I see mostly the same content on Lemmy/PieFed as Reddit, but without the niche stuff. What’s the actual benefit?

It’s the same content but you retain ownership of your data (depending on your instance) and the ability to influence moderation policy by voting with your feet and moving your account if your instance doesn’t align with your preferences.

I don’t see much downside as I didn’t really engage with niche subs on Reddit. Or at least I don’t remember it anymore.

I was a daily Reddit user for over a decade. However, the platform got so ridiculously judgy and restrictive that it was impossible to use, not fun, and caused me a lot of anxiety. I literally could not post the most innocuous of comments without being banned. It was infuriating and ultimately completely unnecessary. I miss the neverending content but it’s not worth the bad feelings that come with it. I still utilize it via Google search results when I’m trying to figure something out but for my own social media interactions I’m Lemmy 💯

For me it’s being able to say we should have stronger sentences for child predators without getting banned. Can’t do that on Reddit. And I can’t keep my mouth shut about people who go out of their way to hurt kids. I think they should be locked up longer. That gets me banned on Reddit. Maybe an AI/bot did it, but a human upheld it. And that was all of Reddit, Reddit themselves, not a subreddit. Like I understand saying that on a jailbait sub, is probably gonna upset the moderators, but Reddit as a whole? Wild.

So the greater point is, I can’t get banned from YOUR instance. You’re on piefed.zip. If I piss you off, what you’ll do is either block me, or report me… to dbzer0, the instance I’m on. And they can ban me. The neat thing is, I can just go make an account on Lemmy.world if I want to. Or some other instance. Some instances defederate each other, which means the entire instance blocks another one. Lemmy.ml got defederated by some (including mine) for being not left enough or too right politically. I didn’t follow it that closely. People on Lemmy.ml can still post, they just can’t see me and others on my instance. Piefed.zip may not have defederated them, so you would still see them. But I can still see some lemmy.ml users (and I bear them no ill will). I see four in the comments. They’re fine by me.

Its because the largest instances have bots that take content from those places and puts it here so there is content. They also have simular style of moderation. And they totally dominate the feed.

So yeah, I dont know. But without the content, this place would suck even more. At least here, there is no ads and nobody gets rich from our activity.

Have you been shadowbanned yet? Have you been suspended? Are you interacting with bots more than humans? Are there things you’re not allowed to say on Reddit that there’s more leeway to say on Lemmy? Are people generally nicer? Can you hold actual conversations without a powertripping mod deleting your comment? Are any issues you have assesed by a bot instead of a human?

Reddit algorithm feels like it’s trying to brainwash me. The admins and mods are unaccountable and out of control. The owners are capitalists, I will never trust them.

Theres lots of content but it feels like dead Internet. The niche communities are nice but not amazing. I don’t want reddit owners and shareholders privatizing niche communities anymore than I want Facebook doing it so I refuse to participate. Short term pain, id rather build the fediverse up and post here even if it takes a long time to manifest a bigger more fulfilling platform.

For the same reason I don’t invest in stocks or the market I don’t want to participate in niche communities on corporate owned social media platforms. I dont want to invest in a future where the capitalist class is empowered through control of my retirement or savings. I don’t want to participate in a future where the capitalist class controls the platforms where I engage with my communities online.

resisting enshitification through federation, and talking to humans instead of bots. not seeing covert ads on the front page. being able to talk about anti-hegemonic anti-billionaire topics openly without getting banned.

As a woman on Reddit isn’t pleasant.

It’s a fairly clean slate. We’re establishing a new place for people but interested in corporate social media.

When people settle new territory, there’s nothing there. Everything you want, you either need to build it yourself or wait for someone else to get around to it when they have a chance. If you aren’t going to be a producer, you’re going to find slim pickings.

I came here expecting a little more than what is even here 3 years later. But I liked the tightness of the community and that when I posted something, it wasn’t instantly drowned out by a hundred other comments.

Superbowl was dead after the first couple of months, and I had really enjoyed it on Reddit and didn’t want it to die here. I started posting what photos I had from previous travels, and when I ran out, I looked for places in all 50 states where people could see owls in person. Then I started doing daily research. Eventually that wasn’t enough, and now I volunteer working with wild animals, including my beloved raptors.

Every day I enjoy talking to my fellow lemmings. I get enough comments and do enough posts to keep me occupied. There are some users I really love and I can remember personal details about them, and I notice when they aren’t around for a bit or I think about them if they’re going through personal stuff. I enjoy working at the animal rehab where I get hands on with amazing animals and work with some of the best folks anywhere.

If I would have sat there and let everyone else do the work, I would have given up here long ago. But I looked for a niche to make my own, and now people look forward to my posts and I look forward to their reactions. And developing that relationship helped me find something in my office life that I love and enjoy more than anything I’ve ever done before.

You’re barely a number at Reddit. Here you can be anything, it’s not like there’s much competition.

To me, it’s the resistance against enshittification on the principle of interopability. Also, most servers are run by volunteers and donations, not corporations that will eventually squeeze profit from you.

I like talking to real people. To me that’s a benefit.

Reddit also feels like it’s gotten less friendly to me as a woman. That’s just been my personal feeling.

You know what else I don’t see here? Ads.

There was a time when there was no content here, but people came because of what it stands for. Decentralisation, freedom from monetisation and corporate censorship, etc. The fact that that the content is now comparable to reddit is a huge achievement. And you can still visit your niche communities on reddit. No one’s going to ban you for using both.

The fact that it’s not reddit is a huge benefit. Also, the smaller overall community is an advantage for moderation and seems to result in a nicer experience.

The quality of discourse here is much higher and more varied in breadth of opinion than on any corporate platform I’ve experienced in years, even with the occasional asshole popping up here and there. At least on Lemmy the assholes are easier to avoid and predict (e.g. certain instances attract certain types).

What we lose in missing out on niche gaming discussion is worth what is gained, to me. Also, here it’s small enough that we can be the change we want to see, so if there’s something missing you can always just make a community and start posting about whatever it is, and people will probably find your posts pretty quickly.

On the cool part of Lemmy, imperialists are first toyed with by the users like a cat batting around a bug, and are then promptly banned