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Another tip I haven't seen yet:
It varies by client, but Markdown generally works, here.
Spoiler tags seem to still be a separate extension from regular Markdown.
Many of us try to be more careful to include ALT Text with images, as it supports both blind users, and anyone whose server is just being slow to load images:
Example of Image with Alt text in Markdown:
Here's one I haven't seen mentioned yet: many of us explicitly state our intended tone after our comments, to avoid miscommunication. Particularly in busy threads.
We have some great accessibility outreach communicators here, some of whom have shared how much it helps them or people they know.
Some examples:
Sometimes these are abbreviated, but we often even avoid abbreviation - for general clarity, but probably mainly because we're always gaining new users who might not recognize the abbreviation.
Here is a great 30 min explainer presentation on the activitypub network in general: https://conf.tube/w/d8c8ed69-79f0-4987-bafe-84c01f38f966
It covers a lot of the philosophical and design differences that a lot of us are very passionate about. Welcome.
I think (absolutely IMHO) Reddit commenting is more confrontational. Sure, we have that here, but on Reddit I would get slapped down often, because I'm not that smart and I make mistakes. My clumsy way was chum in the water for the sharks.
Not here. I feel like people here, EVEN WHEN THEY GET MAD, can be spoken to, even apologized to, and together you can be okay. Not agree necessarily, but not ugly or unkind.
I've seen a few new people here try the "smack em for being stupid" technique, and mostly it gets them downvotes and criticism. I really love that about being here.
It feels much safer for the sensitive.
This is a great point.
There's also very convenient block mechanisms for rude folks, and a "block and move on" culture for those who don't keep their communication civil.
Yes, I do block the rude.
I think partly this is due to there being no karma on this platform. Garnering up votes or downvotes in a single thread is largely meaningless outside of it.
That’s refreshing to hear actually. Reddit can be a pretty unfriendly place depending on what corners you spend your time. I think in today’s tumultuous and divisive political/cultural landscape we need neighborliness more than ever.
For some reason nobody gave any suggestions for a client to use. If you are familiar with Apollo for Reddit, there is a spiritual successor here on Lemmy called Voyager: https://vger.app/
Understand this is not reddit. There is no "reddit hivemind" on Lemmy because Lemmy is federated. You will find that this type of thing still exists within certain instances in various ways, but know that you are leaving a single large echo chamber and entering into a series of smaller, federated echo chambers. There is much more representation of human beings with differing morals, ideals, and beliefs here as compared to reddit.
Based on my own experience, you would do well by yourself to learn to not take what other people are thinking personally. You don't have to believe in what anyone else thinks, but other people don't have to believe in what you think either. Don't make the mistake of believing you know what is best, or that you know everything.
I have seen this have a culture shock effect on newer users, because they often expect that everyone thinks, says, does, or feels all the same or similar things as them about anything and everything, and quickly find out that it is not necessarily the case here.
An example of this I have seen on multiple occasions is where new users are shocked when they make a post about wanting some kind of change to the entire platform "to attract users", and are quickly informed that many user's do not necessarily want, or care that the platform attracts users, because for many, that is not the point of the software Lemmy, rather that is the point for a business like reddit. If a user really wants some huge change, usually the response is for them to make an account on an existing instance like what they are looking for, or to host their own.
You will find much more actual individualism on Lemmy. It is important to be aware that not only is everyone not the same, but that they don't have to be either.
People are also less likely to react positively to comments that are not offering actual thought. If you enter a thread to comment "this", or just to make jokes without a point, you may find you receive a different reaction than what you would receive on reddit.
Do not read a title or a comment, hammer a reply into your keyboard, and then hit send so that you can move on to more content faster, like other social media has trained you to.
Read posts and comments and think about them. Weigh your replies. If you think you know the point you want to get across, consider what responses others may have, adjust what you are writing until you believe your reply thoroughly covers what you actually think about the subject matter as whole with consideration to what you think might be follow up questions and others thoughts, and then send it.
Of course if you have further thoughts later on, feel free to edit what you said to clarify or add to your thought (as I am doing this very moment, 40 minutes later).
Lemmy is an excellent opportunity to practice communication, because as it stands, you will find the degree of conversation is much more engaging than what reddit turned into over time. If you have a well thought out, beautiful, or powerful thing to say and go through the trouble of saying it well, you may find you are rewarded by someone else doing the same in return.
Just because the format is similar to that of reddit does not mean that Lemmy is the same platform.
In short I feel that Lemmy is not a platform that is there to work for you necessarily, instead it is a platform that enables you to work on yourself. But only if you will let it.
