I’ve tried both [Lemmy and PieFed], and the UX is incredibly unintuitive and unpleasant. The main problem is that it’s quite hard to discover content you want while avoiding content you don’t, Bluesky at least has really good custom feeds that are easy to add (the default feed sucks). Another big issue is the general site layout, it’s hard to figure out how to do things as simple as saving a post for later or how to go back to the feed without being redirected back to the post I’m trying to exit.

Maybe they didn’t see the “Feeds” feature in PieFed? The top navigation menus in PieFed are a bit messy. Although shareable blocklists could be cool too, or maybe toxic?

That’s excluding the horrible lack of contrast most frontends use, which makes reading and parsing the site elements unnecessarily difficult (no Lemmy, grey text on a grey background is not good for readability).

I like the Lemmy colors, but maybe it should be easier to change, because they might like the darkly-pureblack theme.


Fediverse feels slower, but not in a good way. More of a ‘if I don’t use this for a week, I’ll see new things’. If I log in after 2 or 3 days, I’ll scroll for 10 minutes and see the stuff I saw last time.

Maybe this is a UX issue of not finding the right feed they would like.

I also want nsfw stuff now and then. I hate how censored the internet has become, at least with reddit if I want to see a bit of porn, I can.

Again maybe a UX issue of not presenting what communities they could subscribe to.


I tried twice to join those forums within the Fediverse and I can’t get past the captcha test. The fact that you need approval to validate your access doesn’t seem designed to encourage you to recommend it.

The captchas on Lemmy are AWFUL, I can’t do them either.

(that’s the “Medium” difficulty)

Lemmy v1.0 is adding the ability to do invites, so maybe there will be an invite-only instance that gets some momentum, that could be cool. Invite sites seems like a cool old-internet type of culture.


The fediverse stuff is way too complicated for me, Reddit is very easily accessible and actually has active communities for the topics I’m interested in.

Of course these are naturally going to be all negative because they’re users that bounced off the Threadiverse, but there’s probably hints to what can be improved

  • anothermember@feddit.uk
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    39 minutes ago

    Each to their own I guess; one of the things I like about Lemmy is the default UI - it’s like old Reddit refined.

  • Herbal Gamer@sh.itjust.works
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    3 hours ago

    I’ve tried both [Lemmy and PieFed], and the UX is incredibly unintuitive and unpleasant.

    Have they forgotten about old reddit’s “idiot filter” UI ?

    • Sergio@piefed.social
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      3 hours ago

      it’s kinda funny how they’re freaking out over Lemmy and Piefed’s “incredibly unintuitive and unpleasant” UX compared to… Reddit?

      If they really love the ads, bots, and default feed of Reddit then I’m happy they’re staying there. I just hope for their sake they don’t get site-banned by an overzealous AI moderator.

    • Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works
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      6 minutes ago

      I use Voyager and I feel like it’s easy enough to use and has a great UI.

      Sometimes I just use Lemmy with Firefox and that’s when I feel a tad lost. It’s still useable if you put the effort, but it’s clearly not as intuitive as Voyager.

      So maybe the Lemmy browser UI should be improved. Also it would be good to have an official Lemmy app for mobile phones as people can get lost with choices.

      The problem with the Fediverse is always the onboarding and understanding the basics. Peertube or Lemmy are great but really intimidating for non geeky people.

      Also the lack of some content can be problematic. On Lemmy I can find almost everything I want even if some comminities are almost dead, but on Peertube I can only satisfy 1 out of my 4 point of interest (Basketball, Cars and game reviews being the missing one and Linux being the fullfiled one).

    • Die4Ever@retrolemmy.comOP
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      7 hours ago

      most of them no, which is maybe another issue of not showing that’s an option, but really the default UIs need to be good

      • The_v@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        The reddit UI sucked in the past and sucks more now. The main reason that reddit grew was because of the incredible apps that 3rd parties made like RiF.

        Lemmy now has a bunch of mature and efficient apps that are easy to use.

  • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
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    7 hours ago

    I think it’s the default as “active” that screws people up. They think it’s stale because they’ve probably not seen any new content for hours.

  • Otter@lemmy.ca
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    7 hours ago

    I’ve tried both [Lemmy and PieFed], and the UX is […]

    That’s excluding the horrible lack of contrast most frontends use, which makes […]

    IMO both of the UIs are going to feel weird and limited to someone coming from Reddit / Instagram etc. I find that custom front ends like Photon are a lot better for newcomers.

    I know Lemmy is working on a completely new frontend.

    Fediverse feels slower, but not in a good way. More of a ‘if I don’t use this for a week, I’ll see new things’. If I log in after 2 or 3 days, I’ll scroll for 10 minutes and see the stuff I saw last time.

    I have a constant flow of new content, and see something new every time I open it (which is often, after years of having that muscle memory from reddit).

    I’m subscribed to a lot of communities + using scaled sort

    I also want nsfw stuff now and then. I hate how censored the internet has become, at least with reddit if I want to see a bit of porn, I can.

    This one was weird to me. I remember seeing complaints that reddit has been banning and shutting down its NSFW side, while it’s accessible here.

    I tried twice to join those forums within the Fediverse and I can’t get past the captcha test. The fact that you need approval to validate your access doesn’t seem designed to encourage you to recommend it.

    I want Lemmy to support HCaptcha

    Past that, most people are ok with applications once you explain why they’re necessary.

    Also a lot of social media platforms started out as invite only as marketing strategy lol

    • Die4Ever@retrolemmy.comOP
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      7 hours ago

      Most issues aren’t “real” issues, Lemmy and PieFed have great feature-sets. They’re issues with UX/presentation and onboarding.

  • eremophila@lemmy.zip
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    6 hours ago

    Reddit has a bad reputation due to the quality of the platform itself, and the quality of ‘redditors’

    Bluesky is a steaming pile of shit if you do not set it to ‘following’, yet again because of the quality of its users

    Lemmy and Piefed both allow you to change the colour scheme

    If a user is not seeing enough new content, then they should probably look around more. I still use reddit (it still serves a point for distros, gaming etc), but the vast majority of the time I go there, the screen is blank… because I do not follow many subs.

    Social media is not the right place for porn

  • kepix@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    summary: ui is ass and there are no recommended apps on the main page. nothing new we did not know.

  • historicaldocuments@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    Reddit? The Lemmy alternative?

    I won’t go there, but someone go into that thread and try saying something good about Lemmy and see if it sticks.

    • Die4Ever@retrolemmy.comOP
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      7 hours ago

      I left a bunch of replies about Lemmy/PieFed, but usually it doesn’t work. It’s not easy to change peoples’ minds.