Lemmy could definitely use a bit more comment activity on a lot of posts.
I think it’s because nobody really wants to be the first to comment and offer an opinion that might end up going against the grain when a thread develops. There’s no ‘reading the room’ as it were.
I’m doing my part by commenting on threads. Like this one.
That, and when switching from reddit to Lemmy I realized how toxic the relationship there was, and I just use all social media way less now.
Reddit for sure is toxic. Generally, it’s much easier to be toxic in a large, anonymous group with an endless amount of subreddits to retreat to. Here, it’s maybe 10-20 people talking, so there’s not much room to hide, as it were. You keep running into the same faces, so it’s a bit more important to stay polite.
Fuck you!
I would agree but then I see a lot of toxicity even in small Facebook groups where most people use their real names. It’s just people I guess
It’s not even just “the first” post. Lemmy is exactly like Reddit where any comments or posts, no matter how high quality, that can be interpreted as “against the grain” will be attacked. Lemmy has the same strong tendency towards group think that Reddit does, it’s just lower volume and the bias runs even farther left. Shrug.
Unfortunate but true, I wonder if it’s the upvote system on comment threads
Rationing downvotes could help break the groupthink while still providing a crowdsourced method of controlling spam and trolls. Other platforms have systems like this and it seems to work.
I think there have been some Lemmy instances that disable downvotes entirely also.
I still miss Slashdot’s moderation (and meta-moderation) system.
For those who don’t know, Slashdot comments are scored in a range of [-1, +5] and upvotes and downvotes have a reason attached (e.g. +1 insightful, +1 funny, -1 troll). Users are given a very limited pool of votes to hand out, which are allotted according to a secret formula based on karma and maybe meta-moderation. Meta-moderation is a volunteer task where you’re given an anonymized list of comments and mod votes, and asked whether you agree with reach of them or not.
Interesting, thanks
Occasionally see something similar in real life, run a bar n grill. Just the other night had to tell that crew that I do have a menu, after the 6th order from the same table for dry ribs. Had the first guy ordered wings or a burger, same thing would have happened.
Most noticeable when you mention neutral and verified facts in partisan threads
I don’t often feel like I have something to say that would contribute to the conversation.
I always tell people, hey, I’m not a bot here posting things, I’m trying to share things I feel you guys would enjoy. If nobody comments, it doesnt incentivize me to continue posting, it makes me feel like a crazy person talking to themselves. I encourage people to say something, even if it’s just “I really enjoyed this, thanks for sharing!” or something. I do that from time to time on others’ posts. If they’re showing me something new, of course I don’t know anything about it coming in, but I can let them know now I do know thanks to their contribution here.
All these posts pop up all the time, “dang, it’s so dead here” but if instead of making, liking, or commenting on that post, you could thank someone that did post, or share something that you think others might like. I was never a poster on Reddit. I’m no expert on what I post on. I just find stuff I think people would like, and now after doing it for the last few months, now I do know a lot more and can give people better insight than I could in the beginning.
Comments have been feeling low on my posts, and I think when is the point where me making 2 or 3 posts a day isn’t worth my time anymore, but then someone will say “oh this post really made my day” and so I come back the next day and post again.
This is why I comment so much, I want regular posters to feel they’re not shouting out into the void. Also, having conversation starter comments on most posts helps new people feel like Lemmy isn’t “dead”.
Thank you for your service! 😉
This comment is sweet. I already try to comment but I’ll definitely be doing it more now.
It’s true! I know I thanked all my readers on new year and the other holidays and all, because it takes both sides, the posters and the commenters, if we’re going to make this thing work. People focus on the posters, and that is the main draw, but the comments are what adds the life and color.
Oh hey, I love your owl posts. I always read the comments too because I know there will be more pictures and info. I’ve been meaning to comment there, but work got super busy and I forgot to stop by.
No worries! As long as you’re enjoying it, that is what counts!
Anyone not clicking through and seeing the bonus stuff in the comments is really missing out.
I never let that stop me!
Well, comment anyway. You never know what’ll happen.