I feel called out with the “this” example, but I promise I was playing into the basic bitch redditor trope.
I appreciate the time you spent in crafting this thoughtful reply, and the insights you shared. It can be very easy to get trapped in a mindless content loop, so I think a reminder to slow down and be present is always timely.
I was (very) recently reminded of the love I once held for writing and it’s prompted me to begin forcing myself to be more mindful and patient with my own writing process, rather than hammer out only what’s necessary to convey a thought. So it’s an especially poignant reminder for me right now!
You're gonna look around and see a few old accounts and think you missed the early bus. You didn't. We're still pioneering.
If you think "why isn't there a community for this" or "why isn't anyone posting to this community" it's because we're small and we need people like you to fix those issues!
There are no recommendation algorithms for content, you are one! Search for communities based on your interests and subscribe to them. The Communities view of your home instance and Lemmy Explorer are good for that. Because Lemmy is decentralized, all discussion isn't centered around one site like on Reddit, which may at first give an impression of emptiness.
I also wrote an extensive guide about Lemmy few weeks ago.
Welcome!
Yeah it felt a little empty here at first, but then I realized I get way more replies on most of my comments here than I did on reddit where most people just scrolled right past it.
Right? I think Lemmy is way more conducive to conversations than Reddit.
No awards, so you have escaped the cringe "thank you, kind stranger!" comments.
In all seriousness, I would curate a bunch of pages that interest you so you have a home page relevant to your interests. There's a lot of competing communities but I just add all the big ones that are relevant.
take all of the things you hate about Reddit comment culture and do your best to perpetuate them here
This
You have to curate your feed yourself. Personally I use the all feed and block what I don't like because I enjoy seeing new communities. I also recommend the jerboa app if you have an android, its free, open-source, made by lemmy devs, and doesn't have ads.
Also many of us are communists or anarchists so prepare for political takes you aren't used to.
Right on lol. I’m a socialist leaning democratic socialist but I can appreciate that communism gets a bad rap—and the current US administration is radicalizing me more than ever, so I’m happy to get pulled further to the dark side.
Since you did ask, I made an introductory Marxist-Leninist reading list after the US election in the hopes of helping those increasingly radicalized along their political journeys! I also wrote a post on how to determine if an overall system is Capitalist or Socialist, from a Marxist perspective.
As a side-note, Socialism is generally seen by Marxists as the intermediate stage between Capitalism and Communism, with Communism as a fully publicly owned, global democratic economy with thorough planning, and Socialism as a society where Private ownership has become subservient to the public sector and now Public ownership is the principle aspect, which is the method of getting to Communism. No country has achieved Communism, which must be global, but many have achieved Socialism.
A bit on "Democratic Socialism," and how it differs from Marxism-Leninism:
Democratic Socialism usually can refer to either something like the Nordic Countries, which would technically better fit the term "Social Democracy* as private ownership of Capital is the principle aspect of their economies, or as Socialism achieved through electoral means, ie public ownership as the principle aspect of their economies.
I say "principle" as no system is "pure," every country has a public and private sector, but the public sector in China and Cuba, for example, has far more power than the Private through having firm control of large firms and key industry, while in the Nordics the public sector is in support of the private. The Nordics also rely on international exploitation in order to fund their safety nets, meaning it isn't a system that could be adopted by just anyone with the same results, it requires winners and losers.
As for how it compares to Marxism-Leninism:
Democratic Socialists usually wish to achieve Socialism through elections, while MLs are revolutionary. Just like you can't just ask a billionaire to give you their money, MLs don't believe you can simply ask them to implement a system that dramatically weakens and eventually erases their power when they control the State.
Democratic Socialism is generally a far less defined, while Marxism-Leninism has a rich history of testing theory to practice, and changing over time. This is because Marxism-Leninism is almost always going to be the underlying ideology of any country deemed "Communist," such as the PRC, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, DPRK, former USSR, and more. This means MLs are usually more in agreement than disagreement with each other.
And that's enough to go off of, I think! Let me know if you habe any questions, though the reading list is my recommendation for a good place to start. It even has audiobooks for most of the listed works as alternatives, as well as links to epubs or pdfs.
It's small now, but growing. You can't scroll infinitely for new content. It's grown a lot in the time I've been here. The smallness can be a positive if you work to have genuine interactions with people. There's no "karma" and some instances have disabled down votes entirely. You have sometimes subscribe to more than one community of the same topic (each on a different instance).
Read the global feed. There's lots of content if you spread the net wide.
Block annoying posters and communities.
Be nice to other lemmites.
By default it's mostly politics and linux unless you browse for individual subs
