I run a few groups, like @fediversenews@venera.social, mostly on Friendica. It’s okay, but Friendica resembles Facebook Groups more than Reddit. I also like the moderation options that Lemmy has.

Currently, I’m testing jerboa, which is an Android client for Lemmy. It’s in alpha, has a few hiccups, but it’s coming along nicely.

Personally, I hope the #RedditMigration spurs adoption of more Fediverse server software. And I hope Mastodon users continue to interact with Lemmy and Kbin.

All that said, as a mod of a Reddit community (r/Sizz) I somewhat regret giving Reddit all that content. They have nerve charging so much for API access!

Hopefully, we can build a better version of social media that focuses on protocols, not platforms.

  • main_water@beehaw.org
    15·
    2 years ago

    I like it and was able to adapt easily, but some of the UI is terrible (and I mean this in a constructive way), specifically:

    • Page weight is too high, when I use back/forward or switch tabs on mobile my browser has to do a full refresh. Tildes and kbin are very lightweight by comparison, not sure what the JS code of Lemmy/Beehaw are doing to cause this issue.
    • Adding new subs is confusing, but mostly because the “Subscribe” button is hidden by default when you visit a community on another instance.
    • The process of subscribing is convoluted You 1. visit an instance, 2. find a community, 3. copy the url,4. go back to your community, 5. past it, 6. open the search link in your instance, then 7. click subscribe and wait a little. It feels like that can be streamlined or something.
    • Loading “All” is slow, I understand why, but the UI should do something to explain it to me instead of popping in posts.

    But, the discussion seems good, the actual UI is reminiscent of old reddit so I’m happy, and I’m surprised how easy it is to discuss things across instances.

    • lolcatnip@lemmyrs.orgEnglish
      1·
      2 years ago

      Another really clunky thing I noticed right away is that there’s a huge difference between viewing a sub through your home instance vs its home instance, in that you’re no longer logged in when using the remote instance’s URL, and there’s no obvious way to get back to the corresponding location on your home instance. This means, for example, that when someone posts a link to another thread, it’s always kind of broken for remote users.

      I feel like something could be done to ease interoperability using the same techniques ad trackers use.

      I’m especially baffled as to why the UI had a dedicated button to view content on its home instance. I can see how that might be useful in some circumstances and it would make sense to have it hidden in a menu, but I think it’s just a confusing distraction for new users who typically have no use for a crippled view of what they’re already looking at.

  • IncidentalIncidence@feddit.de
    13·
    2 years ago

    it is really annoying to subscribe to communities on federated servers – there should be a link that will redirect you to your home server. As of now I seem to have to copy and paste the community address into the URL because the feddit.de community search doesn’t seem to be working for me

  • unique_hemp@discuss.tchncs.de
    9·
    2 years ago

    It’s looking great! I joined just 2 days ago and the communities I subscribed to are already looking much more lively today. Thanks, Reddit blackout!

    Also written in Rust, btw :)

  • notexecutive@sh.itjust.works
    8·
    2 years ago

    I like it - I just want a few Reddit-ish features:

    1. Hiding reply chains for scrolling cleanliness in comments of a post
    2. Hiding posts on the main page should be easy to do (buttons unclear)
    3. Dedicated copy link button - so it’s clear I’m copying the link to the page that is being spoken about in a post, rather than a link to the comments of the post itself.
    • xylem@beehaw.org
      1·
      2 years ago

      (1.) should already be here, at least - on the web version it’s the [-] icon next the commenter’s name, and on Jerboa you just tap the top bar of the comment. Agree that there should be a way to hide posts permanently - it’s kind of annoying to always scroll past the same pinned posts at the top of the “Local” view.

      • spicy pancake@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        1·
        2 years ago

        I tried tapping the top area of a comment. It displays a gray bar as click feedback but doesn’t seem to collapse anything. Am I just being a noob?

        Edit: updating fixed it :]

  • diemunkiesdie@sh.itjust.works
    7·
    2 years ago

    Not a huge fan of the UI (so much wasted space!) but it works for now. I’m subscribed to a few communities but the content is pretty stale. I’ve seen the same posts at the top for a few days now. The “Active” selection keeps the same things over. I tried a few of the other selections (Hot, Top Day, etc) but there is this weird thing where it randomly refreshes the feed and adds one or two new posts at the top and then pushes everything down. Again, UI/UX issues.

