Or why Lemmy is too much like hard work

The sole admin of the first instance I joined (which isn’t small) has gone missing. So it’s been defederated by some other instances. Then re-federated by some of them.

So about six weeks ago I made an account with instance two, which seems to be well run BUT updates to the latest version so it doesn’t work with any of the third party apps I use.

Which wouldn’t be an issue except the Lemmy web UI works horribly on mobile. There’s a PWA but that hasn’t been updated and won’t now authenticate.

So I joined a third instance but that seems to have completely disappeared without warning.

I’d join Lemmy.world but it has regular resource issues and downtime. Plus moderation issues.

App 1 hasn’t seen any development for over three months and now barely functions.

App 2 which is apparently the second most popular app now only receives emergency fixes when it won’t work at all

Apps 3 and 4 throw authentication errors on any instance running above 0.18.4 because the developers are re-thinking.

As a user it’s almost enough to send me to Reddit.

  • Polar@lemmy.ca
    410·
    1 year ago

    Unpopular answer: you should.

    Lemmy is already going downhill since the big surge. Even if you look at sign ups, numbers don’t mean better.

    The entirety of Lemmy is too FOSS and Linux focused, and even trying to have a normal basic tech discussion about anything you’ll find yourself getting hate thrown towards you for not using Linux or FOSS. Lemmy users bully the crap out of Sync and Boost developer for asking for a few bucks to support development.

    I’m only here because I got IP banned from Reddit, thinking Lemmy would take off. I don’t miss Reddit, but I’m a little sad I ruined my chances of ever being able to go back. Any new account is immediately permabanned.

    Even if you stick around, I genuinely don’t believe Lemmy will be here by next October. All of these instances will see a decrease in users, decrease in donations, and they’ll shut down one by one. Actually, weirdly enough having everyone move to just a couple popular instances might keep Lemmy alive longer, as everything won’t be so fragmented.

    • Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de
      2·
      1 year ago

      Actually, weirdly enough having everyone move to just a couple popular instances might keep Lemmy alive longer, as everything won’t be so fragmented.

      I agree with this point. It will be unfortunate (I hope it won’t happen), but at least everyone would be on 10 instances, with 50-100 active communities instead of 1000s of inactive ones

    • FelipeFelop@feddit.ukOPEnglish
      14·
      1 year ago

      It seems to me that as well as the bullies (apparently it’s all my fault for not choosing instances by running a detailed analysis and not being aware of things that wouldn’t happen for months after I joined!) there’s also users who genuinely haven’t noticed any issues. Although they are on problematic instances and using apps the developer knows needs an update.

      So it’s quite possible Lemmy will survive with most users on one or two big instances and some more who don’t know they are on troublesome instances.