I've felt more compelled to contribute to the "Fediverse" than I ever did on Reddit.

Deralax@kbin.social to Reddit Migration@kbin.social – 211 points –

Over the last week or so I have noticed that I have a lot more fun engaging in discussions on here as opposed to reddit.

On reddit i always felt like i was shouting into the void and there was nobody listening, which resulted in me becoming a lurker for the last 12 years.

Maybe it's the small size of this community, the lack of karma farmers, that I've finally lost my mind or a little bit of all of the above, but this place just feels like something special. I'm really looking forward to building the fediverse with all of you!

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Same, when I posted on reddit I felt rejected, even if what I said was something unimportant, there was always someone who made you feel like you were wrong for just participating, this is much better.

Sadly I've observed throughout the late 2010s how Reddit society gradually became about parroting the right opinion and walking on eggshells all the time.

I was never a lurker on reddit. I liked commenting, but the community feeling is much more substantial on kbin (and fediverse in general).

I find the engagement here more real than I ever did on reddit for twelve years.

First thing I noticed when moving to kbin is that I see what I want to see, and have only talked to people who felt like humans so far.

This is what's so hard to convey about the Fediverse lol. Mastodon is obviously not everybody's cup of tea, but when I made my account it was kinda shocking to me how I communicated with actual people. No ads in the feed. Took time to find good content but it was there.

Still haven't found much good content on Mastodon, but I'm really liking the platform and app

Exactly. On Reddit, most of the time there was not point commenting, because of the sheer size of the audience. Here, I can actually contribute!

Absolutely, but I think we will have to be vigilant to keep that culture here as the place continues to grow.

Same here! I upvote/boost a lot more than I did on Reddit, and my threshold for commenting is much lower than it used to be. Part of it is that I want this place to succeed, so I want to help it be more active. I absolutely agree that this community is smaller, friendlier, and less cynical than what we had on Reddit. That's the other part, it's really lowered my threshold of engagement.

Couldn't agree more. Exactly the same for me.

I've started more posts and added more comments through kbin in a week than I did in 12 years on reddit. The community is so much smaller and comments are actually read instead of lost in the sea of shitposting.

Oh yeah - that reminds me of another thing I don’t miss about reddit: getting to a thread a few hours late and knowing your comment is unlikely to ever be seen under the pile that beat you to it

Yeah. Honestly, with that problem I think a random sort would have helped significantly, and the nice thing about Lemmy is that since it is open-source, if I have the time I can contribute that to the codebase.

Yeah. I always enjoyed those threads with random (contest mode) or new sort. Like even the huge SuccessionTV discussion threads I got people seeing my comments because of the sorting, despite there being thousands of comments in the thread

Spot on, it’s not a race to be the first to comment, which can also degrade the quality of posting with 90% repetitive “clever” comments copied from the last time, and quality posts being buried, which then disincentivizes people with something useful to say, perpetuating that cycle. Combine that with quick karma and you fuel a system racing to the bottom.

You can also sort your feed to show new comments by default in your settings, it’s been really good in the smaller communities/instances/magazines.

The small size and lack of content really makes me want to push things for the communities I loved to lurk on Reddit.

@Ethanice

@Deralax

Nascent "scene" culture is fun.

Crazy what the ability to affect meaningful change does for the soul. Also helps that we're sticking it to spez in the process.

SAME. This is why I'm not going back to Reddit even if they decide to undo the API stuff.

I also am feeling this. It feels super refreshing to be here for the same reasons. I felt like when I commented on stuff I'd get ignored too.

I actually had a civil and decently productive conversation with a maga person.

very true

on reddit i only read

I made my own magazine here for whatever reason its quite fun

Alot of work is needed on the website but it'll get there

It's kind of like someone took Reddit and reinjected a little blogging and a little old internet back into it. Feels refreshing.

Same here ... but commenting, sharing and posting Lemmy for the past few days and I just got into kbin ... I'm still learning and I find it is really engaging my brain to try to figure out what is happening ... on reddit I was a mindless zombie just rehashing content I had shared a hundreds times before

Likewise, I really love the more tight knit community on the fediverse, feels much more fitting for contributing

I feel the same and am wondering what I can post. I've been lurking for so long the thought of submitting anything isn't even in my mind. Good to switch gears and shake things up, start seeing the world a little different like what can I share, not just what can I consume.

