I don't know about others, but I've learned a lot just by keeping a close eye on your interactions. It's helped me to develop what I hope is a less hostile approach.

Not to say it isn't difficult af sometimes. One problem is that Marxists criticise each other as much as others, it's just that for others, it might be the first time they've ever encountered real criticism. So they don't take it well. I can't say that I always enjoy harsh criticism, either—it depends what it concerns—but at least I expect it. Others often lash out when they experience it. Then it's all too easy to summon Lenin-when-he's-talking-about-/-to-his-own-mentor-Kautsky. Then there are the copious trolls.

This was said about us recently (3 days ago):

As an aside, I have to like this new method of discussion many of you lemmygrad people are now employing. It’s like you had a planning meeting where somebody said “perhaps we shouldn’t be assholes, that doesn’t convince people”.

It's mildly back-handed but it suggests that whatever we're doing differently is working. I suspect that as the Lemmyverse exploded, a few dedicated anti-communists tried to rile us up to make sure that others would see us in a bad light. At first, we fell for some of the bait. But I think we've got better already. This is good as we can reach a lot of people with our seditious Marxist ways if we can out-game the trolls, etc. One good outcome would be that people come here to lurk and see how we talk to each other; it'll be hard for people to see us negatively when every other comment here is one of concern for each others' well-being.