“Sometimes there’s a man… I won’t say a “hero,” because what’s a hero? But sometimes there’s a man who… well, he’s the man for his time and place!” – Sam Elliot (the Stranger) from the glorious The Big Lebowski
You know that classic quote about standing on the shoulders of giants (and pioneers)? Honestly, in so many ways, that’s how I truly feel about the good ol’ Fediverse.
So, to sum up-- who are YOUR heroes here, and what does keep you hanging on here, baby…?
EDIT: For people wondering about what kinds of ‘bumps & difficulties’ I’ve personally experienced, here’s a tiny sampler:
The vibe is a lot like “the old internet”. Sure, you don’t get a lot of responses most of the time, but those you do get are genuine and in good faith.
On reddit you can post the most innocuous thing and be met with ridicule or disdain. Most of the posts I made were commented on in a negative way. Even harmless things like “I found this funny product at the supermarket” in the appropriate subreddit was met with insults and a bunch of negative comments. Asking for advice on a popular advice subreddit got me a bunch of insults.
Here I have few answers, but those are genuine ones and so far they’ve been in good faith, no unprovoked insults, no sifting through someone’s history to insult them based on a post from 3 years ago.
Expanding on this, because you have said almost the same I was thinking, I feel AI slop and bots aren’t really a thing here, or they are easy to filter.
On reddit, you can post the most innocuous thing and be met with ridicule or disdain…
Yeah, I hear you on that one.
Overall, I find Reddit to be a fairly well-informed, left-leaning (which in any other 1st world country would simply be ‘average centrist’) base, but the place is indeed also chock-full of dude-bros who form kind of a vast, ‘mean-girls’ clique IMO. And they like nothing better than to punish people (or in their juvenile words “shit on”) others for not conforming and communicating in modern ‘Reddit-speak.’
So, all-in-all something of a fascinating psychological study in to how people self-guide in to becoming deliberate weirdos, haha. Anyway, yeah, sorry to hear you had to deal with all that toxicity, as a newcomer. :/
Absolutely. Reddit just gets so nasty. Lord knows WHY people feel the urge to siftthrough someone’s history and bitch them out but they do and they’re cruel. The sheer size of reddit gives them anonyminity but also reddit don’t do much about it.
I like how personal it is here, people kinda know each other and it is like the olden days. It’s a good community and you get friendly, genuine comments with far fewer bad apples. I’m really happy here
I’m banned from Reddit, but still want a similar fix like a drug addict.
But this drug is less toxic and only available in limited doses
Bingo. When I start seeing the same content I know it’s time to log out.
Haha, gotta admit it’s a very successful format (and drug) in that way. Vastly more effective and useful than most others, IMO.
The fediverse is a “work in progress”, and that is fine. All the other social media sites are a “collapse in progress”.
It is much more fun to be on a small and growing platform, than on a big and dying platform.
My goal was to use something other than TikTok, facebook, etc… Even with all its glitches and quirks, the FV has proven to be a great replacement for those corporate apps.
My heroes? The instance operators and good mods, of course, along with everyone who contributes material.
Plus there’s more community when dealing with issues, such as problem instances and users. The fediverse doesn’t have the “old internet” feel, it’s still more restrained than that thanks to instance owners probably not wanting to host a lot of darker material thanks to the instances being under private ownership, but it feels more free than a place like reddit.
No billionaire owners and algorithms.
I can interact with actual people and not get swarmed with ads and botted traffic.
I’m not here despite what it is, I’m here because of what it is.
I can do no better than to second this sentiment.
I’d love to third it, but it would start to look like a reddit thread
This
Love
was going to write something but this sums up what I wanted to say better than I could say it. I also quite like it as it is. It can stay like this forever for my tastes. I don’t want it improved to the level that im seeking something else.
Interactions feel genuine. I like talking to people here.
Can confirm. I am a human and I love human things such as… um… breathing air, and um…
It is a great day to be a human, fellow human!