And even if you have a boring, vanilla opinion on that topic, post it anyway. Because it’ll lower the bar for others to comment as well. (As this entire thread demonstrates)
I mean, if anything it does serve as an icebreaker and gets the convo going. Or you can do like me and realize that you don’t actually know what the article is about or have the ability to understand it so you just try to make a joke and hope it lands and you can feel clever for a few minutes.
There’s also good fun in derailing a thread :D
The other day I commented on a post that used an ‘internet pirate’ stock image. Mentioned how I’d seen a guy with an eyepatch on the street that day and how rare that was.
Someone ended up sharing a neat little story about getting poked in the eye with a sword and how a kid called him a pirate. That all added fuck-all to the topic at hand, but it sure was collectively entertaining.
And those moments are what keep me coming back to this type of platform.
Well now I wanna read that story
Here you go :D
Thanks!
I remember that post! Best thing I’ve read on Lemmy all week :D
Same…
The fact you possess self awareness puts you above a great deal of people so please comment more often
Unrelated to anything here, I love your username.
I have also noticed that once a few people “break the ice” it really helps (like you did here). Comments beget comments.
Exactly. This thread is a perfect example. There’s literally no real topic to discuss, and yet people are talking. And that’s a great thing to encourage if we want to grow this platform 👍
Shit just open the post and wait 10-20 minutes and refresh and there will be a butt ton of comments ready.
This has been one of the biggest things I’ve taken away from my time here too. Especially when I first joined and it was even more barren. I was probably the first comment on over half the posts I viewed for the first few months. Often nothing substantial but it would lead to insightful comments from users who may have never even opened it if they saw zero comments.
Here’s me doing my part:
…
Penis
…
How was that?
Kinda short.
This. I make it a point to comment on all posts I find interesting, especially if they aren’t any. It almost always spurs discussion.
The last couple years on some other site really reduced the amount I commented. I’m not yet out of that initial instinct of just moving on without trying to engage, it just wasn’t worth it a lot of the time over there, had mostly positive experiences here though, experience wise.
I’ve written so many comments that I’ve just deleted before submitting thinking “no one wants to read this garbage anyway.”
It’s all the botposting
I’m doing my part starship troopers gif
I’ve noticed that this effect is much more positive on my reception and well being.
The same comments on Reddit often feel like a coin toss, between positive reception and getting voted into oblivion and hated at. I welcome this change.
I think it’s because nobody really wants to be the first to comment and offer an opinion that might end up going against the grain when a thread develops. There’s no ‘reading the room’ as it were.
Why offer an opinion when one can ask something about the post instead?
I dont know why not. This is not a group of people who knows eachother. We are all strangers.
Are we? I keep seeing the same usernames again and again, feels like we almost know each other by now
You and me yeah… :)
I guess I should change my username but it’s nice to be known by the same name actually.
Meh, I expect 90% of what I say to be downvoted and to get called antiemetic too
You are antiemetic though. I feel quite comfortable deepthroating you.
Lemmy has so few comments that people actually read my comments occasionally, which is wild.
Seriously, that comment got, like, an updoot every two minutes so far. Crazy.
I hr and 7upvotes in and Im here to give you another handjobby…good work
Jojo you have the best takes, everybody knows that
My parents and a number of other people in my IRL life would like you to know that they strongly disagree.
Well, tell them, politely disagreeing on personal takes is a thing on the fedivers. They should join and try. They might then find your takes very much helpful and interesting.
I’ve brought Lemmy up, but no one’s seemed very interested. As for my takes, welllll… I share them when I’m in polite company.
Same for me. But I’m not sure I’ll behave the same knowing my folk are roaming lemmy’s comment.
On the one hand, it has the same potential as reddit to be anonymized. On the other hand, how hard could I be to pin down?
Ive gotta agree cheese can go on just about anything.
Hi Jojo!
You’ve activated my trap card! Autocorrect has used the spelling of a famous singer instead of little old Jojo.
Fuck autocorrect. I fixed it ❤️
Yay!
