TL;DR: I wonder why we always have the same 2 posts as top posts of the day.
They appear a bit unnecessary and mildly annoying to me.
Do you think the same? Or do you like them, and can explain me why, so I can change my view?
Please don’t just blindly downvote, writing this post took a lot of time. And if you feel the need to do it anyway, tell me why first.
Maybe I am the only person who thinks that.
I probably am, at least according to numbers.
Basically, I’ve got the feeling that every top post of the day for the last weeks is something like “I’ve freed myself from evil Windows’ shackles and finally switched to Linux.”, or “What distro do you recommend?”.
Don’t get me wrong.
I feel super happy for every newcomer discovering the wonderful world of Linux and FOSS.
I, just like most others here, always try to help them in finding their right distro and guiding them in their first steps.
We all have been there.
And I’m super proud of us all, as a community, that we happily embrace every new member. We definitely have to keep that behaviour, it’s what connects us and makes us strong.
I just think we should redirect them a bit onto the specific communities.
Not by banning or censoring, just as friendly reminder, e.g. by a sticky post, comments like “Hey, check out !linux4noobs@lemmy.world” or something else.
It doesn’t help much if there are the same threads every day, with people circlejerking on hating Windows and recommending Mint a hundred times, just like 100 people before did on the same thread.
I hate Windows too, but it feels like we’re identifying and comparing ourselves with the bitter ex-partner we had a while ago. No, not being Windows shouldn’t be the main reason Linux is great.
There are so many great posts and discussions, that are all going missing in this swamp of “Winblows bad, hehe”.
We should focus on what makes our software great, and not what the “bad ex-partner” did wrong.
Same with newcomer posts.
I think if the posters get redirected to the correct sub, they will receive more help, since the people partaking in the community are there because they wanna see exactly that.
At the same time, I’m afraid this would undermine our openness and friendliness of this community, and result in being as shitty as Reddits’ sub.
!Just as an anecdote, when I was a noob, I posted a question there, and, like 5 minutes later, I got a dozen of non-constructive, offensive comments. 10 minutes later, my post got removed. This was my first contact to the Linux world btw. Guess who switched back to Windows for another half year because of that?
We have to prevent this at any costs.
Anyway… !<
I really enjoy this community here and wanna keep it this great.
I just wanted to ask you, what you think about those everyday-top-posts.
If you like them, please try to change my mind and explain me why :)
Edit/ Additional stuff/ Learnings:
- I don’t hate those “I switched to Linux”-posts, just to clarify. They’re fine for me, they just feel like white noise. But I’ve read many times in this thread that a lot of people enjoy those posts. If that’s the case, I’m totally fine! :)
- I think putting those posts in a weekly sticky thread could be worth an idea? Then everyone could describe their experience of this week of switching from one distro to another, e.g. “My first week of Gentoo” or something like this. Would be an interesting read for everyone.
- I also believe those “Fuck Windows”-posts can be kind of therapeutic for some people, since Windows became really shitty and annoying in the last years. And when you feel the relieve from finally getting rid of it, you tell that everyone. Understandable.
- Splitting the community isn’t the best idea too. We can always learn from each other and I like the diversity of this community.
- Thank you for your kind and constructive answers! ✌️
Personally, as a noob myself, I enjoy reading about others’ experiece when they switch. No idea why. Just fun to read usually.
On another forum there are sticky weekly posts where people can write about X, like in our case it could be:
Share your story of how you met your distro
I love this idea!
I really would appreciate something like this.
In that way, everyone can still write and enjoy their own or others’ stories.
Especially, since this would not only apply to newcomers, but to experienced users too, e.g. “My first week with Gentoo” or something like this. I like it!
Edit: I added your idea to the post
It sounds great to include more people but we should def focus on the young/ fresh experience. Do you come up with a better one? Is a question missing?
I support this. I’m happy linux is spreading but I’d rather read distro and developer articles over someones trials and tribulations of running an installer script.
That would be perfect. Especially when others would respond with ‘Have you tried this’, it could also create great learning opportunities
Have you met flatpaks?
It solves a packaging issue and keeps your base system clean.
I’ve considered it, read about how it works, and i still might, but for now i think it takes quite a lot of space on my pc.
Sure? https://www.ypsidanger.com/wasting-disk-space/
Lol, thanks for the reading material, i will definitely read it and, who knows, maybe even reconsider!
This definitely needs to become a thing!
For me too, it gives me an encouraging feeling like; hey, i’m not the only one who ran into this or that issue, or who switched to linux because of this or that reason. And it’s nice to know that i’m here with others who are also quite new. It would feel very daunting to be here and know that all members here have been ‘linuxing’ for decades and i would just lurk then.
I always read those posts that OP mentions. If you don’t like them, just skip them? I’ve been with other lists for many years and newbies were always welcome. I liked answering their questions, even those i heard a 100 times before, and if i didn’t feel like it some days, i could always skip them and know that others would have answers too.