The quality of comments on Lemmy, I've noticed, are far better than Reddit comments on average.
When you remove all the fluff, there's about the same if not more useful stuff in comment threads here, however on Lemmy there's way less fluff (again just what I've noticed).
I'll sometimes comment on stuff but overwhelmingly I don't. I was the same way on reddit. I just feel that I don't have anything meaningful to say so why say anything.
I find myself commenting a lot more here. It's more conversational than reddit. Comments are longer and not just one liner's, and the smaller community means my comments won't be buried. It also feels like a gateway drug to posting. I should post something today. I won't, but I should.
Lemmy could definitely use a bit more comment activity on a lot of posts.
I think it’s because nobody really wants to be the first to comment and offer an opinion that might end up going against the grain when a thread develops. There’s no ‘reading the room’ as it were.
I’m doing my part by commenting on threads. Like this one.
I always tell people, hey, I'm not a bot here posting things, I'm trying to share things I feel you guys would enjoy. If nobody comments, it doesnt incentivize me to continue posting, it makes me feel like a crazy person talking to themselves. I encourage people to say something, even if it's just "I really enjoyed this, thanks for sharing!" or something. I do that from time to time on others' posts. If they're showing me something new, of course I don't know anything about it coming in, but I can let them know now I do know thanks to their contribution here.
All these posts pop up all the time, "dang, it's so dead here" but if instead of making, liking, or commenting on that post, you could thank someone that did post, or share something that you think others might like. I was never a poster on Reddit. I'm no expert on what I post on. I just find stuff I think people would like, and now after doing it for the last few months, now I do know a lot more and can give people better insight than I could in the beginning.
Comments have been feeling low on my posts, and I think when is the point where me making 2 or 3 posts a day isn't worth my time anymore, but then someone will say "oh this post really made my day" and so I come back the next day and post again.
This is why I comment so much, I want regular posters to feel they’re not shouting out into the void. Also, having conversation starter comments on most posts helps new people feel like Lemmy isn’t “dead”.
It's true! I know I thanked all my readers on new year and the other holidays and all, because it takes both sides, the posters and the commenters, if we're going to make this thing work. People focus on the posters, and that is the main draw, but the comments are what adds the life and color.
Oh hey, I love your owl posts. I always read the comments too because I know there will be more pictures and info. I've been meaning to comment there, but work got super busy and I forgot to stop by.
It's not even just "the first" post. Lemmy is exactly like Reddit where any comments or posts, no matter how high quality, that can be interpreted as "against the grain" will be attacked. Lemmy has the same strong tendency towards group think that Reddit does, it's just lower volume and the bias runs even farther left. Shrug.
Not really. People may talk shit about comments, but if it was just a matter of getting just articles, you might as well stick to the news sites. Even as far as pure news aggregation goes there are better options than relying on whatever a handful people decide to share here.
There's value in public commentary too. It may not be as polished as these articles but it provides a variety of perspectives, questions and criticism that might be pertinent, and for as lacking or biased as they may be, it's much easier to tell compared to sources trying to pretend impartiality.
There's a reason why we are here and not on, say, Feedly. This particular community only highlights it further, since it's entirely based on the interpersonal element. Ain't nobody looking for journalism or scientific articles on !Showerthoughts