Has anyone else noticed this, across the fediverse, Lemmy specifically. A lot of new users, but also a lot of first posts that are very inflammatory/rage baity.
Do we have another legit influx of new users? Or do we just have some bad actors trying to stir the pot? Or maybe I’m imagining it.
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I don’t think it’s an uptick, it’s been around for as long as I’ve used the Fediverse.
I’ve never understood the mindset that this social site is made up of a different mix of personalities than any other. It’s not. There’s very nice people here and there’s very mean people here. Often, the very nice are quiet so you won’t always notice them but the meanest are usually very outspoken and everyone comes across something left by them. Hatred, ignorance and toxicity is not something that’s left at the door of the fediverse.
I’ve never understood the mindset that this social site is made up of a different mix of personalities than any other. It’s not.
On the other hand, this is often the case in small communities. Most Lemmy instances are general-purpose or large enough to have a typical mix, but I have been to a few sites which will moderate away any hostility whatsoever, and that does make the site unusable for some personalities. These kind of sites have rules like “No politics. No insults. No drama.” Toxicity isn’t inevitable, there’s nothing forcing community staff to tolerate mean people or mean outbursts, but it does take a mixture of design decisions and careful micromanagement which most communities, and especially most large sites, don’t bother with.
edit: and on the flipside, there are also communities where toxicity is expected and it’s amazing to see someone acting nice there, it might even be done as a trolling method.
We ought to moderate well and do better than elsewhere though. Well, at least I would hope that users would gravitate towards instances that moderate their users better, so we get more civil behavior.
As a fairly new user to lemmy I have found that the community can be pretty brutal and there are quite a lot of set things that are frowned upon. Windows always gets a lot of abuse, but for me here in the UK the amount of Mac and Linux users is miniscule, for example… yet Windows is frowned upon greatly. Sp whilst not raging, it is deffo anti a fair few things. I know it is to be expected as it is a fairly technical things to use lemmy/piefed/fediverse but it still makes me wince. Like everything these days, the less passionate just don’t post any more so it does bring out some strong responses
It’s not only about many people here being technical, of course you’re right that it plays a big part, and it’s also that the Fediverse is a rejection of for-profit, closed social media, so there’s a HUGE crossover between its users and the FOSS community (including Linux users) who really take strong issue to many things about Windows (and Mac) that Windows users consider to be normal. And with Lemmy especially, the initial userbase was largely anti-capitalists, since Reddit was banning many of their subreddits and was exploiting their users for profit with ads, blocking third-party apps, and bending to the demands of media companies and their owners. So plenty of people here are political about software.
Nah im greatful, someone said “your first problem was using windows” 7/8 months ago here and I was you know what let me try linux just to complain about it to you, and I never went back lol
I totally understand, but it is also why many people I know come, have a look around and are swiftly gone… I was trying (badly) to be pretty generic in my point, you said it a lot better than I could think of at the time
I’ve been in the nerdy tech space for decades now and I will never understand how these people expect things like Linux to take charge while they’re also being the most gatekeepy and arrogant people. Sure, I’d love folks to try it out, but I’m not going to demonize them either for not. I also have done tech support and there are the people where I just say “Nope, get a mac” because otherwise I will be the person that they go and demand free support from every week.
There’s passion, but then there’s a line that is too often crossed that goes into ego and selfishness, and I think Lemmy just breeds that.
Definitely. Most of the time communities are friendly and supportive - but I’ve noticed too that there are users who seem deliberately scratchy and saying things that are looking to provoke and who become fizzy if they’re challenged in any way about something they’ve said. I wondered if it’s much younger users who are coming from other places having picked up the “fight me” attititude there.
I think that’s why it becomes so noticeable - it’s usually so calm and chill that when someone comes in to stir the pot it’s so obvious
That’s one of the benefits of having a forum small enough to have a community. Troublemakers stick out like a sore thumb.
Leaving the 3 biggest news comms has been one of the best things I’ve done recently.
comms
Communications?
Communities
Cormorants?
I haven’t, but then again I don’t subscribe to News or Politics communities.
The way to go
Or do we just have some bad actors trying to stir the pot?
Yes.
People are hostile idiots sometimes, also, so that doesn’t help. But yes, people are definitely trying to stir up deliberate ballache for whatever weird reasons of their own.
For context
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Yes have noticed more rage bait. Also more and more culture wars in comments. Still not anywhere near as bad as reddit.
Seems like the average user on here is smart enough not to get caught up in that bullshit thankfully. It’s a lot nicer than the pathetic chess match on reddit where everyone seems to take the rage bait like a carrot on a string
Seems like the average user on here is smart enough not to get caught up in that bullshit thankfully.
I wonder if it’s still early enough to give people taps on the shoulder - “don’t feed the trolls, friend”.
