I have summers off from work (am a teacher), which I COULD be using to get tons of errands done, renovating the house, working out, etcetc. However, I am currently spending it sleeping in, playing too many video games, staying up late, crafting, reading, etc, which is exactly what I did during summer as a kid as well. It's been nice :)

Forreal, what's going on? Why does it seem like so many separate sites are suddenly so much worse/going downhill quickly?

I was scrolling through "all" and thought this was a legit ad at first 😅

Well huh. I did not in fact know this, and was wondering why there were so few subscribers to most communities or even zero sometimes. Feels like changing this to include all subscribers would be really helpful?

To add to this, I think people often underestimate how "easy" it can be to function in society without being able to read well. I know that some folks who either don't read at all or read at a very low level have just gotten used to interpreting the world around them without the language part. For example, visually recognizing a username and password field on a website and knowing what they're for, or recognizing the symbols and colors used for certain objects or meanings, all without the actual words needing to mean anything to them for them to understand what it is and what to do with it. And for those who can read at a 5th or 4th grade level (and would thus be included in the stat mentioned in this post), they're likely then very capable of reading and understanding the majority of text they're going to come across in their day-to-day lives.

Of course, I don't want this to sound like I'm saying being illiterate is easy, I'm sure it creates MANY barriers and difficulties for the person, but I do think humans are also flexible and resilient, and are able to survive using other cues.

Yep. Certified non-tech nerd here. And not quite 30, either.

I was awfully close to not figuring out Lemmy enough to make an account and participate.

I still don't understand exactly what's going on, but I can confirm that my first time visiting was extremely confusing. So many terms I was completely unfamiliar with, and no clear way for me to jump in easily (like you were describing with having to make important decisions before signing up/understanding). Truly the only reason I ended up successfully making it here was that I saw a post on the instance I ended up joining, welcoming reddit refugees so I figured - well, I guess I could try this one. And that was after I had searched around online to figure out what the heck the fediverse, instances, etc, were.

The barrier to entry is really high for those of us with little to no tech knowledge. And I was really motivated, I reeeeally wanted to commit to leaving reddit. I imagine those who are considering joining but aren't quite as motivated just won't make it. :(

I have "Do Nothing" days. It's really the only way I survive, honestly.

During many parts of the year, my job and home lives are extremely hectic and stressful. Whenever I can, I designate a "do nothing" day, which helps my brain actually take advantage of resting that day without thinking "omg I need to do this, and this, and this", etc. Usually it ends up being a Saturday, and while I'd love for it to be weekly, I'd say I have them more like twice a month or so.

The rules for a Do Nothing day are that I Do Not Do Anything Important, I don't even leave the house - just chill, play video games, read, craft, garden, watch TV, sleep, etc. Whatever feels right. It makes picking back up with the stress the next day much easier to handle. Plus, I find it's really hard for me to ever relax even when I do have a moment to do so, so I would usually waste all that time anyway throughout the week just straight up worrying about what I should be doing. At least by doing this I combine all that time into one day, and I actually use it to relax!

Imagine if other similar formats sued each other like this - one forum site suing another because they both use text-based forum communication. I'm so tired of facebook/meta/twitter/etc.

Same! I went to check it out earlier and the frontpage had a couple of subreddits I recognized but am not interested in, and the rest were all subreddits I had never heard of before. I also thought the scores seemed weirdly low, but not 100% sure about that since I dont usually pay super close attention. At least the weird vibe was pretty helpful in getting me to hop off, versus getting sucked in to browsing around more.

From what I've read in various online sources, it seems to vary a LOT between different providers, patients, locations, etc. Even those who live in the same general location seem to have had dramatically different experiences. But, here is what I remember my process being like:

