I tried out a growing Reddit alternative, Lemmy, for a week, and its clear that federated apps aren't ready to replace Reddit yet.
Yeah, this describes my experience so far. I really want to like it here, but so far it’s been an effort.
I am using Mastadon more, hopefully with time we see a similar level of polish. However, even there it don’t see a dent in Twitter.
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Tracking the lastest news and numbers about the #RedditMigration to open, Fediverse-based alternatives, including #Kbin and #Lemmy To see latest reeddit blackout info, see here: https://reddark.untone.uk/
- 0 users online
- 1 user / day
- 17 users / week
- 102 users / month
- 3.27K users / 6 months
- 1 subscriber
- 552 Posts
- 8.76K Comments
- Modlog
- mods:
On the plus side this place feels smaller so instead of just lurking all the time it feels meaningful to participate.
I think this is really spot on. I wasn’t looking for a “reddit alternative” that “kinda sucks” because it’s not reddit. I was looking for an actual “reddit alternative,” not a reddit clone. And yes, I’ve just been lurking up until now, but so far this seems so much more sane and reasonable. For the time being, at least. Until someone finds a way to turn it into a reddit alternative.
Kbin is much more polished already. While lemmy is more or less a clone of old reddit, kbin is more like modern reddit just without the suck. Also, both are compatible.
It really isn’t. It just has a nicer UI.
Not just the UI.
i think it is really nice that you can use a time filter of 3h, 6h,12h 1d in kbin.
This makes finding new content so much easier without having the raw state of new
The UI is a gigantic improvement, but beyond that it is in a more working state. Also the software isn’t made by tankies which is a nice plus
For a server that Ernest put together as a proof of concept, I was surprised at how polished kbin felt when I first joined.
As a new kbin user from Reddit, it’s… jank to say the least. My biggest gripe is the new comment box being at the BOTTOM of the page.
I prefer it that way, because I’m like forced to read what other people commented previously.
I think the idea is to promote reading comments before writing.
@gnp
but what happen when you have a MT with thousands of comments? (there are already some here.)
At least for me, the comments are currently paginated. I don’t like the pagination, but it makes getting to the bottom easier. I’ll say that I would prefer the comment box to be at the top, but I’m sure as hell not going to let that stop me from enjoying this site. kbin and the fediverse have done a great job replacing Reddit for me.
Wow you’re right. I thought i just wasnt allowed to comment on stuff
If you’re on desktop you can use the Kbin enhancement userscript which moves it to the top, also shows peoples tags like @lemmy.world
Link?
I use this one with Tampermonkey:
https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/468612-kbin-enhancement-script
Oooo, thanks :)
Link for stylus users: https://userstyles.world/style/10288/kbin-it
My scroll wheel hated me until I figured out I could just hold the space bar for a sec to jump to the bottom lol. I would imagine it needs to be changed sooner than later before the number of comments in the threats increases.
there are several scripts or styluses to fix this for now.
A Reddit alternative is going to end up like Reddit. Kbin/Lemmy are not like Reddit, and that’s a good thing.
Personally I don’t need it to be “polished”, and too much polish would smack of corporate excess to me. I want lively but friendly discussions on a variety of topics that interest me. And it’s fun to watch something grow from early(ish) stages into a more complete package. I hope this will be a good social media home for me.
ETA I upvoted you for good topic and discussion, rather than downvoting in disagreement.
Apollo was polished. It can be good and look good at the same time.
It’s going to take time to spin back up the reddit communities. Also, some behavior adjustments will need to be made (though I do miss having notifications I can instantly click to get to the replies. I suspect that’s in the works.)
Kbin has the notification feature, though it’s been a bit buggy from time to time.
I created an account about 24 hours ago and this is actually better than I expected. Of course, I wasn’t expecting a complete and polished interface from something so new, but I had read plenty of horror stories about how lemmy/kbin signups were impossibly complex.
I like it. It’s already pretty intuitive and I like that it’s not a 1:1 Reddit clone. I can easily imagine this expanding and growing into something really interesting
Also, I got the username I wanted.
Hell yes. First dibs on usernames!
Majority of the people here are super helpful, much friendlier, and supportive even with all the flaws that we are experiencing. Building a community takes effort. Everyone’s effort is focused here so that we can have the place that we want it to be - a place better than reddit.
Thing is, people looking for a Reddit replacement are going to be in some way disappointed, since part of the idea of developing a new system is to avoid the things that made Reddit turn terrible. The sad truth it Reddit is probably too big for its users to just leave, but maybe they will financially just crash since their efforts to become profitable aren’t looking all that effective.
I agree. While some users are able to leave the platform, most will stick around - but as you mentioned, they will definitely struggle financially.
His issues are that he misses the cultivated nature of Reddit. Reddit didn’t start out cultivated, and took time and effort by volunteers to figure out it’s identity. The same thing will happen with the fediverse. It will get cleaned up and streamlined as people put in effort. People look at a lump of carbon and say it’s worthless, but with time it becomes a diamond.
Some people only see the value of something in it’s present form and miss out on potential. The fediverse has a lot of potential so long as it is active. It’s open nature will bring in freelance development help and it could very well become BETTER than what reddit was. Keep the faith
That is not how it works, like at all. This same thing happens with Mastodon when journalists come on with a negative attitude and don’t really want it to work so they don’t really try.
You know what I love about kbin/lemmy - no goddamn Nazis. I’ll take the growing pains of a burgeoning platform over Nazis on my timeline any day of the week.
I ended up switching to Kbin and like it a lot more in regards to how the main page provides threads. It still has it’s issues, but they’re for the most part outside of the main loop.
I’m somewhat surprised at how much the dynamic page load really messed with my ability to navigate Lemmy. Basically if I went away for any given time it would go from top threads for the day to random junk that had no activity. It really needs a way to turn that off.
These burgeoning communities are rough around the edges. But as @dan96kid said, there’s space for us to speak up, rather than simply lurk. I’m getting a kick out of this disruption.
Reddit wasn’t all that amazing either when they first started - it took a while for things to get ironed out. Then they had to go and ruin a good thing
I’m really starting to like this place now! At first I was hesitant, but it’s great!