I know the real answer is reddit but I really don’t want to go back now that I’ve already grown used to life without it. I was hoping for Lemmy to be a viable substitute but it isn’t. I can see how this place is wonderful for the certain type of person but that person is not me. My experience during the past 6+ months has been a net negative and I’m pretty much ready to move on. I just don’t know where else to go.
I’m not sure of better alternatives, only different. Mastodon or even Threads might be your solution. I also took a look at the comment history to get a sense of what you mean and I think I get it since I also get a fair share of negative interactions.
I think it’s actually because of Lemmy’s size that you get some pretty fringe views on here. Heck, if anything, the diversity you seek might mostly be all the views in-between that get drown out by the loudest fringe views. I’m sure there plenty of us lurking, since it’s so exhausting engaging with lemmings at times. I’m by no means a moderate, but simply trying to defend a news source as legitimate can feel like a disheartening chore.
Anyway, I don’t really know where to go for that and if you find out, I’d love to know. I don’t necessarily agree with you on your views, whatever they may be, but I certainly can agree that we need a little wider range of views (and perhaps a bit more civility when someone expresses a different perspective).
I don’t even mind the fringe views. I even switched instances to one that federates with lemmygrad because of that. I know there are a diverse group of people here but many of them don’t comment because you get bullied for it. You can reliably guess which types of comment are the most popular ones and which ones are completely missing.
Another thing I have an issue with here is the fact that for the most part it seems that what is keeping this group together is not common ideas or goals but the common hatred towards an outgroup.
If it makes you feel better, I don’t particularly hate an outgroup (like reddit) and I’m not really here for that reason (although I like the app options here too). Maybe that’s a minority view, but hate is just too emotionally draining for me. Maybe I stick around because those Trek and Linux nerds won me over, haha.
But yeah, maybe if you like hearing folks over at Lemmygrad (or even… Hexbear?!) federation is still your best bet because you’ll never get that on the more mainstream sources. If it’s a bad experience, maybe you need to tweak your approach. Just brainstorming though, I really don’t know the ideal platform for open discourse.