OK so if you feel Lemmy has been trending towards hostility in the past weeks ppease here me out, interact in the comments but keep it civil.
Lemmy vs Reddit
We all had our reasons to move to Lemmy. What I remember clearly from the beginning of the summer was that we were all praising the tone. Over the years, Reddit has become increasingly toxic - most of all in the comment section. To me, that was what made Lemmy special. Even with less content, the general vobe was what made me come back every time.
clash of the clans
Due to the nature of the fediverse, we get to interact with people with different backgrounds and dofferent ideas. Potentially an incredibly enriching experience for everyone. Anti-defed lemmings defend staying federated with everyone for that precise reason, which I really get. But lately the vibe has turned sour. Every post that has the slightest political undertone becomes this big us-vs-them show. Please stop
discussion vs. shitshow
I am not arguing for stopping discussing our opinions. I also get the whole they don’t have downvotes thing. But can we please treat eachother with dignity, and when writing comments say ‘I believe’ or ‘in my opinion’ instead of ‘you all this or that’?
I think this is the only way forward if we want to prevent everyone from personally blocking a lot of instances in the furure.
As with most social media, I think the voting system makes it worse. There is always an element of “playing to the audience,” in that the easiest way to get validation (votes, boosts, replies) is to make sure everyone thinks you’re morally or intellectually superior over the person you’re talking to, whereas an actual normal conversation would be focused on the exchange of new ideas and perspectives.
Stronger moderation could help, and filtering the less civil communities could help, but I suspect it’s just a natural consequence of having a built-in validation system that applies to every post and comment everywhere. As engagement in the fediverse grows overall, I could see it getting worse mainly because of more ‘vote-seeking’ behavior.
I upvoted you, hope it makes you feel warm and fuzzy. But I really do think you are right. There is something in our nature making us want to be seen.
Is there a client that lets you easily block vote counts and buttons?
I remember RedReader did this for the bad old place, and it greatly improved my QoL while browsing. I only looked at what people were saying.
Your comments succes also hinges too much on the first reader, a single downvote by someone who disagrees, you go to 0 and you are never going to be seen by anybody again. Especially in larger threads.
There is lack of nuance in so many opinions here. Single sentence statements and if you don’t get them you supposedly just have’nt watched the right youtube video about the topic they seem to care about but are unable to tell you in their own words. Just don’t assume I have the same background as you dammit, everyone here could be from the other end of the world and your context matters in understanding.
Otherwise, multiple servers have a great population with polite discourse communities. You can find your favourite place where ‘local’ is fun and engaging. Bring patience when you venture to ‘all’. Reddit felt a lot more US local with only language barriers separating islands of other communities.