this post was submitted on 05 May 2025
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Fediverse

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A community to talk about the Fediverse and all it's related services using ActivityPub (Mastodon, Lemmy, KBin, etc).

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Or made any kind of commentary on it? Or are they depending on being deathly silent to reduce the chance of anyone finding out?

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[–] Psythik@lemm.ee 26 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

I would never have known that Lemmy existed, if it weren't for redditors telling me about it around the time Spez went nuclear on 3rd party apps. And here I thought that everyone on Lemmy came from reddit.

FWIW, I've heard that they've recently been censoring any mentions of Lemmy. They're obviously afraid of reddit becoming a repeat of digg. Which is why they've been slowly enshittifying the place instead of doing all at once like digg did. Fuck reddit, and fuck Spez.

[–] Pamasich@kbin.earth 7 points 5 hours ago

FWIW, I've heard that they've recently been censoring any mentions of Lemmy.

Reddit doesn't do that, it's overzealous moderators that do. Like on /r/technology iirc.

/r/redditalternatives for example doesn't get posts that mention Lemmy removed. If Reddit blanket censored the term, it would apply there too.

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 8 points 12 hours ago

Reddit as in the company? Of course, the first Reddit search result has been manually set to a "Stay away from Lemmy" post.

[–] ceiron@lemm.ee 89 points 21 hours ago (3 children)

I think we can safely assume the large majority of Reddit users don’t even have the slightest clue about the existence of Lemmy - unfortunately.

[–] Fingolfinz@lemmy.world 53 points 21 hours ago (4 children)

That’s fine with me, I can’t stand most the people on Reddit

[–] RandomVideos@programming.dev 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

My experience with people on Reddit was better than the one with people on Lemmy, but i am probably an exception considering the amount of people saying Lemmy is much better than Reddit

[–] EddoWagt@feddit.nl 3 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

As long as you block Lemmy.ml and hexbear.net it's much better to be honest, I don't really like blocking an entire group of people like that but it really does help

[–] RandomVideos@programming.dev 1 points 6 hours ago

My instance hides most political communities unless you are subscribed to them so people saying that Russia and China are amazing is not a problem; i see people complaining about lemmy.ml way more

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 27 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

We are our own unique ecosystem. It's fine as is.

[–] Fingolfinz@lemmy.world 24 points 21 hours ago (4 children)

Exactly. I love how there is actual discourse here rather than petty bickering and useful discussions are happening on here that I didn’t encounter on reddit

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 19 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Its really cool to see username@instance1 and username@instance2 on community instance3. It means Activityhub is doing its job and making us truly federated.

[–] JacksonLamb@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

What's the piefed experience like, out of interest? I haven't tried it yet.

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 1 points 52 minutes ago

Its been pretty good. Lemmy has more momentum...but that doesn't really mean much when you can just subscribe to different instances all over the place.

It has quite a few UI templates. So you can further customize your experience. Its initial setup is MUCH nicer than lemmy. It has starter pack kinda deals. Theres a lot of other cool features like reposts show all comments from both postings. I also self hosted my own for a tiny bit, but I like the default piefed.social website the most. It is much more stable haha.

Plus Piefed can hook into other ActivityHub providers like peertube, mastodon, etc...without any real issues. Its a bit better than lemmy in that it utilizes the nature of the fediverse a bit more. Dont get me wrong, there both very solid projects. But as a layman, Im really enjoying piefed.

[–] naught101@lemmy.world 4 points 19 hours ago

I hope it continues as Lemmy gets bigger, but I'm kind of doubtful it won't eventually decay in the same way as reddit. At least, I don't see anything inherently different that would avoid that. Perhaps the federation and moderation structure might help, but that doesn't seem certain yet..

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[–] Addv4@lemmy.world 13 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Pretty much. I still occasionally have to go to reddit for some random questions, and the difference in tone is often rather jarring.

[–] MBech@feddit.dk 14 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

It's an impressive difference really. I've yet to be called any slurs here, and most people seem to follow the "upvote if it adds to the discussion, downvote if it doesn't" principle. I'm totally fine with a more limited amount of content if that's the tradeoff.

[–] Addv4@lemmy.world 3 points 19 hours ago

Yeah. It largely reminds me of what reddit used to be a long time ago, a place for interesting stuff and to have a pleasant conversation.

