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Gorilladrums21 @lemmy.world

Lemmy is a failed Reddit alternative

I first joined Lemmy back during the big Reddit exodus of last year. I like many others wanted an alternative to Reddit, and I thought that this might've been the one. I made two accounts, one on lemmy.world and another on sh.itjust.works, in the June of last year that I used on and off for about 4 months.

At first Lemmy was exciting because it was so active. There were so many new users who were enthusiastic about turning this platform into a genuine alternative. There was a communal effort to create and interact with content, and for awhile it worked. Lemmy was truly interesting during the summer of last year. However, this stream of dedicated users started to slowly decline.

A lot of people hoped that if they were active, they would attract and retain more users to this place to the point where the community would foster interest specific communities like Reddit, but that never happened. After a few months, a lot of users lost interest and went back to Reddit where the userbase is so massive that there is an active community for just about anything.

With this reverse exodus back to Reddit, Lemmy ended up with the same groups that were active on it before hand: political extremists, tech nerds, privacy enthusiasts, and shitposters. To be fair, all these groups are larger now than they were a year ago, but that's all this platform has to offer. If you're into any of these things and primarly these things then Lemmy can be a good alternative to Reddit, but for the general masses? Lemmy is just not good.

For example, a NBA post on the NBA subreddit can get you thousands of interactions in a couple of hours. An NBA post on here will maybe get you a dozen over the course of a couple of days. The only content that will gain any traction here are tech news, political propaganda, and maybe some memes. I don't see this changing any time soon. Even if Reddit implodes, I still think Lemmy will remain a niche platform. I think this evident by the fact that this platform hasn't really progressed in a year.

85 comments

  • I don’t think it is failed. It has reached self-sustaining levels for many topics. It will need further growth to make smaller, niche topics self-sustaining. Whether this growth will take place is an open question. I know my instance is growing in terms of activity, but I’m not sure how others are faring.

    But as long as it isn’t shrinking, I think it’s well-positioned to absorb more growth as users discover it or become disillusioned with Reddit or other sites in the future.

    • I think a big issue with Lemmy is that I think there's a lot of people who become disillusioned with it, just like how a lot of users became disillusioned with Reddit. When users join this site, they'll immediately notice that there's nothing outside of extremist politics, privacy focused tech talk, and shitposting. Unless they're interested in those topics specifically, a lot of people would rather either just go back to Reddit where there are active communities outside of these topics or find another, more active platform. A lot of people thought that Voat was going to rival Reddit when launched, but it ended up being a niche hub for extremist politics, tech talk, and shitposting until it shutdown. Now Lemmy is definitely better than Voat in every aspect, but I'm not sure how it can over come that big hump that will allow to appeal to general public

      • There’s also the problem that sadly Lemmy is filled with vocal users with skewed view of the world, and they tend to be extreme polarizing. The “if you’re not one of us, who firmly believes the world should work a certain way, and if you’re not willing to shoot yourself in the foot with a shotgun to prove it as a point, then you’re one of them; you should get the eff off of Lemmy and crawl back to Reddit” kind of way. They’re so scared of losing that pedestal that they’re going to go out of their way to alienate anyone who doesn’t drink their koolaid and push them off the platform so they can remain dominant. Sadly, these people also never really learned much of the real world, so those that are more experienced / educated gets pushed off the platform, and we end up with a bunch of weird superstonk culty kind of vibe everywhere.

        I find myself more and more just make a comment and don’t look back. It’s quite literally futile and pointless trying to expect any discussion of any actual sustenance. You wonder why it’s just shitposting… well this is why.

  • I am part of the Reddit exodus. I'm here because I have no interest in promoting or supporting the atrocious policies that now govern Reddit.

    The pace here is different, but the interactions feel more measured.

    Based on being online since 1990, I'm comfortable with being an "early adopter", even though I've only been here for a few months and Lemmy is five years old.

    Will Lemmy survive? Who knows. The horse and buggy didn't, neither did Yahoo!, MySpace or Google+, but here we are nonetheless.

    I like it here.

    • I mean good for you, I'm glad you're happy here. But here's a question for you, do you honestly think that this platform has the potential to be more than what it is currently? Platforms come and go, true, but it's very rare for a platform to actually appeal to the general masses. MySpace at its peak had 90 million active users, Google+ had 200 million users, Yahoo still has around 700 million people use its services. While these sites ended up being failures, they still reached mainstream status. I don't think Lemmy will die, but I don't see it becoming a mainstream alternative to Reddit. I see it as an upgraded version of Voat. It's a platform that will remain niche unless something drastic changes.

      • I think that the missing link for the fediverse is the user interface that most users see.

        This is oxymoronic given that the original Reddit looks eerily similar to Lemmy today, but it's not just looks I'm talking about.

        Moderation and usability tools, bots, blocks, filtering and spam control need to go through several iterations before we can actually grow this community.

        Search is another issue, as is post deletion. Right now a post vanishes, but all the stuff hanging off it is still there. This makes for a complex user experience.

        Finally, Lemmy appears to be run by developers who appear to be interested in their own issues and regularly appear to dismiss issues raised by users. This is not sustainable.

        I consider myself a user of the fediverse before I'm a Lemmy or Mastodon user. We have a way to go before this settles down.

  • This is a screenshot of the activity in this community. It looks ok to me...

    • I kinda wish they had posts/comments per day included. Users per day doesn't mean much; feels like it just counts views that had no interaction as I can see with a couple communities I moderate that get ~100 users a day, but nothing is being voted on, posted or commented.

