Looking for chill, apolitical Lemmy or Mastodon instances. What exists?
Posted by mr_bigmouth_502@reddit | RedditAlternatives | View on Reddit | 28 comments
I'm looking for a relaxed place where I can chat with other people about things like retro gaming, Linux, mundane everyday subjects, and possibly mental health.
The last thing I want is to be deluged with posts relating to current events or politics. I know the world's on fire right now, and I can read or watch the news if I want to keep an eye on that.
As you can probably guess, I'm fed up with mainstream social media, and I want to find alternatives that are more welcoming.
I like Reddit slightly better than other sites, as it's more impersonal, but I tend to avoid larger subs, and have a hard time finding smaller ones that are worth using. It doesn't help that a lot of subs are still closed from the 2023 API protests.
Die4Ever@reddit
PieFed asks how much politics you want to see when you sign up
https://piefed.zip/auth/register
mr_bigmouth_502@reddit (OP)
Gotta thank you once again for recommending that site. It's definitely not as active as Reddit, but it's a lot more chill.
Die4Ever@reddit
nice! I'm glad you enjoy it
mr_bigmouth_502@reddit (OP)
So, I've used PieFed for almost a week. I gotta say; there's way, way too much political shit on the fediverse. It's still a nice break from Reddit in some ways, but it's hard to find the less political communities on there.
Die4Ever@reddit
Use the feeds and topics to find communities
mr_bigmouth_502@reddit (OP)
I've been blocking a lot of communities, and even a handful of instances. My main feed just shows what I'm subscribed to, but the active communities thing on the righthand side kept showing me political communities.
Browsing the list of active communities also doesn't take what you've blocked into account.
Die4Ever@reddit
ah interesting, I haven't looked at the active communities list lol
mr_bigmouth_502@reddit (OP)
It takes blocked instances into account, but not blocked communities. That's what I should've said.
Skavau@reddit
Btw, I don't know if you were subscribed or not - but I had seen you pop up occasional - a piefed bug, if you were, purged any subscription you had to television@piefed.social.
Die4Ever@reddit
Done. And I guess just in time for From and For All Mankind to come back
Skavau@reddit
Thanks. It actually cut the subscribers in half. Serious issue.
mr_bigmouth_502@reddit (OP)
I've seen a few comments mentioning that site here. I'll have to give it a look.
noonetoldmeismelled@reddit
I feel like you're good on any of the popular Lemmy instances as long as you set your default view to subs that you're subscribed to. Like just a bunch of gardening and food subs. Video games, tech news, tech stuff in general. DIY type subs
mnemy@reddit
Haven't looked in a while, but those were pretty dead when I went searching for content.
_haha_oh_wow_@reddit
startrek.website but why limit yourself to Lemmy and Mastodon? How about Mbin? PieFed?
mr_bigmouth_502@reddit (OP)
I mentioned Lemmy and Mastodon because I wasn't sure what else was out there. I'm open to other options.
Paisley-Cat@reddit
A well moderated instance on Lemmy is a good place to be. You can subscribe to whatever communities you like from there and avoid the bots and trolls that seem to come in waves through the larger open sign-up instances such as Lemmy.world. StarTrek.website fits those criteria - you do have to wait for an approval but it’s usually quick.
Mastodon is pretty good if you don’t sign up for mastodon.social which also has a lot of bot wave issues. However, the experience there currently is that almost everyone is caught up in political and geopolitical preoccupations. It’s harder to find and engage conversations focused on other interests.
_haha_oh_wow_@reddit
They're both worth checking out, but Mbin might be more what you're looking for if you do a lot of interacting with Mastodon.
Palnubis@reddit
https://forumspark.net
Feel free to register a board and check it out!
Beneficial_Exam_1634@reddit
not lemmy or mastodon but Cyberspace.online lacks politics largely
Toothless_NEO@reddit
Is it federated? I think that the OP was hoping for a federated experience.
mr_bigmouth_502@reddit (OP)
Not strictly, but it sounds like the Fediverse is where the communities I want to find can be found.
mr_bigmouth_502@reddit (OP)
Doesn't look like the vibe I'm looking for, tbh. Too formal and serious. Plus, there's no videos, and you have to be a supporter just to post pictures.
Toothless_NEO@reddit
I'll share a few instances that I would consider chill and for the most part apolitical.
retrolemmy.com is a good instance for retro gaming and retro tech.
programming.dev is a good instance for Linux and general programming related stuff.
lemmy.sdf.org is the official lemmy instance of sdf.org, they deal mainly with retro stuff. Retro computing BBS. They have a few political users and communities there.
lemmy.zip is a general purpose instance with wide federation, there are a few political communities though. So you'll need to block those.
pawb.social is a furry instance which does have a few communities related to Linux and retro gaming/computing. They don't have any political communities as far as I can tell.
mr_bigmouth_502@reddit (OP)
Looks like I've got a good selection here. I'll give some of these a look once my PieFed registration is approved.
MigrateOutOfReddit@reddit
Small tip, as someone who likes chill too: browse by subscribed. Local misses a lot of content you'll want, and all is 90% politics.
This means subscribing to as many communities fitting your tastes as possible. It'll take a while, but once you get your subscriptions list right (mine has 200) it feels amazing.
mr_bigmouth_502@reddit (OP)
Good advice. Sounds like the opposite of Reddit in that regard, since the maximum number of subs you can be subscribed to here before the algorithm starts leaving out posts is 50 without Premium, and 100 with.
Die4Ever@reddit
in addition to retrolemmy.com we also have https://retrofed.com/ which is our PieFed instance