Recently, I made a post here, which gained some traction in support of the cause. However, I mistakenly used an outdated screenshot of Photon. It turns out that photon.lemmy.world is running an older version of Photon, which caused some misunderstandings.
For those who saw that post and were misled or disliked Photon because it appeared to display only 2-3 links on-screen, similar to new Reddit, let me clarify. While Photon is modern and intuitive, it is not like new Reddit in this particular aspect. This outdated screenshot gave the wrong impression, which I’ve since updated, but I wanted to create this new post since many people may not revisit the previous one to see the corrections.
The latest version of Photon, which can be seen at phtn.app, is a big improvement over what’s on photon.lemmy.world. Photon is modern, intuitive, and, speaking as someone with years of Reddit moderation experience who has also started moderating a few communities on Lemmy, it offers a far superior moderation experience. For example, Photon allows you to view the mod queue for all communities at once, making moderation much easier compared to the base UI or other alternatives.
Photon’s modularity and customization options are comparable to, if not better than, Kbin’s UI. You can easily change fonts, reposition docks and panels, apply custom themes, adjust sorting, and customize the modular side panel to arrange and pin items in any order you like. All of this can be done without needing CSS or additional technical knowledge. It’s probably the most modular yet user-friendly UI available right now.
Here’s an example of the latest Photon interface settings:
Here’s a more customized version I created in just a few seconds—it can be personalized even further:
In my previous post, I emphasized the need for a modern, visually appealing, and intuitive UI to help the Fediverse grow and attract mainstream users. Currently, Lemmy remains dominated mainly by discussions of political topics and critiques of Elon Musk, while its user base is still relatively small at around 40k+ users. For Lemmy to thrive, it needs to expand beyond its current niche and cater to more general topics and interests.
Personally, I use Reddit for far more than just shitting on Elon Musk, discussing politics, or even tech, especially FOSS. For example, I frequently engage with communities about cars, gaming, TV shows, entrepreneurship and general topics that are largely missing or underdeveloped on Lemmy. These general-interest communities are what make platforms like Reddit so versatile and appealing to a wider audience.
If we remain in our current comfort space, Lemmy will likely continue to stagnate as a niche platform. Meanwhile, other alternatives could grow and potentially replace Reddit one day, and it may not be decentralized, open source or community-funded rather centralized and driven by investors/VCs, Just as we’re seeing with platforms like Bluesky gaining traction over Mastodon to replacing X/Twitter. By embracing a UI like Photon’s, which is both modern and user-friendly, we can create a more inviting experience for mainstream users, helping Lemmy grow into a platform that caters to a broader audience.
As long as they properly interact, sure. But critical mass is important, and I feel like Lemmy is just getting there.
Aren’t we shrinking though? After a spike of 51.8k Monthly Active Users in March, a steady decline down to 43.4k today, with more users per server growing but no more actual activity so probably reflecting alt accounts (I know I’ve done such - starting on Kbin.social, migrating to StarTrek.Website, then Discuss.Online, now making an alt on PieFed.social). We just don’t seem to be bringing in users, notably even as X implodes and we might have picked up a few from there.
Twitter users don’t like Reddit format and vice versa
Very true, but perhaps not universally so. Even if a tenth of one percent of those users who left were to have come here, it would have been noticeable. Instead, we stayed the same size.
Or perhaps they did, and it balanced out people leaving, as too people increasing their number of alts - I sometimes comment or even post from my STW instance, and vote too, so I maintain all 3 on a monthly basis: at the beginning of this past year I would have been considered as “1 user”, whereas now I am counted as 3.
And like, if someone were to leave LW and move to another instance, then likewise they will be counted as “2 users”? (this could be simply a blip as they migrate from one to the other, unless they also occasionally visit their old, and perhaps do an activity like vote or reply, as I have done, in which case it remains as 2 active users)
And in creating the !AskUSA@discuss.online community, m_f created a new alt in order to help mod it, and AdmiralPatrick started using their DO account after seemingly having let it lapse. So are those “2 new users” - definitely not.
So even more than us not growing, we might be shrinking more than we realize.
Twitter and Reddit have been around for more than 10 years, people are familiar with both sides, are know which one they prefer (it can be both).
That’s why I was not expecting any Twitter not liking Reddit to come here, the same way Mastodon probably didn’t see a lot of new accounts when Reddit messed up in June 2023.