It seems like any platform that features link aggregation is soon overrun by bots and self-promoters trying to drive traffic, and pages and pages of link posts versus pages and pages of people talking.

Are there any lemmy instances or other defederated networks that focus on Q&A, niche communities, and people conversing, instead?

  • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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    10 months ago

    Mastodon is much more this way than Lemmy, in my experience. I honestly don’t know too many Lemmy communities that are that way, but kbin / mbin will let you interact with Mastodon users on a chat basis in addition to Lemmy communities.

  • QuazarOmega@lemy.lol
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    10 months ago

    I always thought there was no big difference between link aggregators and forums, and that the first is more an extension of the other, at least it felt like it in my experience. What would you say really sets them apart?

    • AE5NE@lemmy.radioOP
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      10 months ago

      More policy and culture than implementation. Rarely see pages of links to mass media sites on your average phpBB, though.

  • thegiddystitcher@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    This thread is a great example of the big downside of being on a smaller instance: OP was seemingly unaware and unable to subscribe to many cool communities and was stuck with the “defaults”.

    Perhaps admins and mods of smaller instances could be doing more to educate their users about how to find stuff in the wider Threadiverse?

    When we had the big migration last year everyone quickly learned how to search for a community, how you had to do it twice for it to show up etc. But now it’s no longer a common topic of conversation so newer users don’t realise, and to make matters worse every single mobile app seems to handle search differently.

    Is there some kind of “so, you’re on a small instance, here’s what that means” type of resource already hanging around somewhere?

    (OP, get yourself on lemmyverse.net/communities)

    • lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.org
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      9 months ago

      Is there some kind of “so, you’re on a small instance,

      Captain America advisors on the subject of the Fediverse? Now that would be on-point.

    • AE5NE@lemmy.radioOP
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      10 months ago

      I dont mean a chat/conversation-specific community, I mean a collection of communities that are more people interacting than links being posted.

      Especially for hobby, parenting, philosophy, politics, technical discussions, etc.

      • nocturne@sopuli.xyz
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        10 months ago

        Why does it have to all be on a single instance? Can you not just subscribe to a number of communities that have interests the same as yours?

      • Dehydrated@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I noticed that beehaw.org on average has more “normal posts” (not links) than other instances. I found communities there for the topics you are interested in like technology, politics and parenting. It’s not completely link-free, but I’d say there are fewer links than elsewhere. That’s the best I could find on the Fediverse. Maybe someone else has better suggestions.

      • Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de
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        10 months ago

        For hobbies, depends, but there is the general pinned post in [email protected] which list a lot of crafting communities: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/842186

        For parenting: [email protected]

        Politics, you should be able to find a lot by searching that word into https://lemmyverse.net/

        Finance? [email protected]

        The thing is that people tend to post links as you can’t really force people to post if they don’t want to (or if they critical mass isn’t there). I’m guilty of that in the [email protected] for instance, as I don’t have kids yet, I can only but post articles.

        • solrize@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          The saying is “code is law”. I.e. if the Lemmy software architecture makes it natural to post threads starting with links, then that’s what people will do. Design the software differently and it will be used differently.

        • AE5NE@lemmy.radioOP
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          10 months ago

          Maybe the instance I’m on is wonky, because I can’t even find those communities - I just get the “top”/”default” type communities ala reddit: technology, news, etc, which are all linked mass media articles.

  • solrize@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Usenet still exists, and there are tons of old fashioned forums online, some of them good. Lemmy has its attractions but it is trying to be Reddit and maybe succeeding a little too well.

    • AE5NE@lemmy.radioOP
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      10 months ago

      I have thought for a while that the next “reddit” should be usenet with a client having advanced filtering, local scoring, etc. Maybe where the client reports to/reads from a shared spam database.

      • solrize@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I use gnus.el for usenet, which already has those filtering and scoring features. And Usenet has had spam filtering since the 1990s. So I think you are saying the next reddit would just be usenet.

      • solrize@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Depends what topics you are looking for. They tend to focus on particular niches. Example: home-barista.com, for coffee nerds. I’m not a regular but have posted there a few times.

      • ZeroCool@slrpnk.net
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        10 months ago

        It’s been invite-only for all five and a half years I’ve been there so I wouldn’t expect that to ever change. Fortunately it’s really easy to get an invite code. Just post in the official subreddit and the mods or another user will give you a code. It’s just enough of a minor roadblock that it helps filter out bad actors.

        Personally I prefer Lemmy. But if you’re like OP and looking for conversation focused alternatives tildes is worth joining.

  • thechadwick@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Tildes.net

    It’s pretty heavily curated, but it’s where I go for non-bot discussion on any variety of topics. Sorted hierarchically, and they keep out the riff raff pretty actively.

    • Nima@leminal.space
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      10 months ago

      I originally wanted to join tildes, but I never could get an invite. so I just kinda abandoned it and moved to lemmy instead.

      they seem to go more with a walled garden approach and I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that kind of environment. but I’m sure it works well for those who participate.

  • Ademir@lemmy.eco.br
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    10 months ago

    Honestly do you have any examples of this happening here on Lemmy? Lemmy is not Reddit.

      • Die4Ever@programming.dev
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        10 months ago

        sorry what do you mean?

        the feature request is suggesting the ability to disallow link posts, as well as the ability to disallow text posts

        Ability to disallow certain kinds of posts (text posts/link posts) in specific communities

        Currently it is not possible to disallow using the text field or URL field in specific communities.

        Similarly one could imagine a setting to disallow using the URL field, for example in a conversation-only community.

        which did you want?

    • Psythik@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      The GameFAQs boards are still quite active as well, as long as you’re willing to put up with neckbeards and bronies.

      • Pinkburitto@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        No.

        HC is its own thing, and its purpose is for fun. Whatever fun means to you as long as it’s not illegal.

        The primary reason HC was created is for the purpose of having fun.

        For some, posting political shit is ‘fun’, so you will see some political posts.

        We are pretty strongly adamant about not having a political bias in our instances.

        So we don’t care if you post left or right shit. Upvotes and down votes are there for a reason and our community can decide what they like and don’t like with those functions.

        We do not take posts down or ban users based on our own personal ideologies.

        There will be no favoring of either political side. Right and left are allowed.

        I think this is why people have that assumption.

      • gavi@lemmynsfw.com
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        10 months ago

        It is. It has the same people on it from exploding-heads and is currently linked to nostr.

        • Pinkburitto@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Do we have users from exploding heads? Yes, we do. we also have users from NOSTR who were invited and a few from reddit.

          I’m not sure why you are making assumptions about our instances when you’re not even an admin there or involved in any way, shape, or from.

          HC is not exploding-heads number 2, or meant to be a eh replacement. HC was created for the purpose of having fun, hanging out, fucking around and posting content you make, without having to deal with lemmy drama.

          We are not, eh we do not plan to be, or to federate,ever So, I am sorry if this disappoints you.

          We welcome both left and right, leaning people. Right now, we just so happen to have more right and center ppl.

          Leftists and centrists are welcomed to join. Our core value is not giving a shit which side you’re on. Although we allow political stuff from both sides, HC was not, and is not a political movement.

          I’m sure you not interested along with many others and that’s fine.

          I will address anyone making this assumption bc its incorrect.