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submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

I came to Lemmy cause Reddit went to shit, so I get that people want to bash it and I also understand that most of the users of Lemmy are from the US and the shit show that's happening there right now, but I am absolutely tired of these 2 types of posts being the only thing in my feed, I open this app because I want to learn new interesting things, and maybe see some funny and creative stuff, there's enough negativity and stress in my life and I don't need more of that on my only social media app. How do I filter these topics from my feed and which communities can I join to improve my feed.

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[-] Vanth@reddthat.com 96 points 1 month ago

Set your default view to the communities you subscribe to. Don't subscribe to communities that overlap with politics or reddit.

[-] 200ok@lemmy.world 25 points 1 month ago

I also set keyword filters so I don't see that stuff in case they start sneaking into my favorite communities

[-] andrewta@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

Which communities are you in 😁

J/k

[-] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 month ago

It would be a nice feature to be able to share subscription lists. You could even swap them in and out depending on what content you're looking for.

[-] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 79 points 1 month ago

You do know you could have just asked how to curate your feed without whining, right? I mean, if there's enough negativity and stress in your life, why bring negativity with you?

I mean, I could give you the advice without snarkiness about it, but I want to make the point that it not only isn't necessary to complain about what content is there, it's counterproductive. Just ask what you want to know, and you'll get better answers.

The first step is to curate your feed.

There's three options: all, local and subscribed. All is going to pull in every instance and community that your instance is federated with, and has been visited by someone from your instance. To curate that feed, you block communities that present content you don't want to see.

For the subscribed feed, obviously, you only get the things you choose to subscribe to, so it takes as long or longer to set up as blocking on all. So you'll have to search your interests directly if you don't want to scroll all to find things to subscribe to.

The local feed is only content from your instance. You can block things as they come up and trim away things you don't want to see, but you'd be better off taking a few days to check out what instances have the least communities that feature content you don't like, then join one of those and that way need to do less blocking.

However, some apps offer filtering, if you're on mobile. Afaik, all the popular ones do, and most of the less popular ones, so you'd need to go to your app store and see what looks best to you.

You can usually filter keywords that way. I filter some of the more repetitive names that pop up in political communities so that it isn't the majority of my feed, but still lets in some that if I blocked communities, would restrict my feed too much. That's just an example of one way to go about it.

I prefer filters over blocks most of the time, with blocks being reserved for communities that are totally unpleasant, or aren't useful for my needs at all. Filters in an app let you really fine tune things.

For you, I think a hybrid approach via an app will work best. Filter the term reddit, block any communities that you find that are based on reddit subjects.

Then, block political communities that are US specific, and slowly filter out via terms like democrat, republican, and the usual politicians. That way, you'll avoid us issues without missing out on news that's relevant to you and your needs.

I don't think you'll get as well tuned via browser, even when alternative front ends.

[-] beerclue@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

Any tips on filtering? I mean, I still care about some important international political topics, I just don't care much for trump, JD, musk etc. Also, Democrat and Republican might be present in other topics not about the US political system, right? Are there wildcards/regex/something else I could use? Some best practice guides?

[-] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 month ago

Honestly, it depends on the app. I only use a few. Sync, boost, and connect only seem to handle full words, no wildcards afaik.

Eternity though, it has all the options for filters. Tbh though, I'm not great with regex, so I don't use that on eternity. It has it though.

Generally, I only filter the stuff that clogs the feed. Filtering trump tends to cut out repeat posts that link to the same article, but since he's not always in the title, some news about him gets through, which is about where I like it.

Filtering parties definitely cuts out some foreign news, since plenty of them reference the parties. I haven't gotten flooded with those terms being allowed now that the election is over, it's a fairly manageable rate.

I guess what I'm saying is that I adjust what I filter fairly often. When there's a surge in a topic, I check the headlines and titles and pick what is going to filter most of the posts, but not all of them.

Like, right now, on sync I'm filtering "stocks" to reduce the tesla stuff without it filtering out other news around the company. If I filtered tesla entirely, I'd miss protests and such.

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[-] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 43 points 1 month ago

Those are the most popular posts. I recommend trying to find communities that you like and subscribing to them, then read the subscribed feed.

[-] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 month ago

I recommend finding communities you don't like and blocking those, then browse the all feed. Otherwise you get 3 posts a week.

