Been thinking of making a post like this for some time, apologies if some of this is not completely relevant: this community seems more like it’s about Reddit the platform/product than Reddit the social “thing”, but I’m sure a lot of people have similar experiences to mine. Maybe on some instances more than others.
Here’s the one of the last comments I wrote as a regular Reddit user, on the eve of the blackout (almost a year ago to the day), under a post titled “Will your participation in Reddit change”:
My comment
I will keep searching Google for Reddit help threads, but as a cultural and news aggregator I think this is the end for me. Maybe I will check it every so often. On desktop. On the old site. Until they sunset that too.
I wouldn’t be against using the first party app if it wasn’t so awful to use.
It’s a massive shame that we’ve all collectively agreed that Reddit is the de facto way to create open communities online. There were so many forums that could fill the void left by Reddit for things like tech and art and they’ve all shut down in the past decade.
I try not to be too negative about the evolution and constant growth of the userbase of the site and of the internet as a whole, but I’ve really felt like things are moving in a direction I can’t even be cautiously optimistic about lately.
I think of all the mod tools that will be defunct. The commonly cited example is that people who comment excessively on adult subs are automatically barred from commenting on the teenagers subreddit. Sure the admins can whip up functionality to do this, but this site was built on custom tools and custom CSS and all that. I think the API was one among the many secret sauces that give Reddit this staying power. These sites and forums I talked about - I used to hop from one to the next year after year. Until I found Reddit a decade ago.
I like that I choose my subs and that I don’t get algorithmically ordered sludge designed to game the algorithm on my homepage. Yes the sensibilities of the lowest common denominator redditors are gamed by people posting, but that’s (in my opinion) acceptable.
Frankly if they kept the old Reddit Gold pricing (4 bucks per month/30 annual) and gated unrestricted API access behind it I would have been inclined to finally give Reddit money. I use it a lot, I don’t mind paying now that I can afford it. But something about how it’s all going down really doesn’t fill me with confidence.
I’ve been trying to write a post about this for a while now, but I haven’t felt like it was relevant. Thanks for asking here
Reading through this is a bit funny, in retrospect, seeing how Reddit-centric my understanding of the internet had become at the time. I am happy to report that I have checked the home page maybe a half dozen times since the blackout, instead of once or twice a week like I expected. I suppose the disgusting state of the heavily astroturfed worldnews sub was a big part of it as well: for me Reddit was the one big online platform where the average visible user didn’t seem to be very misinformed about Palestine (at least not by default), and it was frankly very sad to see where it got in the past few months.
I do miss Reddit, I haven’t been able to replace it outright. I’m from Lebanon, and Lebanese Twitter is (if you can imagine it) even more of a toxic cesspool than regular Twitter. I’m not on Facebook (also cesspool here), I’m not on Instagram - my point is I don’t get anything about my country on ostensibly user-curated social media. /r/Lebanon was very far from perfect, but it was nice to get a trickle of local news with users who were more in line with my own politics. The local news outlets focus on a lot of irrelevant crap, the sub’s news feed was a bit more interesting.
One thing I loved about that subreddit was that users with more mainstream views in my country (eg. transphobia-as-default) were allowed to spout their bullshit in the subreddit with little mod pushback (if it’s just JAQing off etc, not harrassing people obviously). Then the regulars would dogpile on that user’s post - very refreshing! And very validating I would imagine for anyone who is used to hearing this shit everyday.
I was applying to be a mod to help keep the sub moving, at one point, but hey. Maybe that headache was never worth it. Still, I felt like I lost one of my online homes.
More generally, I have enjoyed my first year on Lemmy, although the experience has been lacking in many ways. For one, while Reddit has a reputation as a meme cemetery, the memes here are generally a bit moldier. But that’s okay. The fact that there’s fewer posts I think isn’t necessarily a bad thing either, I think we all preferred Reddit’s slightly slower homepage in 2013 than the one we left in 2023, that would regurgitate more and more from the bottom of the barrel if you were willing to keep scrolling.
I’ve toyed with opening a Lebanon community here on dbzer0, having opened one on FMHY that nobody used. But it wouldn’t be the same, and I wouldn’t know how to populate it. I posted maybe 2 non-question posts on Reddit in my decade+ of being a regular user, but I wrote tons of comments. It also helped keep my English sharper, I think.