I humbly confess I never watched that show
one of those things that’s quite funny and high production value but the fandom is largely obnoxious and some of the creators are jerks
it’s also not everyone’s style of humor. give it a shot sometime and see if it resonates though!
At first I also refused to watch since its animated and I thought it was childish, but then I learned that there are like a lot of dirty stuff and supposedly for adults, so, given how popular it became, I just had to watch it.
And its worth it. Yes, its weird af and I always feel so confused and something things just makes zero sense, but some stories are interesting. Never really got bored of any of it (although some episodes aren’t really that great for a re-watch imo).
It can be brilliant, and I find it rare that it’s any less than very good. It plays with scifi tropes (any and all tropes really), is very self-aware… I am sure it stands to be criticized, but I personally love the show. Apart from season 5, of course
I love that with shows anymore there’s always a pariah season, lol. Maybe I’ll catch it on tv one day.
The people. Gotten to know a lotta lovely people here. Like you! Also the Lemmy community as a whole is nice. It’s also a small cozy place.
Good to see you here!
I’m here because fuck Reddit and the US.
Just to be clear, what happened?
Why did we evidently lose your trust, if I may ask?
Trump threatened our countries sovereignty.
Yup.
It’s strange to think that this only narrows it down a bit, lol. But yea, certainly fuck that
Lol you are asking as if you don’t know the answer
Sorry, my telepathy couldn’t overcome your background noise.
Buddy you gotta be living in a cave or delusional or in denial if you don’t know what your countries reputation is and why
Buddy, that’s an hilarious leap to make right there, in which I’ve talked about this stuff all over the place, already. Oh! But maybe you do require an apology? Right so, mate:
SO SORRY I FORGOT ABOUT THE ORANGEY-SPECIFIC BEE-ESS SPECIFICALLY DIRECTED TOWARDS CANADA THOUGH, BUDDY!
The relevant point being that that’s already been spewed and sprayed almost everywhere, such that I didn’t automatically remember CA’s specific beef.
I know, I know… I’m clearly a terrible person.
I like this place because it’s a work in progress and because of all its perceived imperfections.
I’m an old GenXer who remembers AOL chat rooms and Usenet. Each featured a small cluster of folks you’d talk with each day and thought of as friends. Reddit offered that kind of connection once, but now it’s become a monolith that believes its own hype. Not to mention the infestation of bots and trolls that no one cares enough to do anything about because engagement is engagement.
I’m new here so I’m still learning my way around but I like this way better. I have more control over what and who I see, the memes are fresher, and the communities feel more human.
FWIW, I’m GenX myself, BBS’s all the way! :D
I miss the old forums.
The peak of the internet.
They had their day, and I enjoyed them, but one thing I love about the Fediverse experience (patterned after Reddit of course), is that one can sample and subscribe to a super amount of divergent sources, and have it all pulled together in to one stream.
Outside of specialty forums, plus the pleasure of hanging out with online chums for years at a time, I’d argue that this method is in fact more useful and generally superior.
I miss the hanging out with the same online mates.
It occured to me when I quit Reddit that I hadn’t made a single friend on there in 10 years but made loads on the forums I used to frequent.
Haha, same. *sweat emoji*
I find the FV better in that regard though, perhaps because of the smaller userbase. So maybe size plays a role in these things.
Same age and feelings.
Here because its a great experiment and a reminder of the old internet that is otherwise mostly lost.
I’m a regular user of forums boards (modern ones like Discourse, but still) on which the interactions stayed mostly the same as 20 years ago… it feels close-knit, almost intimate. Conversations are usually well reasoned, if not as slow as they were back in the day -given that thread pages update on their own when a new message is posted, it’s not as static as it used to be, and I think that’s for the better, even though I am nostalgic of phpbb boards
i went to a forum shortly after the ban waves; meant for OF users and link dropping who are in the market of using hordes of accounts to earn money . apparently they have equally reported how heavy handed reddit has gotten in detecting people trying to “hide thier accounts IDentity, like fingerprinting”
Pfft
I love the FV. No ads. No algorithm.
And that it requires a little effort means fewer dumbass jerks around.
