It’s almost exactly a copy of reddit issues but most people that use reddit haven’t heard about it.
Even Reddit wasn’t “popular” on the levels that it has been for over a decade. It is more about time and people finding it like they did with early Reddit (and Digg before that). New people will come as long as they see active instances and as more helpful (or even funny) posts/comments show up in search results. Kind of like how a lot of questions in search engines will show basically the same questions being asked on Reddit. Also Lemmy is a little bit confusing to new people that aren’t used to how Fediverse/Lemmyverse sites work. Not very hard, but does feel a bit overwhelming since stuff they are used to are super centralized.
For now most instances kind of feel like BBS/forums back in the 90s/00s, but with a Reddit (or similar sites) kind of layout/interaction style. Which I like since I had a lot of great times on old forums. The subs are still small enough to actually see familiar users show up and have better vibes on them. Though it does mean that new/niche subs have the chance of not getting enough people to get going, and have more people join and post new things.
I came here during the Exodus. I just did a search on similar sites to Reddit. Lemmy was at the top. Been here ever since.
Exactly the same with me.
I’m here because I like the way the upvote/downvote feature works on here better than Reddit. Theoretically you could have equal upvotes and downvotes on a post on Reddit and it would look like there is almost no engagement at all. Here it’s far more honest.
It takes time for network effects to build up and I suspect they (the entrenched, the silos) know that
You can fuck a community and it takes years to recover
My latest complaint about Reddit: old reddit (old.reddit.com) is so broken that clicking on your inbox doesn’t make the notifications go away
Endless VC hype cycle. Fuck your users, returns are all that matters
Why should it be? Embrace this moment when it is both active and not yet destroyed by the mindless masses. For me this is the perfect size of community
popular
How popular is it?
more popular
How much more popular are you thinking of?
website
Just the one instance?
but most people that use reddit haven’t heard about it.
Phew! ;)
It’s almost exactly a copy of reddit
The magic of reddit isn’t just the structure of the website, it’s the fact that there are so many people posting to diverse niche subjects. Although one structural thing lemmy is really lacking is the wiki and post flare components; those help give experts a reason to make effortful contributions as they do not fade into the ether after a few days.
That said, if reddit was new in 2025 or 2020, I don’t think it would take off as much. It gained popularity in a previous time of the internet and is now coasting off that.
Reddit greatly benefitted from the DIGG implosion (Reasons include issues with power users, censorship, redesigns, etc.) around I want to say 2012 +/-. Similar to how this site benefitted from the Reddit API implosion the other year. For social media applications, success usual comes from a halfway-decent platform + lucky timing. (This is all from memory, so apologies for any inaccuracies and generalizations.)
Well it’s not all that great here let’s be honest. “Why aren’t more people under the bridge doing crack??? It makes me feel so alivee!!!”
We like it this way. Please stop pulling this thread.
Reddit removes (or at least did at one point) any lemmy links or posts trying to get people to switch to Lemmy.
Not yet during the api blackout thing. I saw Lemmy posted everywhere. I kind of thought a lot more people would move over.
My posts and comments linking to Lemmy have stayed up, and received comments.
Maybe it’s true for some subreddits as a mod choice, but it isn’t true for all subreddits.
I wonder if other platforms do the same.
Not the only case of this happening; Corporate Social Media providers do not want the Fediverse to succeed at all.
Instagram (and Fascbook, and WhatsApp, and Threads) all censor references to PixelFed.
If you cross post, it is best to watermark your photos with your PixelFed address.
Watermarking is great when there is a strong enough community to make original content. I’m sure there are communities like that, but I’m not in many of the hobby communities here.
The joining process is too cumbersome and a few things like cross posting across instances are way too complex for people to easily understand.
I think a “join default lemmy instance” should be an option. Let the people experience the fediverse and have time to pick the instance that best fits them.
Not sure why you’re getting down voted… These things are true. Maybe amended to “way too complex for most people to easily understand” would be less controversial.
The vast majority of people’s relationship with technology ends with an email address and a credit card. Here on Lemmy there tends to be a more sophisticated understanding of social media and the underlying social and technical aspects. But the idea that you have to do anything more than decide to join something and at most you need an email and a credit card would be a significant barrier to entry for most.
Or they see .ml and downvote or all those that hate the user because Geneva isn’t liberal
Most people downvoting probably haven’t ever questioned how Lemmy works.
For example: posts are duplicated across instances. But usernames and accounts are not.
Like the early internet. It gatekeeps by requiring a certain level of technical know how. I like it, it keeps out a lot of stupid.
I don’t know, but I like it this size. Feels homey. Except for the large communist presence.
👻 spooky scary communists! 👻
there’s a specter haunting the fediverse 😎
The specter of COMMUNISM!
Hey I’m not a communist !
you should really fix that
i’m content being a marxist informed anarchist :)
Where do you depart from Marx?
This isn’t an issue of Lemmy itself, but I realized after I made the switch that I personally am a bit burnt-out from the Reddit model in general at this exact moment.
I’m using other Fedi apps more at this moment in time. I’ll probably be more active later in the year, but it’s a nice little break being on the smaller Fediverse apps where things are a bit more personal with the people I’m interacting with, which has been fun for me.
