Lemmy is a failed Reddit alternative

I first joined Lemmy back during the big Reddit exodus of last year. I like many others wanted an alternative to Reddit, and I thought that this might've been the one. I made two accounts, one on lemmy.world and another on sh.itjust.works, in the June of last year that I used on and off for about 4 months.

At first Lemmy was exciting because it was so active. There were so many new users who were enthusiastic about turning this platform into a genuine alternative. There was a communal effort to create and interact with content, and for awhile it worked. Lemmy was truly interesting during the summer of last year. However, this stream of dedicated users started to slowly decline.

A lot of people hoped that if they were active, they would attract and retain more users to this place to the point where the community would foster interest specific communities like Reddit, but that never happened. After a few months, a lot of users lost interest and went back to Reddit where the userbase is so massive that there is an active community for just about anything.

With this reverse exodus back to Reddit, Lemmy ended up with the same groups that were active on it before hand: political extremists, tech nerds, privacy enthusiasts, and shitposters. To be fair, all these groups are larger now than they were a year ago, but that's all this platform has to offer. If you're into any of these things and primarly these things then Lemmy can be a good alternative to Reddit, but for the general masses? Lemmy is just not good.

For example, a NBA post on the NBA subreddit can get you thousands of interactions in a couple of hours. An NBA post on here will maybe get you a dozen over the course of a couple of days. The only content that will gain any traction here are tech news, political propaganda, and maybe some memes. I don't see this changing any time soon. Even if Reddit implodes, I still think Lemmy will remain a niche platform. I think this evident by the fact that this platform hasn't really progressed in a year.

ChowJeeBai ,

Lemmy works for me, Reddit doesn't. I only use reddit now for porn.

shortwavesurfer ,

Lemmynsfw

ChowJeeBai ,

Nah. As people like to point out, much more uh, special interest groups in Reddit. I don't need the community aspects for that kinda stuff.

Unless you're into that.

zecg ,
@zecg@lemmy.world avatar

I thought I liked it and that it had enough users, thank you for setting me straight.

shortwavesurfer ,

And we will still be here when Reddit finally does implode. Either from high interest rates and not being able to raise money or whatever we will still be here.

hamid ,
@hamid@lemmy.world avatar

Who cares? Lemmy is literally beta software and it isn't corporate growth driven social media. Also it doesn't have to replace anything. I use a lot of apps. I use both Lemmy and Reddit and always have. I have Instagram too, I also use both Twitter and Mastodon. I have Signal, Snapchat, Linkedin and Nextdoor.I like Lemmy, it is different than Reddit and that is fine. I like it better and have my own server.

scrubbles ,
@scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech avatar

Right? Failed by who's standards? For me, I'm pretty goddang happy here. I get enough content, I don't feel constantly anxious or angry, the people are generally pretty nice. Is OP deciding it failed? Or are others?

KazuchijouNo ,

I completely agree with you there, Lemmy is its own thing. People are nice and respectful, communities are more constructive and less competitive, mods actually like what they're doing; the "vibe" is completely different here.
No karma or awards incentives, pure cooperation and real social interactions.

We're open source! open hearts and open arms!

KazuchijouNo ,

You might be right, Lemmy is not for the masses... I would consider myself a tech nerd, privacy enthusiast and shitposter; so migrating from Reddit was the best thing to ever happen to me. This place feels like a real home where I can share my interests with people who are incredibly helpful, kind and passionate about what they do. This place is a heaven for people trying to escape corporate and mass media. And I agree with you, Lemmy is a failed Reddit alternative, because it's not a Reddit alternative, I don't see it like that anymore. People here are genuine, I love that <3

Today ,

Not a tech nerd or privacy enthusiast -just an old mom who occasionally shitcomments. I like it here.

land ,
@land@lemmy.ml avatar

Exactly. On Reddit you get roasted for asking a simple question like wtf. Lemmy is the way.

scrubbles ,
@scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech avatar

Oh so you're saying all Reddit users literally eat babies?

