I'm 32, I remember using the internet before google was a thing, discovering flashy websites, hanging out on all kinds of internet forums and chatrooms, ebaums world, MySpace, new grounds... I rember when YouTube was just starting off and it was exploding with all kinds of content.
I joined Facebook in 2005, I remember when it was the talk of the town, it used to actually kind of be decent, all the content was from actual real world peers.
I remember when pages became a thing, and you could like certain topics, and then eventually it unfolded into something enterely different, I remember when it became New Facebook, and there became a chatbar. And then eventually it became a cespool of garbage.
I remember when reddit was at it's prime, I discovered it in 2011, I spent hours scrolling and engaging in discussion. The content was always new and original, every day on Reddit my mind got blown by something, this is before all the algorithms, and when upvotes and down votes actually dictated where your post would be jn the feed. You could litterally refresh your page and watch your vote counts.
Since then I've watched it change, I could always tell something felt off about it over the past few years.
Everytime I would google something on the net on my phone and click a Reddit link, I would be prompted to install the app. I tried it and it was shit. Once upon a time I could just open Reddit is Fun through the browser. Reddit made it impossible to do that.
Since discovering this place a few weeks ago now, I have been hit with a familiar feeling, and that is I am actually enjoying my time here as much as I did on Reddit in the early 2010s.
The communities are more grounded, there is no bot activity, my big long posts aren't deleted after posting them due to shitty rules.
I like how it feels free, and everyone agrees to just follow the rules of the community and if the post isn't quite fitting, people can vote on that, as it should be.
Thank you all for restoring something that was once great, I really thought there was no chance in hell people would get away from those platforms. I always told people we need a new website, a new Reddit, and I guess this is it.
I'm looking forwards to people getting into their grooves on lemmy. So far it seems like most people are just copying the good and bad parts from reddit without thinking. Downside is that its not exactly easy to start unique communities on demand.
yeah - it's really easy to create a community but extremely difficult to foster it and make it grow - even if you're just dumping loads of content into it on a daily basis, if there's no interaction then it's... not a waste of time, but perhaps next closest thing.
I havent managed to find something that I'm passionate about that doesnt already exist, so I just contribute to those communities that I can, as I find them.
Aye, that's why I'm trying to focus on replying more than just creating my own. Id end up just adding to the spam. The "bug" of instant updating when trying to sort by new is a bit awkward lol
It's just a matter of time till someone has their eureka moment.
set your default sort option in preferences to Subscribed / New - then you wont get bombed by new posts as the various instances feed/federate. it'll still screw up occasionally but it occurs much less often (and then you just force refresh the page to set it back to "normal").