The fact that they (or you) complain about the “All” timeline having the same stuff in all servers shows they have no idea what they’re talking about: that’s the entire point of an All feed! (plusminus stuff like defederation). It would make more sense to compare the Local feed of instances, IMO.

The complaint is not about the All timeline being the same everywhere. The complaint is that most of the All feed is US politics, a topic which is already massively dominant on Reddit. Some people are looking at alternatives because they want to avoid that. If it's the same, why bother changing and not stay on Reddit?

I don’t understand why is that not the default for guests / visitors.

Good point, could be something that could be change by admins.

The people who came first came for very specific reasons and have particulars to talk about.

Well, that's not the case for everyone. A lot of people came here because they wanted third party apps on Reddit.

The complaint is that most of the All feed is US politics, a topic which is already massively dominant on Reddit. Some people are looking at alternatives because they want to avoid that. If it’s the same, why bother changing and not stay on Reddit?

Well then the key is to not show the All feed. That feed, by its very design, is about showing the overview of what is going about "the known fedi", and we can't control what other people talk about, fedi or otherwise. If he current news is Luigi, exploded Starlink launches and double Nazi salutes, that's what's going to be talked about - and the presence of generalist instances is going to amplify that effect. Unless you have enough cats, enough Linux, or enough ich_iel.

A lot of people came here because they wanted third party apps on Reddit.

Well then they were told wrong: here it's not about developing for Reddit. In fact, when someone tried to act on trying to bring people from Reddit or emulating "third party app" by bringing in the threads from Reddit, it was the lemmings who complained (even if rightfully so).

I generally try to avoid political shit here myself, it's too depressing and I'm not sure reddit-like forums is really a good format for that.

But for those who are out there posting cybertruck memes, thanks for scaring away the MAGAs for the rest of us. It is much appreciated.

because the only reason I still use Reddit is to interact with adults in my profession from around the world with diverse backgrounds and viewpoints and with good hearts but limited tolerance for spending time learning obscure tech

so anything to reduce the barrier of entry for those people is one less reason to ever use Reddit again. that's a win in my book. if you want to stick to your ML communities y, that's your right. but are you really going to change the world by shutting everyone out?

No one is going to change the world by posting. Very few people have the time or energy to discuss or debate every day. I'd rather just not deal with an entire host of opinions and takes that I already deal with every day in real life.

What I've learned over my time using sites like Digg and Reddit is that allowing conservative views to fester and form their communities on a platform allows them to organize and grow and seep into other "non political" spaces. The Donald, gamergate, transphobia, general reaction, whatever.

And the "anti-politics" enlightened centrist types are enablers that allow this.

If people come here and go "wow they sure are critical of Israel, America, Trump, and billionaires. I hate this", then they're self selecting themselves from joining and I just don't think that's a loss.

The measurement of a platform to me is the quality of the users, not the quantity.

“non political” spaces.

The Donald

Was it really considered non-political? Not that familiar with that sub history

No. My point was that as Reddit became more mainstream, it became more conservative. As it became more conservative, more conservative spaces were created like the Donald and gamergate subs. And people and ideas from those spaces ended up seeping into other "non political" subs, like technology, gaming, movies, etc.

The amount of xenophobia, transphobia, anti-feminism, etc. I saw in general purpose subs grew post Digg migration, especially in gamer subs as gamergate happened in 2014.

Conservatism and centrist liberalism are the dominant political beliefs in the US, UK, and seemingly most of Europe too. Those voices will outnumber and browbeat leftist voices over time if they join an online platform en masse, in my experience.

I see where you come from, but I would say that this would happen when Lemmy gets really mainstream, like let's say 500k or 1 million users.

I would just like to reach 100k or 200k so that it feels less like if 25 people stop posting the whole platform dies.