Lemmy is so good right now because there are no kids here

Crow@lemmy.world to Showerthoughts@lemmy.world – 33 points –
72

Agree. But it's not kids, it's stupid people of all ages. Same thing happened with Reddit and with the Internet as a whole. Used to be you had to be a little smart to know you wanted to be on the Internet and figure out how to get it working. Then same was true of forums and IRC. Then same was true of Reddit. But then Reddit changed formats trying to be a TikTok style quick content scroll app, so idiots who just want to scroll started using the site and quality of discussions went down. I hope Lemmy grows but I hope the sign up process stays as it is, to weed out the extra stupid.

I think you‘re onto something. I read a lot of comments of people thinking the fediverse is too complicated to deal with and while I disagree - but also think it has issues - there does seem to be a barrier of entry for a good portion of people in the form of „inconvenience.“ So whoever is here really wants to be here and not just be an anonymous arse. I don‘t think you gotta be particularly smart, you gotta step out of your comfort zone.

Hmm this is also a good point. I've been explaining to redditors that Lemmy is not that complicated and only takes a couple minutes to get started. But reading this, now I'm hoping Lemmy can find the balance between number of active users and quality of content. I'm wondering if my spreading the word on reddit was a bad idea.

Maybe the "work" required to make the jump to Lemmy will be enough to keep lower quality content (for whatever reason) at bay for a bit longer, though. Of course, it won't last forever. All we can do is make our communities good spaces from the get-go and try to maintain them carefully as we grow.

Which part of it is supposed to be complicated? I've seen this argument many times, and while I'm still trying to figure out the user interface(s), the whole idea is pretty basic

Yes, this exactly. I'm starting to suspect that either someone very misinformed or someone with an agenda started spreading this rumor.

It just takes one person to reaffirm that it really is "too much work to switch" and "you aren't lazy for not trying" to keep a lot of folks in place.

This kept me off Lemmy until the blackout. I was interested prior to that, but so many people said it was complicated, I figured I'd look into it at some vague point in the future when I had time to untangle the fediverse. Then the baclout happened, and what do you know I had time, and lo and behold it was easy. I'm now a bit annoyed I was dissuaded for so long based on BS about it being complicated.

I just had to find an instance (or "site") that allowed sign-ups and register. My first account was on Kbin since it seemed less buggy on mobile. I feel like they think something's complicated just because it's on a website, or because there are multiple options.

Getting one’s head around the concept of instances is hard for some people who aren’t used to dealing with tech beyond the basic social platforms.

Is it one social media platform, or is it a bunch of individual ones? The fact that the answer is “it depends” is confusing. Especially when you get into defederation and cross-platform interaction.

Very true. I often make the mistake of thinking that if something makes sense to me pretty quickly, it will be just as quick for others.

We should remember that those of us here now are more likely to be uniquely interested in this tech and thus more able to wrap our heads around these concepts without being deterred. We could always do a better job making it accessible for beginners who don’t benefit from the same background.

It was the worst thing to witness on reddit. A post with tens of thousands of likes and only a handfull of comments

I boosted from 1k karma to 20k by searching 'pun' on every top joke each day for a week.

It's enough that good/bad posts get boosted up/down by votes without them generating Karma.

Intelligent answers aren't always the most popular...

Reddit karma wasn't about popularity or intelligence. It was about who got there first. If you shotgun enough comments into brand new threads your karma will skyrocket.

I’m a teenage FOSS enthusiast and I’m of the opinion that there are a lot more of us here than you seem to all think.

not speaking for OP but when I think about not wanting "kids" around, I mean immature people. I'm looking to be part of something like the reddit prior to them buying Alien Blue.

Agree. I suspect that the UX challenge of the Fediverse as well as the fact that you'd largely only migrate here if you're ideologically displeased with the admins means that people on this site skew more mature.

The people on here at the moment are the same kind of people that exclusively used old.reddit.com on desktop.

Same same, it is mostly the matter of your FOSS knowledge, if you were a FOSS nerd you would most likely to switch from reddit in some way or another... (16 btw)

Same, also 16, and the 'mentally kids' excuse is more insulting than they may have realised.

As a fellow teenager and a FOSS enthusiast, Linux user and Linux tinkerer and hobbyist, I'm glad to see there are more people my age getting into the FOSS space.

please don't randomly start some ageism crap suddenly now please. the vibes are good because we collectively experience self-efficacy against the corporate super power that is reddit. All people should feel welcome on lemmy

Not just fewer kids. But fewer conservatives too.

Gosh, I love it here.

Conservatives love having corporate masters, so they're all staying on reddit.

You know, it's so funny (though obviously not in an enjoyable way per se) how those folks are so selective and picky about freedom. Like freedom is OK when it's the freedom to enter a supermarket without a mask, but it's not OK when it's the freedom to express your gender. And as in this example, when it comes to corporate masters...

Don't you just love capitalism? And don't you just loooooove capitalists? It's honestly frightening how reminiscent it is to the way the fascists took power in 1930s Germany.

And by the way, I'm noticing a parallel with how much they not only embrace conservative evangelical Christendom, but also act like it's the epitome of freedom and liberty - the American Dream, if you will. If you attend one of the US's most notorious fundie schools, you're not allowed to stay up late, mingle with the opposite gender too much, attend dances, or be pretty much anything other than cishet (and implicitly, cishet white male). The irony of how said school is named "LIBERTY" University never seems to die on me.

