Please post one top-level comment per complaint about Lemmy. You can reply with ideas or links to existing GitHub issues that could address the complaints. This will help identify both common complaints and potential solutions.

I believe there are a large number of feature requests on Lemmy’s GitHub page, making it difficult for developers to prioritize what’s truly important to users. I propose creating a periodic post on Lemmy asking users to list their complaints and suggestions. This way, developers can better understand the community’s biggest pain points and focus their efforts accordingly. The goal is to provide constructive feedback so developers can prioritize the most pressing issues.

Please keep discussion productive and focused on specific problems you’ve encountered. Avoid vague complaints or feature wishes without justification for why they are important.

Here is a summary of all the complaints from the previous post from six months ago. It’s interesting to see how many issues have been solved and whether or not developers value user feedback.

spoiler

• Instance-agnostic links (links that don’t pull you into a different instance when clicked) • Ability to group communities into a combined feed, similar to multireddits • Front page algorithm shows too many posts from the same community in a row, including reposts • Need to separate NSFW and NSFL posts • Basic mod tools • Proper cross-posting support • Ability to view upvoted posts • Post tagging/flairs and search by flair • Better permalink handling for long comment chains • Combine duplicate posts from different instances into one • Allow filtering/blocking by regex patterns • Avatar deletions not federating across instances • Option to default to “Top” comment sort in settings • Migration of profile (posts, comments, upvotes, favs, etc.) between instances • Mixed feed combining subscribed/local/all based on custom ratios • Categories of blocklists (language, NSFW, etc) • Group crossposts to same post as one item • Feedback for users waiting for admin approval
• Propose mixed feed merging subscribed/local/all feeds • Ability to subscribe to small/niche communities easier • Reduce duplicate crossposts showing up • Scroll to top when clicking “Next” page • User flair support • Better language detection/defaults for communities • Ability to subscribe to category “bundles” of similar meta-communities • RSS feed support • Option to turn off reply notifications • Easier way to subscribe across instances • Default to “Subscribed” view in community list • Fix inbox permalinks not navigating properly • API documentation in OpenAPI format • Notification badges should update without refresh • Single community mode for instances • Reduce drive-by downvoting in small communities • More powerful front page sorting algorithm

  • Russ@bitforged.spaceEnglish
    501·
    3 months ago

    This isn’t a problem of Lemmy itself in terms of the software, so I’m not sure it qualifies… But, I find that Lemmy still has the same problem of Reddit where if you say something that the majority of users disagree with, prepare to be torn apart in the comments. And I do not just mean by getting corrected on something you said being factually incorrect, I mean more of a “your opinion is wrong because…”

    For example, any discussion revolving around Linux (and let me just prepend this by saying I am a Linux user), if you happen to prefer using Windows be prepared to be told all of the reasons why you have to use Linux instead. And that’s usually tame compared to what I’ve seen on other subjects.

    Obviously there are cases where yeah, you absolutely deserve to be torn a new one in the extreme cases when someone is actually being truly vile, such as trying to advocate for the harm of someone/a group of people - but the “extremes” are not what I’m really referring to here.

    I’ve blocked a lot of users that while I’ve had no interaction with them, I see how they are clearly engaging in, let’s just say, bad faith with others.

    In terms of software-specific issues, I can’t say that I really have had a lot of problems with Lemmy itself as of recently. As an instance owner, I used to have a lot of weird (what seemingly appeared to be, at least) random federation issues, but I haven’t seen any federation problems in a while now. Though just today I swear I submitted a comment somewhere, and its just poof not there - not even locally, but I’m chalking that one up to something I’ve done (whether a misclick, or I’m just hallucinating as badly as an LLM) rather than an actual issue.

    • laxe@lemmy.worldEnglish
      15·
      3 months ago

      The opinion monoculture is not specific to Lemmy. Most social platforms, and even real life social circles, live in bubbles.

      The Internet anonymity combined with the upvote incentives only make the problem worse.

      I agree with your complaint but I don’t see it as something that can be fixed. We can all do our part to engage civilly and respectfully with others, but it won’t be enough to change the culture.

      • GlitterInfection@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        3 months ago

        You identified one way this could be fixed.

        Remove or completely rethink voting.

        It was a bad system on reddit and it’s worse system here. There is no guideline for how it should be used, so a downvote means anything from “your community showed up on the all feed and I don’t want to see it” to “I disagree with you” to “your behavior warrants a report but I’m lazy and this button is right here.”

        It’s not clear what it’s supposed to be used for, even on reddit. And here it’s worse because moderators can see your upvotes/downvotes, so people rightly using it without any guidance are getting banned from communities for downvoting.

        Removing it altogether and replacing it with a tagging system would be an interesting option. Communities could choose which tags are available, and users could apply them to comments. Maybe “helpful” or “propaganda” or “friendly” or “hard disagree” or whatever.

        • MewtwoLikesMemes@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          3 months ago

          I really like this idea! Life is not a binary, nor are opinions typically, so the method of expressing that opinion naturally doesn’t fit into a binary format a lá upvote/downvote.

          Instead of upvote and downvote, there should be like 5-6 options to choose from.

          And hell let’s take it even further and make it so there’s an option you can click with every post that breaks down the current numbers of each pie-chart and/or column-chart style. That to me would be awesome! And it would help facilitate informed voting, which is important in any kind of voting system, whether it be in politics or social media.

    • Handles@leminal.spaceEnglish
      103·
      3 months ago

      I agree that on a userbase level Lemmy has a Reddit problem, and from the list of previous complaints in OP it seems it reflects onto feature wishes. There is clearly a load of users who just want to continue their Reddit experience here, original userbase be damned.

        • Handles@leminal.spaceEnglish
          4·
          3 months ago

          Somehow I’m sure it correlates with the old “opinions and assholes” idiom, only with online communities there is something that encourages people to post their hairy, unwashed opinions without end.

    • Sentient Loom@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      4·
      3 months ago

      I want all the redditors. I just want them on a more open platform.

      I absolutely did NOT leave reddit because of the users. I left because of the changes to the platform.

      I love reddit users and lemmy users.

    • iopq@lemmy.worldEnglish
      66·
      3 months ago

      When I post that Americans have higher purchasing power than before the pandemic, my data is downvoted, while personal experiences are upvoted