Gotten anything positive out of interacting with other users?

You bet. All the time!

I feel belonging. In addition, whenever someone tells me they find what I say helpful, it feels great!

I think Lemmy also helps me calibrate my sensors that sense the world. I know what software’s doing well, what software’s not doing so well, and what software is complex.

yes quite regularly. i wouldn't be here otherwise.. this place feels much less toxic than most other places online too.

though tbh it does feel like an echo chamber sometimes. i tend to agree with far too many things i read here compared to other places.

I became a true believer in the pathway to a communist society. At very least I now understand how capitalism is so often doomed from within.

I have, I've had several turn from relatively hostile to productive. Usually I just end up understanding their argument better, but that's still nice. For reference, these are usually about fairly contentious topics. It's one of the things that I like the most about this site.

Tons of them. Just today I taught one person about bird biology in regards to feather replacement and another I am helping prepare their family farm to hopefully host a barn owl nest we desperately need in our state.

It is also due to the great conversations I had here with people everyday that encouraged me to get involved with wildlife rehabilitation 2 years ago and it's been one of the greatest adventures in my life. Everyone has been so supportive and has helped me develop my knowledge by asking great questions and sharing their enthusiasm with me about so many beautiful animals.

I've also participated in some political threads when the events were local and I'd been able to add nuance to the conversation. The trick is to just read the room and see if the thread is already trending hostile and just learn who is here to be combative vs to have real discussions.

I also just try to not be a jerk myself. I said something yesterday that got a more outspoken communists a bit insulated and I explained what my point of the original comment was a bit better and they calmed down when they saw I wasn't being insulting to their beliefs.

I just use the same guidelines for conversation I would in real life here, and almost all my interactions here are positive ones.

Regularly. Given your question, I imagine that hasn't been your experience.

What sort of responses are you getting? Do those responses seem typical for the community? Or are they more negative than usual?

The shitposting is 🧑‍🍳🤌💋

Lots of funny, good natured people just doing the meme thing.

Someone taught me private space and profile best practices in GrapheneOS today. Really useful information.

The womensstuff community has been quite a positive corner of the fediverse for me.

I’ve also had great chats about music, punk specifically, and food with other lemmings.

Yes, advice from Lemmy helped me sort out my HRT regimen, and it's made a huge quality of life improvement for me :-)

I had a great discussion on Mastodon about the logic of making bike helmets a legal requirement or not. I learned a lot and actually changed my mind on the subject…

All the time and in many different communities.

Indeed I have. We recently got a used truck, and the windshield wipers and radio didn't work. After some outside research plus some discussion on Lemmy, I figured out the ignition switch wasn't activating the accessory systems, which require power from the yellow wire.

So, the truck is missing the dome light, but there's 4 wires hanging above the rear view mirror, black, white, orange, and yellow...

I touched the orange to the yellow, and guess what, the radio came to life! So I told my roommate to try the wipers, and sure enough they work too!

We now have a toggle switch for that dangling under the rear view mirror for that.

Thanks again @seathru 👍

too many to go back and find. not all the time but it happens with regularity.

I’ve learned a lot about history, Linux terminal commands, wildlife, and even got manga recommendations from discussions with folks here.

I do my best to avoid antagonistic conversation towards other users.

Groups about animals, food & drinks are pretty chill and good places to have enjoyable conversation.

A few times, about music or movies, someone nicely jumped in to defend a misunderstanding yesterday (ty again). I seem to perpetually have my foot in my mouth which doesn't help. I should seek out more things that interest me personally and just stay in my lane I guess. Now that I'm more at peace with myself I should let go of the need to have unproductive rants on political threads.

Sports fedi seems like it’s a lot more fun than the rest of the fediverse. Y’all okay?

yes, almost everyday. would not be here if otherwise.

i have also had many of these threads removed by mods, or end up in harassment/insults from other users who didn't like the content of the discussion being discussed. lots of people want to derail or silence productive discussion because it makes them uncomfortable or doesn't support their preexisting biases. especially about social or political problems.

the problem is certain users just HATE anyone who says anything they disagree with, and need to paint everyone who doesn't agree with them as irredeemably evil. I've seen people write fan-fictions about me personally, based on a few comments I've made. and further, they are OUTRAGED that anyone upvotes my comments or anyone agrees with them, and usually start reporting such comments to get me banned from that community. and these folks... are convinced they aren't the problem. It's me and my views that are the problem, and been to be silenced, rather than discussed.

I like discussion and asking questions and interactions... a lot of folks in life in general are incredibly threatened and hostile to this type of socialization. but it's cool when folks also share that mentality and share their insights and experiences or thoughtful speculations.

No

Interaction is overrated.