I’ve reactivated my old Instagram account and it’s pretty ass out there. The ad/post ratio is just egregious, and they’ll just serve you random posts from random pages. I want to see my friends goddamn it, isn’t this what your platform is supposed to be for? For those of you who don’t know, the app will also send you a notification once or twice a day suggesting you look at “today’s top reels”. I have never watched a reel of my own will, fuck off.
Point being, the main platforms people use online haven’t been up my alley. I can only hope the zoomer dumbphone pushback keeps expanding, and that social media starts being seen as something for older generations. Wishful thinking?
This is just a post about enshittification, everyone’s favorite word, but every time I think about it for more than 2 minutes I can’t help but miss a simpler internet. Some part of me was hoping it would kickstart me “growing out” of spending this much time online per day (not everyone spends a ton of time online), but it hasn’t.
Also every time I ask something longer than 20 words on Discord some middle schooler will reply “yap”, even in the channels designated for questions. Discord has had its uses (yes I know there’s privacy concerns), but it’s hardly a replacement for Reddit, or forums. Both of which are/were searchable. But enough yapping from me.
Thoughts? How has the exodus been for you? Is this how Digg users felt?
Honestly I spend less time on it and that’s a good thing. I read more news, blogs, use other sites etc
If I want to see stuff from my own country I’ll read the local news
I don’t treat Lemmy like some Omni platform like reddit was, but more of a niche platform like all the others. I don’t use Twitter, Instagram kr anything either.
I wish I could be like some of the other commenters here and say that leaving Reddit has been good because of the time suck that it was, or that I’m self-hosting xyz, but I can’t. And I am truly jealous.
I’m still looking to scratch that itch and there’s…nothing. I’m just very bored now but I haven’t gone back because I’m so angry at the way it ended. I do like Lemmy a lot, and Mastodon since I also gave up Twitter, but for better or worse they were a big part of my life and I’m not doing amazing things and coming to wonderful realizations now that they’re gone. It’s just depressing all around.
I volunteer in disaster response, and hurricane season started today and Reddit and Twitter were huge resources for us. Do you know how much of a loss that is? That can’t be replaced…entire communities, regions, parishes, counties, cities, states…they aren’t going to magically swap from one service to another because spez and Space Karen are assholes.
I’m sorry for the rant but enshittification sucks and I am sad.
TLDR I agree with you, OP.
In terms of boredom, it’s a healthy thing! Boredom is what pushes people to learn new skills, find new hobbies, and just generally do things. I think the demonization of boredom is very bad for society.
In terms of disaster relief, that sucks. If you have to use Reddit for that, then so be it. People getting the help they need in an emergency is more important than sticking it to spez.
It was the one thing that consistently relieved some of my ADHD boredom though, which is priceless lol
Haha ya, I totally get that. For me: I’ve been doing more little projects on my phone (designing games on my off time, researching work problems, etc), started carrying around a journal to write in on my bag, I downloaded the Shonen Jump app and started reading manga for anime I’ve wanted to watch but haven’t gotten around to, and I listen to podcasts not just when I’m driving. Hope some of those suggestions help or kickstart your own idea.
I also want to start carrying a book around with me like I did when I was a kid, because I have such a big list to get through and I have lots of pdfs for rpg books I’ve downloaded but haven’t read. I’ve tried to read them on my phone, and I succeeded with one book but the screen is so small lol. Maybe I need to look for a good e-reader that reads pdfs without straining my eyes, like I heard e-ink readers or something like that do, but apparently not with pdfs, I guess?
Thanks for the suggestions, I appreciate it! I can only listen to podcasts when I drive really, it’s the only time I’m able to focus on them. I can’t turn one on at home and just…listen. Maybe if I’m cleaning or something but I prefer music to do that for motivation.
I have a Kindle Oasis and I LOVE it! It’s the perfect size to slip in my purse, it’s thin, and I have multiple books with me at all times. I highly recommend it!
Thanks! I’ll look for that one! And you can tell, I really want to avoid returning to my reddit level of online addiction I was at previously. I’m close with Lemmy, but there’s not enough content for me to get there yet lol.
