Was originally thinking of posting Lenmy content on Reddit to less directly advertise Lemmy, but in the communities I follow, its almost exclusively content or already posted to, or directly originating from Reddit. This got me wondering if there were any niches that Lemmy serves better than other, larger platforms.
Conversation, mostly. By the time I quit reddit around two years ago, every top comment was a repost of a previous joke, or some predictable mutation of one.
Anything that went against the common preconceptions was shutdown immediately. I’m an expert/professional in a few niche subjects, and the final nail in the coffin for me was any comment I made turning into a fruitless debate with armchair experts too dumb to even understand why they were wrong, while correct info was downvoted to invisibilty.
None of this helps you crosspost, I’m aware.
I don’t know about content, but the Linux and self-hosting communities on Lemmy are infinitely more helpful than the ones on Reddit.
In general, advice on tech related things is much better
Reasons may include
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your question is more likely to be seen and answered
- there is less content overall
- your question isn’t competing with as much engagement-bait
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lots of older, experienced, and helpful people on the site who want to help
Communism and open source software. Queer spaces are also much nicer
I think one of the few things Lemmy is better at is that I can go into 8hr old thread with 120 replies and write a comment and then have people actually read that comment too and react to it.
With 99% of AskReddit threads for example, posting a reply was complete waste of time unless you were among the first ones in. Almost all of the top comments were always also among the first comments.
Unpopular opinions get super-duper downvoted here but don’t “disappear” as often as on Reddit (not including rule-breaking submissions).
I enjoy talking with the local and Lemmyverse regulars and also with most users. Reddit is so big you get lost in the 10000 comments, however many bots are copying top comments from a past repost you wouldn’t know. Lemmy is a good size now, if anything it should grow out instead of up (revitalizing more niche communities).
Topic niches served well by Lemmy: Linux, being upset at capitalism, Startrek, LBGTQ-friendly crowds on blahaj and beehaw, pcgaming, buying local and quality products (there are fewer suggestions but your average reply is better in quality than Reddit), Woodworking, DIY offgrid living (solarpunk), and a bunch more.
