Decentralized alternatives like Mastodon and Lemmy are gaining popularity in response to growing complaints about centralized social media platforms such as Twitter and Reddit, which frequently prioritize business interests over user experience. This study employs a mixed-methods approach to scrutinize the impact of Reddit users’ migration on Lemmy. It elucidates user growth patterns, revealing significant registration spikes and centralization trends within decentralized structures. A sentiment analysis with VADER, incorporating a dataset of 48,272 comments from before and after the migration, depicts a predominantly positive sentiment towards Lemmy and criticisms of Reddit. A comprehensive survey with 354 responses from major Lemmy communities validates and supplements the findings, shedding light on users’ motivations, adaptation experiences, and long-term intentions. Furthermore, qualitative interviews with 16 purposively sampled users offer in-depth insights into individual experiences, community dynamics, and perspectives on decentralization and engagement. This study reveals a promising future for Lemmy, highlighting its adaptability and users’ commitment, and contributes valuable insights to the discourse on the sustainability and growth of decentralized platforms in a dynamic digital landscape.
It 100% brought me here. Didn’t know what Lemmy was until the chaos over there.
ultimately deleted my account
never looked back.
And that was a lot of eyeball time they lost from me.
We’re missing the overall mass of people that both generate new, and answer questions on the content that was there, but I’m OK with that and I actually get better engagement here with those missing mass of people. I’m sure there’s a point of more is not better when it comes to users.
I don’t want to get all ‘Rick and Morty is for high IQs’ but I would imagine the type of user that left Reddit in the recent protest is a bit more clued in than the average r/jokes commenter.
The discussions around here certainly have a flavour of the Old Reddit, before Digg even.
It 100% brought me here. Didn’t know what Lemmy was until the chaos over there. ultimately deleted my account never looked back. And that was a lot of eyeball time they lost from me.
We’re missing the overall mass of people that both generate new, and answer questions on the content that was there, but I’m OK with that and I actually get better engagement here with those missing mass of people. I’m sure there’s a point of more is not better when it comes to users.
I don’t want to get all ‘Rick and Morty is for high IQs’ but I would imagine the type of user that left Reddit in the recent protest is a bit more clued in than the average r/jokes commenter.
The discussions around here certainly have a flavour of the Old Reddit, before Digg even.
I didn’t hit Reddit until Digg’s problems started up, but those, like these now here, where the good 'ol days :)