A lot of the political discussion I’ve read on here has also been pretty well thought out. I feel like people are taking time to explain their perspective more and even if in general it’s been more left leaning there is definitely more nuance. I was surprised by the quality of some of the discussion around the end of affirmative action.

Fewer conservatives, yes. If it wasn't for the harcore tankies and trolls it would really be perfect. But it's very close, much better than Reddit.

I disagree. Terrible take. It's never wise to discount, alienate, or exclude our youth. Growth is the name of the game and they're the ones who are going to be ushering in hopefully a better future. Who will they learn from if not us? You want them stewing with each other?

No. We maintain whatever nebulous internet "culture" we like and establish rules. Anyone, young or old, who doesn't adhere can suck eggs. That way young people learn how to act and we can hear them tell us about all the ways we need to better society.

Truly I believe that the children who develop during this time of overstimulation and rapid technological advancement will emerge maybe a bit... maladapted but better than us. Humans can be so resilient especially under supportive circumstances. Our intelligence is adaptive. So if you want to make a great internet community, maintain your respect for our kids.

I don't support age shaming. Let's not be those people.

Yeah the kids these days have some weird memes and I’m here for it. So much better than the rage comics from when I was their age

I think it's more just because we're early adopters and the first wave of refugees.

We're building something here - and right now, for some it's a new home, for some of us this is something big - a place that resists monetization. This isn't just the fresh new version of social media, built by cool people who have the best intentions and a vision (I think most of them did, at least initially)

Admins go bad, already some of the instances I'm on have people starting to look at not just paying for servers, but making a profit. And if they can live off the donations - fine, more power to them.

But when someone comes knocking with a bag of money, what are they going to do? They can sell us out, but they can't go far before we leave... What do we miss out on? The content will either follow or we're missing out on content elsewhere.

And we can mitigate it further - too many talented people care too much to let this idea die. We're going to face difficult times, but it's a new ephemeral Internet built on top of the one stolen from us - it doesn't start or end with a reddit clone.

And I think that's why we care - because this time is different. It can't go bad the way everything else does. It relies on no one, and it's built from all of us

This place is ours. No kings, no masters, no capitol, no capital

Lemmy is so good right now because there's no commercialization here.

I had a lovely conversation with a 19 yr old. He kind of reminded me of myself, only growing up in this crazy time. He was really thoughtful about his experiences. Any one here now is probably a touch more mindful, but we can all slip and be dumb or even bad people, and when there's more people, it's easier to do, especially when there are people who are sad or mad or whatever.

Is that considered a kid? Just curious about todays perception. When I was at that age it was considered young adult.

Sounds like someone needs a good teabagging followed up with a dab... or are kids not doing that stuff anymore? I don't even know what's hip now.

Joke's on you, I'm a dog.

OP I think you spelled idiots wrong.

The Crow cawed that Lemmy is strong,

Since no kids have yet come along

But the teens disagree

All ages've stupidity!

I think you spelled idiots wrong

The crows seemed to be calling his name, thought Caw.

Enjoy it while it lasts. In no time in your favorite community there will be homework help types of questions as well as those lazy requests for recommendations. "I want to read a book with X vibes." Not to mention the troll posting on science-related things like "If you are what you eat, will I turn into an eggplant if I eat an eggplant?" Actually, it would be nice if Reddit just recovered and those types of users stayed there. This is so chill without all that stuff.

When I was a kid I thought grown ups were annoying, when I was in my 20s I thought teenagers were annoying, in my 30s I think people in their 20s are annoying. People will always have something to complain about others. “Kids” is just a different group for different people.

I'm 32 and indefinitely can relate. Every generation has been worse than the last since time immemorial, apparently.

It's so good because a lot of people have been waiting for a viable alternative to Reddit for half a decade or longer. It's non-corporate internet, the way it should be.

No kids? I am a kid

It's past your bed time. Stay off my lawn. Get a jawb! Cut yer hair! Stop smokin' the devil's grass!

I'm ostensibly an adult and I love the devil's lettuce.

I'm a coffee and cannabis in the morning type person. Some people may find it slows them down, but it helps me with creativity and seems to wake me up more than just coffee.

Agreed. Reddit became horrible once everyone got on it.

It's not an age thing, It's the same reason the internet generally got toxic after a time people who aren't passionate about things take over and drown out the high effort contributers

I haven't been here much since I joined last week, but one thing I noticed is I've barely seen any typos on Lemmy. While I definitely don't mind seeing the occasional typo, the number of spelling mistakes was getting annoying, and it's gotten progressively worse over the last year or so.

How do you even make any typos with all the autocorrect nowadays is beyond me.

Autocorrect is the cause of many of my typos

Autocorrect catches all my typos, and for that I’m eternally grapefruit

For me it is lack of commercial interests (ads hidden in post), lack of bots, and lack of "funny meme and jokes' posts.

Agreed. On top of this I noticed a pretty hard decline in Reddit once the CCP bought a portion of reddit. Keeping business out of Lemmy will keep it honest for sure.

man. i hope there would be an age barrier to those or something, or they be periodically flagged so they dont spread around. i had enough of kids and shitposters. is this heaven

https://imgur.com/a/zMorTCb

we have to commit to our duty as users of the community if we want it the way we like it

hot take but nobody under 18 should be allowed on any form of social media or internet forum

but there's no way to enforce that. better solution is to just get rid of all social media