Let me know if this is appropriate for this community.
I’ve been collecting links to post, blog, article, comment, etc that criticize the fediverse, whether it’s about the specific apps or fediverse in general, whether it’s about the technical aspect or about the social aspect.
If you also found one, feel free to share it here.
(date format is YYYY-MM-DD)
2024
- https://lemmy.world/post/11519703 - Lemmy is a bigger echo chamber than reddit, 2024-02-03
- https://lemmy.world/post/11720592 - Lemmy users lack nuace and it stops actual discussion., 2024-02-08
- https://lemmy.world/post/12352000 - Lemmy is not immune to trolls, bad fait actors or propaganda - in fact, despite how bad reddit is, a lot of Lemmy instances are worse, 2024-02-24
- https://wedistribute.org/2024/02/tear-down-walls-not-bridges/ - Tear Down Walls, and Build Bridges, 2024-02-13
- https://wedistribute.org/2024/03/contentnation-mastodons-toxicity/ - Content Nation Backlash Highlights Mastodon’s Toxicity, 2024-03-02
- https://reddit.com/r/fediverse/comments/1b76cbo/fediverse_is_not_so_good/ - Fediverse is not so good…, 2024-03-05
- https://kevquirk.com/blog/linux-elitism-again - Linux Elitism…Again, 2024-04-14
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Mastodon/comments/1g1g844/why_is_mastodon_struggling_to_survive - Why is Mastodon struggling to survive?, 2024-10-12
- https://lemmy.world/post/19004972 - Lemmy wouldn’t really takeoff to replace Reddit until it’s content is search indexable, 2024-08-24
- https://evergreenfiles.com/blogs/the-fediverse-desperately-needs-sustainable-file-hosting - The Fediverse Desperately Needs Sustainable File Hosting, 2024-11-04
- https://lemmy.world/post/22316287 - I really want to like Lemmy, 2024-11-22
- https://bsky.app/profile/techconnectify.bsky.social/post/3lbs4ihb2gs24 - Technology Connection’s thread on Bluesky about Mastodon being a ghost town and more, 2024-11-26
- https://transfem.social/notes/a16rvjhkk34b00tf - […] if you are explaining the fediverse to a non-tech person, “it’s like email” is not a sufficient explanyation., 2024-11-30
2023
- https://pawb.social/post/42756 - “Tanky” and the perception of Lemmy., 2023-06-14
- https://erinkissane.com/mastodon-is-easy-and-fun-except-when-it-isnt - Mastodon Is Easy and Fun Except When It Isn’t - Erin Kissane’s small internet website, 2023-07
- https://lemm.ee/post/873456 - I miss reddit, 2023-07-09
- https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/16zq1dd/the_lemmyverse_aint_all_its_cracked_up_to_be/ - The Lemmyverse ain’t all it’s cracked up to be, 2023-10-04
Hello,
I mostly had a look at the Lemmy posts, seems like most of them are 10 months - 1 year old. Lemmy has evolved a lot since then, user-level instance muting was a big change for instance.
The most active communities being on other instances than .ml is also a notable change.
Though, I think a lot has stayed the same. I regularly read the same complaints that have been brought up over and over again for a long time now. I’m not sure if the UI, or moderation woes, or the atmosphere, or the size, or amount of argumentative people have changed substantially.
That’s a minority opinion. I’ve brought that up before and been pointed at the Changelog and told lots of things have changed. It just doesn’t feel that way for me.
UI
Which one? With the variety of front ends and mobile apps, experiences can be very different
moderation woes
Power tripper get regularly called out on !yepowertrippinbastards@lemmy.dbzer0.com for a few months
atmosphere argumentative people
Very community dependant
Yeah, I (or we) have solved those issues for us. Or found workarounds. I’m not sure if that translates to the regular user, though. I guess most people are using some mobile apps anyways. So UI issues are an entirely different story.
And posting to the drama communities mostly adds drama here. It doesn’t make it any better.
I agree, all of this is very community and instance dependant. I didn’t address OP’s links directly. But that’s the reason why I’d dismiss a lot of them. For example if you’re reading the “All” feed, and then go ahead to complain it’s too much Linux news… That’s just stupid. Or if you’re on lemmy.world and complain about their moderation policies. We all know how the dynamics are. Or if you’re on lemmy.ml doing anything…
And posting to the drama communities mostly adds drama here. It doesn’t make it any better.
It allowed to switch from !lotrmemes@midwest.social to !lotrmemes@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Sure, nothing against a bit of shameless self promotion for communities we like, or foster… What’s the issue with the midwest.social version? I couldn’t find any drama post you might be referring to.
Thanks for the links, btw.
That’s abysmal behaviour. I’d be happy if we had some more tools and technology to handle those kinds of things. I mean In my experience some people really get a big head from all the power they’re wielding in their small world, moderating a community or even running a website… Plus we got some people who are just not suited for the job… It is how it is… 🙃
This comes across as highly biased - perhaps you could make another post like this, where people sing the praises of the Fediverse? Not in terms of promises but the reality of actual experiences? And then link it here and vice versa, to give people a more accurate take of both Pros and Cons.
Overall some things do seem to be getting better. Not quickly, or even sufficiently, but inexorably it does seem to be happening. Although it also gets worse too in other ways so… I’m not sure what to say about the overall situation.
Personally, I’m going to start blocking more communities, which I find very sad bc I used to greatly enjoy those very same ones.:-(
Should I cross post this to !fediverse@lemmy.world?