Exact same here. I've always had a hard time posting on the Internet at all until finding the fediverse.

I've always felt kind of anxious about commenting or posting so in over 10 years on Reddit I only posted and commented a handful of times. I only joined kbin yesterday and I feel such an urge to properly engage with the community that it has made me push past my anxiety. I absolutely love it!

this is such a wholesome post, i love it. im enjoying my time here too, really glad to see the same for others!

I feel the same. I never tried to mod a sub on reddit but felt compelled to do so here (so I'd have a home for my otherwise newly orphaned posts).

Reddit is full of bots, dude. It wouldn't surprise me if 40% of the posts were automated.

I think it's the same for me but to be honest I mostly participated in smaller communities on reddit and here on the fediverse the communities are even smaller. If fediverse grows to the same size as reddit one day, believe me it's going to feel like shouting into the void again. Subreddits go to shit if they get too large (and moderators aren't strict enough), and social networks in general just get too big for meaningful discussions or interactions with people eventually. We're just not built to handle that many different people and opinions per day and actually still see them as people to be empathized with.

with 4 comments over 4 days I don't know how much of this is either a secret karma farm or honeymoon phase, but at the same time I don't want to force you to exert more posting than you feel like

It could definitely just be a honeymoon phase, but I also sense that opinions seem to be more valued here.

I'm certainly not trying to karma farm. I haven't seen any total "karma" score on kbin, and don't think that there should be. I think a total karma score encourages reposts and very predictable comments all in the name of increasing the score.

I myself only felt compelled to create this post because i wanted to do my part to try and create content for others to interact with. The biggest advantage reddit has over alternatives is the sheer amount of content, and the only way to compete is for all of us to populate this place with the content we want ro see.

Social anxiety will most likely prevail in the end and i'll return to lurking, but im not going to let it stop me from having a good time while it hibernates.

Very fair, sorry if my message seems a bit harsh, I overall agree, I just also thought it is a bold declaration this early into the fold

I think the wording of your first comment may also have been a tad confusing. It was hard for me to tell whether you were saying OP was a hypocrite for not contributing more or that it might be a bit early for OP to draw conclusions.

Nah, there's nothing for them to be a hypocrite about. It just struck me as 'hmm' that someone with so few comments could judge that, but the social anxiety bit might also clue in that they've done a lot of reading on here in general as well, and probably are also taking into account a lot of other people's in-depth discussions in their anecdote

I'm certainly not trying to karma farm. I haven't seen any total "karma" score on kbin, and don't think that there should be.

There's a ‘reputation’ score, but it's fortunately pretty pointless (it's boosts minus downvotes/reduces, upvotes don't count).

Apparently, this is not the intended function and its's built like this for interoperability with the rest of the fediverse/Mastodon..

Hey 4 comments over 4 days is alot more than 4 comments over 12 years!

On Reddit, there was so much bot spam that you were guaranteed to have your post drowned out. Here, your post is guaranteed to be seen.

I once got a bot reply that was word for word a comment I had made somewhere else in the same thread...

Like, people always joked that everyone was a bot, but I think it was a lot more than anyone thought.

Everyone on Reddit is a bot except you

I was like a consuming bot when I was at Reddit, and lastly I become a human at here Fediverse.

same, i'm trying to encourage myself to contribute more by making an account that has a name unique to anything else i'm on so i can have the anonymity

Absolutely agree. Some things need work (really feel like boost and favorite should be switched because imo the button that drops rep and visibility should be next to the button that raises them - it's just mildly confusing from a design standpoint) but so far I think I'm enjoying the interaction more.

Yeah. Today I found Grimdank and I really want it to thrive on Lemmy. I even posted there and will do so repeatedly in the coming weeks.

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Every major forum/social media site has had this adoption curve. The early adopters are dedicated and can actually see their contributions make a difference. As the site attracts more and more casual users the quality of interactions descends to the lowest common denominator and loudest voices.