/s. The vitriol on that site was just exhausting.

KazuchijouNo ,

Are you suggesting that they are individuals? I mean, have you ever seen every Reddit user in the same room? Exactly! they are all the same 3 people replying to themselves (or so they seem to me).

SparrowRanjitScaur ,

What's reddit?

echo ,

I've been noticing a lot of Reddit's undesirables making their way over here. Same whiny little shits whose only purpose in life is to be trolls.

scrubbles ,
@scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech avatar

Then getting mad when we call them out on their trolling

die444die ,

Thankfully they’re super easy to spot and block.

sndmn ,

What you should have posted was nothing.

MyOpinion ,
@MyOpinion@lemm.ee avatar

I now turn to Lemmy daily. It is anything but failed.

ada ,
@ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

This is a screenshot of the activity in this community. It looks ok to me...

https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/pictrs/image/4aa55c39-2afc-4de9-98f5-ad0bdd9b84c4.png

Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

I kinda wish they had posts/comments per day included. Users per day doesn't mean much; feels like it just counts views that had no interaction as I can see with a couple communities I moderate that get ~100 users a day, but nothing is being voted on, posted or commented.

morphballganon ,

You are entitled to delete your Lemmy app of choice and return to the corporate-approved Reddit(TM) content-consumption experience.

mozz ,
@mozz@mbin.grits.dev avatar

political extremists, tech nerds, privacy enthusiasts, and shitposters

Dude thank god

I miss my old nerd internet. I won’t say you’re wrong for wanting something that isn’t that, but I personally wish it was more that way than it currently is. SDF or mander is honestly a lot closer to how I like the culture and interactions to be, than Lemmy.world. I was super psyched when I came on and there were all these communists and science weirdos.

for the general masses? Lemmy is just not good.

For example, a NBA post on the NBA subreddit can get you thousands of interactions in a couple of hours. An NBA post on here will maybe get you a dozen over the course of a couple of days.

Honestly, when sports started showing up on the main page of Reddit it was confusing and alarming to me. I recognize that I am the weird one here (from the POV of the ordinary person society), but I much prefer just having my nerd stuff and having it be unencumbered by any normal person stuff

I think we actually have exactly the same view of Lemmy and its accurate position in relation to most normal people, just disagreeing over whether that is or isn’t a good thing

Blaze ,
@Blaze@reddthat.com avatar

Mander and SDF are great instances

rrrurboatlibad ,

Meh, it works for me. I like it here more than reddit. Sorry that you haven't found your groove. It toom me a while of finding the right things to subscribe and right folks to follow before my feed felt fun and interesting. I use Lemmy as a jumping off point for rabbit holes that are interesting to me

MikeOToxin ,

But why do you care about engagement with your online posts? Is your opinion that important? Or is it just your need for external validation from the faceless masses?

Either way, some introspection may be good here.

Or, ya know, just go back to reddit, whatever dude.

Gorilladrums21 OP ,

The whole point of social media is to interact with others... I don't understand what you're point is here. You just seem mad because I said something you don't like.

MikeOToxin ,

Well, you're here, yelling into what you seem to consider an 'empty void'.

Why?

Also, your *

kylie_kraft ,

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

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    MikeOToxin ,

    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the moderator]

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    Kolanaki ,
    @Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

    I mean... People come to social media to, you know.... Socialize. I don't post shit and just want upvotes. I wanna talk to people about whatever the post is about.

    MikeOToxin ,

    OP's wording is very... Seeking when they talk about posting 'get[ting] you thousands of interactions'.

    You think they're replying to those 'thousands' of people? No. They're getting thousands of up votes, and that's what they're missing on lemmy.

    over_clox ,

    If you don't like Lemmy, you already know where to go. Enjoy Spez, the ads, the selling of your data to train AI, etc..

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