Lemmy is so good right now for no particular reason
It's not the kids, not the lurkers, not the mods... y'all just nice people. Lemmy's got a good vibe going... or at least enough windows that we can close if the vibe gets shit.
I think so, too. The comment sections remind me a lot of Reddit's when I first joined in early 2013 — more thoughtful comments and less shitposting to get the most upvotes.
It seems like the biggest hurdle is going to be getting the more niche communities going on Lemmy.
I agree with both of those sentiments! And as for niche communities, the challenge I've seen has been that they need a kind of critical mass in one place to take off...but at least on Reddit, that has sometimes led to homogeneity of thought and shouting down of any opinion that doesn't 100% fall in line with the hivemind.
For example, I'm a big fan of the video game Life Is Strange, and there's a major decision in that game that completely recontextualizes the story depending on which choice you make. On Reddit, /r/lifeisstrange as a metaphorical single organism has made one specific choice its accepted orthodoxy - any speaking about the other choice is downvoted and seen as blasphemy.
It's especially frustrating to me since I have nuanced opinions about both sides, seeing various arguments for each. I don't come down firmly in favor of either. But the almost-religious polarization means that my viewpoint is seen as sacriligeous because it's nonconformist, but not bold enough against the orthodoxy to be supported by the blasphemers.
There were ups and downs along the way, once I'd figured out the subreddits I was actually interested in and filtering out the stuff I didn't want to see I have mostly had a decent time on Reddit. Spent one year on Apollo and bacon reader then purchased sync 9 years ago.... Most of the complaints of the official app flew right over my head and I was pretty happy about it. I'm still absolutely enjoying this new little bit of the Internet for sure.
Yup. I've been telling my friends whose rif apps stopped working last night that lemmy is like how Reddit used to be. Friendlier smaller community but also feels like people trying to build up something new.