I wish my experience with Masto&Co could be as peaceful. Back when I joined it there was a devastating drama between multiple trans instances that led to a mass defederation from one particular instance. One of my mutuals was on it, they didn’t know about the drama and I was too busy with IRL stuff to warn them about incoming defederation. Being cut-off like this wasn’t pleasant at all.

From my perspective, there’s way less yelling at each other amongst the Germans than in the broad English speaking Threadiverse.

That’s interesting. My only experiences are with English internet as well as my native language with the latter being so awful that I learned English just to escape that circus. I suppose English internet is in hell right now because of the US primarily. Maybe I should consider learning a new language :D

I never thought about Lemmy’s communities as one of the reasons for the combative attitude that’s so common here. Although, I disagree that Mastodon and Reddit are less affected by it: Reddit definitely had serious fights between subreddits and they stopped being so prominent primarily because of Reddit’s heavy-handed moderation. Mastodon, on the other hand, is defined by defederations (which are worse than on Lemmy) and since visibility depends almost entirely on the amount of followers (tags are rather unpopular on Masto), groups form naturally around popular users whose boosts are the main way to be seen.

I can totally confirm that Lemmy users are susceptible to tribalism - just for the amount of times I heard that someone being called a fascist/tankie/lib because they are from a certain Lemmy instance. And I know I think this way too sometimes.

Lemmy in comparison to all other online social media including the rest of Fediverse. I mean, the times are tough and people are angry for a reason, there’s rage and despair everywhere but no other place is so entrenched in negativity as Lemmy.

Big socials also have lots of negativity but they are BIG: you can find so much stuff that you can completely ignore what is probably 50+% of the content on the platform.

Small socials, on the other hand, manage it surprisingly well. I don’t know why Lemmy can’t manage the negativity under control, to be honest. No other small social media I visit has a problem with not drowning in doom. My one theory is that the other small socials have a focus: creativity, technology, some kind of media, etc. Maybe having a common interest in such a tight knit community is a remedy to doomscrolling?

It would also explain why pre-APIcalypse Lemmy wasn’t nearly as toxic - the flagship instance was focused on technology.

For Threadiverse specifically, I blame the laser focus on negativity on here. So often do I come across a comment that makes me think “holy shit, this guy really shouldn’t doomscroll right now”. It doesn’t need to be a political sub either, I find them everywhere. Sometimes I feel like the whole platform was tailor made for doomscrolling. It’s wild, I don’t see it anywhere else where I’ve been.

True I just wanted to mention these fascinating creatures because they are the closest we have to revival from death.

you can just quietly leave?

And who said I want to leave huh?

I do prefer Lemmy to commercial socials even if I don’t vibe with most people on here.

I avoid it of course. Unfortunately, whenever Fedi drama leads to a defederation, a split of a community or an active user being bullied away from the platform, it comes to my attention when I try to learn why did it happen.

It mostly happens on Mastodon and its’ sisters but I did see some of it on Lemmy too.

It’s not. Reread the comment you replied to. I’m not talking about what happens on bsky at all.

It was primarily from my time on the microblogging side of the Fedi tbh. Although here on Lemmy drama happens a lot too but I avoid getting invested into it. The latest drama I interacted with on here was the whole “defederating from Threads” thing. It made me leave all social media for months lol. Since then I focused on talking about games and stuff on here and never touch any drama again.

Should I only ever talk good things about this place?

Um, okay… thanks for telling me I guess.

they can reproduce (they expel gas clouds on death that can eventually create new stars)

I wouldn’t consider being eaten by a pregnant predator who then gives birth to be a form of reproduction even if I supplied resources to the born creature.

they can grow and change size over their lifespan

So can oceans but I don’t think it should count as growing.

I’m not aware of anything already considered living that will die and reanimate.

Tardigrades? They can cease any metabolic activity and then wake up years later as if nothing happened.

I haven’t seen that.

It usually comes up when someone brings up Bluesky. I’ve seen it a lot on the microblogging side of Fedi.

Drama and gossip is fun.

Drama is fun until admins start defederating each other or mods start splitting communities…

Also FOSS just kinda attracts big arrogant personalities

That was my thought also. Communities (in general, not Lemmy-specific meaning) focused on Linux are also often drama-filled. Maybe that’s just how FOSS communities are.

It might be it. The contrasting alternative spaces I have in my mind are mainly focused around hobbies rather than politics leading to less heated atmosphere.

It is my best guess as to why Fediverse is such a drama-filled space despite it’s size. I might be wrong of course.

Ironic, considering the name