• Made an appointment with a psychiatrist (THIS WAS THE HARDEST PART BY FAR AND I HATED IT - It took me almost an entire year from start to finish to find psychiatrists that were in-network with my insurance, had open availability that wasn't months and months out, I could get ahold of, specialized in my general areas of need (ADHD + other conditions), etc. Part of the problem was I kept giving up when I'd hit these barriers, to be fair)
• Had a consultation appointment with the psychiatrist where she asked me a lot of introductory questions, going over my general upbringing, career, daily life, concerns, symptoms, things that have helped or hurt, etc.
• Completed a few different questionnaires, some for ADHD and some for other things, like anxiety, and also had to share a questionnaire with my partner for him to fill out from his perspective on me
• Had a follow-up appointment with the psychiatrist plus another more senior psych, where we went through all of my results together and discussed my diagnoses, potential treatment options, etc.
• Had to visit a lab to get general bloodwork done, and also an electrocardiogram, to make sure there weren't any health concerns to be aware of (or that could explain my symptoms) before trying stimulant medications for the first time
• Got cleared with all of that, had an appointment where we settled on a first medication to try, and then continued to meet with the psych every 2 weeks while we titrated my dosage and medication type.
• Nowadays, I only have an appointment every ~3 months with a psych to check-in and continue my prescriptions and/or update things, etc.

I hope that is helpful! I know it is scary starting the process, but I can't stress enough how helpful it has been in the end for me. I'm really glad I pushed through and finally got help.

If it helps as well to hear what appointments were like, I found that the psychiatrists I have had (changed psychs occasionally due to moves) tended to be less interested in detailed discussions about feelings, emotions, or symptoms than my therapists have been. Not to say they aren't interested, they are and they specifically ask things about them. But, they have seemed more interested in a "do you experience this", "is it the same as before or improved/worsened", etc, and less interested when I would go on detailed explanations of exactly what I was thinking during a particular event or experience, if that makes any sense. For example, it seemed like they preferred "Most days, I feel like my symptoms are significantly improved during midday, but I tend to consistently get spacey and sluggish around 5 pm every day. Increasing water and protein intake hasn't seemed to fix it." rather than, "Well, it's different everyday, but I usually take my first dose around 9 or 10 AM or so. About an hour after that, I feel less "stuck" and am able to actually get up out of bed and do 'normal' things, like brush my teeth or get dressed. Sometimes I don't get anything done after that, but I still feel more 'normal', you know? I tried changing my lunch to include more protein, and......" I realize reading this back that this seems like generic advice to not be long-winded and overly explain things, not just for psychiatrist appointments, but I hope what I'm trying to explain sort of got across lol.

I now realize I've written a significantly longer (and long-winded, hah) comment than I intended to, but I hope it is helpful in some way to you or someone else!

I'm a little curious how many folks working at reddit have secretly moved over to Lemmy (or other similar site) during all of this

But, I think part of the issue is that communities that folks are interested in being a part of, about certain topics/etc, just aren't active enough here yet. I'm glad to see some are growing, and my personal experience is improving over time, but I keep finding communities that look like something I'd love but have zero activity ir content in them. So I do understand folks wanting to fill parts of this with content in general, even if it's content similar to what they would've gotten on Reddit, because content and activity is what will help build those cool communities over time.

I only wish I had interesting or important things to contribute to the communities I'm interested in, I never know what to say or do to help build a community that's nonexistent or essentially so. 😥 so far I've just been commenting wherever I can, for the most part, hoping that helps.

I hope it is. I don't yet feel strongly about the fediverse/Lemmy specifically just yet, but everything online just feels... off, right now. So many sites all somewhat self-destructing (twitter, reddit, youtube, etc) all seemingly at the same time. I've been around for quite a lot of change as far as technology/internet goes in general, but I feel like it's felt relatively stable over the last 10 years or so. I feel like I experienced a ton of very quick change from like 2000-2010 or so, and then not much after that (just some new social media sites and whatnot, but not really big changes overall?). Now it sort of feels like it did back in the 2000s, which is giving me hope that maybe things are about to change in general!

Thank you!!!! That makes sense - so just checking, Top X is like "Hot", but over a certain time period instead of "recent"? (In that it cares about rating instead of how many comments are being posted?)

Seems like bouncing between Active and Hot is still a good thing to do then maybe. To see whatever people are discussing as well as whatever the most upvoted stuff is.

