Yeah, the doomposting is intense on Lemmy. I've taken up a policy of just downvoting any negative posts I see, even if I like the post otherwise, just to tamp down the negativity a bit around here.
The best and worst thing about Lemmy is how niche we are. It keeps out the "mainstream", but unfortunately we're easily inundated by perpetually-online doomers.
Also, I would recommend blocking users moreso than communities. Once you start looking for it, you realize that like 90% of these posts are made by just a few people/bots.
Downvoting isn't "negativity", it's a method for users to define what does and does not contribute to the content of the platform. By downvoting this content, I'm voicing my opinion that negativity is overrepresented on Lemmy, and encouraging (however slightly) more positive content to be posted.
Also, I would recommend blocking users moreso than communities. Once you start looking for it, you realize that like 90% of these posts are made by just a few people/bots.
I wish there was an easy way to block everyone from an instance, like *@shittylemmyinstance.poop or something. Yeah, I do have one instance blocked to avoid the content, but the posters seem fine, but there are a few where blocking users one at a time is like whack-a-mole.
Agreed. Instance blocking needs to be more granular. Blocking posts from one is great, but it doesn't keep the peanut gallery there from brigading the comments.
I find that switching to my 'subscribed' feed and sorting by newest weeds out 95% of the doom and outrage. Most single-topic communities are really positive. You very occasionally get a itinerant doomer or naysayer coming out of the woodwork and being rabidly cynical, but in something like a gardening or saxophone community their comment always just looks silly and out of place and is usually easy to ignore.
Unfortunately I'm cursed with a preference for opt-out (all + block lists) post filtering rather than opt-in (subscriptions). I realize this causes issues that are entirely on me, but especially with Lemmy being so small, I like to cast as wide a net as I can.