I saw 3 posts in a row today saying hope is evil and stupid. Ya'll sound like fucken Morgoth shut up. Would Gandalf have said that!? OR DID HE SAY THE LITTLE THINGS KEEPS THE DARKNESS AT BAY

Purity testing seems to be a feature built into social media.

I post climate articles I find interesting rather indiscriminately probably 70/30 downer/upper, but the engagement I see in terms of upvotes/comments is probably 90/10 downer/upper.

I'm saying this because I dont think there's a dirth of positive content, it's just not being encouraged to flourish.

Be the change you want to see in the world and upvote/comment on positive content. Even silly affirmations help things float up the algowall.

If you want to take things further, post positive and organic content! Adopt a community and make it your goal to add something to it every week - start growing the positive culture you want. It'll feel rough to start because you likely won't get any engagement, but keep at it so folks know its okay for them to share as well.

I expect a lot of it is cope from people who live in the US. I know I've been a lot less cheerful for the last two years (gosh, wonder why). If I've contributed in a way that has rubbed anyone the wrong way, I apologize.

I post football stuff all the time and don't have that problem. At least not in those threads. Posted two topics today. Now in unrelated communities Maybe, but that's not an issue other than it being a stupid thing to say.

This take is valid, but your feed must look very different from mine.

I see a thread like this every two weeks and I'm always scratching my head at it. I think we should have a rule about adding links the moment it's a "complain about Lemmy being mean" thread.

https://poptalk.scrubbles.tech/comment/7330552

So I guess it's about this. There is a toxicity problem because someone made a bash thread on the Odyssey.

Idk, I don't think it's that bad.

I hope you have an aggressively good day!

In my first year here I had a gag username and was doing the typical "snarky commenter" thing. I decided I want to make this place more delightful than Reddit, so I've moved away from that. I still joke (I will die making light of my own pain), but I try to be hopeful and encouraging as often as possible. This place is important to me.

Some of it is that I believe that the internet in general has become a lot more toxic than it was when Reddit was young. Some of that is manufactured. And let's be real, a lot of people are here because they caught Reddit bans. Some entirely unjustified, yes, but your sampling is going to skew away from the more... sunshine and rainbows crowd.

This thread makes me feel old though, because I remember these same types of posts on band forums back before 2010. The internet be snarky.

To me, Lemmy's biggest failing is that it's just not that funny. Reddit still has a lot of great communities springing up making memes around niche topics and long dead tv shows. Too much of Lemmy is just reposting from Reddit still. It severely lacks people making their own funny content.

My unpopular (?) opinion is stop reading replies to your comments. I basically never do and toxicity isn’t an issue for me because of it

Unfortunately lemmy has a larger than average terminally online user base, which is usually the less happy people and it is reflected in their actions :>

To me four are three types of people here on Lemmy. The cool Linux user , the self hosting super private enthusiast, the toxic Linux user and everyone who got kicked off Reddit.

A few groups are more vocal than others.

This is actually a major reason why I don’t engage with too many communities. I know downvotes don’t really mean anything on Lemmy, but still, some people get really vicious and start throwing all kinds of shit at you and get personal just because you said an opinion they disagree with. Reddit has ruined the internet.

This thread is saving me, oh my god. I was feeling so weighed down and y'all just lifted that weight from my shoulders.

So I'm not the only one noticing the increased negatively lately? Sorry you're all trapped here with me 😅 maybe we can heat up some tea on this cauldron of lava over here

It's never a bad time for a reminder to be kind to others.

What is unpopular about this opinion?

slrpnk.net is down and Lemmy has a problem.

More seriously I agree with you. Even one slrpnk whose instance rule state positivity this negative, doomerism, defeatism mentality was creeping in There is so little community whose vibe isn't entierely based on negativity and among it comment section are not safe.

We need to improve each on our own if we want our cause (weither it is developping the fediverse or something else) to grow.

I dont think this is an unpopular opinion. Delete it and reconsider everything you've done wrong in your life /s.

I think the main issue is that a portion of the userbase is people who were kicked off reddit for being too toxic, and instead of self-reflecting, they bring that toxicity here.

You sonnova bitch, I'm in! I was gonna make an espresso anyway, but I have some pumpkin spice over, so why not.