Makes perfect sense…good luck in your journey :)
12+ years on Reddit. Walked away in disgust after the API fiasco and killing Apollo. Found Voyager here and that really helped the transition.
I miss the local subs, especially related to current events, and game day threads of local baseball team. Haven’t found a good replacement (the Athletic has them but they’re harder to navigate). On current events, unless it’s a really big national news story, not much.
Between the loss of Reddit and Twitter, I feel like I’m getting less realtime news. But in retrospect, it didn’t really matter. I’m actually fine reading about something two days later once the outrage has died down.
My daily usage definitely dropped, which is a good thing. I’ve been reading digital and physical books more instead of mostly a diet of audiobooks and podcasts. If there’s some idle time, I dip into a book instead of reflexively checking social media.
FWIW, Lemmy has the same vibe as Reddit 10 years ago. I’m planning on sticking around and contributing more.
More like Reddit 15 years ago, but it’s getting there and I think if we maintain a healthy core the next big thing will send another wave here. It’s exactly how Digg died.
100% this. Reddit wasn’t always what a lot of people know it as. Lemmy has extremely early Reddit vibes. And that is a good thing. We just need to keep growing and diversifying.
I actually miss Reddit, I miss it when it was actually a useful site where you can engage with users on specific topics that barely anyone in my country gives a shit about. I left Reddit on 1 July 2023 (the day API access for third party apps got shut down), and after 11 months, I’m still not looking back. Lemmy really is my new home now, I’m called “Resol van Lemmy” for a reason. Let’s be honest, Reddit nowadays is basically some buffalo trying to take a huge dump on a birthday cake, an incredible website that ended up being ruined by a bunch of shitty business decisions. I’m gonna say it again, fuck spez. He is not was Reddit is about, we Redditors are what Reddit is about. I don’t even care anymore, fuck him. Lemmy might potentially be as good as Reddit one day, but I suspect that this day is quite far away from today, but I (and my fellow Lemminos/Lemmings/Lemurs/whatever) am working to make that day closer than ever.
I was on Reddit for almost ten years, still feels weird to leave it. But it’s like leaving a marriage or long term relationship - you are not leaving that person you were first with, you are leaving the person they became. Reddit today isn’t the Reddit it was even a year ago.
The place got infested with Boomers reporting people non-stop, the major Karma accounts that contributed so much almost all left. There are niche subs like the fountain pen subs, tipofmyjoystick, and a few others that I wish would move here. Sadly I think those places will be lost.
This is exactly how I feel.
I haven’t even bothered to subscribe to many communities. I almost exclusively browse all because there just aren’t any niche interests of mine being talked about. In that sense, the gap that leaving reddit left has not yet been filled. That said, I don’t particularly miss it.
The only thing that really sucks is the loss of game communities. I no longer get updates and spoilers for games I’m interested in on a forum. I’ve had to join like 30 different discord servers and have them all send updates to my own private server, but I no longer have a community to discuss these things with because I don’t care for chatting with strangers in real time like you do on Discord. This has led me to become less interested in many games and, in some scenerios where the game is held up by an awesome community (Deep Rock Galactic for example), I’ve just completey stopped playing them.
With that in mind, I think I would consider my switch from Reddit to Lemmy somewhat negative, but at no fault of Lemmy. I realize I’m not exactly doing anything to help my problem, especially by only browsing all.
We’re rich!
We’re rich!
Lemmy is great for general shit… News, memes, generic hobbies like cooking that most people might do, etc.
I miss being able to go to /r/Game_Name and being able to talk specifically about that one title. The generic “Gaming/Games” communities are mostly just news about the industry as a whole, which doesn’t really get discussion about the games themselves.
IDGAF though if nobody else uses it, come June 21st, I definitely will be practically spamming the only Elden Ring community on Lemmy with stuff from the DLC as I play through it. Add “Lemmy” to the online group keyword thing in-game :P
Basically reddit stole a huge amount of soul from many communities that were convinced of its good intentions. It was just gathering and still is gathering data to train AI to then use it against us later. There’s no room in my mind to ever go back to that shit hole.
