Is it just me, or have the comments on Lemmy become extra aggressive over the past 3 months?

I feel like things on Lemmy were pretty chill several months ago, and that’s started to change.

People used to talk each other like they would talk to a neighbor. Now I get the sense that people have become quick to be negative, attack, and not be constructive.

Am I crazy in feeling like the vibe has changed?

moon_crush ,

Suck rocks you worthless git!

Vanth , (edited )
@Vanth@reddthat.com avatar

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

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    SnotFlickerman ,
    @SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    More exposure in news and media. More asylum seekers from reddit.

    Definitely. A few months ago, there basically weren't any crytpo-bros on Lemmy. Now any time I say anything negative about crypto, about six of them jump out of the woodwork to give their big long spiel on "the useful use-cases for NFTs" which I just roll my eyes harder every fucking time over.

    It's mainly you just have more trolls and aggressive people because we're beyond the initial group who was actually looking for more community. Admins/mods do a pretty good job of banning trolls, but not until after they've shitted up the place for a bit, usually.

    Also, the nature of Lemmy means that someone who gets banned for spamming an article just goes and makes an account on a different instance and then just goes and makes the same post in the same communities literally minutes later.

    Popularity is rising, the bad actors are coming. Oh well.

    Omega_Haxors ,

    Man one of them was trying to bring their crypto bullshit here and I fucking ripped their ass a new one. It's probably still sore to this day.

    Hackerman_uwu ,

    Positive and negative are qualitative and measures in this case.

    Subjective ones at that.

    oxjox ,
    @oxjox@lemmy.ml avatar

    Internet's gonna internet.

    simple ,
    @simple@lemm.ee avatar

    Just lots of trolls lately, most communities are fine but some have poor moderation so these types of comments/posts take some time to get deleted. All the communities I'm browsing are quite chill.

    spaduf ,
    @spaduf@slrpnk.net avatar

    Worth noting, the number of people who come here "to escape authoritarian moderators". Nearly all of them were moderated for good reason.

    I also don't think the presence of places like hexbear are doing us any favors.

    SnotFlickerman ,
    @SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    You can see them jumping from Lemmy server to Lemmy server as they get banned from each.

    Eventually, they'll just set up their own instances so they can bother people with impunity.

    themadcodger ,
    @themadcodger@kbin.social avatar

    And then we block that instance! Or it gets defederated.

    pearsaltchocolatebar ,

    It would be super nice if users could block instances.

    Like, I have no desire to see anything from the furry instance.

    federalreverse ,

    I think that's coming (or is it implemented already!?)?

    spaduf ,
    @spaduf@slrpnk.net avatar

    I totally thought that was in 0.19 but I haven't actually seen that yet.

    seathru ,
    @seathru@lemm.ee avatar

    It's under Settings -> Blocks -> then down at the bottom is the block instances option.

    ShittyKopper ,
    @ShittyKopper@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    the 0.19 implementation is so half-assed I genuinely think the Lemmy devs just don't want that functionality but expected quite a lot of backlash if they outright said as much, so they decided to implement something that ticks the box in the "wanted features" list without having any effect

    afaik it only blocks communities and explicitly lets users from blocked instances through

    nutomic ,
    @nutomic@lemmy.ml avatar

    Feel free to make open an issue to improve instance blocking. Or better yet a pull request. We are only a few devs with limited time, and hundreds of issues to work on.

    Blaze ,
    @Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

    Sorry for this kind of aggressivity

    davel ,

    0.19.1

    seathru ,
    @seathru@lemm.ee avatar

    You can on instances running .19 or newer. Settings -> Blocks -> then at the bottom is an option for blocking instances.

    567PrimeMover ,
    @567PrimeMover@kbin.social avatar

    So there's going to be a fediverse and a mirror fediverse?

    SnotFlickerman ,
    @SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    That was always a risk of decentralized services, unfortunately.

    Ghostalmedia OP ,
    @Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

    The thing that actually worried me a little bit more was people upvoting the aggressive comments to be top comments.

    I was reading some thread over at !politics today, and a lot of stuff advocating for political violence were the top comments. Mods yanked it, but nevertheless, people were vibing with some comments about dragging people through the street. I felt like I was on X/Twitter.

    spaduf ,
    @spaduf@slrpnk.net avatar

    Yeah, I think it's a legitimate and growing problem. I think a lot of folks don't realize, but since growth has slowed from Reddit more broadly, the people who feel they have been "unfairly silenced" are the fastest growing subpopulation around here. If I'm honest, I think the only real antidote is to reestablish growth from communities with kinder dispositions.

    exocrinous ,

    We don't need to take from nicer communities, we need to build nicer communities. Right now there aren't any left wing instances, which is a big problem. It was nicer back when lib.lgbt existed.

    d3Xt3r ,

    I was reading some thread over at !politics

    There you go, that's your problem. Political topics always gets heated and brings out the worst in people, no matter the platform. The first thing I did is block all politics (and general news + sports) communities, and it's been a fairly pleasant experience so far for me, except for the odd troll or fanboy that shows up every now and then.

    exocrinous ,

    You didn't block all politics. Everything is political.

