this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2023
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Reddit Migration

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### About Community Tracking and helping #redditmigration to Kbin and the Fediverse. Say hello to the decentralized and open future. To see latest reeddit blackout info, see here: https://reddark.untone.uk/

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Yeah, this describes my experience so far. I really want to like it here, but so far it's been an effort.

I am using Mastadon more, hopefully with time we see a similar level of polish. However, even there it don't see a dent in Twitter.

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 1 year ago (1 children)

On the plus side this place feels smaller so instead of just lurking all the time it feels meaningful to participate.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

I think this is really spot on. I wasn't looking for a "reddit alternative" that "kinda sucks" because it's not reddit. I was looking for an actual "reddit alternative," not a reddit clone. And yes, I've just been lurking up until now, but so far this seems so much more sane and reasonable. For the time being, at least. Until someone finds a way to turn it into a reddit alternative.

[–] sisyphean 46 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Lemmy isn’t currently usable by “normies” but we, the weird ones are already here, building great communities, fixing bugs, developing features. Give it 6 months, and Lemmy and kbin will be ready for prime time. The world will watch it rise like a giant middle finger shown to /u/spez.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

PSA for non-developers: "six-months" in the software world is slang for "optimistically, one year".

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

"We'll have full self driving by the end of this year"

-- Elon Musk 10 years ago

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I consider myself only moderately tech-savvy and definitely not an IT person. I managed to make my way on here, and decided to create an account on a lesser-used instance after the second evening of looking around. Granted, it took some figuring out (didn't see any guides), but after about an hour I had most things set up to how I wanted it, and had Jerboa installed on my phone. If I can do it, 90% of the general population can. They just need the motivation.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The way I see it is, do you even want the general population on here? Maybe it’s a good thing they can’t figure it out.🙃

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Definitely don't want it popular enough for bots. But more engagement in niche (or non-techy) subjects? Yup.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Kbin is much more polished already. While lemmy is more or less a clone of old reddit, kbin is more like modern reddit just without the suck. Also, both are compatible.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (11 children)

As a new kbin user from Reddit, it's... jank to say the least. My biggest gripe is the new comment box being at the BOTTOM of the page.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

I prefer it that way, because I'm like forced to read what other people commented previously.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I think the idea is to promote reading comments before writing.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Wow you're right. I thought i just wasnt allowed to comment on stuff

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago

The thing to remember is that the user experience on Reddit, Twitter etc. is only going to get worse from here on in. But on the fediverse it's only going to get better.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago

A Reddit alternative is going to end up like Reddit. Kbin/Lemmy are not like Reddit, and that's a good thing.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Personally I don't need it to be "polished", and too much polish would smack of corporate excess to me. I want lively but friendly discussions on a variety of topics that interest me. And it's fun to watch something grow from early(ish) stages into a more complete package. I hope this will be a good social media home for me.

ETA I upvoted you for good topic and discussion, rather than downvoting in disagreement.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's going to take time to spin back up the reddit communities. Also, some behavior adjustments will need to be made (though I do miss having notifications I can instantly click to get to the replies. I suspect that's in the works.)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Kbin has the notification feature, though it’s been a bit buggy from time to time.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

But unless something changes dramatically, it’ll suffer the same fate as Mastodon or Bluesky.

I have no idea what's going on with Bluesky, but mastodon is... fine? It's not twitter and never will be.

This doesn't mean Lemmy doesn't need a bit of work, though, I don't think anyone would deny that. I don't think they've had quite the pressure to triage issues like they do now, so a decent list of priorities is probably emerging.

I'm tempted to try to help, but I'm (generously) a rust novice. I worry I'll waste their time with bad PRs.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Bluesky is in beta, it isn't even out yet. But somehow it has already suffered a fate?

New things like Mastodon, Bluesky, and Kbin don't have to kill the current things in order to be successful. We don't have to rule the world, we don't have to be perfect on day 1.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yeah, Mastodon's going pretty strong. I don't really get what the message here is supposed to be.