It is just nice to be able to comment and have it read instead of buried 3000 comments down after the memes and one-liners.
That’s what she said… or something.
this
so much this
Thanks for the gold kind stranger.
(This is the part where I get 50 gold for no reason)
🥇
ReDdIt SiLvEr
Edit: thanks for the gold kind stranger
Im not reading all that but congratulations. Or I’m sorry. I don’t know whatever works. (This one is actually kinda funny tho)
This one is good when someone responds with a wall of text with no formatting, bad punctuation, etc.
What, did you need something?
Oh, wait, hey! I actually did say basically this!
It’s alright. Lemmy has good content and the comments are far higher quality than Reddit.
Also you can actually have a conversation and people tend to respond a lot more than on Reddit.
I’m finally over the feeling of going into comment sections thinking “there’s too many bots, no reason to try adding to the conversation”
reddit had no middle ground between new posts that get buried and overinflated posts that have a thousand regurgitated phrases plastered all over it
True. I regularly finish all the comments in a Lemmy thread. On Reddit the pile of garbage is far too big and 90% is people saying the exact same thing.
I really don’t find the conversation any better, I think this place still needs to grow out of its echo chamber stage where it’s a niche place with few commenters or diversity of opinion. I recall Reddit in its early days, different but similar.
Except mine. I’m still an abrupt asshole 😉
ok
In a way, thats a win, no ?
Considering a big problem with conversion on Reddit is people just reacting to the headline I’d say it’s a win. I’ve noticed here when people do comment it’s more nuanced because they actually read the article.
The article summary bot helps my lazy ass lol
Hey nothing wrong with that. I like it myself
I love it too :-) On specific subjects, where I really want my mind or the content like pics etc, because "important " for me (trans, Gaza), i click the link though
Also, I’m often like… there’s one comment and I generally don’t agree with it, but I also don’t want to make an ass of myself, so let’s skim that article first and pick some good parts to slam this dude with. Often I find that I was wrong.
I wonder if the reason for this is not due to having less comments, but instead because Lemmy simply has a different demographic. For one, I’ve noticed significantly fewer bad-faith arguments compared to on Reddit. And discussions topics that would have otherwise been trolled to hell and back ended up having reasonably impartial conversations.
I’ve read that Lemmy users are generally fairly old, compared to users from other social media. I wonder if that has a role in how discussions play out on Lemmy
There are plenty of posts on Lemmy where many of the commenters clearly didn’t read the article. It just depends on how click-baity the title is.
Except with some libs/racists/etc but yeah I agree for the majority.
Not really. People may talk shit about comments, but if it was just a matter of getting just articles, you might as well stick to the news sites. Even as far as pure news aggregation goes there are better options than relying on whatever a handful people decide to share here.
There’s value in public commentary too. It may not be as polished as these articles but it provides a variety of perspectives, questions and criticism that might be pertinent, and for as lacking or biased as they may be, it’s much easier to tell compared to sources trying to pretend impartiality.
There’s a reason why we are here and not on, say, Feedly. This particular community only highlights it further, since it’s entirely based on the interpersonal element. Ain’t nobody looking for journalism or scientific articles on !Showerthoughts
Hey, im clearly in phase with that.
What I’ve told you I’ve seen it though.
An feminist articles attacking the male vision on a pure “male subject” like computers and that’s just a fight like you can see elsewhere.
In that case, for example, the title is enough to tilt some. I’ve seen arguments told but if the articles were read, they would have never used it 🤣🤣🤣
I don’t know if I’m clear. But I agree with you, just told you me feeling BC of you know, experience x)
100%. i’d be more interested in knowing what some guys in a bar in NYC were saying when hitler died versus reading an article about it. articles are just facts put in order. biased opinions make us human.
Thanks for sharing your opinion about it.
I also really appreciate about Lemmy how there can be a 2 day old thread on everything and I throw in my 2 cents and even after 2 days, that comment gets read. It really beats the endless reposts (and bots reposting top comments!) of reddit.
I’ll sometimes comment on stuff but overwhelmingly I don’t. I was the same way on reddit. I just feel that I don’t have anything meaningful to say so why say anything.