    Pratai ,

    https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/cff49925-44fb-4aa9-89a0-f98971f32596.jpeg

    The irony.

    OpenStars ,
    @OpenStars@startrek.website avatar

    It has gotten worse and it will only continue to do so. There are people who are respectful and hold back their darkest impulses, but there are others who choose to hold those same features in high regard, as literal virtues in their eyes. Blocking hexbear and lemmygrad has helped my own peace of mind immensely, but you would not want to block lemmy.ml or lemmy.world or such so... here we are.

    I do not really see any permanent solution to this problem, short of eternal vigilance. That's just nature though, e.g. viruses constantly evolve and seek new hosts, hence hosts that do not keep up die, there's no way around needing to keep up defenses against such a tireless onslaught. Similarly for information vs. misinformation too, it seems:-(.

    It has also gotten much harder to have any discussion with even the tiniest hint of subtlety on the Fediverse - is Biden/Linux/socialism/religion good or bad? "Yes." For some of us, knowing what will happen - the flood of toxic responses I mean - if we dare to speak up is enough to cause us to cringe enough that we would simply rather stay silent instead. If only the opposing side were like that too! But no, they elect not to hold their own tongues, even while expecting YOU to hold yours. That too seems just the nature of the universe.

    Omega_Haxors ,

    People here realize that narratives have consequences and know we can't just live in la-la land where everyone is happy all the time. I mean yeah you can do that but then don't be surprised pikachu face when you find yourself in the company of neo-nazis who are doing the same.

    OpenStars ,
    @OpenStars@startrek.website avatar

    Lolz you are hilarious - if I get called a derogatory term like "stupid", and I don't like it, then I am a literal, actual Nazi? :-P That really makes me curious... what if I DO like it:-P?

    Omega_Haxors ,

    Could you please translate, that was completely incoherent.

    TigrisMorte ,

    Simply a side effect of successful user growth without adequate growth in moderation of the user base. Same thing has happened on every forum since the first BBS

    Masterblaster ,

    sometimes, people need to be told they're stupid/shitty/etc. it just makes me feel better. i'm not trying to win a debate, i just don't want to hold my tongue because fuck you. with everyone so afraid of being cringe or big mad lol, there's no room left for healthy expressions of anger. anger is a human trait. anger is a useful tool. anger gets shit done. don't be afraid of your anger. tell someone they're stupid today. they might need to hear it.

    federalreverse ,

    Let's be needlessly toxic 🚀🤩

    In any case, welcome to my block list.

    speck ,

    You're conflating a natural phenomenon, anger, with maladaptive expressions of it. Name-calling is not owning your anger; it's disowning it

    Omega_Haxors ,

    If more people were like you we wouldn't be a decaying society of sheep. It's OK to be enraged at injustice, it's moral to tell a nazi to kys.

    Ilovethebomb ,

    Holy shit, you're everywhere in this thread.

    Omega_Haxors ,

    The power went out and I had to catch up on my posting quota.

    davel ,
    @davel@lemmy.ml avatar

    kbin.antisocial

    pearsaltchocolatebar ,

    The number of trolls is going to increase as the user base increases.

    Plus, you get the same negative effects of the echo chambers like Reddit did, but I think the communities being so small amplifies the effect.

    gullible ,

    I honestly haven't noticed any changes. 2 months after the rexodus and the honeymoon phase ended, things stabilized. Some drama with tankies but not much else. People here are just as generally rude or kind as they’ve ever been.

    NoneYa ,

    I have noticed more hostility and more downvotes. Whereas before, everyone was mostly civil and hardly ever saw any posts get downvoted unless it was actual spam.

    I’ve only been here since July 2023 but yeah, feels like over the past few weeks, it’s gotten a little different.

    ivanafterall ,

    YES, IT'S JUST FUCKING YOU, JESUS FUCKING CHRIST WITH THIS GUY...

    kWazt ,

    Careful with the punctuation it makes you seem rather aggressive

    Rentlar ,

    No you. /j

    What I found is that hot topics come with the season, in June/July about Ukraine, in July/August about Meta, in October/November about Gaza, in December about Biden. There's been plenty of charged discussion on these topics, and internal Lemmy dramas.

    However, one thing I see more often here on Lemmy than other places is people updating their comments, being willing to admit they're wrong or that their comment came off as hostile, and open negotiation in general. Consider the near defederation of programming.dev and lemm.ee, it was resolved amicably to everyone's benefit.

    I also see people thanking others for softening their tone and being kind, to them I say, keep doing that and encouraging good behaviour and ettiquite online!

    1984 ,
    @1984@lemmy.today avatar

    Vibe has changed but it's because of more users. The original users picked Lemmy because they were tired of reddit, so they were naturally nice people that didn't vibe with the shit that was going on at reddit. They wanted something else. We wanted something else.

    That's why we shouldn't wish for exponential growth. This place will lose its charm quickly if we end up arguing with the trolls.

    gnutrino ,

    People used to talk each other like they would talk to a neighbor.

    You should ask a police officer how some neighbours talk to each other...

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