[-] BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee 6 points 1 month ago

i did that and my feed is still filled with politics there are so many to block its neverending

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[-] Cgers@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 month ago

There's also "hide this post" and "hide all viewed posts" but you have to actually click on them ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

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[-] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 26 points 1 month ago
[-] TORFdot0@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

Ironic considering Lemmy.world is Dutch I believe

[-] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 month ago

Besides the server hosting location there appears to be very little Dutch about it.

But then again the Dutch politicians are known to kowtow America does. The Netherlands recently voted against the EU defense spending because they love NATO and the orange man so much.

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[-] undystains@lemm.ee 25 points 1 month ago

The majority of folk that migrated from Reddit probably did so because of reasons related to those two things.

[-] comfy@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The earliest exoduses were socialist political communities banned from reddit (particularly /r/chapotraphouse who formed Hexbear, and /r/GenZedong who landed in Lemmygrad). Then, the most recent exodus is related to censorship related to Luigi Mangione, a US political issue, coinciding with a strong sudden re-emergence of global anti-American [government] sentiment due to diplomatic catastrophes with a range of former allies.

In fact, the founders cite reddit's corporate nature and its pro-US-imperialist, racist stances as their motivation to create Lemmy: https://join-lemmy.org/docs/users/07-history-of-lemmy.html

So I'm not surprised at all that the default feed is covered in political topics, it's always been a strong topic here and it's just gotten stronger. But there's probably enough activity now that one can filter it out and still have enough action to keep it fun.

[-] comfy@lemmy.ml 23 points 1 month ago

Hey OP, I just want to say from experience the reddit bashing usually dies down a bit after a quick spike of reddit refugees like we're seeing now.

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[-] digdilem@lemmy.ml 22 points 1 month ago

I know - it's exhausting.

All social and news streams are absolutely being flooded by American politics right now. It's mad and crazy stuff, but there's only so much someone can take before it really starts to affect ones mental state.

And Lemmy partially started as a not-reddit, so I guess it's normal that people come to vent.

So - positive stuff you can do!

Subscribe to more communities that do interest you. Leave less space for the other stuff to come in. You can also block communities from your main feed very easily if you're being given stuff you don't want from them.

Youtube (with adblock) is hardly affected (or if it is, I don't see it). That brings lots of interesting and creative content.

Going out into the world if you're able. Reconnecting with nature, and also being reminded that people, by and large, are usually nice to you if you're nice to them.

And I've been picking up old games and playing them more. Escapism is not such a bad thing.

[-] darkfyre@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago

Do you mean to tell me you don't also have a bunch of Linux memes?

[-] wolfylow@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago

Man, I’m with you! A lot of people are commenting that you should just curate your feed - man, that means unsubscribing from news and politics. I mean there are a lot of other countries news I’m interested in seeing. And I already have an app that lets me filter out content based on keywords and my feed is still filled with US content.

The amount of US content is just overwhelming and it’s freaking everywhere. I know I’m not alone in frankly having had enough of it.

Can’t people post this stuff into dedicated US communities?

[-] Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 1 month ago

Feel free to remind people to post US questions to !AskUSA@discuss.online

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[-] Global_Liberty@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 month ago

Did you try subscribing to your interests?

[-] crazyminner@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 month ago

leave .world and block the entire instance and then you get stuff that isn't related to the United States it's really nice actually

[-] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 month ago

I'm starting to see that most Canadians are more interested in american politics than in their own countries politics. When a gigantic behemoth is wounded, and about to fall, you get a lot of rubberneckers. Sadly, I include myself in this list.

[-] Cracks_InTheWalls@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I feel like we always have been - the Trudeau Sr. quote comes to mind:

Living next to you [The U.S.] is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.

Only more so now that said beast is trumpeting, stomping its feet and shitting everywhere.

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[-] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 month ago

If it's falling towards you, it is indeed good to pay attention to that. Also, please accept my apologies that our bullshit is spilling over the line.

[-] jsomae@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 month ago

As a Canadian, I engage more with American politics online because more online content is American politics than Canadian.

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[-] Madbrad200@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 month ago

Just like Reddit, you need to curate your feed. Don't browser all/local, browse your subscriptions. Here's a list of subs that aren't political https://lemmy.world/post/16327122 - subscribe to ones that interest you.

Also feel free to liberally block communities. It's trivial to do.