[–] ocean@lemmy.selfhostcat.com 4 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Who does you think used Lemmy though?

[–] stardust@lemmy.ca 5 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (1 children)

Based on how nerdy lemmy seems to be with all the Linux talk the demographic that is more similar to old reddit.

There was a period early in reddit when it seemed more techy. Later on it became more mainstream with a shift towards people posting in a manner more similar to Facebook and Instagram sharing more personal pics and memes.

[–] Machinist@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

I imagine the pipeline for a lot of users is some variant of:

BBS/Usenet | Slashdot/SomethingAwful/Ars Technica | Digg | Reddit | Lemmy

[–] ChickenAndRice@sh.itjust.works 14 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I remember suggesting Lemmy to mods of a popular subreddit, during the API Shutdown 2 years ago

They told me they had no idea how to even use it and would rather just use Discord. I check a couple months ago and they still exist on Reddit...

[–] TheRedSpade@lemmy.world 23 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

How does Discord even enter one's mind as an alternative to Reddit?

Also, they have no idea how to use it? Bullshit. If they can use Reddit, they can use Lemmy.

[–] Pamasich@kbin.earth 1 points 5 hours ago

How does Discord even enter one's mind as an alternative to Reddit?

With its forum channels, it at least has more of a claim to it than Twitter imo. And I've seen a lot of people claim they're moving to Twitter/Mastodon/Bluesky as a Reddit alternative.

[–] Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com 9 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

Also, they have no idea how to use it? Bullshit. If they can use Reddit, they can use Lemmy.

Mostly yes, but to be fair Lemmy was more buggy and less intuitive back then, it was 2 years ago

[–] doingthestuff@lemy.lol 5 points 18 hours ago

You would not welcome most of those people anyway.

[–] Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 39 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

Several subs have automods set to autodelete any comments referencing Lemmy or links to it, not to mention the manual deletions by mods. It's definitely being talked about, despite these attempts.

[–] arotrios@lemmy.world 7 points 18 hours ago

There's also an astroturfing campaign against it as well over there - I've noticed a lot of bot comments and bullshit when I post links to here from there.

[–] reallyzen@lemmy.ml 11 points 21 hours ago

There's a French speaking /r/ over there that bans an @jlai.lu user and remove their post when they link to Lemmy.

[–] mPony@kbin.earth 15 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

Discussion of Lemmy doesn't seem to be actively stifled, if that's what you mean. https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/ exists

[–] imaqtpie@sh.itjust.works 11 points 15 hours ago

They do have a history of removing threads and posts that get too popular though. I remember several incidents where highly upvoted comments and posts about Lemmy got removed for seemingly no reason.

It's probably impossible for them to entirely prevent discussion about Lemmy so they instead astroturf and try to manipulate the discussion to portray the platform in a bad light. It seems to be an extremely effective tactic, unfortunately for us.

Reddit's obfuscation of upvotes and downvotes is problematic, and makes it trivial for them to manipulate any discussion if they feel like it. Not to mention their ability to just nuke anything they don't like with no repercussions.

[–] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 2 points 16 hours ago

Thanks. Wonder about reach—if a post there went viral somehow, if it would be allowed to run its natural course onto r/all

Maybe so, such a small sub, might not have any “defenses” against it haha. hmm but suppose it could show in a trending sidebar at some point if they’re still doing that. Ah, guess we could test whether their threads ever get recommended when browsing similar threads on other subs.


Rando-mirror linker version btw:

https://farside.link/https://reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/

[–] PunkRockSportsFan@fanaticus.social 29 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

The fediverse represents the collapse of the techno oligarchy.

How could mark zuckerberg establish Facebook when there are ad free alternatives?

They will try to outlaw activity pub in USA. Watch and see.

[–] RandomVideos@programming.dev 2 points 9 hours ago

Lemmy is going to end capitalist exploitation of social media, just like email did for sending messages

/s
If lemmy users are willing to use clients with ads, a normal person would too

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 16 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

No, they will just make server operators liable for obeying any conservative who has an issue with any content there and can make the right format of complaint.

I suspect that instances outside the US will simply be too small a factor to bother with. Small, scattered opposition that is subject to deliberate trolling and disruption at any scale anyone feels like deploying will simply not be worth bothering with.

