vs Reddit.
Or some tumblr page vs a website forum. (not sure about that one)

Heavybell,
@Heavybell@lemmy.world avatar

I view Mastodon as a publishing platform. You follow some creator, and they post stuff. You can comment on it, boost it, maybe others will comment on that but probably not. It’s not for discussions, just like twitter.

By contrast Lemmy and other redditlikes are super forums. Discussion is the point.

rob299,

That’s a way to look at it.

TWeaK,

Because we’re far cooler than them.

danileonis,
@danileonis@lemmy.ml avatar

Lemmy (like Reddit) is about topics, and communities are formed around them. Mastodon (like Twitter/X) is user-centric, and discussions are formed around them. They are simply two different approaches to the social component.

The nature of these social networks makes one more useful for already known users/organizations and less for the common user. In fact, if you want to follow a particular person, Mastodon is more useful, but if you want to talk about some topic in general, Lemmy will always be superior.

rob299,

I guess that’s particularly what I meant. While mastodon you’d have to build up a following to get anywhere near even the amount of comments on this post right here. Unless you get lucky with one or two posts which can happen, I known an owner of a smaller Mastodon instance (with more then 300 users so not the smallest of small instances but still small.) to manage to get over 100 likes and over 50 boosts on a post, and when they did they linked to it and was like, “ha, see you can get traction on Mastodon.”

OhmsLawn,

I think the language you just used answered your own question: “manage to get”. Those platforms, with likes and retweets, boosts (and to some degree, Karma) are competitive, everyone vying for increased following. Some might follow, comment, retweet or boost genuinely. Most are, at least subconsciously, looking to expand their personal influence.

That attitude obviously also exists here, but it’s tempered by the lack of an endgame. It’s harder to become Internet famous without a scorecard.

Edit: repetitive words words

half_built_pyramids,

This. Additionally Mast/Twitter/bsky is anxiety inducing. You want to post and comment and get a following so that when you want to share a cool 3d print, or a good shit post, it’ll actually get seen. So there’s always this pressure to post something insightful and funny and in-group so that you get followers. Otherwise it’s zero engagement. On bsky specifically there’s a setting that’s on by default where comments with 0 likes don’t get shown. So unless you have followers who like your stuff you’ll literally never be seen.

Here you’ll usually get at least one upvote or down vote.

balderdash9,

That sounds exhausting

half_built_pyramids,

It was. I tried out bsky because I got a code. It was like re-creating class but on the internet. I don’t want power to consolidate in minorities anymore. Got tired of it super quick.

JoMiran,
@JoMiran@lemmy.ml avatar

Can I follow a specific Lemmy user by using Mastodon?

e-ratic,
@e-ratic@kbin.social avatar

Yes, https://mastodon.social/@JoMiran/with_replies

JoMiran,
@JoMiran@lemmy.ml avatar

Nice

Kbin_space_program,

You can follow a specific fediverse user by using Kbin, too.

Usernameblankface,
@Usernameblankface@lemmy.world avatar

Well, this explains why mastodon has little to no draw for me.

rob299,

People could advertise this as feature about using lemmy, that the probalility of getting comments are pretty high. particularly on Mastodon, because it’s certainly something people are looking for, after coming from platforms like Youtube that keep hiding your posts. I think it’s mostly the ease of use with the communities. Because on Mastodon, while a instance hosted may have a dedicated topic, posts aren’t typically organized. and it’s harder to find posts that interests you if people either use different hash tags then what you search for, and the added fact that you have to constantly search, while once you join a Lemmy community you just scroll the post feed In said community.

willya,
@willya@lemmyf.uk avatar

Because there’s a lot of us wanting Lemmy to grow and sorting by new.

rob299,

I love sorting by new, I kinda wish it was a defualt thing, while on Mastodon posts seem to automatically sort by new, yet I seem to get less interaction in comments on various posts on Mastodon.

Rentlar,

If logged in, you can change the default sorting method and post scope in your user settings. Depending on your interface this option should reflect when you open it (works and can be set in Jerboa for example).

https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/4e12f2e0-8894-4c59-b34b-5594753130f1.jpeg

Hot’s my favourite because I get a good mix of posts people on “New” upvoted and popular posts of the day.

lugal,

Interesting, I was about to argue the opposite:

Mastodon doesn’t have a sorting algorithm to choose, it’s always sorted by new (with the little difference that boosts count but still).

I think the thing is that Lemmy users sort by all kinds of algorithms. You have the new sorter that start the conversation and keep in it when others react to it. But no one would react if all sorted by new and that’s kind of the fact on mastodon.