I personally don't get the need to shit on other people's hobbies. It's a fucking hobby, if it brings you joy, you do you. I don't even care if people are good at it. Hell, I don't even care if the author doesn't align with my political views, I read and loved Ender's Game before I even consciously realised that authors are people too, and if we would only consume art from people we agree with, what a poor fucking world that would be. Like the only radio you got on your castaway island being forever stuck on a Christian rock station. Fuck that noise.

Anyway, this latte is fucking delicious, and you know what? You can't have diversity and inclusion just for the people you like. Nobody said you got to like them or agree with their Slitherin cosplay, but kicking them out of the room does not help with the conversation, unless you really love the echo of your damn voice.

Caveat: Nazis need not apply, I'm with Karl Popper on this, there is a bare minimum standard when it comes to community participation, and these fuckers miss it by a country mile.

let people be angry

Some examples to think on Harry Potter fans (who have already said they will not buy anything from Rowling again and are aware) who still want to enjoy the books/movies they already own, but are shouted down and downvoted. Sports fans posting about football, to have jokes about “sportsball” made to them. (Is that really any different from nerds being made fun of by jocks in highschool, only this is in reverse and worse yet, we’re supposedly more mature now?) Freaking pumpkin spice. The world is on fire and people get a tiny bit of joy out of cinnamon and allspice, can we let them just enjoy that?!

Arguing over trivial nonsense is modern humanity.

but I do agree on just letting people be happy. I will point out though that Lemmy is full of banned redditors. So the arguing shit-show nonsense bullshit fuck-all topics is just a conversion period for those coming here.

Lemmy in all topics that I've been on, have been chill and everyone seems to stay, or tries to stay more or less on topic. It's actually a site that I prefer not to be on all day long, there's not much addicting content and it's mainly still just a forum and I love that. I love that there's not attempt at trapping us here all day and wanting us to be on it 24/7 and be a content creator to the forums. It's like Reddit wants creators but all it gets is massive regurgitation of other media platforms.

I mean I know this place is a massive regurgitation site too, that's what all social media platforms are but it's curated by the users, not by some massive algorithm.

Reddit is and was addicting and stole some time from me. I know I could've stopped using it but on all my downtime it seemed like when there was nothing to do, it was that. Idk, not much to really say but Lemmy is a place where I can come and go and not feel trapped by algorithms.

welcome to lemmy. i love you.

The only posting I’ve seen about football is the aleague community that no-one ever replies in, but it’s not exactly getting bullied out of existence either.

Give up the good fight and just block the idiots. They can't be reasoned with. I'm not here to endlessly debate settled social dynamics with Russian bots.

Lemmy has changed significantly in the two and a half years I've been using it. I wouldn't say it's got a toxic negativity problem any more than any other social media platform out there past or present. Back in the ye olde days of digg or forums before that people have started sh!t about everything under the sun.

That problem has become more obvious on Lemmy in the last year or so, but it's nothing new and certainly not something we should solve. The bulk of Lemmy's users are ex-redditors who left either on moral grounds or were kicked out by mods/admins and they come to the platform expecting a reddit-like community, which Lemmy is slowly growing into. It's the nature of the platform, like mastodon's community is a lot of ex-twitter/x users who bring over the customs and ideals of twitter/x. There is no changing it and it's only going to get worse as long as the only federated options for social media are clones of commercial social networks.

But even if there was some holy grail, novel, federated, social media platform unlike anything before it, you'd still have to make room for sourpusses, grumps, and people who can't tolerate differing opinions. After all it's not utopia if some people aren't invited.

Agreed. a couple months ago I started blocking people left and right, whereas before I would block only the very worst. Now I probably block 5-10 people a day. I do think the block spree has helped. Some people are just horrible.

I saw your post title and assumed it was regarding users who use politics as a dagger to jab people with. So many users are just impossible to converse with. They either say horrible things or put words in your mouth with little to no provocation. It's honestly made me more quick to anger than I normally am, I think.

That's not really exclusive to lemmy, that's just the internet.

I agree 100%. I tried Lemmy a while ago but ended up deleting my account for this reason. I’m aware of one power user over in the shitposting and memes pages who I believe is no longer active for this reason

You make a great point for the greater good of Lemmy and I’m in total agreement. Sorry you got dogpiled on the Odyssey thread. That was BS