The fediverse is small, and thats both a blessing and a curse - one of its several blessings is that in a smaller space we all individually have a bigger impact on what the culture of this space is like.
On this comm (and on lemmy broadly) there’s a lot of discussion about how to grow the fediverse, what to improve, but an easy thing you can do for the fediverse is right in front of us-
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Be kind
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Ask people what they think, and why
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Approach folks you disagree with with curiosity rather than hostility (EDIT: no, this is not specifically referring to Nazis. I get it, they’re the first thing that comes to mind. I’m not telling you to approve of Nazis I’m just saying be kind to your fellow lemmites)
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Engage sincerely
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Ask yourself if there’s something nice you can say
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Make this small space worth being in
A platform lives or dies by what’s available on said platform and often we have this conversation in the context of “content” or posts - and we may never have as much content as reddit does. But content and posts aren’t the only thing this kind of platform offers- it also offers people. It offers community, and human interaction.
Culture and community is lemmy and the fediverse’s biggest differentiator, and we all have a role to play in shaping the culture of this space.
The biggest thing you can do to help the fediverse is make it a place worth being.
I had no idea about all of that. I really learned something today! Already really like Lemmy and the Fediverse, I feel like most people here put some extra thought and effort into their posts and comments. I’ve used Reddit since I was 18 and it used to be the same, but as its popularity grew I guess the “wrong” kind of people started joining and participating. I think that’s bound to happen with anything that gets really big. I’ve described some social justice movements the same way, where you had people who genuinely cared in the beginning but eventually as the movement becomes a trend the values and sentiments gets simpler, dumber and eventually unrecognizable from what the initial goal was.
By the way I think there’s a little birthday cake next to my username because I created the user today lol.
Ohhh, yeah I meant the anniversary of your time on Lemmy, I didn’t realize that’s today because you just made your account. Welcome!! Lol.
And yeah it’s definitely a pattern unfortunately :/ Lemmy is far from perfect, but it has a chance to be something better than we’ve had before and I think that’s pretty cool :)