They’re websites, one can use two websites. Such a weird take.
Comment on we need more users
Koarnine@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
After trying to convert a friend who heavily uses reddit, multiple times, I recommended him again the other day to leave the hellsite (reddit).
I didn’t recommend Lemmy but have a while back.
He himself specifically brought up that he ‘didn’t vibe with Lemmy as much as reddit’ and that he believes he would ‘miss stories he would otherwise have liked to see’ by switching to Lemmy.
Reddit has kept him more up to date than not over the past year - he believes had he not been using reddit he wouldn’t have found out about [specific events in iran] as early as he did.
The other main pain point I’ve encountered is the small and niche community problem, which I’m sure we are all aware of - certain information feels like it can only be found on such small subreddits.
Therefore I have two suggestions:
- create a Lemmy instance that mirrors reddit, rather than have bots post reddit posts onto main Lemmy instances, create an instance that mirrors specific subreddits on request, including the comments of their posts, and allows Lemmy users to comment and reply back, where those comments are also propagated to reddit so that replies and discussion are mirrored also. This would struggle due to reddit API and compute power requirements but the subreddits on request and a specific instance for these posts would eliminate the bot spam problem from earlier attempts at the same thing.
- potentially allow the user to associate their reddit account with the instance so comments etc can proliferate without bot recognition.
The other suggestion would be:
- set up trackers for major and new subreddits, tag posts by priority, and use this set of posts to determine what content and types of content are missing, but don’t just automatically post everything as the spam problem gets out of hand.
Finally, my biggest gripe with my Lemmy use is the constant instance wars.
I have had my comments removed for being rightfully critical of Israel by lemmy.world mods. They appear intent on recreating the problems of reddit here.
hamid@crazypeople.online 3 weeks ago
Koarnine@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
Well yeah, it’s not like I gave the entire context.
The conversation started about how Ghislaine Maxwell is back moderating on Reddit.
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
This would struggle due to reddit API and compute power requirements
IIRC the EU released a law a few months ago that forces big internet communication platforms to open their API to third-party clients.
this applied to whatsapp i think, i’m not sure whether it also applies to reddit but it might be worth investigating if somebody has too much time on their hands :P
Koarnine@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
Well technically Reddits API is open to third party clients, it just became prohibitively expensive around the exodus…
Does the new ruling include provisions for where the API has been made functionally unusable? It definitely could, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they missed that.
HCSOThrowaway@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Reddit would probably sooner just lop off their entire EU userbase than comply.
No offense to Europeans because I love y’all, but you are a drop in the bucket for global (English) internet usage.
Skavau@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
I think you would be surprised. Obviously UK (if you include it here) would do some heavy lifting for English-language users in Europe using Reddit, a massive chunk of Europe can communicate perfectly well in English on social media platforms and do - and you wouldn’t know they aren’t American or Anglo unless a topic came up where they would say it, or if you asked them.
HCSOThrowaway@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
To the best of my recollection the last I’ve seen bits of traffic data here and there, it’s large, but not large in comparison to the US and India.
Koarnine@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
Then let them, we need to stop bending the rules for US companies, we don’t need them.
rglullis@communick.news 3 weeks ago
create a Lemmy instance that mirrors reddit, rather than have bots post reddit posts onto main Lemmy instances, create an instance that mirrors specific subreddits on request, including the comments of their posts, and allows Lemmy users to comment and reply back, where those comments are also propagated to reddit so that replies and discussion are mirrored also.
I guess you were not here during the alien.top debacle…
This is exactly what I was doing with Fediverser, and I was really close to implement full two-way bridging, but instead of supporting the effort the great minds of Lemmy decided that the any sort of automated content was spam and unworthy of attention. Instead of looking how the system for onboarding users would make migration 10x simpler, I had to deal with skeptical admins and users who covered their noses at anything or anyone trying to fight Reddit on their grounds.
They appear intent on recreating the problems of reddit here.
The problems regarding Reddit-the-corporation are orthogonal to the problems of Reddit-the-online-space. Which types of problems are you referring to here?
HCSOThrowaway@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Here’s my Amateur Coder waving the Wand of Coding idea:
What if we had a FOSS browser extension that scraped Reddit passively, uploading everything you see as you browse (except PII like your username and PMs and such) via bot to Lemmy (on a delay so they can’t pinpoint your identity as easily?)
I can’t be the only one who splits their time between Lemmy and Reddit, and would much rather participate here than there, but there’s much less to comment on here.
Koarnine@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
That does sound like a decent idea, that way the content being mirrored would be only that that genuine users accessed.
Perhaps immediately mirroring the content as the browser itself reads it, preventing additional requests that could be flagged.
Only issues are:
- some people don’t use reddit whatsover anymore
- many people only browse reddit on mobile
- a browser extension might require too much trust and involvement to generate much output considering the development involved.
Though this does answer some issues and have some clear use cases.
Cheers for the suggestion!
HCSOThrowaway@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The nice part about my idea is that even with those hurdles in mind, I still proposed it knowing that all it would take is one person to happen upon whichever post or subreddit to auto-scrape and get the discussion on Lemmy going.
Let’s be real; 99% of the reason Lemmy is less popular than Reddit is copy+pasting a link, writing your own title, etc. is more effort than 0, therefore the Lemmy-Reddit hybrids like myself don’t bother.
Hell, even the staunchly anti-Reddit Lemmites who could be parasitically “stealing” posts and comments to steal Reddit’s thunder don’t do it. There are other things they’d rather do, evidently.