For that reason, I think there will always be demand for a "new thing" because those early adopter contributors are so good at making it happen.

I think I would like the FEDIVERSE even when its the "old thing" just because as far as I can tell, the product itself seems like a terrible place for investments and profits. Then again, I could be WAY off here.

Also, at the moment, there's an almost complete lack of marketing/advertising, which is REALLY nice.

Here, I feel that I can experience a similar feeling to the fun of the pioneering rural countryside, where people cut through the wasteland to build fields and houses, and discuss the news over tea with their neighbors.

Welcome to the federated frontier!

I, like many of the other replies, feel quite the same. Although I think the highlight of this for me is just how less aggressive and how much more receptive and open to discussion people have been. tbf i still mostly lurk but I've commented more here in a few days than I have in the final few years I was on reddit.

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I feel the same way I almost never commented on reddit, but here I feel like its just much easier to

@Deralax I feel that's more related with platform addiction. Since COVID 19 Reddit became more a news stand.
Look at r/popular 11 of each 10 posts are news related and not like a generic piece of news. Feels that they're perfectly selected to create toxic comments which at the same time droves people to look for more toxic news.

Reddit is a platform designed about being toxic and addictive while Lemmy/Kbin are designed as a way to connect with people that shares your same interests.

I can relate very much.

for the first time in a longer time, I see that most commented are just nice and honest instead of the cascade of misunderstanding and closed minded discussions I sometimes had on Reddit.

Yes, Ive got the same thing. I did use Reddit to ask stuff, but never engaged in discussions as it didn't seem to matter. Whenever something had hit the front page, new comments wouldn't be seen.

On Lemmy I've been very active, and people are just nicer. Also I want to make certain communities a success so I do even more my best to post content.

Reddit posts would only get acknowledged if you said one of the pre-approved comments. Commenting felt pointless because so many of the upvoted and comments that actually got engaged with felt like they were written by a bot or just automatically generated by reddit.

"fuck about, find out"

"maybe, just maybe...<insert your poorly made point here>"

*"I'll take <snippy point> for 500, Alex" *

"They had us in the first half, not gonna lie"

I wonder how may of the commenters were just bots.

This is the exact reason why communism and anarchy would work. People love to do stuff when things are fair.

When you feel like you are just helping some rich person get more data on you, and you're being exploited you shut down.

When you are working towards something with other people and you all benefit from it you can do things that would normally be considered work and enjoy them!

the fediverse feels a lot more welcoming to interact with tbh, with reddit you had

>astroturfing

>reposters

>puns and shitposts soaring to the top of comments / subs, real discussion buried

and i dont feel any of that here

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I've been feeling the same way. It's why I've been much more active in comment chains and why I've replied to a lot more posts, though I still have a bit of trouble with actually posting.

Same here. It’s feels a lot more welcoming to post in topics!

I’ve made more posts and comments here in the past week than I did on Reddit for a long time. I think I have 80 posts now it’s insane and like nearly 300 comments. This place is fun

I'm more of a lurker but I'm more compelled to comment here because of the default sort algorithm in comments, you get a mix of newer and upvoted, so even if I comment on an older post, or one with a lot of comments I don't feel like I'm shouting to the void.

It does feel a bit better, but I still struggle to contribute. It feels like it's a bit noisy still - maybe I just need to reduce how much content I'm subscribed to.

I did not see any SteamDeckEmu replacement so I made my own. I would have never have done that on Reddit. The future of the Fediverse depends on the content provided by the users! Unlike Reddit, there are no bots generating content and this is solely a human focused network

Feeling the same. I love commenting and posting, whereas on Reddit I was always nervous and felt like I was shouting into an empty void, like you said.

I hope it lasts, because it's so cozy here so far.

Reddit has a high percentage of bots and shills so this is still real people thus more welcoming.

Casuals/normies ruin everything. Every social media platform deteriorates over time as more people join. At the moment, the majority of people here are actually genuinely interested in civil discussion and debate and the people who just spam low effort comments and karma farm remain on reddit.