What are your thoughts on the Lemmy ecosystem?

I’ve been trying it out for the last week. I have my own opinions, but I’d like to hear others and see if we have common ideas on what is good/bad/indifferent about the Lemmy ecosystem.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
    42·
    2 months ago

    As a tool for forming communities, Lemmy’s mechanics work just fine.

    But the process of federation - combined with the prickly nature of certain administrators - means you can have a lively and robust community in (hypothetically) the far-left transgender tankie community that pioneered the application. But then that gets abruptly cut off and squelched in a more popular forum by some late adopters who hate their politics more than they enjoy their technical savvy.

    Lemmy.world has a bunch of memes and political screeching because that’s the kind of user its admins choose to encourage. Other communities have more practical interests. But they don’t draw the same kind of crowd, so you won’t see them on the front page of this site, particularly if you only browse Local.

    • Sl00k@programming.devEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      The idea behind federation is great but in practice it’s splintered communities far too much to serve its purpose at a large scale.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        2 months ago

        They’re an idea that big forums are actually awful and you’re better off in smaller communities.

        Mostly, it’s a pain because it can be hard to find some escoteric bit of knowledge or expertise when you don’t have a Reddit sized forum to troll through.

        But that’s where spaces like Discord excel. Nice, tight communities of hobbyists and specialists who are routinely online and regularly churning out useful content.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            2 months ago

            Finding the right Discord can be hard. But when you’re in a community where people are pinning things to channels and wiki-ing / linking them out, its a fantastic source for info.

    • AchtungDrempels@lemmy.world
      1·
      2 months ago

      Lemmy.world has a bunch of memes and political screeching because that’s the kind of user its admins choose to encourage.

      How are the admins encouraging these users specifically? I have not noticed this, but I have been blocking most politics and meme communities for a while.