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

2023

  • Blaze (he/him)@feddit.org
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    7 months ago

    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.

    • hendrik@palaver.p3x.de
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      7 months ago

      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.

        • hendrik@palaver.p3x.de
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          7 months ago

          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…

  • OpenStars@piefed.social
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    7 months ago

    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.:-(

      • simple@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        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.

        • Blaze (he/him)@feddit.org
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          7 months ago

          If SEO index is based on user count, can’t websites just create thousands of fake users to boost their index?

          • simple@lemm.ee
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            7 months ago

            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.

            • Blaze (he/him)@feddit.org
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              7 months ago

              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

      • hono4kami@slrpnk.netOP
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        7 months ago

        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.

        • Blaze (he/him)@feddit.org
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          7 months ago

          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

  • Libb@jlai.lu
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    7 months ago

    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.

  • IsThisAnAI@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    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.

    • Blaze (he/him)@feddit.org
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      7 months ago

      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?

      • Elevator7009@ani.social
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        7 months ago

        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.

      • IsThisAnAI@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        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.