Oh shit no way, I didn't know that? Is that the case for most of the random reddit bots? For some reason hearing that the RemindMe bot is dead as well makes me extra sad 😥

Eh, I think discussing potential improvement ideas isn't harmful, as long as it's done respectfully. IMO, that's how you figure out the best improvements, with people sharing different perspectives/opinions/etc. Most of the discussion I've seen about Lemmy so far has been like that, not demanding changes or being rude to the developers (in fact, most of the sentiment I've seen towards the developers/hosts of instances has been super positive, which is great). I don't think that folks entering the community should feel unwelcome to voice their opinions, even if others might disagree or those in charge don't choose to make those changes in the end. But seeing folks talking about these things and seeing the number of people in support or against something might help someone in charge realize that maybe some change or update would actually be really beneficial to their site, and end up helping them make something their even more proud of. Although, I can imagine a huge influx of people to any site like this, along with the sudden boom in corresponding discussions, is pretty crazy to deal with if you're the creator(s) of said site.

Jesus christ, dude. I'm here scrolling through posts at 2 AM in a dark room because I'm having trouble sleeping, and this picture scared the shit out of me. RIP my chances of going to sleep any time soon.

My experience is that psychiatrists have never just asked me "do you experience X", going through those specific DSM symptoms, but instead they'll administer some kind of questionnaire that asks a significantly larger number of more specific questions that give you some sort of score at the end. The score is then used to determine whether or not you rank highly in certain symptom areas, which can then help the psych better understand your symptoms and whether or not you qualify for a certain diagnosis.

I disagree from what I've seen so far. Most of the discussions I've seen lately about newly migrated reddit users have been folks who were lurkers or mostly lurkers. I myself used to be active on reddit years ago, but have been a lurker for a good 6-7+ years now or so. I think you're correct as of a few weeks ago when powerusers may have migrated earlier, but I think the migration post-API implementation has been a large amount of non-powerusers. Of course, users that are 100% casual, and don't have accounts at all or only rarely used Reddit, and might not even be aware of what's going on, those folks I'm sure didn't really move.

Great idea! I haven't seen any others mentioning this in all the protest discussions I saw. Hopefully others did similarly, that seems like something that could really help.

Yeah they're great! I got a super long flat white one and those little white plastic staple things you can lightly hammer into the wall, and ran it along the baseboard of the walls, makes it nearly invisible! It was a bit tedious to do (which is why I haven't yet redone it in the place I live now, although I will), but honestly I super recommend it. My partner wanted to try and run cords through the walls but I was way too nervous about what might go wrong, so found this solution instead lol

Oh I didn't know that! Thanks for mentioning it, TIL. I'm glad so many others are also trying their best to be active like this, I'm really optimistic so far about the community building around here if folks keep this up.

I really miss playing Sims and Sims 2 growing up. That, and the random other Sims games, like Sims Theme Park. I loved those.

I do still play Sims 4 but MAN the amount of basic game content that is locked behind a million different DLCs is insane.

Got it! That makes sense, thank you.

No, I agree with you on this also. I am not the original commenter here, but I was just scrolling through "all" and I do agree that it's a little annoying to see ~90% of the page filled with posts about reddit. But I'm also someone willing to participate in discussions about reddit still, at least a little, so I imagine it's way more annoying to those who just want to forget about it.

I didn't even notice what community or instance this post was in when I opened it to participate in lol

Not sure there's really a good solution though, and comments/posts from people complaining about everything being about reddit is also adding to the total number of things about reddit. I assume the constant reddit focus will fade out over time as other communities slowly build up more activity.

<3

Glad I wasn't the only silly one!

I wish there was a way for games like this to not have an annoying, expensive, ever-changing meta! That's always the reason I end up dropping games. Did the same for Hearthstone and League, it was either too expensive to try and have a feasible deck and/or too difficult to have to constantly keep up with changing metas.

I can't see any reason for me to ever try it. I've got plenty of social media to deal with already, and this doesn't seem to be offering anything new or interesting for me. Plus the creepy permissions even keep me away from joining temporarily out of any curiosity I might have.

My biggest complaint is how it CONSTANTLY changes. I started playing back in season 2, and played pretty consistently for at least like 5 years or so. Then life got busier, and I would have to drop it occasionally for a few months. But then when I'd pick it back up, there were tons of new things to learn or find out no longer existed, every single time. It was exhausting to catch back up on to a point where the game was playable and fun again. I kept that up for a few years, but then spent just a little too long not playing one of those times and the barrier to re-entry was just too big, so now it's been like 2 years since I've played. And honestly, I don't miss it.

