I’m a nurse and reddit has a nursing subreddit I like to contribute to because they give good advice regarding my job, how to deal with arrogant doctors, removed coworkers… they know things a regular user in a generic channel couldn’t answer, because they don’t know the job.
I think asking in a channel like this for nursing advice doesn’t make much sense, because this is not a nursing specific channel.
Something similar happens to my workplace questions: there is an antiwork lemmy, but the one in reddit is much larger and they also have a work community, and so far I haven’t found anything like that on lemmy.
Another issue is size: For some problems, like violence in the hospital I need speedy advice and I get that faster when the communities are larger. Reddit is larger.
Simply replying ‘we don’t monetize’ while true and one reason why I turned to lemmy and don’t use reddit as much now, is not convincing enough for my particular case.
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My take, be pragmatic. I still go to my city and career subreddit because that’s where I get my city news and career advice. And I’m in Lemmy because it really does feel like the Reddit of 2008-2014 and I love it here.
Your first problem isn’t using Reddit. It’s asking others for their opinion on whether or not you should.
If you need to use Reddit, that’s your justification. Don’t worry about what people here think.
If you need information that are only discussed in Reddit, why are you here in the first place? You tried to escape from Spez, right? If you really are concerned anout the governance of Reddit, stay here and invite Redditors here so population here will be larger, but if you’re not, go back to Reddit for bigger community.
Don’t hamstring your career over this.
The reason Spez’s bullshit is tragic is because reddit is extremely useful. Use the technology that benefits your job the most.
I vomit poison on Adobe and their horrible subscription model. But if my boss says we’re using photoshop then I’m 100% onboard, all-in. Because jobs and careers are dynamically important and poverty is dynamically corrosive.
Don’t overthink it. If reddit is professionally useful, nobody else’s opinion matters. You can contribute to other platforms, but not at the cost of your career or your patients or colleagues.
Lemmy will grow, but for right now it does not meet every need. Perhaps it never will. Especially with lives and livelihoods on the line, you must do whatever works best for you, so please do not feel guilty.
I’ll tell you my approach and you can use it for inspiration, but keep in mind everyone is different.
I deleted the Reddit app, but still use Reddit sometimes through the browser. This caused me to use Reddit far less, and primarily use lemmy unless what I need is not found on lemmy.
Sometimes what I need is info from a specific community like you mentioned. For example, I am Arab, and there’s very few Arabs on lemmy.
In your case, Reddit might be less rare than me. It might be more practical for you to use both apps, or maybe just not use lemmy at all. It all depends on your priorities and what you’re looking for.
Relatively new Lemmy user here, longtime reddit user. I saw a comment last week that sums this up. Lemmy just hasn’t yet reached the critical mass to have spawned the niche groups that reddit has; certainly not with the activity they have.
I suspect that, for a while, many of us will keep one foot in reddit for those niche communities. In the meantine, we can try to foster similar commities in Lemmy.
Read my post about how reddit went from just 85,000 users in 2008 to 500 million active users in 2023: https://old.lemmy.ca/post/2780188. Reddit didn’t grow overnight. It took 15 years to grow to where it is now.
You seem like a critical thinker. I like to think I am but who the fuck knows.
Do you need a critically acclaimed response or one you know to be true?
Good question imo.
Apart from the fact that your points are valid, they are also connected to reddit being held by a singular entity imo.
- more users
- more streamlined
- more niche stuff
- more mainstream stuff
As you already stated: reddit monetizes every word you write and everything you write is at risk to being paywalled/removed not because it is political or breaks the rules but because it is helpful.
The amount of harm the corporate social media has caused and will be able to cause in the future is immense.
Being in the medical field may help you understand how important it is to keep people from harm. Some of the people you treat may have been physically harmed by a psychopath. Big companies are known to behave exactly like this. If harming you makes them money, they will.
And besides, you don’t need to leave reddit entirely. You should definitely read the stuff you need there, but you could make it a habit to always try and post helpful advice in the fediverse/on lemmy so that your content stays in case corpo paywall.
Part of contributing to the democratic discourse (like voting) is screaming into the void and waiting for someone to listen. But if youre persistent, people will listen
I go to Reddit to learn to be patient with impatient people, while ignoring trolls. These habits have improved my professional habits, helped me acquire new business, and generally improved my performance as an executive.
So I’m quite happy for Reddit to continue existing in it’s current form. Usually I log in and answer questions about electronic design for 30 minutes, then log off. Conversations on Lemmy are much more pleasant, but I don’t log on to Reddif to meet pleasant people!
In other words, if it’s useful to you, then why not use it?
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Much like Reddit teaches me patience, hanging around with bankers and executives has taught me a lot about ethics! Not all were awful, but the ones that were have given me a superfluity of examples of what not to do.
Learning from what people don’t know (or don’t do) is such a neat trick! I wish I had clued in on it earlier.
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nobody’s judging, I sometimes shamelessly click on some reddit links in google results, I just try to not interact, i don’t think it’s a shame to use reddit if lemmy doesn’t suit your needs, i mean there’s your validation if you need it, it’s your life
