So I’ve been starting to look further into the Fediverse and using it a lot more than any other part of the internet at this point. I wanna know the reasons why people might prefer Lemmy or Mastodon, I have both but seem to lean towards Lemmy for some reason, but not sure why maybe it’s the simple design and you can find topics a little easier or it might be because I prefer the idea of Reddit over twitter.
Why do you prefer Lemmy? (or mastodon?)
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I like having the conversation organized around topics instead of people
This. If you like to follow people (Twitter-style) then Mastodon is the right tool for you. If you are focused on topics and don’t care much who supplies the content (Reddit-style) then Lemmy is what you want.
I guess I did follow people on Twitter, I had friends there…then Musk made it weird…
Well that effectively and succinctly summed up my general distaste for Twitter and Twitter-alikes.
I agree as I generally don’t care about individuals opinions. I prefer to follow topics rather than people.
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This.
Do you prefer the style of Twitter, or Reddit? Tweets or threads? That’s the big difference.
As a side option: Kbin. It’s a Reddit alternative like Lemmy (and pretty much works the same way for the purposes of this), but it also has better federation with mastodon, and every community has both a ‘reddit-like’ half and a ‘twitter-like’ half so you kinda get the best of both worlds.
Oh I didn’t release there was that much difference between Kbin and Lemmy, I knew they were similar but I didn’t release they sort of work together a bit more.
I like the UI of Threads sure but never been a huge user of Twitter or Reddit. haven’t really been a user of Social Media but I do find Lemmy a lot more freeing in the chatting sort of way.
Oh I didn’t release there was that much difference between Kbin and Lemmy, I knew they were similar but I didn’t release they sort of work together a bit more.
More than that too. Different coding, better (subjectively) UI, you can block users, communities, domains, and (coming ‘soon’) instances, the stuff I mentioned, plus we can see upvotes/downvotes and who did them on threads and comments like admins on lemmy can. Not sure if lemmy has userstyles yet via tampermonkey and the like, but we got tons too to customize the UI and add extra features, there’s even a Kbin Enhancement Suite now lol.
Only drawback is the dev(s) don’t have an API yet, so no apps at this time. Several apps are ready to add kbin once the API is up tho, and the mobile kbin is real damn good so it’s hard to complain on that 1 point. I made a Beehaw and Kbin account at the same time, haven’t touched Beehaw in weeks lol.
I’ve just created my kbin account now, I’ll give it a good go, been enjoying Lemmy the most as of the moment but if I can find a platform that works even better for me then that would be great.
Good thing is, any communities you enjoyed on lemmy, you still got access to!
Yeah I it’s amazing having the Fediverse <3
Mastodon is organized around individuals. Lemmy is organized around topics.
The Lemmy way is far superior.
Yeah, I would love to see the ability to be able to follow users on Lemmy as it would be nice to see what your favourite people are up to.
This is exactly what Kbin is intended for, it essentially bridges both platforms, I’d suggest you check that out as well.
Checking it out now, glad to be open about what platforms I try out.
I usually just ask them, when I wan to see what my favorite people are up to.
I dislike Mastodon for the same reason I dislike Twitter. It seems to me like it’s more centered around individual people and what they share rather than building multiple communities around multiple things that interests me.
Sure, I can craft my own community, but then I have a feed where I only encounter posts from the same people, and chances are, opinions that I already agree with. It’s not as easy to switch from a tv show to programming, for example. Yes, hashtags exist but they don’t even come close to communities on Lemmy.
The worst part are the types of posts that only reiterate how stupid “the other side” is without seriously trying to understand their arguments. This is not only true about politics but many other topics as well.
I pretty much agree, I find being able to flip between communities more useful than just having a feed of the same like-minded people, you explained it really well thanks.
You can make lists in Mastodon, eg to create different feeds with different types of people, it’s like having themed timelines.
But I still agree with you.
I think I’m leaning towards Lemmy.
I think you make a great point. It’s easier to make an echo chamber in Mastodon/Twitter, since you mostly encounter people you already know (or are connected to via someone you know).
Not that echo chambers are impossible on platforms like Lemmy or Reddit, but I feel like the format of Twitter/Mastodon especially encourages it.
That’s a bit like asking “twitter or reddit”; different tools, different purposes. A single person may prefer one or the other, or use both in approximately equal measure.
Yeah I understand that, I was just asking why people lean more towards Lemmy, As I personally never used to use Social Media.
Lemmy feels like Reddit to me and Mastodon feels more like twitter
so to me they’re both decentralized versions of popular social media
i just think of them as my new reddit and twitter since those companies are sitting at their desks jerking it all day
Fair enough, I’ve been slowly looking Kbin as that seems to be a mix between the two.
