Every time I sort by subscribed it's just beehaw posts for days. I get it, they're a big instance, but it's still annoying. I disagree with the people saying Lemmy won't work. It's already working as far as I'm concerned, just some growing pains is all. I think once instances have more concrete ideas about what they will/won't tolerate things will settle down. Everyone is just kind of figuring this out on the fly at the moment.

The stuff about Reddit dying and Lemmy not working is hopefully just popping off because it's at the front of our minds. Most of us are brand new here, most of us came from Reddit, and every new bit of drama (landed gentry, etc.) has a weird personal element associated. Fingers crossed that the dust settles.

And I don't really even understand what people mean when they say Lemmy "won't work." What is that even supposed to mean? I'm typing to you lot right now. I've been making [kinda] friends since I arrived. I'm learning a new way to engage with online communities. Feels like it's working to me.

I'm sure what they really mean is that Lemmy won't replace Reddit. So? The intense desire to brute force Lemmy, Kbin, Tildes, Squabbles, etc. into Reddit #2 makes me feel tired.

The internet is big, and it can have more than one website on it. What is the urgency to replicate Reddit here or anywhere else? Folks are talking about this whole thing like it's some competition that somebody needs to win, which I cannot relate to at all.

It's pretty crazy we're kind of just over here like Switzerland. And that's exactly why I picked this instance because who wants to defederate from the great lakes?

All that drama is why I wanted a smaller home instance. Didn't want or need tankies telling me I'm not leftist enough and didn't want or need 4chan wannabes trolling me for the lulz. This whole thing is going to have growing pains. If beehive or lemmyworld get too annoying, I can surf local and chill.

There is a size that becomes a tipping point making participation feel pointless, and that's when you start looking like what reddit became. IMO I prefer the small instances for participation, and the larger ones just for lurking.

I'm just starting to figure it out, but I think it'll work out to be its own thing, even if it won't replace Reddit. Just as I enjoy both Mastodon and Twitter (though Twitter is becoming less and less enjoyable) I see something similar happening with Lemmy.

I'm also not opposed to a bit of fracturing. I grew up in the era of online message boards, and I still enjoy those and honestly think there's some that are better than anything on Reddit. Having small areas where people can talk about one of their niche interests is cool.

Lemmy isn't going anywhere. Reddit will survive. This isn't a Reddit replacement, this is a whole new thing. I can't completely abandon some of the subs. But I like this instance.

Grab the popcorn. Enjoy the drama. I actually forgot you could sort by all.

My experience with Mastodon was that it's generally realy nice exxcept

1. It's a little quiet, and

2. Of the conversation that is there, too much of it is about Twitter.

It's kind of like hanging out with your friend who just had a bad breakup and doesn't want to talk about anything but their ex.

The Lemmyverse feels kind of like that.

The subreddits I spent most of my time in aren't here or get about a post a week. If I wanted to read about how spez is a bastard, however, I'd have reading material for months.

I'm generally happy with it, though, and plan to stick around. I just moved from lemmy.ml over to midwest.social, and it seems like a great little community here.

I'm not local to midwest.social but I was just thinking of unsubscribing beehaw for a while because of this! It's very reminiscent of the big surge of folks onto Mastodon last year - lots of "Fediverse can't work because it isn't the large corporate entity presently having a meltdown" and every other post is about whatever's going on at Reddit.

I got invited to this instance without really knowing what the whole deal was. I've since started to subscribe to communities in other instances, and I think it's really cool. The big subs usually weren't my favorite anyway, so I'm happy with the communities here. I do think this won't be a direct replacement for reddit, and I think that's fine.

The cool thing about Fediverse is that it doesn't have to be the same thing everywhere. If people on lemmy.ml want it to be replacement reddit, more power to them. Personally I like the smaller feel of midwest.social.

Reddit refugee. Pretty new to the federated life.

What I like: the friction. I found on Reddit I could browse for days on end and never find the bottom. at the height of my reddit addiction, I did just that. Last thing I looked at when I fell asleep, first thing I looked at when I woke up. So, federation is working for me. I have to deliberately choose a destination and really give it a looking over, think about what's happening and respond when I truly have something to contribute. Also, the overall mood is like night and day. So much more positive. There are bits and pieces here and there that are not so upbeat, and that is normal and ok. but the kind of relentless negativity, the battles for attention, the downvote brigading- I couldn't be happier to get away from that.

What I don't like is just due to my own ineptitide: for instance I would like to chat with people about plant-based diets and vegetarian cooking, but haven't found a strong community for it yet.

I am very pleased with midwest.social. I tried Nextdoor to get a local feel, but was overwhelmed by religious proselytizing, useless whining and dark political clickbait. Plus we roadtrip the midwest a lot and feel at home in most if not all of the states. so it feels like home here.

As someone new to the whole fediverse thing... what is Beehaw, what's going on, and why should I be concerned?