[-] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 month ago

Are you talking about Lemmy.world, or Lemmy.ml? Either way, I'd say to look for an instance that more appeals to you.

[-] MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 month ago

I have two feeds: one is "subscribed" for all the stuff I'm actually interested in, and the other is "all", for when I'm up for a bit of US politics, Reddit-bashing and weird German memes..

[-] otter@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 month ago

The key is that you need to subscribe to the type of content you want to see. There's no company here deciding what your feed is going to be.

@BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world, what kind of stuff are you interested in? I'm happy to help you find related communities :)

[-] krolden@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

You joined the wrong instance bud

Sad youll never see this comment as world has me on the bad boy list

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[-] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 11 points 1 month ago

I was kind of hoping for more Western African culture, news and discussion from this Mali-based server.

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[-] KazuchijouNo@lemy.lol 10 points 1 month ago

I haven't seen any Reddit bashing in a good while actually. American politics however, I have lots of in my feed. But you can filter them out, I don't because I'm lazy. I just scroll past those.

[-] phanto@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 month ago

Godzilla, Esperanto, tiny phones, vampires, the weird knife Wednesday guy, and way too many silly Linux memes. Homelab, self-host. That's what Lemmy is to me! I mostly skip the politics, although I do like the odd privacy rant. Also, Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, by Sara Wynn-Williams. That's unrelated to anything, but I intend to include it in any comment I make until I read it.

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[-] prototype_g2@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 month ago

Lemmy does not have an engagement based algorithm. It does not over analyze your every move to keep you on the site. This means you will have to do content curation yourself.

First of all, the block button exists, use liberally.

Second, the subscribe button exists, so use it to curate a nice subscribed feed

Third, I do believe there are third party clients (lemmy apps made by others) that have a word filter feature which allow you to automatically hide post and comments which contain certain keywords. (I think Voyager has that. Download mobile app here. Use the site version of the app here. Keep in mind that it uses lemm.ee as its default instance.)


But yeah, content curration is kinda just left up to you. Subscribe, Block. That's it.

Alternatively, you could join a "themed instance", that is, an instance made to house a particular community or interest, like that star-trek instance, but Lemmy does not have enough users for those to be able to exist.


If you want creative stuff, might want to have a look at !artshare@lemmy.world? Sorry, I don't have much for you.

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[-] Today@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

There's plenty of fun stuff that's neither of those. Check out photography or opossums or silly drawing request. That two sentence horror group is good. So is daily games.

[-] communism@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 month ago

I don't see much of that stuff. I mostly subscribe to foss communities and I mostly see relevant stuff about foss and tech. Subscribe to communities pertaining to your hobbies/interests and your feed should reflect that

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[-] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 month ago

How to use Ublock Origin to filter keywords out

Also you can block certain instances/communities/users. You can practice blocking users on me first!

[-] Delphia@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

What I think you need to do is have multiple accounts, I have one with a LOT of filters. "Trump, Drumpf, Trumpist, MAGA, Elon, Musk, Tesla, Rep, Republican " you get the idea. Any community I have no interest in blocked, plenty of users who go into benign subs and bring up politics blocked...  Its my relaxing feed. NSFW filter on

 I have one with the only filter being the nsfw one. I see the whole disaster.

I have one on Lemmy.nsfw... for reasons. Filter by local... 



I have one 
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[-] Azzu@lemm.ee 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

As corollary to the other comments, lemmyverse.net to find non-political communities to subscribe to.

[-] Litebit@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

be the change.

[-] DudeDudenson@lemmings.world 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Lemmy is a giant echo chamber, every time I browse for a bit I block a community/user or two. And don't you dare have a differing political opinion to that of the hive mind.

It's not really a good reddit replacement but if like me you don't want to install the official reddit app lemmy can be some sort of nicotine patch if you take the time to block all the shit you don't want to see

[-] TORFdot0@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

I’m mean there is no real downside to having and sharing an opinion outside the “hive mind”

“Karma” on Lemmy isn’t tracked. Having a negative score comment or post doesn’t affect your account or experience at all. I’ve posted plenty that has gotten downvoted into the negative and I haven’t even gotten a warning because Lemmy is an actual free speech platform unlike twitter or Reddit.

That doesn’t mean that everyone has to like your opinions though, hence the downvotes, but that’s ok.

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this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2025
249 points (100.0% liked)

Asklemmy

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