Does the reddit style format breed toxicity?

Joe_0237@lemmy.ml to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 38 points –

Does the reddit style format inherently make for a toxic environment? Or is it a culture of toxicity from the influx of reditors? For lack of a beter example, on stackoverflow, when someone down votes you, it comes with a comment saying how to improve. On mastodon, people can't downvote you. These platforms are a joy to use, lemmy is depressing if you post. Its depressing because every post or comment, no mater the quality comes with downvotes, and usually no criticism to accompany it, you are left not knowing if youve made a mistake, or if its just trolls, bots, or idiots. At the end you feel insulted not improved. What do you think?

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People breed toxicity, especially if you disagree with them. The more people a site has, the shittier it is. People suck.

Not necessarily.
A few years ago, when there was another Reddit Exodus people were suggesting to go to voat. But holy hell was that place toxic.
And tbh, maybe I just picked the wrong instance to sign up on, but right now, I feel like lemmy is more toxic than Reddit, too, despite still being a fraction of the size.
And people say to just not care about it. But it kinda does matter. Bullying and brigading can create an in-group and the rest. To the point that you can sway public opinion, even elections. tl;dr: OP makes a valid point

I don’t think our points are mutually exclusive. Small sites can be shitty while the trend remains that sites get shittier as they get bigger.

You think Lemmy is more toxic than reddit? I've seen the opposite so far. I wonder if this boils down to what communities we are a part of? It makes sense though, since most of lemmy is likely 30+ yrs old and have become jaded by reddit already.

Also, yes, voat was awful. It was mostly alt right assholes from what I remember.