I find myself commenting a lot more here. It’s more conversational than reddit. Comments are longer and not just one liner’s, and the smaller community means my comments won’t be buried. It also feels like a gateway drug to posting. I should post something today. I won’t, but I should.
Yeah, I comment more and longer. Because I’m more confident it will be seen.
And that’s the right way to approach it, but in a platform were niche communities are so empty, even a meaningless comment counts
But yeah, I try to follow the same approach, I’m interested in many things, and subscribed to a lot of communities, but why should I comment if it doesn’t help or adds anything to the theme of the post
Well, If anyone reads this, keep this as a good habit, even if it feels a bit weird in here, comment when you are of help, and learn from others when you have nothing to say
Edit: I love how the replies to this are doing the exact opposite lol, take care boys, I actually got a good laugh from this
Seconded
+1
this
This
We done fucked up
I think it was our lack of coordination…
I just wanted to say I also This
I have this same issue as well.
I just don’t feel like I have anything insightful or meaningful to say.
But, I feel like I should in the community I mainly frequent since it’s really quiet a lot and the main mod feels like the only person keeping things ticking along.
Moving to Lemmy made me realize how much time I wasted lurking on Reddit. I didn’t bother to participate because someone would have already said what I thought. Sometimes I could even read one thread for days because there was just so much to read.
But I don’t know if it’s good or bad if there are so many comments. Maybe it’s good if you learn something useful but I don’t think it’s that useful to read for days about random subject you don’t need. At least it’s a some form of entertainment. I think I just read less now that I’m on Lemmy.
Weirdly I’ve somehow adjusted for inflation. On reddit I wouldn’t bother commenting if there were more than 1000 comments, here I don’t bother if there are already 100.
Quality vs quantity.
10 comments here likely means 10 people have unique thoughts. 1000 comments usually means memes and bots.
I used to hate reddit in springtime when the kids got out from school. Now it’s always springtime.
I delete about 80% of the comments I write before posting. Even if I took the time to write a long response. This is because of the general nature of the Internet and reddit culture is definitely here on Lemmy. But, like this comment, I’ll try to engage more because I also miss the discussion aspect on posts.
Most people are guilty of that to some extent. You want to make a good response, but end up overthinking it and moving on. Which is a shame. God only knows how many awesome comments end up in the digital wastebasket.
Besides, what’s the worst that can happen? Who really gives a fuck about downvotes anyway.
I do the exact same thing, once my comment reaches a paragraph long I just think “this is way too much stupid information to add, fuck it all, cancel.” Maybe I should shitpost random thoughts either way and let the chips fall where they may.
I often realise as I’ve written it that I may be doxxing myself (sharing an anecdote about my past etc) so often that’s my reason to delete. It’s pretty paranoid but I do value my anonymity here.
Just go for it. At the end of the day it’s only internet points.
Impossible. I post too many comments for this to be true.
You really do. I’m pretty sure I see your comments in every thread I read.
is your username a reference to the song? I like the song very much :)
Ha yes it is! I (obviously…) love it too
Has @showerthoughts ever been about silly shower thoughts on Lemmy or is it just hot takes here.
We had a brief period where it was actual shower thoughts.
Yeah, it just feels like ask lemmy but with jeopardy rules.
Leopardy.
I recommend not using Lemmy while showering, it’s bad for your energy bill. Also electronics.
Better than Reddit’s “guys, life is like bideo game”
I consider it a plus. I do value also being able to read most, if not all, comments on lemmy too.
I refuse to comment on this post, it’s blatantly pandering. Drink Coca~cola.
Welcome to Costco, I love you.
“I wonder what people’s opinions are, or of there’s something more to learn about this topic!”
“Oh, there’s nothing here…”
This is the biggest bummer of Lemmy so far for me. I miss the conversation.
I try to contribute, even if I’m the only one who comments.
Come on mate, it might have been the case at the inception of Lemmy but now there’s interesting content everywhere, even in your bait post 😁
#nocomment
