User Sentiments and Dynamics in the Decentralized Web: Reddit Migration’s Impact on Lemmy
Open accessAbstract
Decentralized alternatives like Mastodon and Lemmy are gaining popularity in response to growing complaints about centralized social media platforms such as Twitter and Reddit, which frequently prioritize business interests over user experience. This study employs a mixed-methods approach to scrutinize the impact of Reddit users’ migration on Lemmy. It elucidates user growth patterns, revealing significant registration spikes and centralization trends within decentralized structures. A sentiment analysis with VADER, incorporating a dataset of 48,272 comments from before and after the migration, depicts a predominantly positive sentiment towards Lemmy and criticisms of Reddit. A comprehensive survey with 354 responses from major Lemmy communities validates and supplements the findings, shedding light on users’ motivations, adaptation experiences, and long-term intentions. Furthermore, qualitative interviews with 16 purposively sampled users offer in-depth insights into individual experiences, community dynamics, and perspectives on decentralization and engagement. This study reveals a promising future for Lemmy, highlighting its adaptability and users’ commitment, and contributes valuable insights to the discourse on the sustainability and growth of decentralized platforms in a dynamic digital landscape.
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An alternative, decentralized paradigm for social media has emerged, primarily centered around protocols that seek to reconfigure how power is distributed across a network of actors.
“In response, an alternative, decentralized paradigm for social media has emerged, primarily centered around protocols that seek to reconfigure how power is distributed across a network of actors [22,58,85].”
From Seeing the Politics of Decentralized Social Media Protocols (2026) · cites this paper as [85]
The Introduction describes the Decentralized Web as an alternative to platforms controlled by a single organization, with independent instances that interact. Section 2.1.1 says ActivityPub connects those instances, and §2.2 says each Lemmy instance has its own rules and administrators. These passages support decentralized governance, but do not establish that the paradigm is primarily centered on protocols designed to redistribute power. (LLM, conf=0.78)
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- Authors
- Nunes, T. A.
- Affiliations
- Dongseo University (KR)
- Corresponding author
- Nunes, Thatiany Andrade
- Venue
- Journal of Multimedia Information System
- Published
- 2023-12-31
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 333-350
- ISSN
- 2383-7632 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4390599914
- Cited by
- 3
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2
- FWCI
- 0.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Multimedia Information System (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Networks and Communications › Media and Digital Communication
- Social Sciences › Communication › Social Media and Politics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Marketing and Social Media
- Keywords
- decentralized social media, user sentiment, user growth, sentiment analysis, user motivation, community dynamics, decentralized platforms, user experience
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