Depends massively on what subreddit on Reddit, and to a lesser degree, what community on the Threadiverse. /r/AskHistorians, /r/seventhworldproblems, /r/Europe, and /r/NFL don’t have a whole lot in common.
I think that in terms of content, the Threadiverse today is much closer to very early Reddit than to Reddit over the past ten years or so. Reddit used to have a much heavier tech focus, lot of Linux too, though it tended to be more Lisp, academia, and startups. A lot of the people who came over early on the Threadiverse are far-left; the proportions definitely differ a lot there. I’m pretty sure that there’s a higher furry and trans content ratio, but that’s harder to judge; it may also just be people using avatars and home instances providing a hint.
A significant chunk of people on here seem extremely depressed. That was definitely not my take on especially early Reddit, which was fairly upbeat (though I do remember one Italian guy on /r/Europe who kept talking about how terrible Italy is today and how much better the 1980s were).
I think that there are more people who are kinda…I’m not sure how to put this politely. A little unglued from reality. I mean, I remember back during Bush’s time in office, there being a lot of 9/11 conspiracy stuff on Reddit, but I feel like the proportion of people whose general take on everything feels extremely paranoid is a lot higher.
It definitely feels more international, less US-oriented, to me, and I frequented /r/Europe.
I feel like there are more older people. I have seen some website analytics of Reddit, and as I recall, it averaged something like early twenties. That may have changed over time, but I’d still bet that the median age here is higher.
Most of the subreddits that I used had far more users than even the most-active communities on the Threadiverse. This meant that there was a lot more content. On the other hand, it also meant that it was increasingly-common to spend a lot of time writing something, only for it to be buried under a flood of other content; if one didn’t get a comment in pretty early in a post, users just skimming top comments might never see it. That was even more-true for posts – one’s chance of a post attracting attention in a community where a new post arrives every few minutes and many people just view top posts was not good, whereas here, I’m pretty sure that almost everyone on a community sees it. I think that Reddit had a better variety and amount of content to consume, whereas I feel that it’s more-rewarding to contribute content here.
For the same smaller-size reason, it’s a lot more common here for me to recognize usernames. Especially late Reddit, the chance of recognizing anyone off a subreddit, other than a few extremely-prolific posters, was not high. I’m talking to pseudonyms, sure, but it’s “Kolanki, that furry dude that I remember”, or “Flying Squid, that guy who mods a bunch of communities”, not another user name that I’ll probably never see or remember. I think that that affects the environment somewhat, that people act differently in a crowd of people that they “know” than in a crowd of strangers.
The Threadiverse in 2025 isn’t a full replacement for me in the sense that Reddit has a subreddit with some level of non-zero activity on virtually any topic remotely of interest that I can think of. There are a few subreddits that I used to read regularly, like /r/cataclysmdda, for the video game Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead. !catadda@sh.itjust.works has very little activity, and for most video games, software packages, products, etc there isn’t a community. Some subreddits dealt with content creation or all sorts of things, and the userbase just isn’t here now to support that. So what I talk about differs somewhat.
I feel like users on the Threadiverse are less aggressive. Maybe it’s moderation or the userbase or who-knows-what, but I remember a considerably higher proportion of flamewars on Reddit. I felt that there was a much-higher tendency for people to want to get the last word in on Reddit.
I have seen far less trolling than I did on Reddit (or Slashdot).
It’s hard for me to judge the impact of LLM-generated bot comments on Reddit. I didn’t personally notice many, at least on the (mostly-not-largest-in-size, so maybe not heavily-targeted) subreddits that I followed, but I’ve seen plenty of people on both Reddit and on the Threadiverse complaining about LLM-generated comments on Reddit, so unless they were outright wrong, either I couldn’t pick up on some or they were targeting larger subreddits. It wasn’t to the point that my conversations felt degraded, at least not at the time that I left.
The Threadiverse is smaller, and I think that I’ve seen content on one community inspire related-topic conversations on another. I don’t think I recall that on Reddit.
I feel like there are more older people. I have seen some website analytics of Reddit, and as I recall, it averaged something like early twenties. That may have changed over time, but I’d still bet that the median age here is higher.
It’s a fair point. It feels like I can’t look at any news on lemmy without seeing a large amount of doomers convinced the world is going to end by 2030. Some of their points are valid but their view of the future is overwhelmingly depressing and very exaggerated.
When I open lemmy, it’s to ignore real life, not to feel even worse about my future
EDIT: I wonder if there should be a community where people pitch existing communities. Like, list a community and why you like it. There’s !newcommunities@lemmy.world, but that’s really for communities that are just starting out.
I’m not sure I ever really experienced “very early” Reddit, but this tracks with my experience as well. Smaller community, for better and for worse. Less “empty discussion” and quips. But also a lot more people who are, as you put it, “unglued”.
I think the lack of flamewars is more due to critical mass - you need a critical mass of people willing to waste time on that - than culture. There are definitely some communities I see here that do not have a friendly feel.
Depends massively on what subreddit on Reddit, and to a lesser degree, what community on the Threadiverse. /r/AskHistorians, /r/seventhworldproblems, /r/Europe, and /r/NFL don’t have a whole lot in common.
I think that in terms of content, the Threadiverse today is much closer to very early Reddit than to Reddit over the past ten years or so. Reddit used to have a much heavier tech focus, lot of Linux too, though it tended to be more Lisp, academia, and startups. A lot of the people who came over early on the Threadiverse are far-left; the proportions definitely differ a lot there. I’m pretty sure that there’s a higher furry and trans content ratio, but that’s harder to judge; it may also just be people using avatars and home instances providing a hint.