I think Lemmy/Piefed will grow to get more Reddit sized with time. Personally, I get like 10x the engagement on comments and posts here than I ever did on Reddit, which to me makes it much more joyful to be around.
I’m feeling the burn out as well. It’s refreshing to see that there are actual discussions on here compared to sifting through all the joke comments on Reddit.
Came here to say that.
Because in my opinion people are used to reddit, and is the biggest one, baiscally everyone else is there, why changing for a platform where you have evem to choose " an what? An instance?"), with a fraction of the users.
I stopped using reddit after the api rules changes, i quit twiitter as sson as that nazi guy bought it.
The main socials I use are mastodon and lemmy.
How many of my friends are on madtodon? 1 or 2, how many of them are active there? 0. And i think my nbers are even higher than wjat i think they should be because most of my friemds works in the IT
People unfortunately just wants everything quickly, without hassle, and are not prone to change.
A question on reddit? Probably you’ll get an answer in few hours. On lemmy? You are luckynif you’ll get one.
I have a small crafting page, that I’m trying to spread using only mastodon, it’s much harder. These are the reasons I think.
And most people don’t even care about the content of if their timeline is 85% ads and suggested pages.
They will just scroll. Algorithms are shitty, but who cares. Everyone is there…
Amongst stated reasons, “signing up” is more difficult here. Its not as straightforward a process and content isn’t as spoon fed to you as other platforms. The tech literacy needed to get here isn’t high, but as I learned the average tech literacy is abysmal.
About 10ish years ago when I was 14, I helped some people print something. They tried printing something from a computer plugged into the printer, an error popped up saying “printer not connected”. I thought, thr printer must be, yknow disconnected. Some 6 people had gatherd trying to troubleshoot this but were stumped. I pointed out the error message that kept coming up, didn’t click. I followed the cables from the pc to the printer, it was disconnected, I plugged it in and reported back. They where stumped on how I possibly knew what was wrong or how to fix it.
I am not good with technology, but im good enough to know im not good with technology. I have found most people, even those younger or same age tend to not be tech literate.
Finding the application and filling it out for any random federated instance may seem like nothing but it requires an ammount of literacy many Americans dont have.
a less relevant example:
many people in general lack the literacy. my entire school thinks I’m able to hack the pentagon because I accessed the boot menu and installed mint on a school computer for my sanity, because last time I used windows on a school computer, I was going through some tough stuff, so on top of it being clunky I have bad memories linked with it. I did not delete windows or touch system files, but I really, really want to. They all treat me like I could hack government systems, even though I’ve never hacked anything in my life. The average user should be able to access that.
A more relevant example:
fucking everyone at school, staff and otherwise can’t do anything with tech. basic shortcuts? nope (except copy/paste)! indenting in word? nope! using anything other than google as a search engine is seen as suspicious, and no-one can really tech there. most of my school is average in every way, and this is no difference. my english teacher believes that wikipedia still hasn’t added any security to who’s able to edit articles, spoiler: they have (on most articles) such as peer-review and most of them requiring peer-review and account requirements of 500+ approved edits. the list goes on.
“why isn’t the printer printing my 3 page essay done in 30 mins?” It’s out of cyan. really. go change your cyan, mrs. b. “but the essay is b&w (black and white)” the printer won’t work till the cyan is replaced, go tell mrs. b (principal) that the printer is out of cyan. printer says “fuck you, no cyan”
On top of this, don’t assume someone’s tech literate just because they’re in a certain field. It took me seeing first hand at a previous job how the IT techs did their job to realize why we ran into so many issues.
We were having some software installed on every computer which apparently had to be installed via PowerShell. While watching our usual IT tech go through the steps on the machine next to me, I offered to help him get this job done faster by starting it up on my machine then he could run his credentials whenever the prompts came up. He knew I was computer literate since we had talked about tech stuff and about how I was at the time trying to get a job in IT, so he gave me a copy of the .txt file with all the instructions and commands to run.
In the file was an 11 step process written by the director of the IT department explaining how to open PowerShell, copy the command below, and run the command. 3 of the instructions were to highlight the command (between the quotation marks without including the quotation marks), right click the highlighted portion, then click on “Copy”.
The tech didn’t believe that I had actually copied the command when I just did Ctrl+C, so he specifically stopped me to tell me to right click the command. I told him that it was copied already with Ctrl+C, and he told me, “No, it won’t work if you don’t do the right click.”
I also found out later that said IT director didn’t seem to be aware that there were multiple types of USB cables. He was setting something up in my boss’s office and sent someone to ask for “a USB cable.” Said person knew I had a bunch of cables at my desk as part of my work at the time so they relayed the request for “a USB cable.” I asked them, “What kind? USB C to C? A to C? Micro? Mini?” “Idk, they just said ‘a USB cable.’”
I think, “fair enough, my coworker isn’t very tech literate so I’ll just ask the man myself.” I bring over an assortment of cables and walk to the office with my coworker. Director see my coworker with me now next to them and ask me for “a USB cable.” “What kind?” “Just a regular USB cable, if you have one.” I show him my bundle of about 6-10 assorted cables, explain that I have a variety, see that he’s working on a small printer/scanner, and offer him one. “Would a type 3.0 USB A to B cable work?” “What? No, I just need a regular USB cable.” I show him the A to B cable and he responds “oh yeah, that’s what I was saying. A regular USB cable.”