I prefer Lemmy because it’s more like the *R site…whereas Mastadon is the little Blue Bird site. I like having a discourse with others in a single page thread.
I can see why using both Mastodon and Lemmy could be quite nice to be used for different types of content you want to find.
Lemmy if you vibe with Reddit.
Mastadon if you vibe with Twitter.
Pretty much what I thought it was like, but what about Kbin?
Kbin if you go both ways
I’m a Lesbian hun, I only go one way lol
I’ve been curious about going “both ways”, but never acted upon it… ;)
I don’t see that much difference between Lemmy and Kbin. It is true that if you are on Mastodon your boosts on Kbin will show on Mastodon (for instance)
But I’ve created a separate account to keep them apart. I don’t have Twitter but I wouldn’t have wanted my Reddit likes showing up on Twitter
That makes sense, use them as different platforms as you can’t have 100% crossover at all times.
I gave Mastodon a look when Twitter started to get all “Musky”. I wound up going with Counter.Social in the end.
Well, you asked about our preference. As already said, the use case is totally different, so it can be a bit difficult to really compare.
However, I prefer long form discussions most of the time, which gives me a lemmy preference overall.
That being said, mastodon is very well developed and supported overall. Switching between the two on my author account is kinda like going from a nice, new sedan (mastodon) to a five year old economy car. Things are smoother on mastodon overall, there’s less bugs, etc that show up to an end user.
Thank you, this explained it very well. I’ll probably carry on using Lemmy even more than I currently do as I seem to enjoy it more as well as it seems to run very smooth like you said.
I never really ‘got’ Twitter-style microblogging, and still don’t really get Mastodon for the same reason. But I could some use for it if I represented some kind of group or organization that needed to publish regular updates.
the whole idea of mastodon and twitter is alien to me. Why should I prioritise people over the content they make? Like here you can rate an interesting post and it would likely pop up in your feed. In twitter I just rely on particular content makers , hoping they come up with something worthwhile. No concrete subjects, only random musings
In Mastodon you can not only follow people but also hashtags. And there are accounts that exist to ‘retweet’ posts related to a topic, so basically curation.
I never really understood it myself. But from what I’ve heard from people who are (or rather were) regular Twitter users, they like to follow celebrities or specific journalists (people who have actual interesting things to say). Those people are often not on Mastodon, though.
Yeah, same for me. I had both Reddit and Twitter, but the latter annoyed the hell out of me after some months so I deleted it years ago. Reddit and the topic centered approach did fit my needs and interests way better. Now there’s kbin and I’m equally happy.
People are complex with many different thoughts and interests. It is unlikely you are interested in all the different things someone else is. Thus it doesn’t make sense to follow people. Topics, everyone has their own list they are interested in, so follow those topics and you will meet the people also interested in it.
That makes sense, yeah I think in the end I prefer using a community aspect than a person based one.
I am more interested in following topics than following individuals, so I use Lemmy way more than Mastodon.
That’s completely fair enough, I find topics are a good go-to but have recently been enjoying Kbin for the next of both.
I like both so I use both. I find myself much less “active” on Lemmy though.
I find the community aspect of Mastodon to be much better as you get to know people. Less likely to get that on Lemmy in my opinion as it’s content/topic oriented.
What about Kbin have you tired that as it’s meant to be like a Lemmy + Mastodon mix. Not sure if it is but I’m trying it out now to see if it’s truly worth it. I currently perfer Lemmy.
I have tried Kbin (before I’d even heard of Lemmy), but because I used Mastodon first, I’m unlikely to use another platform in that kind of way tbh. Maybe I should give it another look.
Lemmy for sure! Its hard to get interaction on Mastodon
I found that too, Seems like Mastodon feels like a continues moving river as Lemmy seems to be more calm and you can actually move around.
The only reason I don’t have the same Mastodon experience as you guys tbh is that I’m on a private instance, you have to have a membership (to something else) to get on and it’s all about that shit more or less, and so I stay on my instance and follow a few randoms. The Federated tab is a nightmare, I just avoid it. Here on lemmy it is the exact opposite, I mostly stay on subbed or all (but my instance is great here too).
Thank you for sharing your experience.
I find good content much easier here on Lemmy. I actually find it pretty frustrating to try to find engaging content on Mastodon. I appreciate the “algorithm-less” design of Mastodon, but I think users need a choice. The algorithm on Twitter was what kept me coming back until it really went to shit.
I agree, it seems like there is so much content being released on Mastodon every second as Lemmy seems to be slow but you can get a quick response when you wish too.