I don’t think it would hurt for real, it might snap someone out of it cos I would love lemmy not devolving into reddit
I’ve noticed more debatelords (only in large communities, like c/technology), not sure they will stay if we don’t feed them and the more debatelordy instances just simply ban them.
Nothing out of the ordinary personally.
Meta communities are prompt to drama, but that’s the usual.
Edit: I just remember I’ve seen a few one-day account posting obvious ragebait. That usually gets removed quickly.
Edit2: example https://lemmy.world/post/33629252
Yeah in my small areas of the fedi, im not seeing any inflammatory posts. Of course there’s like dozens of us compared to you all, but its a happy balance.
Bots originating in russa, china, etc, etc spreading social unrest
Those countries want to divide us and it’s working
That’s true in most places, but until now it’s been relatively quiet I’m here on the fediverse
What has ended up happening in the replies to this comment is exactly what OP was talking about.
Those countries want to divide us and it’s working
We have a saying “People who think too highly of themselves and can’t fix their problems will always make up a bogeyman to blame”
Did the tankies lead you to support the genocide? Did the tankies keep you from keeping Israel/US accountable for their crimes?
No buddy, your “countries” did those all on their own and were proud of it. The countries are only changing their tone as the hypocrisy is failing to keep up with the lies.
But you do you. You’re such good guys and have never done bad to anyone else and also “never” fought among yourselves.
If it takes some Chinese and Russian trolls to divide you, you’re never really “together” bud. But again whatever makes you sleep at night.
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So people are just pretending that astroturfing by foreign nations isn’t real now? Cool.
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Intentionally inflammatory posts? I haven’t noticed an uptick, honestly. Doesn’t mean there isn’t one and doesn’t mean I won’t notice now that you posted it.
But I will say that I’ve basically stopped checking my notifications because all of a sudden it seems like almost every time I go in there, I’ve got at least one insufferable, hostile, negative, etc response or message in there. It didn’t used to be that way.
Mostly I assume we must’ve recently gotten an influx of new users from Reddit or someplace similarly toxic. Things usually get a bit unfortunate for a time when that happens.
Look up Eternal September on Wikipedia.
But I will say that I’ve basically stopped checking my notifications because all of a sudden it seems like almost every time I go in there, I’ve got at least one insufferable, hostile, negative, etc response or message in there. It didn’t used to be that way.
I still check mine, but occasionally I’ll know I’ve said something that will have a hostile reply. Usually when I’ve asked someone to stop being hostile and inflammatory :)))
In my experience, it’s not new. I noticed things were far more hostile than my reddit experience from the moment i got on Lemmy. Maybe it’s because I unsubscribed from all the toxic places on Reddit (i promise they exist) but I browse /all here since it’s too quiet otherwise.
I think it matters community to community - but I don’t disagree with you. Personally, I suggest curating a list of communities that you like and subscribing to them. It’s been much more pleasant having that than the barrage of All.
Yeah, guess I’m just worried about missing out on cool new communities popping up. Almost every post in all is from a different community.
I had a list of 90 active cat picture subreddits. Wish we had even a fraction of that here.
Fair, I usually poke into All every once in a while to see if there’s anything new, and !communitypromo@lemmy.ca is usually pretty good at letting folks know too
This is not 90 active cat picture subreddits but here is a begining for you: https://tarte.nuage-libre.fr/topic/detente/animaux
I used to see new accounts with weird names posting long AMAs in the !askmeanything@lemmy.ca community.
Are those LLM bots or are they real users?
Unsure personally, but I’m keeping an eye on it personally
Only abouts Arch Linix users. :)
Not inflammatory, but I’ve noticed some new users who come only to do self promotion, without engaging in anyting else in the platform. Mostly in art related comms but also a couple trying to promote a shady website or the like. Even though my account is new I’ve been browsing for a good while and dislike people that are only looking for an audience not a community.
I do some self promotion, although I try to; 1: only post in relevant forums. 2: also engage outside of my own posts an then not talk about said posts.(this time is an exception but its kind of a meta discussion.)
Due to the nature of the fedivers what I post on mastodon and pixelfed might get federated on to Lemmy, which unfortunately might give the appearance of spamming, I’m aware of this but I don’t see a way around that. And lastly. I don’t think my videos on Peertube would get any views unless I post them outside of peertube since there is no real algorithm or good discovery functions across the instances. But I’m open to being in the wrong here.
And to clarify, self promo is ok! My complaint is about the ones who wouldn’t even see this post (or any other post for the matter), much less reply to it. They just take up space and do not give anything of value back. Imo. As the fediverse grows it’s bound to happen, it just pisses me off.
I’m not saying it will be the solution but, positive reinforcement for those who behave, mixed with not interacting with those that only spam would probably get some to loose interest. And perhaps some mod rules.
Interesting, I haven’t noticed this but I’ll keep an eye out on accounts
FWIW, in my feeds that is on the same level as it was for some time now
