I’ve noticed that there seems to be an emphasis on being extremely serious at all times, as if every single comment is a PhD dissertation being evaluated or something. There’s like this weird, subtle one upmanship about every little thing and a lot of people are very nitpicky and judgmental. It kind of takes the fun out of being on here, TBH. Or am I the only one experiencing this?
I’ve felt that way since I switched to Lemmy after the Reddit API fiasco. It’s kind of annoying and I’m not the biggest fan of it. But I don’t feel like every interaction is this way, just way more than Reddit.
That being said, Lemmy is much better when it comes to engagement. I can post something and actually get comments, likes, and replies. On Reddit, it felt like a drop in the bucket. Half the time, you were too late to the post and it already had so many comments that yours would barely be seen by anyone.
Obviously, that didn’t apply to the smaller subreddits but I like that on Lemmy I don’t need to go to small niche communities just to feel like I’m part of the conversation.
The comments on this post actually made me think “Do I prefer the way Reddit was” and the answer is no. Thinking back, Reddit posts would consist of the same joke, one liner or low effort replies at the top. There was very little originality and tons of shitposting.
At the end of the day, everything has its pros and cons. Just choose the one that works best for you.
What is priceless about Reddit is its reach. In real discussions on niche topics, you get a volume and diversity of viewpoints that are simply not available here.
However, they have the algorithm, so you have to doomscroll through hours of low effort noise to occasionally bump into a good post.