On the one hand, news and information are important. We need them as a basis for action.

On the other hand, I feel that news are often shared with the hope that someone else will act according to the new information. This applies to scientists, journalists and also posters on social media. This is a very logical assumption. Unfortunately, the action part is sadly much smaller than we had hoped. However, I feel many people (especially scientists) get completely stuck in the logic that information leads to action and try to combat that by sharing even more information, researching for even more details etc.

Instead we should embrace action and invite others to join. However, this somewhat conflicts with the pseudonymity of lemmy. But it may be easier on other platforms, where people more easily share their real identity (mastodon, pixelfed, loops and their commercial counterparts).

I’ve wondered for a long time why independent media that seeks to drive change doesn’t make more effort to highlight solutions. I understand current, controversial events probably drive the majority of traffic, but why not pepper those articles with links that send people down rabbit holes into new ideas and solutions? (eg. “corrupt politician does corrupt things” article, filled with links to evergreen articles covering how to build in transparency and accountability in government)

I’m very new here so I don’t know how it could work, but would it be possible to create a library of “Solarpunk solutions to… X” resources (which can be updated and built on by everyone, with some way of highlighting popular ideas rather than just recent ones) so new doom and gloom articles could be more easily turned into an opportunity to educate and motivate people to get involved with the solutions discussion?

PieFed offers these fantastic categories of communities that helps me with this aspect of the Threadiverse. Like since https://piefed.social/f/news exists, I could in theory unsubscribe from all the News communities, thereby removing all of that content from my Subscribed feed, yet still be able to access that entire category at the touch of a button. (In practice I only subscribe to a few more selected ones, leaving the most toxic ones behind.)

On PieFed.social, there is also https://piefed.social/f/memecommunities, and https://piefed.social/f/linux, and https://piefed.social/f/television - but note that these predefined selections (by the instance admins) are not constraining in the least, since they are also user customizable and even shareable! So you could generate a finely-tuned selection of communities, then everyone could benefit from your labors (or likely someone already has what you want?).

This is a UI matter though, so I don’t know if it would be compatible with your current 3rd-party app or choice. But at least in a web browser - I use Firefox on Android - it works perfectly, and has done so for a year.

PieFed.social has access restricted to only account-holders right now (an unfortunately necessary bot defensive technique), but without needing to make an account you can see how these Topic areas work on piefed.zip, e.g. https://piefed.zip/topic/cats, https://piefed.zip/topic/gaming, https://piefed.zip/topic/privacy, https://piefed.zip/topic/programming, https://piefed.zip/topic/science, etc.

For me these 100% change the browsing experience for me, as compared to Lemmy! Also you can receive notifications for pretty much anything - a user commenting, a community posting, or even STOP receiving notifications for your own content (impossible on Lemmy), so for low-volume or high-importance content (e.g. a community that you help moderate?) this helps so much. Check it out! 🤓

I would be happy for more straight up discussions, but it’s somewhat difficult to organize and maintain engagement with discussion series’ and people would need to take that on. Or maybe we could organize a book club or work through a MOOC course? Find an interesting course syllabus and read through the readings together?

News posts are easy to make independently and often generate some discussion.

Everyone should be able to get the feed they want by subscribing to (mostly non-news) comms, “Home”, specific to the instance “Local” and then when done with those and ready to see whats out there, “All”.

Sorting by New and active, etc. also helps.

I’d like to be able to dial certain communities up and down: join World News, but only show the top 5 posts per day; join DIY and show everything. That would only solve OP’s problem if ‘climate good news’ or ‘climate action discussion’ were separate communities from ‘climate news’.

The news is important to share, so I don’t want any less news. We still have people denying anything is even happening, hiding the reality away only exacerbates things. If we post news, someone otherwise ignorant of an issue may learn something when browsing all, if we don’t, that can’t happen.

I do agree the ratio of news versus other stuff could use some balancing though, but that’s on us all to find more good stuff to post (and keep posting) about rather than asking for less of the news.

Be the change you want to see!

No. I think we have the correct number of news posts. Now, we just need all the other kinds of posts too, to dilute the pool.

I don’t mind the news per se, but I’d certainly like to see more of everything else

I have a similar perspective - I’d rather focus on what we can change than get melancholic over the things we can’t. We’re aware of the fact that it’s all going to hell and it’s likely to get worse; now what?

I’m not going to block the community, I literally joined this corner of the internet to get involved here, but I do think there’s a hell of a lot more value in sharing positive action and outcomes than being sat in yet another doomscroll factory - I’d rather be hopescrolling

“Socialist papers have often a tendency to become mere annals of complaints about existing conditions. The oppression of the laborers in the mine, the factory, and the field is related; the misery and sufferings of the workers during strikes are told in vivid pictures; their helplessness in the struggle against employers is insisted upon: and this succession of hopeless efforts, related in the paper, exercises a most depressing influence upon the reader. To counterbalance that effect, the editor has to rely chiefly upon burning words by means of which he tries to inspire his readers with energy and faith. I thought, on the contrary, that a revolutionary paper must be, above all, a record of those symptoms which everywhere announce the coming of a new era, the germination of new forms of social life, the growing revolt against antiquated institutions. These symptoms should be watched, brought together in their intimate connection, and so grouped as to show to the hesitating minds of the greater number the invisible and often unconscious support which advanced ideas find everywhere, when a revival of thought takes place in society. To make one feel sympathy with the throbbing of the human heart all over the world, with its revolt against age-long injustice, with its attempts at working out new forms of life,—this should be the chief duty of a revolutionary paper. It is hope, not despair, which makes successful revolutions.”

—Peter Kropotkin, Memoirs of a Revolutionist (1899)

(emphasis added)

Yes, it’s the same for me but with all the news.

Someone else said it pretty well. “I am getting tired of caring.”

To much negativity for a person not to break under.