IamRoot,

You mean than, not then.

One thing happens, THEN another thing happens.

One thing can be better THAN another.

rob299,

correct.

Nemo,

Because microblogging is about shouting into the void and threaded fora are about conversation.

sentient_loom,
@sentient_loom@sh.itjust.works avatar

This is it. It’s the same as Reddit being better than Twitter for conversation.

But this is also why Kbin is the best technology, combining both platforms.

pastermil,

Are you sure about that? Because they way I see it, Kbin is lagging behind both Mastodon & Lemmy.

GeekFTW,
@GeekFTW@kbin.social avatar

kbin has been vastly lagging behind lemmy because for a lengthy period of time development has been effectively stopped as the primary dev (ernest) was going through some bad real life issues which took priority. This led to a lot of people leaving kbin or blocking it outright because of spam and bots and lack of updates.

Ernest returned a weekish ago and is back to publishing updates (including several which have already killed the spam problem, being able to transfer community ownership and more) and daily posts dictating what he's working on and pushing (including the API which should be within the next few days).

Lemmy at this point has had a huge head start and isn't basically one person so kbin lagging behind isn't surprising. Doesn't mean their statement of 'But this is also why Kbin is the best technology, combining both platforms.' is any less accurate. Kbin does combine both platforms, Lemmy doesn't. 'Best' can be subjective, but if that's their opinion then there ya go.

Sabata11792,
@Sabata11792@kbin.social avatar

I just like having the option to dip my toes in the micro blogging stuff. I still don't know how to mine it for dopamine though.

KinNectar,
@KinNectar@kbin.run avatar

A lot of the devs left Kbin due to the on-man-leadership problem and started their own fork Mbin which has been progressing more quickly. A lot of instances have moved to Mbin, including kbin.run which I am on. Either way, it is performing very well overall and does enable interaction with both Lemmy and Mastodon instances. I check Lemmy instances directly periodically and don't see any advantage to returning when Mbin lets me interact with more content.

sentient_loom,
@sentient_loom@sh.itjust.works avatar

It’s lagging behind in terms of adoption, but it’s a better platform.

vonxylofon,

Yep. I’ve been here for one day and I’m already talking in conversations. Took me two weeks to get anywhere on Mastodon. (And exactly the same on Reddit and Twitter before… the incidents.)

Blaze,
@Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Welcome

rob299,

Twitter doing this was by design, while Mastodon doesn’t tend to shadow ban. I might make my guesses about why, but I don’t know the actual complete reasoning as to why it seems to be better for discusion on Lemmy.

vonxylofon,

I think it’s not even about shadowbanning, I think it’s about Twitter not giving you anything to interact with (a discovery mechanism). Reddit/Lemmy has a list of subreddits/communities that have a clear focus, so you can jump right in and engage. Neither Twitter nor Mastodon have that. There, you need to find people who generally post/share things that interest you, but that’s a lot more difficult.

otter,
@otter@lemmy.ca avatar

Welcome!

We actually spun up a new community for new people, feel free to drop by with any questions or thoughts :)

!newtolemmy

vonxylofon,

Thanks! I’ll check it out.

papalonian,

But this is also why Kbin is the best technology, combining both platforms.

Can you explain this a little further? I was on kbin originally, but jumped to Lemmy after boost came out. From what I’ve seen they’re more or less the same experience, but I’m not super educated on the intricacies of the Fediverse

can,

Kbin is a link aggregator with nested discussions (like lemmy, or reddit) but it also is a fully featured microblogging service (like mastadon, or Twitter).

You can microblog on kbin, engage with hashtags, etc.

Kbin is lemmy and mastadon rolled into one.

Bebo,

I had similar thoughts as OP then it took me some time to realise this. Microblogging is when you just need to say something but don’t care to have a discussion about it.

fmstrat,

For some reason I would love to see this get hundreds of upvotes and just this one comment.

Not a mastodon user, so my comment is useless anyway 😉

rob299,

Knowing my current luck on Lemmy from the last 2 days, idk how well that would work.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • random
  • uselessserver093
  • Food
  • [email protected]
  • aaaaaaacccccccce
  • test
  • CafeMeta
  • testmag
  • MUD
  • RhythmGameZone
  • RSS
  • dabs
  • oklahoma
  • Socialism
  • KbinCafe
  • TheResearchGuardian
  • SuperSentai
  • feritale
  • KamenRider
  • All magazines
    •