A significant chunk of people on here seem extremely depressed. That was definitely not my take on especially early Reddit, which was fairly upbeat (though I do remember one Italian guy on /r/Europe who kept talking about how terrible Italy is today and how much better the 1980s were).
I think that there are more people who are kinda…I’m not sure how to put this politely. A little unglued from reality. I mean, I remember back during Bush’s time in office, there being a lot of 9/11 conspiracy stuff on Reddit, but I feel like the proportion of people whose general take on everything feels extremely paranoid is a lot higher.
It definitely feels more international, less US-oriented, to me, and I frequented /r/Europe.
I feel like there are more older people. I have seen some website analytics of Reddit, and as I recall, it averaged something like early twenties. That may have changed over time, but I’d still bet that the median age here is higher.
Most of the subreddits that I used had far more users than even the most-active communities on the Threadiverse. This meant that there was a lot more content. On the other hand, it also meant that it was increasingly-common to spend a lot of time writing something, only for it to be buried under a flood of other content; if one didn’t get a comment in pretty early in a post, users just skimming top comments might never see it. That was even more-true for posts – one’s chance of a post attracting attention in a community where a new post arrives every few minutes and many people just view top posts was not good, whereas here, I’m pretty sure that almost everyone on a community sees it. I think that Reddit had a better variety and amount of content to consume, whereas I feel that it’s more-rewarding to contribute content here.
For the same smaller-size reason, it’s a lot more common here for me to recognize usernames. Especially late Reddit, the chance of recognizing anyone off a subreddit, other than a few extremely-prolific posters, was not high. I’m talking to pseudonyms, sure, but it’s “Kolanki, that furry dude that I remember”, or “Flying Squid, that guy who mods a bunch of communities”, not another user name that I’ll probably never see or remember. I think that that affects the environment somewhat, that people act differently in a crowd of people that they “know” than in a crowd of strangers.
The Threadiverse in 2025 isn’t a full replacement for me in the sense that Reddit has a subreddit with some level of non-zero activity on virtually any topic remotely of interest that I can think of. There are a few subreddits that I used to read regularly, like /r/cataclysmdda, for the video game Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead. !catadda@sh.itjust.works has very little activity, and for most video games, software packages, products, etc there isn’t a community. Some subreddits dealt with content creation or all sorts of things, and the userbase just isn’t here now to support that. So what I talk about differs somewhat.
I feel like users on the Threadiverse are less aggressive. Maybe it’s moderation or the userbase or who-knows-what, but I remember a considerably higher proportion of flamewars on Reddit. I felt that there was a much-higher tendency for people to want to get the last word in on Reddit.
I have seen far less trolling than I did on Reddit (or Slashdot).
It’s hard for me to judge the impact of LLM-generated bot comments on Reddit. I didn’t personally notice many, at least on the (mostly-not-largest-in-size, so maybe not heavily-targeted) subreddits that I followed, but I’ve seen plenty of people on both Reddit and on the Threadiverse complaining about LLM-generated comments on Reddit, so unless they were outright wrong, either I couldn’t pick up on some or they were targeting larger subreddits. It wasn’t to the point that my conversations felt degraded, at least not at the time that I left.
The Threadiverse is smaller, and I think that I’ve seen content on one community inspire related-topic conversations on another. I don’t think I recall that on Reddit.
So, apparently at least a few Lemmy apps do not automatically condense whitespace. This means that I very regularly notice comments with “extra” spaces between sentences on Lemmy, which suggests those users are probably at least 35-40 years old.
Wait… are we just gonna let this pass? Not sure how to feel about this…
It’s a fair point. It feels like I can’t look at any news on lemmy without seeing a large amount of doomers convinced the world is going to end by 2030. Some of their points are valid but their view of the future is overwhelmingly depressing and very exaggerated.
When I open lemmy, it’s to ignore real life, not to feel even worse about my future
Solution: don’t look at news communities. Only subscribe to communities without news, politics, or tech…
...like these
GENERAL DISCUSSION / QUESTIONS
ART / PHOTOS
ANIMALS
COMICS / GRAPHIC NOVELS
ENTERTAINMENT
GENRES / STYLES
HISTORY
INFORMATION / KNOWLEDGE
OTHER
FEDIVERSE
FINDING NEW/GOOD COMMUNITIES ON LEMMY
Thanks. There are some good communities on here.
EDIT: I wonder if there should be a community where people pitch existing communities. Like, list a community and why you like it. There’s !newcommunities@lemmy.world, but that’s really for communities that are just starting out.
investigates
Ah. @Blaze@lemmy.dbzer0.com just mentioned !communitypromo@lemmy.ca on newcommunities.
EDIT2: and if I’d finished reading your comment, it has it at the bottom too.
Well…
gestures at the world on fire with encroaching fascism all around
What do you think Reddit would have looked like in the 1930’s? Great depression, Dustbowls, Nazi Germany…
If we largely lean left, that tracks, no?
I’m not sure I ever really experienced “very early” Reddit, but this tracks with my experience as well. Smaller community, for better and for worse. Less “empty discussion” and quips. But also a lot more people who are, as you put it, “unglued”.
I think the lack of flamewars is more due to critical mass - you need a critical mass of people willing to waste time on that - than culture. There are definitely some communities I see here that do not have a friendly feel.