Feel free!
Would be nice if you could sort these by date.
That’s a good idea. I’m still adding things to be clear
Ye, but it’s good to know that some are opinions that are 1 year+ old. I Would personally separate the articles in 1+ years old, and the rest.
Noted, moved posts made in 2024 to the top
I still think that most of the posts from 2023 is applicable now
https://lemmy.world/post/22316287 - I really want to like Lemmy, 2024-11-22
I still stand by my comment there
Feel free to block communities with political content.
You can also use an app or alternative frontend to filter keywords. !newtolemmy@lemmy.ca has a post about that.
For communities, !newcommunities@lemmy.world can help
For home kit, the Apple communities are probably more active, and you should be able to post about it there too
Here’s one: https://lemmy.world/post/19004972
Search engines definitely crawl Lemmy, I’ve seen Lemmy posts pop up on Duckduckgo
They do, but the fact that users are separated across hundreds of instances means that all Lemmy-related websites won’t appear high in the search.
If SEO index is based on user count, can’t websites just create thousands of fake users to boost their index?
search engines are giant algorithms that I don’t think anybody truly gets, but it does rule out bots. The popularity of the website and how often people click on it are taken into account, and the problem is that the fediverse is split into hundreds of domains. It doesn’t help that the content is the exact same across instances so fedi websites could just be marked as spam.
hundreds of domains
https://fedidb.org/software/lemmy
Filter by monthly active users, when you reach the 31st most active instance you are already at 187 users. 41st is 102 users. 51st is 34 users.
Most of the 44k monthly active users are on the top 20, so it’s more around 20-50 domains than hundreds.
fedi websites could just be marked as spam.
That could definitely be
Lemmy.world definitely shows up a lot. But I wonder what could still be improved. The amount of content, I wonder? Not an expert on SEO, but SEO-wise lemmy is doing great, no?
Not an seo expert but.
Lemmy and fediverse should theoreticly be doing very well according to the traditional metrics of site value (backlinks etc). I suspect some engines like google have marked it as seo gaming/abuse and thus deranked it. Unfortunatly lemmy gets each instance ranked individually instead of a ranking for fediverse as a whole. Ultimately its an issue cos dns is outdated.
Not an expert on SEO, but SEO-wise lemmy is doing great, no?
Not a SEO expert, but nowadays it seems to be quite different between one search engine and the other
Good one
Here’s another: https://lemmy.world/post/19408108
But this one focuses on one thing that gave Reddit for example an advantage, prioritising desktop users: https://lemmy.world/post/23047126
imho (50+ years old dude that is not much of a geek and understand not much either), the main issue and one that is shared by most if not all social media but is more annoying on Lemmy, is the fact that by default a new or a potential user is supposed to be reading the full flow of content. And then we’re surprised most run away screaming in disgust?
It’s a bit like entering a restaurant and being expected by the owner to take a bite or two of every single plate on the menu, and dessert, before being asked what it is we wanted to order.
Be it Reddit, or Twitter, or Lemmy if the default content is of extremely low value and often extremely low effort, qnd when it’s not it’s still content most people just won’t be interested in. So, why force it under everyone’s eyes?
The default/new user access to content could have been made opt-in, instead of op-out. Instantly muting most of the noise, trash, and low value content.
Imagine the home page empty of any content by default, save a selection of the most ‘popular’ tags or community names, say with a description, that the user is still expected to select from before the timeline starts showing them any related content, and then an option to search for more (more specific) communities.
I know a few people my age that have tried Lemmy but could not stand being asked to swallow the constant flow of politics, or memes, or anger, or whatever. Those are legit content to anyone interested in them, just having them the default experience for everybody may not the best idea?
Once again, it’s the same on reddit. But reddit had two advantages for people like me: we already had an account and we knew how it worked, so it was obvious how to escape the numerous type of content we did not want to see. It’s much less obvious on Lemmy, and even less so if one has not yet created an account… which is the most likely.
I solved this on PieFed by allowing admins to designate which communities can show up on the home page for logged-out users. See https://piefed.social/ for an example of how it turned out.
Thx!
Ain’t this the truth. Great work pulling the actual conversations on this.
Predicably if you say this in comments you are then sent 10 messages calling you a bootlicking schil asking you why you are even here.
Bluesky and threads understood to get people of interest with something to say rather than focus on the disenfranchised angry folks that came here. This place basically is an rss feed for doom scrollers.
Pretty true ngl lol
Bluesky and threads understood to get people of interest with something to say rather than focus on the disenfranchised angry folks that came here. This place basically is an rss feed for doom scrollers.
I see Bluesky’s appeal, I’ve been there for a few weeks, it’s quite nice. Not sure about Threads though, I’ve heard the people are mostly Instagram’s influencers, is this correct?
Ehh, I follow zero influencers, only people I know in real life and Instagram spammed me with “[Elevator7009’s friend] and 23 others want you to join them on Threads!” or whatever the notif is for awhile. I never bothered getting one myself because ew Meta and I already use the Fediverse. And because I was pretty sure it was just marketing—if my friend actually personally wanted me on Threads they’d private message me or tell me in real life.
Although it still could be mostly influencers! I am a fun sample size of one with a single anecdote.
I found that most my content folks I follow have a presence as well as sports. YMMV but personally it strikes a balance between pop culture and news.
I do think bluesky has the advantage though and will “win” me over long term.