You dont want to see what these people do to linux critics… I still see their faces…

For real though the platform has a lot of growing to do before it can start to represent a wider range of opinions, right now it’s mostly dominated by early adopters and all the bagage those kind of people bring.

Think of it this way…a lot of these people were kicked off Reddit…for a reason

I agree.

Just wanted to put this to you - anyone can join here and say anything. You don’t need to be educated on a topic, finish school or be mentally stable to put your opinion here and call it fact.

Don’t put any weight on anyone you won’t trust with the rest of your life.

I love you

A bit yes, a bit no.

Part of it is just being on the anonymous internet, doesn’t matter if it’s here on Lemmy, Reddit or what have you. You’re going to have some toxicity, flamebait, trolling, highly upvoted groupthink and the like. Especially as many people are here to begin with opinions and lean strongly and be charged one way or another.

Without thick skin it can be hard to deal with and feel unwelcoming and I agree with you there.

Where I see Lemmy differentiate itself is that many of the unpopular (but not rulebreaking) opinions are not hidden/deleted automatically, many are debated despite receiving double digit downvotes. On Reddit it’s been very rarely, feels like once a year when I’ve seen pairs or groups of users originally in disagreement come to a mutual understanding on something. On Lemmy threads it’s been several times more frequent despite the smaller size.

Another thing to highlight: When a comment is deleted, there’s a evidence trail using the modlogs rather than the opaque moderation of other platforms. I won’t name examples but in most cases it’s generally clear from the outside when something is deleted due to being genuinely toxic vs. being against certain instances’ values.

The experience is what you make of it. Spread positivity online if that’s what you want to see more of.

Lemmy can feel unwelcoming at times

NO IT CAN’T

Hey buddy, jokes aside, sending good welcoming vibes

Eh, it depends on the community, imo.

For the most part, that comes down to a combination of moderation and the user base of a given community. There is also the instance factor, but other than a small handful of those intended to be used by people that are generally going to be a problem anywhere, it isn’t as big a factor as the community itself.

But you mentioned what are some very insular populations. Open source devotees are in a constant struggle with the majority of the human race that just want cool shit that works.

And “left wing” is a mixed bag because not everyone uses the term the same way. In a broader sense, left wing doesn’t have a direct and guaranteed link to human rights and personal liberty. Left wing is, on a wider scale, just code for socialists. So, what could be called a liberal in the US is going to have a rough time in those spaces since there are strongly militant sections of the socialist community, and they tend to be pretty authoritarian. Hell, the term liberal simply doesn’t mean the same thing to most socialists as it does in the US.

Believe me, there’s a reason I avoid socialist communities online despite agreeing with socialism enough to call myself one on most matters. I’m pretty damn far left tbh, and there’s still a lot of assholes that I can’t put up with.

But, luckily, lemmy has a block feature. And, in the communities with good moderation, reporting bad behavior can end up helping things stay on the civil side overall.

But, critique is always risky. It’s risky in real life, but doubly so online. If you’re gong to indulge in it, you gotta put on your grown up hat and accept hostile responses as par for the course. Criticism is an attack, no matter how well intentioned, or how gently put, if it wasn’t asked for in the first place. Now, if someone asks for critique, and gets hostile, that’s on them because everyone knows that people are bad at giving gentle criticism. We, as a species, just suck at it. Seriously, think about it. Examine what you thought and felt while reading that, if you didn’t stop reading before this lol. I could almost bet money that there were sections where you had an emotional response.

Anyway, wall of text over.

It always blows my mind when people don’t realize that public forums are largely representative of…the public.

“Group think” is just an excuse for "I can’t admit my thoughts about (x) are wrong / idiotic/ insulting.

Conservatives usually parrot this when claiming how “liberal” reddit is. That’s how you can usually tell the loonies.

Any place that has large dedicated fan bases can come off toxic. Open source, Linux and politicd aren’t any different. There will always be those that feel you aren’t the “right kind” of fan etc. Just do your best to be introspective and understanding. It’s the best any of us can often do.

It’s definitely a shock for example to slip from the shallow pool of “left” in western, especially American politics. Into a system originally started by leninists/stalinists. And I’ve seen plenty of toxicity to non conforming lefties from that group. Though to be fair, as an anti authoritarian lefty. I know I have issues when dealing with authoritarians. Including leninists /stalinists. Which I’m trying to moderate. Seeing as many of them are very young naive and impressionable. As well as much less likely to listen when someone is hostile.

im not on lemmy but you likely are interacting with the whole fediverse. the fediverse itself is onthe internet and be reflective of that. Personally I used to play mmos and the chat on that gave me a good example. mmo chat is a horrible cesspool, but generally only because of a minority of players. Once you block enough the chat becomes pleasant. In addition subscribe to what you like and remember the same subject can be on multiple domains so if the crowd is not great in one you can always unsubscribe and subscribe to one of the others. I subscribe to any I find on a subject and unsubscribe is one is making me feel uncomfortable. Treat it like the real world. If you hang out someplace and don’t feel happy then you generally go hang out someplace else. Im not saying to leave lemmy im saying use the tools at hand. I hope the tools for user empowerment increase as the federation matures. I know for lemmy I can block domains but it does not seem to do anything but I prefer that work to my instance not federating with things personally.