The fact that it keeps me off Reddit is a huge plus.

Yes ive had some good help from people regarding programming questions I had.

Yes, often. I do however struggle finding nuance sometimes. I am a very curious person by nature, and want to learn and explore tech. Anything related to AI is almost completely hopeless here. I see it as a tool and so far it has been quite useful for me in many regards. There is lots of problems with it, but I prefer philosophical discussions about it, and learning of its potential uses. Ways of broadening my horizon. I have heard all the anti-AI arguments thousands of times, and agree with most of them. I do also see its value.

Yeah I had a decent back and forth with someone about vegan/vegetarian foods advertising as imitation meats instead of the ingredients they’re made of. I don’t know that it changed my opinion, but I at least understand the “why” better now.

I can’t think of an example but definitely yes in non-political tech discussions about subjects like 3d printing.

In terms of politics, which is mostly what I discuss on here, I once read a Cowbee post that actually made something click for me that I hadn’t understood, basically, that a socialist system should seek to nationalize industries primarily once they’ve become sufficiently developed that incentives for growth are no longer necessary or useful. Previously, my framework had been more along the lines of state-run for necessitities and private for luxuries, without consideration of the level of development, but Cowbee’s explanation clicked for me and connected the concept of enshittification to the question which transformed the way I looked at things.

Um. Other than that, for all the discussions I’ve been in, not a lot else comes to mind. I find it really difficult to have high level discussions with people I don’t already broadly agree with, because people just aren’t interested. Whenever I attempt to pose a real question, or pick people’s brains in a meaningful way, it just gets ignored. People just really like screaming at each other over the same like three topics forever, everything gets reduced to team sports, and those categorized as being on the other team get completely dismissed. Like honestly, that weird cult of “Soulism” that we have on here is at least more thought provoking and mentally stimulating that the 10,000th shouting match of “tankie!” “lib!” “tankie!” “lib!” “Genocide denier!” “Genocide enabler!” blah blah blah, it all gets so boring.

Sometimes I really miss being in school and writing essays, where I could know that someone was going to read it, think about it, and provide feedback. Trying to talk about anything high-level on here is shouting into the void. But everywhere else I know of on the internet is even worse! The only spaces where people actually engage with the sort of questions I’m interested in are spaces where everyone broadly agrees with my perspective already, which also gets boring.

Sometimes, I just need something interesting and challenging to mull over while working an understimulating job, and it’s hard to find that.

I think that just being exposed to other points of view is productive. I’ve had enjoyable back and forths about plenty of media I enjoy and others have enjoyed.

I think it has helped me have a more well rounded worldview. I consider myself more conservative that the average poster on the fediverse. I still dont think that I’ve moved that leftward but I’ve evolved from hating the term enshittification and not really seeing it as a big deal to be all in on the resistance to it.

I just enjoy being here and the conversations I have here.

So far after about three years, it’s mixed for me. I had positive interactions on communities that I’m here for, like bike packing, bike touring, or one of the numerous fuck cars communities. The bird pictures community is nice.

But I’ve also been told I should commit suicide, or that my comments are not worth posting. So it’s mixed, and sometimes I refrain from posting comments on memes and or controversial stuff because I don’t want those replies. I’m typing this and I’m thinking about deleting it before posting.

More positive than negative overall, but lately I’ve been thinking about commenting less on Lemmy because of those few negative interactions.

Sure, on almost anything non political. Politics here is a pretty rough situation though. Seems like everyone is a teenage radical.

Yes. The people here are neat.

People are nice here imo

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.

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.

Not really, but also kind of all the time. I’m mostly here for memes and shitposts, just as a kind of substitute for actually having friends, and its doing that pretty well.

Nothing truly productive or useful, in the sense of somethings changed my beliefs for the better, or I feel ive made a positive contribution. Its been pretty negative in that sense, as the politically minded people online will jump at you if they suspect wrongthink, so ive learned to just avoid them as much as I can help.

This place is mostly doing exactly what I want it to most of the time though so its good.

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