Same! Loved Before Your Eyes. It was short and not necessarily replayable many times, but very emotional and unique. I'd love to find other unique games like this, where the main game/mechanic is new or different in some way like the blinking control was, but not sure how to find them!

I played Spiritfarer a while back after seeing all the positive reviews, but only made it an hour or two in before I fell off and stopped playing. I think I just got bored by the pace? Is it worth restarting and pushing through the early parts of the game, or is it pretty much the same throughout?

That makes sense. I agree that opening card packs and whatnot was part of the excitement and draw. I wonder if there's a way to get the best of both worlds. Maybe a (one-time) paid game rather than free to play, and still have packs and rarity and whatnot, but lock packs behind game experience/quests/challenges/winning/etc, rather than having them available to buy.

I know that probably wouldn't be a popular model for companies trying to wring out as much money as possible from the almost-basically-gambling model where you can buy packs, but I feel like as a player I'd like that a lot more!

Wouldn't that in return cause the subs without those restrictions to end up receiving larger amounts of low-effort/value comments, from folks just throwing out comments randomly to try and bump their karma up enough to comment in the subs they actually want to participate in? Which means more subs instituting comment karma restrictions, and so the cycle continues?

To be fair, I don't know what the correct answer is when bots and trolls are such a problem, but I do think it was super frustrating from a user's perspective and discourages participation from people who would otherwise want to participate.

I loved being able to play Overwatch casually with friends whenever we felt like it, which was usually like a few times a month or so. I'm very sad about the OW2 situation :(

Honestly, the loss of Reddit is Fun. I'd say that roughly ~95% of the time I spent on reddit was through mobile, I hardly ever used it on the computer anymore (although funnily enough, years ago it was the opposite, I almost exclusively accessed it via computer). Opening up RIF repeatedly on the day it died, just from muscle memory, is what made me finally decide to look up how to join Lemmy. I had been considering it for awhile, but sticking with Reddit was juuuust easy enough to keep me from doing it, even with the drastic quality drop in reddit over the years. But by blocking RIF/etc, they removed that "easy enough" part, which meant nothing was really keeping me from deciding to finally make the jump.

Still can't say I fully understand the fediverse, I definitely don't. But I do understand it slightly more than I did before, and certainly enough to at least try to interact and comment!

Too many things, sporadically!

I tend to hop between different craft types randomly, depending on my current interest. But some of the ones I've enjoyed at various times the last year or so are crocheting (learning how to make little stuffed animals right now!!), watercolor and gouache painting, putting miniature kits together, origami, simple jewelry making, pottery, etc! :)

I think it's definitely a weird & difficult balance to try and hit - grow enough to sustain enough active, interesting communities for folks to want to stick around longterm, but not big enough to turn into whatever reddit/twitter/other sites have become. I'm not really sure how to do that, and my only main thought so far as a brand new user here is that it was surprisingly confusing, at least for someone like me with very little technical knowledge/etc. I definitely had to take a sort of "leap of faith" and power through the confusingness to get to this point where I have an account, an instance, am interacting, etc, but I am a little worried that other communities/people who would help create and build awesome communities on here will be confused or discouraged enough to not make it past understanding the site, instances/communities, finding communities they're interested in, etc.

Edit: rereading your comment, I especially felt the "seeing little activity" thing. I've been poking around trying to find communities to subscribe to, to build a page for myself that offers enough of the things I'm interested in, but have been finding most communities empty, mostly empty, or nonexistent, which is unfortunate. I know that logically I can create my own communities if I want, but I don't really know how to do that and start from scratch, so I unfortunately then just end up not being a part of communities I'd be interested in being a part of, and I imagine many others hit the same wall.

I enjoyed playing Cookie Clicker, but probably because I only really played it for a month or so - I can imagine playing that any longer would not be worth the time 😅

Same, I thought about posting some memes/comics I've saved over the last year or so, but then I realized 95% of them likely came from some reddit post at some point. And just reposting those here without remembering where it came from felt bad, so I didn't. But then I have nothing to post. Ahh!