  • papertowels@lemmy.one
    7·
    2 years ago

    My only issue so far is that it can be difficult to find a particular post if you don’t remember which community and instance it was on, afaik there’s no search across all posts in all instantiations.

  • drapermache@lemmy.world
    7·
    2 years ago

    I think its a little rough around the edges, but thats to be expected given that its less than a year old. The big hit for me is the mobile app which just isn’t that good. This will come with time. I’d rather have an half-baked implementation thats showing promise over what Reddit is doing. I like decentralized social media because you can pick and choose what communities you interact with. If lemmy.world decides to go full enshitification (although I can’t figure out how they would monetize), you can just pack up and going to another community.

    This honestly reminds me of when I was growing up in the early 00s, I was part of several different community forums that I loved dearly. There were other groups I looked into, but some were just toxic and unappealing, so I left after a while. I feel like Lemmy gives us the same freedom. I really hope to meet some awesome people here. Right now it’s just big enough to still allow meaningful dialogue and create cool relations. I felt like Reddit was too big for its own good even with niche subreddits; it didn’t feel like posting was worth it as it would get buried or just get a low effort response.

  • archon@dataterm.digital
    7·
    2 years ago

    It’s buggy, but I’m managing. Weird things like having to press the “Subscribe” button twice. I’m assuming most will be solved when traffic stabilizes.

    The federation is… strange. Confusing when I click a link to another instance when trying to subscribe to a community, but also kinda cool how it works. I’m not sure federation should really be a concern for users, but time will tell. I’m sure it will only improve.

  • boomboxnation@beehaw.org
    6·
    2 years ago

    So far so good. This is actually my first comment.

    I had a hard time wrapping my head around how the federation worked. But figured out I just search here in communities only with my keywords. If I don’t get a result here and https://browse.feddit.de then it means no community has yet been created anywhere.

    I decided to make Beehaw my ‘home’ server after discovering it actually had an ‘interview’ that I jived with and a moderated/structured set of communities. As my first deeper ‘test’ of lemmy I have created my first community at lemmy.world since it seemed like the place for my random community about a grocery store chain: !traderjoes@lemmy.world

    If I was making a specific tech/software related community I likely would have chosen lemmy.ml as that’s where many other tech/software related projects have landed so far. But lemmy.world seemed the better choice for random.

    Does this seem relatively close to be how I should handle things in the lemmyverse?

    Edit: It would be nice if there was a user setting to open external links in new tabs.

  • dreadedchalupacabra@beehaw.org
    6·
    2 years ago

    I didn’t until I found Beehaw. I’m enjoying it now.

    I wish you could block servers personally, though. Like some of the stuff that’s blocked here makes this place a lot better to be around. There’s less hate and reactionary fear mongering. Everything is more chill.

    • Gatsby@lemm.ee
      1·
      2 years ago

      I can block individual people as well as individual communities on the jerboa app

    • Gil (he/they)@beehaw.org
      1·
      2 years ago

      Yeah, as of right now, the only thing users can do is individually block users or specific communities.

      I’m glad that you’re enjoying your experience on Beehaw though! Even on the admin end there’s still not a lot of granular control, but hopefully, the explosion of users will help bring more attention to Lemmy’s development.

      • dreadedchalupacabra@beehaw.org
        1·
        2 years ago

        Yeah. In the end I think it’ll be beneficial, honestly, to put more control in the hands of the user. If you notice all of the problem people are coming from on place, blocking them all feels so counter-intuitive when you can just block the source. And every argument I hear against it is the same tired “free speech means you have to listen to me and give me a platform” thing you hear from just about everyone who has an opinion most people really don’t wanna listen to.

        And they take over every new social media site until people find a way to filter them out. That’s why they fight so hard against said filters.

        • codus@leby.dev
          2·
          2 years ago

          Things got much nicer in Mastodon when a user could migrate instances. The problem with all of Server A blocking all of Server B is it’s very difficult for a user on Server B to migrate.

        • maynarkh@feddit.nl
          0·
          2 years ago

          I’m new here and have not met that drama yet. I joined a very small server to spread out the load and I doubt obscene cheese memes will get my instance defederated from the pack.

          Who does Beehaw block? Is it a Trump thing again?