Now that I think of it, after using the word “scrape,” it could be that Reddit ToS follows most websites’ in that scraping is explicitly forbidden, so displaying the open source code (or even using it) would incur legal action from Reddit.
Koarnine@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
Posted as a reply because this will certainly upset many but…
On the instance wars:
I constantly see nonsense about the horrors of the ‘.ML’ instance, and ‘hexbear’, primarily from ‘Lemmy.world’ users, but I have never once actually come across these horrors.
Hexbear is just a troll instance, ala ‘cumtown’.
To an outside observer, ‘.world’ users seem to be US propagandists intent on wrecking the platform. “Tankies this, cowbee that”, when I’ve never seen a cowbee post that wasn’t entirely reasonable.
And the vast majority of ‘tankies’ are just people who criticise the US rightfully while not sharing the same breathe to criticize China. Ngl, fuck Russia, the US and Russia are the greatest evils. China is not anywhere near the same level. You can praise elements of a foreign state without being a ‘tankie’.
It’s the same thought terminating cliche cult bullshit that all right wingers do. And it seems to come from Americans being upset their myopic views aren’t babied by people who literally specifically went to an instance to avoid them?
Idk I’m not a user of any of the three, but I’ve only ever had an issue with lemmy.world users in the past, as a UK citizen who is far from a tankie.
OpenStars@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
If you’ve ever actually discoursed with Cowbee, note how they ignore the large majority of what you say and hyper-focus exclusively on the talking points that they are trying to convey. It’s not a “conversation”, it is evangelism.
thoro@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
A bit ironic from the piefed evangelist.
Cowbee@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
I don’t really think this is true, I engage with the entirety of what people say. As far as I know, you have Lemmy.ml blocked on your piefed account, and we haven’t interacted in years, so I’m not sure where you’re getting this idea from.
Krauerking@lemy.lol 3 weeks ago
Thats like 9 out of 10 debates on Lemmy regardless of community. Everyone thinks they are the exception.
Skavau@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
Well, you wouldn’t come across hexbear or lemmygrad on pawb.social because it looks like your instance is defederated from them.
Cowbee definitely seems in a sense like a very civil apologist (although with all the trappings of contemporary campism and tankiesm) - and not the worst example by any means, but for every Cowbee there’s a BrainInABox type user.
Pudutr0n@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Lol I like BrainInABox better, and I completely disagree with their worldview.
Skavau@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
All they do, quite literally, is hurl abuse.
Pudutr0n@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The reason why you haven’t seen these horrors is because to you they just look like others like you.
Regardless if you agree with this post, for example, it’s propaganda, no different than the american apologists you can accurately identify, the bible thumpling catholics educating the uncivilized people that hadn’t heard the healing words of our lord and saviour jesus christ or those who believe everything should be privatized/converted into a free market due to orthodox economic doctrine.
It is propaganda because it operates under the framework that someone who disagrees with a positive association must have not understood a specific sacred text or heard a sacred doctrine, or if they have they must be morally defficient, leaving no room for debate whatsoever.
One of the easiest ways to spot propaganda is the “no room for questioning, let alone disagreeing” aspect. In healthy societies with healthy ideologies there is a legitimate space for disagreement and debate. If there wasn’t, power would always remain in the same hands which is one of the aspects most criticize about both capitalism and communism.
And believe it or not, there is more to the world than the right-left west-east dychotomies.
If you look at history, similar ideologigal schisms have happened time and time again in times of shifts in the balance of power, such as when the printing press was invented and the the catholic - lutheran division that came from it. or during the decadence and later fall of the roman republic with the equestrials vs patricians (which originally shared ideological vision).
These largescale violent power struggles always end up boiling down to “you’re either with us or against us” which in my opinion is the true poison.
Feel free to disqualify or label me now and have a nice day.
Cowbee@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
Oh hey, it’s worth noting that that particular screengrab is taken out of context and was deliberately intended to make me appear that way. I even concede that one can disagree with Marx and Engels, my point was more against those who claim to agree with them but strongly disagree with the socialist market economy of China. I oppose anyone that tries to treat theory like gospel, that’s why I usually don’t reference theory directly unless it’s directly relevent like it was in this case.
That’s the thing, people propagandize about us as well, like the MeanwhileOnGrad crowd that took that snippet out of context. You’re doing the same here, by extrapolating an entire behavior of me from a single, out-of-context snippet hosted in a Nazi bar. What’s important is that we actually pay attention to what others are saying, because everyone is guilty of thinking they are correct.
goat@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
But you are a tankie, cowbee. Why do you keep denying this?
Pudutr0n@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Fair enough. Just grabbed one of the first images a search threw. Sorry if it was out of context or portrayed you unfairly. And of course people propagandize about you too. Anyone with a strong enough voice will get bad faith critiques thrown against them and many will be with political intent.
I do think this is a fair example to exemplify the point I was trying to make, though. Your quote being out of context does not nullify its dychotomical political intent and makes my point stronger.
Propaganda is hard to identify when you’re predisposed to believe it, it’s everywhere and people propagate it without even noticing.
goat@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Explodingheads was also self-proclaimed a troll instance. Just because they fall back on 'It’s just a joke!" doesn’t make what they say or do okay.
I recommend you check out !meanwhileongrad@sh.itjust.works for a deep look at Tankies and how prevalent they are throughout Lemmy.