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?
The 80/20 rule applies to toxic Internet behaviors as well, 20 percent (or less) of the user base is responsible for 80 percent of the toxicity.
It’s always the same people being awful here, if you are taking notes, you can quickly identify the worst posters on this platform after a week. People always complain about how they are unfairly banned by reddit moderators, but you have to remember, sometimes the bans are really justified.
I think the ony real (and unpleasant) solution is to moderate very aggressively whenever there is bad behavior (although, I must add, permanent bans should be rare and reserved for extremely bad behaviors)
this and a prodigious use of your block button. you don’t owe anyone the right to talk to you like a jerk. and even more, you curate your online space. vibes are off? you’re allowed to block people. even if they haven’t said anything to you specifically. if someone is the sort of person you would never want to be around IRL, why allow them in your space online?
The free ability to block users and instances here is AMAZING
As long as you are able to differentiate between bad language (skills), cultural differences, and bad behavior. On Reddit that’s basically the same. Many things may sound harsh, but are often just expressed frustrations, voiced in an imprecise way. And often, nuance is lost in translation. Many foreigners aren’t used to nuance like Americans are.
Many Europeans won’t hold back. Like, you tell your neighbor that he’s an idiot directly to their face. Out of love; how else would they know. Apparently, none of their friends told them. Poor fellow. Just an example. I’ve learned that Americans won’t do that, for whatever reason. they would just call them idiots wherever they are not around, and keep smiling. ;)
That really is the case. Back when I went to war with feddit de for constantly leaving shitty comments I was surprised at how few people I had to block from that instance before the abuse stopped coming my way. Now that you mention it, 20% of the population sounds about right.
Tangentially related, but yeah, some usernames one can remember after seeing them for the umpteenth time and then one spots the same people all over the hot topics 😅 that doesn’t only apply to toxic ones, it’s just that an active core of Lemmy community is still small enough, a nice time to be a part of it