          • dreadedchalupacabra@beehaw.org
            4·
            2 years ago

            Oh, it blocks the genzedong reddit crowd (who are worse here because there are no admins to tell them to stop openly advocating genocide) and the alt-right skinhead types. They tend to come from a few specific instances. What’s left is a blend of progressives and socialists and anarchists and moderates that can generally talk about things without treating you like you should be put to the firing squad for not loving Stalin or Hitler.

            You’ll come across it at some point and know immediately what I’m talking about.

  • BitSeek@beehaw.org
    6·
    2 years ago

    First impression is very good. But many instances do not allow the creation of new communities. Which brings me to all the little specialized subreddits that I used daily on Reddit are not on Lemmy. :-( Yeah general ones like Movies is there but I need my fix for r/Dune! :D

    • SirElliott@beehaw.org
      1·
      2 years ago

      The great thing about Lemmy though is that a community you interact with or even moderate doesn’t need to be on your instance. If you’re a member of Beehaw, which doesn’t allow community creation, you could start your Dune community on Lemmy.ml or another instance and moderate it with your Beehaw account.

      • BitSeek@beehaw.org
        3·
        2 years ago

        That is true, but for most users that is a bit convoluted. Also you have several communities with the same subject name. What makes Reddit great is how many users are at a single specialized sub.

  • Criton@feddit.uk
    6·
    2 years ago

    It’s ugly, difficult to understand, And the search function is fucked. All in all, it’s pretty crap and I miss reddit a great deal. That said, I’m never going back. I just wish lemmy was better.

  • solarizde@feddit.de
    5·
    2 years ago

    Still very new here and most problems I have is with filtering. No matter if Main page or in a post.

    If you subscribed to a bunch of feeds it gets quickly very confusing to find things. You can choose top day or active, which is to long timeframe I would like to see some more customized preferences here like “Active but new 8h” or something.

    Also big downside is that lemmy seems not take into account the strenght of single subs. So if I subscribe a big one like Technology my mainpage in active will 95% now only be this. It would be nice if the Active Filter also takes a bit diverse results into account and not only showing the most active sub.

    • Jonamerica @midwest.social
      2·
      2 years ago

      My experience has been that the “Hot” view is most similar to Reddit if you’re looking for new content. You can read about the different sorting here: https://join-lemmy.org/docs/en/users/03-votes-and-ranking.html

      What I’ve noticed about the “Active” sort is that older posts that are still getting upvotes and have new comments can remain at/near the top of the list for several days. I think this is good if you want to see where ongoing discussions are happening. On Reddit, I often felt that an interesting post fell off my view very quickly. I know I wasn’t the only one, which is probably why people would post a “remind me” post or “following” post on Reddit so they could come back to it later. Regardless, someone might entirely miss a post that blows up in a community but sees it in the “Active” view and check it out. I like “Hot” because I can see what’s trending up, but I frequently switch between Hot and Active. I’ve noticed that many of the “hot” posts don’t have any comments.

      I agree with you regarding quieter communities. Reddit had something in its sauce that allowed posts from less active communities to show up in my feed through all the noise of busier communities. This didn’t happen for all the subreddits that I joined, but rather, the ones I showed an interest in. The downside of that kind of algorithm is it reinforces the echo chamber effect as the algorithm is learning what I like and then showing me more of what I like to get me to stick around longer. This system isn’t (currently) prone to that kind of manipulation.

      • MotionChris@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 years ago

        I would like a “rising” option, one that is more a mix between New and Hot bacon reader for reddit does it very well.

      • zero_iq@lemm.ee
        2·
        2 years ago

        Active has a 48-hour cut-off, and the ranking function it uses seems to encourage the same few posts to stay at the top for 48 hours. It’s basically the same ranking as “Hot”, but using the timestamp of the last comment instead of the time of posting to decay its ranking over time.

        This means any comment activity whatsoever on a popular thread bumps it back up the rankings significantly, and I suspect leads to a kind of snowballing effect that keeps posts higher up. Ideally, it would use some metric based on user interactions over a time period to calculate a score of activity rather than solely the latest comment. In effect, it seems to act more like a “top from last 48 hours”. (Although I would add I’m a newbie to Lemmy, so might not yet have an accurate picture of its behaviour).

        Lemmy seemed to get much livelier for me when I switched my default to Hot, but I wish there was a way to disable the auto-updates (I’d rather see new items only on browser refresh). Active sort feels pretty stale to me.