"I, a tech writer, am not using it"?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

'I'm not using it nor are the people I surround myself with therefore it is a failure.'

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Majority of the people here are super helpful, much friendlier, and supportive even with all the flaws that we are experiencing. Building a community takes effort. Everyone’s effort is focused here so that we can have the place that we want it to be - a place better than reddit.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I agree with this 100%

It's the people that make a platform a success. For all its popularity and polish, reddit often felt toxic and abrasive. I haven't seen too much of that here.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I created an account about 24 hours ago and this is actually better than I expected. Of course, I wasn't expecting a complete and polished interface from something so new, but I had read plenty of horror stories about how lemmy/kbin signups were impossibly complex.

I like it. It's already pretty intuitive and I like that it's not a 1:1 Reddit clone. I can easily imagine this expanding and growing into something really interesting

Also, I got the username I wanted.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

His issues are that he misses the cultivated nature of Reddit. Reddit didn't start out cultivated, and took time and effort by volunteers to figure out it's identity. The same thing will happen with the fediverse. It will get cleaned up and streamlined as people put in effort. People look at a lump of carbon and say it's worthless, but with time it becomes a diamond.

Some people only see the value of something in it's present form and miss out on potential. The fediverse has a lot of potential so long as it is active. It's open nature will bring in freelance development help and it could very well become BETTER than what reddit was. Keep the faith

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This is better than Mastodon by far. At least that's been my experience. Much easier to find communities here.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thing is, people looking for a Reddit replacement are going to be in some way disappointed, since part of the idea of developing a new system is to avoid the things that made Reddit turn terrible. The sad truth it Reddit is probably too big for its users to just leave, but maybe they will financially just crash since their efforts to become profitable aren't looking all that effective.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

These burgeoning communities are rough around the edges. But as @dan96kid said, there's space for us to speak up, rather than simply lurk. I'm getting a kick out of this disruption.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Just gotta give it some time. The Reddit apps have years of development behind them; the Lemmy apps weren't really seeing wide use until the last few weeks. There's now a lot of pressure for better alternatives, and a few other options are already in development (for iOS, at least - I assume for Android, too). Rome wasn't built in a day.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I ended up switching to Kbin and like it a lot more in regards to how the main page provides threads. It still has it's issues, but they're for the most part outside of the main loop.

I'm somewhat surprised at how much the dynamic page load really messed with my ability to navigate Lemmy. Basically if I went away for any given time it would go from top threads for the day to random junk that had no activity. It really needs a way to turn that off.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I'm really starting to like this place now! At first I was hesitant, but it's great!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Unlike Reddit, Lemmy instances are individual servers that come together like an interweb of subreddits.

That is not how it works, like at all. This same thing happens with Mastodon when journalists come on with a negative attitude and don't really want it to work so they don't really try.

You know what I love about kbin/lemmy - no goddamn Nazis. I'll take the growing pains of a burgeoning platform over Nazis on my timeline any day of the week.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Needs to fix the "hot" sorting. Then I'll actually be able to evaluate.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Reddit wasn't all that amazing either when they first started - it took a while for things to get ironed out. Then they had to go and ruin a good thing

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I actually like kbin more than I did reddit. Reddit has a huge advantage though, over a decade of content. What I like about kbin though is it feels smaller, I see familiar names and interaction feels like I'm talking to a person not a thing.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I think it's important to note that when the Mastodon migrations really picked up, the software was already 4-5 years old with organized development. Lemmy is only around 3-4 years old and kbin is only a couple years old (with very limited public use). That makes a big difference in what you can expect from them. With the influx of interest in these platforms, you're going to see far more help and contribution to the underlying code alongside better third party app support in the months ahead. These are both very young platforms and have a lot of room to grow in the next while.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Are you using the jerboa app? I find it to be very close to the old experience.

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