  • I thought I liked it and that it had enough users, thank you for setting me straight.

  • Lemmy wasn't ready and still mostly not ready for a mass Reddit exodus. The Reddit API fiasco wasn't anticipated by anybody and the large influx of users exposed a ton of bugs and federation issues.

    But it's not a failure, yet. I'm sure Reddit had growing pains after the Digg exodus too. Some platforms take years to become popular. Reddit was small for quite a while before it became more mainstream.

    In a way to me Lemmy feels a bit like Reddit must have been a few years before I joined it 12 years ago.

    The problem is the expectation that Lemmy could replace Reddit overnight, and would immediately be a 1:1 replacement.

    Although personally I like it more here, and I get more interactions than Reddit. But I am a tech nerd, so.

  • I'd not yet call it failed, but it's not yet fully succeeded either. To my mind, one impediment is something that lemmy.world shares with today's reddit: If you look at the front page it's 99% memes and images. That's the first impression people get, and it probably drives away a lot of people who might want anything else. We need those people to make more text-based communities come alive, if it's to evolve into anything like the old reddit.

    I mean obviously there are lots of people who do mostly want to see memes and that's fine, but I think it's getting to the point where it might be useful to have an option that filters out all posts that are just a title and an image.

  • political extremists, tech nerds, privacy enthusiasts, and shitposters

    Dude thank god

    I miss my old nerd internet. I won’t say you’re wrong for wanting something that isn’t that, but I personally wish it was more that way than it currently is. SDF or mander is honestly a lot closer to how I like the culture and interactions to be, than Lemmy.world. I was super psyched when I came on and there were all these communists and science weirdos.

    for the general masses? Lemmy is just not good.

    For example, a NBA post on the NBA subreddit can get you thousands of interactions in a couple of hours. An NBA post on here will maybe get you a dozen over the course of a couple of days.

    Honestly, when sports started showing up on the main page of Reddit it was confusing and alarming to me. I recognize that I am the weird one here (from the POV of the ordinary person society), but I much prefer just having my nerd stuff and having it be unencumbered by any normal person stuff

    I think we actually have exactly the same view of Lemmy and its accurate position in relation to most normal people, just disagreeing over whether that is or isn’t a good thing

  • Change is not easy, it takes time and people willing to help foster that new change.

    I am one of those people that is really into politics, but I try to interact with other communities once in a while!

    It is an election year, so politics is always in an all time high on any forums and social media.

    I suggest, if you are willing, to step up your game and be really active in the communites you would like to see flourish.

    It may be lonely, but it tends to be when starting new things!

    We are all trying the best we can, when we can, I give props to the lemmyverse and fediverse for all they do!

    Thanks for posting, even if you used a burner account!

    • That's kind of the point that I was making. This platform has little to offer outside a outside of politics, tech, and shitposting. Most of the active users are here for these specific topics, which is fine, but this places Lemmy as a niche platform not one that appeals the masses. A few dedicated people can't foster a genuine community out of sheer enthusiasm. If that was the case then Lemmy would've regressed after the influx of last summer. You could be right, maybe people like you will lead this platform to grow into something more in a few years. I just don't personally see that happening.

      • Thanks for clarifying and going further into explaining your views to us!

        Some people can be seen as being a dreamer[1], I see myself as such a person, I try to stay hopeful, I see it as a much more positive way of living in the world; as well as much healthier for our mental health

        Lemmy as a niche platform not one that appeals the masses

        Yes, Lemmy is currently a niche platform, but that is how many start off, it takes time and much effort to grow a community.

        It is similar to grassroots movements, where people that are leaders or learn to become one are willing to speak with anyone for a cause they feel strongly about, and they start to grow slowly.

        I see lemmy in that phase or light, where most activity will be from people that are willing to throw themselves out there and share their favorite hobbies and put in the energy to interact with strangers (whether it may be apositive or negative interaction is another thing).

        It takes time for people to come out of their shells and to start being active on forums as well, hopefully in Lemmy we give people that opportunity to grow as people and to take chances to meet and discuss any topic with strangers.

        A few dedicated people can’t foster a genuine community out of sheer enthusiasm.

        Well, it takes a few to start something new, in my eyes all important causes and projects start with a few people just having fun or putting the time to create something new.

        To accomplish anything in life, it will take time and a lot of energy and people willing to do that.

        I just don’t personally see that happening.

        It is okay to see the world in that way, but just putting a bit of effort into sharing or creating a community that you like, will help improve the community.

        Activity would increase, if you create a community or decide to share more of your hobbies and opinions within those communities.

        If the communities would be liked by Lemmurs or not, it is another matter, but in the end of the day we all have our own way of seeing the world and we can have discussions with people that are willing to share their views as well.

        The only way we can continue to grow as people, is by forcing ourselves to push against our own bias and to keep talking with people that do not think or agree with what we have to say.

        [1] Supertramp - Dreamer [03:31] https://youtu.be/B885n08hOmw

        Much text to read, here is a Lemmur for a fun pic:

  • He has some very valid points. Outside of what he says, it's a challenge at times to build good conversations. Now we are all good for some laughs, but sometimes if you disagree with whatever meme was posted or whatever was posted, the minions come after you. It's almost like you get extreme views and not honest conversations. I find this on different Fediverse applications

  • I'm actually glad I'm not that active on the platform (or any platform for that matter, federated or not), so I can give myself time to breathe in outside air and touch some grass.

    And once I am active, it's usually for a couple hours at most, then it's back to being in my coma for a few days.

85 comments