Post by @Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com

2026-10-25 02:36 UTC

some feedback about Lemmy/PieFed from Reddit users 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’ve tried using lemmy and have exactly the same issue. After blocking all the politics stuff, left wing meme stuff and tankie stuff there’s bugger all remaining. Even with all the blocks I’ve made it just seems to be a bunch of toxic left wing people calling each other fascist because of some minor difference in opinion. 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

Replies (15)

@tomselleck@sopuli.xyz 2026-10-25 02:53

Are they using a 3rd party app like Voyager? It makes a big difference.

Open ##5404112
@historicaldocuments@lemmy.world 2026-10-25 03:18

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.

Open ##5404865
@pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 2026-10-25 03:45

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.

Open ##5404918
@patruelis@lemmy.world 2026-10-25 02:47

Which one do you recommend?

Open ##5406770
@kepix@lemmy.world 2026-10-25 04:19

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

Open ##5409618
@eremophila@lemmy.zip 2026-10-25 04:36

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

Open ##5412383
@Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2026-10-25 07:39

the problem is theres barely content on lemmy. while reddit has the SLOPFLEST, and niche content combined.

Open ##5432730
@HerbalGamer@sh.itjust.works 2026-10-25 07:42

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 ?

Open ##5432886
@FeelThePower@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2026-10-25 07:44

honestly compared to mastodon I can check Lemmy all day and see new things that are actually interesting.

Open ##5433001
@anothermember@feddit.uk 2026-10-25 09:44

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

Open ##5444195
@dilroopgill@lemmy.world 2026-10-26 06:15

I dont remember the different frontends since I just voyager on iphone these days, think phtn and tesseract were good, maybe one had a controversy

Open ##5467849
@FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 2026-10-25 14:35

The Fediverse does require a little effort, as there is no algorithm spoonfeeding you content. Personally, I like that the barrier of entry requires some human effort as it feels like a natural filter for the sorts of elements we don’t want integrating here from platforms like Reddit.

Open ##5467883
@Pamasich@kbin.earth 2026-10-26 06:36

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 had this exact experience. The solution? Just loud subscribe to stuff and now I have 80 notifications a day about new posts which I struggle to keep up with. Clearly the fediverse isn't as inactive as I had the impression from just browsing it. The captchas on Lemmy are AWFUL, I can't do them either. Do all Lemmy frontends use those captchas? Might be a reason to recommend a different one by default. I do have to say, I bounced off Lemmy and Piefed mostly due to their UI and UX. I probably wouldn't have joined the fediverse if I didn't come across a kbin.social recommendation back then. Mbin is much more up my alley, though not ideal either, but it has worked out for me so far.

Open ##5468071
@IndustryStandard@lemmy.world 2026-10-26 07:14

They do have a point about seeing the same content. Maybe there could be a button where all the posts to the point the user has scrolled to get marked as read and archived for them. And then their front page is filled with different posts.

Open ##5468656
@CheesyFingers@piefed.social 2026-10-25 06:03

I genuinely don’t care what their feedback is. lol

Open ##5468674