this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2025
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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 98 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

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

[–] 200ok@lemmy.world 26 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

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

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[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 72 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

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 week ago (2 children)

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?

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[–] doug@lemmy.today 54 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Why are there obituaries in the obituaries column?

Customize your feed and/or block whatever you want to filter it, buddy. There’s a Reddit exodus because of American-centered events, so you’re going to see American-centric news and Reddit-bashing stories in some default feeds for a bit. Filter it out and move on.

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[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 44 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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 20 points 1 week ago (7 children)

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 week ago (1 children)

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

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[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 30 points 1 week ago (3 children)
[–] TORFdot0@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Ironic considering Lemmy.world is Dutch I believe

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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.

[–] darkfyre@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago

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

[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 23 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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 21 points 1 week 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.

[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 week ago (3 children)

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 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

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 10 points 1 week 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 week ago (2 children)

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

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[–] jet@hackertalks.com 17 points 2 weeks ago

I block the news and politics communities. That helps tremendously

[–] paequ2@lemmy.today 17 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)
  1. Block a shit ton of political and Reddit communities
  2. Subscribe to everything else
  3. Only browse Subscribed
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[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

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[–] crazyminner@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 1 week ago

Or join an instance they don't like and they curate themselves for you. :)

[–] Madbrad200@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 weeks 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.

[–] MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 week 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..

[–] Global_Liberty@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 week ago

Did you try subscribing to your interests?

[–] wolfylow@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago (4 children)

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 8 points 1 week ago

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

[–] MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 1 week ago

Join a different instance, there are ones that are more curated for different regions in the world. Lemmy.world is very US centric and essentially a carbon cut-out of reddit. Lots of redditors migrate there and try to maintain that type of culture on the instance, so they also got many of the most toxic complainers condensed from mass reddit exoduses.

The fediverse is meant to be explored and it may take you a month or two to find where you like best.

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[–] interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Try another planet which is not on fire, sorry for going all political on you!

[–] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They'll surprise-pikachu when WWlll starts and they don't know how we got there.

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[–] krolden@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

You joined the wrong instance bud

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

[–] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Did .world finally defederate from .ml? Will we finally stop seeing cringe feudposting from .worlders?

Doubtful.

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[–] prototype_g2@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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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[–] otter@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 week 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 :)

[–] phanto@lemmy.ca 10 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

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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[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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

[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 week ago

Well there's some lovely anti-imperialist coups going on in West Africa recently, here please read these 30 news articles about Burkino Fa

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[–] KazuchijouNo@lemy.lol 10 points 2 weeks 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.

[–] communism@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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 8 points 1 week 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!

[–] Azzu@lemm.ee 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

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

[–] Today@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks 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.

Have you tried filtering the home page? I'm very new to Lemmy so my advice may not be the best, but on the home page (I'm' using lemmyusa), there is a "Location" option and I changed it from "All" to "Subscriptions". This way I only get the sub communities I've subscribed to.

I have not found a way to hide a sub community (i.e. hide "politics" or something) from the main feed.

If someone with more experience with Lemmy can sherd some additional advice for focusing content I would appreciate it!

[–] Litebit@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

be the change.

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