It’s very nice to see that X people liked a post/comment and Y people disliked it instead of just having a singular “goodness/badness” rating. It (literally, in a mathematical sense) adds a whole new dimension to post ratings and gives us a more nuanced understanding of people’s opinions. Plus, it feels a lot better to see that 5 people agreed with you and 7 disagreed when you made a controversial statement instead of just seeing a score of -1 telling you how bad you are.
The most illuminating aspect of Lemmy has been in contrast with what Reddit has become in recent years. It’s difficult to make nuanced or light hearted comments in Reddit without misunderstandings or receiving a lot of negative feedback. The Lemmy userbase seems to be dominated by refugees from Reddit. I’m amazed how long Reddit managed to hang on to it’s core principles and I think that can be credited to the diffuse structure. Now that they’ve committed to the unified corporate goal of profit it will completely go down the shitter in the way Facebook and the other popular platforms have.
I’ve noticed that people on Reddit are exceptionally bad at spotting satire and sarcasm. It’s not a whole lot better here, but it is a bit. I think that it’s just difficult in general without being able to hear people’s tone.