This is all assuming if a big internet-censorship operation starts (which it seems likely that it will). I think it will mainly focus on large based-in-the-US companies which host large services. Notably among them will be Bluesky. The only impact it will have on anything ActivityPub-based is that they will shut down or muzzle some big instances inside the US, and then, the point being made, they will probably move on, leaving instances outside the US to do whatever they want. That's my prediction.

Oh, also, Palantir's surveillance will incorporate people's comments into their overall dossier on the person, regardless of where their instance is, which means that anyone who maintains a big presence on an ActivityPub network will be putting themselves at person risk of neo-deportation to somewhere they can never get free from. It will still be legal to do, though. Sure.

[–] gigachad@sh.itjust.works 18 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

You overestimate the Lemmy US userbase. Only because we speak English doesn't mean we're all from the US. Language-based instances like feddit.org for example may be small, but its users engage in the whole lemmyverse.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 5 points 20 hours ago

Oh, I am sure most of Lemmy is outside the US. I was saying that, in general, Lemmy (and even Mastodon) is probably too small and difficult a problem for them to want to attack through any systematic method. I think, if anything, they'll just surveil and punish individual US-based users as opposed to trying to shut down or block instances outside the US.

It's one of the advantages of ActivityPub services. Bluesky will be easy for them to attack at the root and I fully expect them to do so, whereas for truly federated services I think the reaction will be "ah what the hell too much trouble, how much harm can they really do."

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 13 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

I suspect that instances outside the US will simply be too small a factor to bother with.

Aren't the largest (by user population) Lemmy instances already located outside of the USA? .world is in the Netherlands, I believe. Sopuli.xyz in Finland, etc. Even Midwest.social is not hosted in the USA.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 3 points 20 hours ago

See my other comment. I wasn't saying at all that Lemmy was a US-only thing, I was just trying to say that that the whole network is probably enough of a niche platform that it's not worth the substantial effort that would be involved in trying to interfere too much with US users on non-US instances. Big instances in the US, they can fuck with, and so why not (and especially since the Take it Down act is structured to empower individuals to go after them without the government needing to spend resources on it.) Instances outside the US, never mind, we have bigger fish to fry.

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[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 11 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

I've seen a few big threads talking about Lemmy (because people posted links to them here, on Lemmy to explain how this whole thing works and get people on board), but at the same time I've also seen people here posting their experiences with such discussions being removed.

I would have to suspect the admins aren't doing anything, but the individual mods of some ass-kissing subreddits do so because they feel threatened on behalf of the company they volunteer to prop up.

[–] Steve@communick.news 10 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Do you mean Reddit the company, or the Reddit the community?

I think the answers are "No", and "A little. It often gets deleted when mentioned."

[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 3 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

Reddit or the community

Yes

[–] shittydwarf@sh.itjust.works 15 points 20 hours ago (1 children)
[–] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 3 points 16 hours ago

Ya b/c it’s not plastered with ads, what’s even the point of this place if the advertisers haven’t swarmed it? :)

[–] abobla@lemm.ee 10 points 21 hours ago

by "The Reddit" you mean the owners/shareholders? Why would they do that?

[–] morgan_423@lemmy.world 6 points 19 hours ago

I don't see much talk of Lemmy on Reddit, but I'm primarily only on Reddit for a small handful of niche subreddits where no one talks about these things anyway.

[–] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 9 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I do see redditors bringing it up from time to time, but those who know about it and stayed usually complain about not understanding instances or not getting enough engagement with niche communities.

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 6 points 21 hours ago

Which is understandable, if you’ve never been one of the first people on a social media platform. They have no clue how utterly surface-level their issues are.

Someone correct me if I’m wrong but, were they to get the level of engagement they wanted, wouldn’t most broadly federated small instances close due to increased hosting costs? I don’t think we’re physically able to support the number of people required to create broad niche community discussion.

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 8 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Does "Reddit" acknowledge the existence of Facebook, Twitter or Digg?

[–] PattyMcB@lemmy.world 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

There is literally a ton of Twitter subs

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 3 points 21 hours ago

What does that have to do with anything? You think Reddit not banning them is acknowledgement?

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