As an open platform that’s similar to reddit, I’m in favor of it.

The reality though is not that great. And a lot of it comes down to at least some of the people who are here.

There doesn’t really seem to be enough content to allow for browsing a curated list of communities yet, so I mainly browse by all. And what I have seen are a handful of seemingly extreme viewpoints with little to no room for nuance and discussion and an attitude from those people that they are absolutely correct in their beliefs and ideas. I’m talking tankies, hatred for Israel, hatred for cars, hatred for landlords/renting, and evangelism for Linux.

I know that having extreme attitudes is certainly not unique to lemmy as it exists all over the Internet and elsewhere. But it does seem to be fairly concentrated here. And again, without enough engagement in the smaller or more niche communities there isn’t really enough content on its own.

So instead of actively browsing communities I want which would likely end up with very little content, I have started blocking instances and communities instead so I can still get a mix, but filter out things that I don’t like. And that doesn’t make for a great experience.

I have also seen some really stupid/ridiculous admin/mod drama that people also seemed to think wouldnt carry over from reddit, but of course it has.

All that to say, I still enjoy it enough to continue to browse. But I don’t really participate often. And it has to a degree eliminated at least some of the bullshit from reddit.