This is literally the only reason I’ve kept using reddit. I hate reddit, but I love the communities I’m involved in and I want to give back to them. As someone that’s at least a little recognizable, I can’t do that on the fediverse, and that sucks. I’m doing my best to encourage people to move over to this side of the fediverse, as well as continuing to use it myself (granted, more mastodon than lemmy, given more of the communities I’m a part of congregate there – anime fans, namely) but it sucks that the exodus wasn’t as big as I’d hope. But i’m doing my best to contribute to the trickle of users over to a part of the internet that does actively feel more joyful than the wastelands of other services. It’s a slow process, I just wish it wasn’t so slow-going
I definitely will be practically spamming the only Elden Ring community on Lemmy
Please do! I try to keep !baldurs_gate_3@lemmy.world alive, not an easy task he he
I just realized the reason I don’t see much activity in the one I was thinking of is because it’s on lemmy.ml and I blocked that instance. I wonder if I could get mod access to the lemmy.world one and fix it up… 🤔
Edit: I did 😃
I miss the niche communities from reddit. Things like emulation, datahoarding, discussions of my local sports teams, etc just aren’t as common here. Conversations are fewer and more far between.
With that said, the conversations here are generally higher quality and I haven’t really seen many bots which is nice.
There are some pain points. The sorting could be improved, I feel like maybe they could have multiple post sort orders like a primary and a secondary. I want to prioritize the top daily posts with the most points, but that makes some smaller communities unusable because they only have one post every few days and all the discussion happens in there. Or, maybe per-community versus home page having different sort orders, something like that. When there’s less content, it’s important for it to be more discoverable. I tried out “Hot” sorting but I didn’t really like it, so then I switched to “Active” sorting and that’s what I’ve been using for the past week.
Have you tried “Scaled” sorting? It was added to lemmy a couple (?) months ago and tries to solve the problem you’ve described of big communities drowning out the smaller ones in a subscription feed.
I tried it just now, and it seems to kind of have the opposite problem. With scaled, I’m having trouble finding the most popular posts of the day/past couple days.
I feel like sorting is probably going to be something that will take years to get it to be quite right. Active does seem to provide a pretty good browsing experience though.
Bummer. It’d be cool if there was customization available on how exactly the sorting parameters work. I imagine, for example, if the weighting for a user’s own sorting could be adjusted at their end, you could get Scaled (or something like it) to get you what you’re after. Probably a pretty niche thing compared to just making sure most users are happy with the sorting most of the time though.
I like to switch between different sorts, because like you I haven’t found the perfect one yet. I do think you should try scaled every now and then, though, just to help boost the smaller communities. It’s fine way to find newer ones when I’m out of content from active or hot.
I’ve been preferring it actually! There’s a sense of calm I get from scrolling through my frontpage and being out of posts at some point, usually like 20mins. I used to spend hours and hours on Reddit, just because it was so easy to keep scrolling infinitely.
At first I thought I should subscribe to more communities to have more content but it’s actually kinda nice to be limited.
I also found a great female weightlifting guide over on hexbear, so I’ve been building muscle since November. Someone must really care to post guides here, so my confidence in it has been a lot better from the start.
And I recently took the plunge and opened a community for posts about Royal Pythons. I’m still the only poster, but it will catch on eventually, and I’ll cultivate it to be better than r/ballpythons from the start. Some of the posts on that subreddit are simply scary haha
I miss some Reddit communities, to be honest. There are no communities here for most of my hobbies and that brings down my enjoyment of the platform. Most things that spark joy in my life are not here.
Another thing that has been bumming me out is that people are way more aggressive now. Lemmy was a very friendly and welcoming environment, even in the most toxic topics you could think of. Lately I find a lot of elitist comments where anyone that doesn’t have the same opinion or needs is objectively an idiot.
On the positive side, I switched to Linux because of Lemmy! And I’m (still) learning Rust!
Make sure you dye your hair a fun color when you get to a comfy point with Rust, that way people know you’re a serious Rust dev (/s).
There are no communities here for most of my hobbies and that brings down my enjoyment of the platform. Most things that spark joy in my life are not here.
Which kind of hobbies do you have? There might be other people interested in them too
I lucked out in this regard.
I was able to join up on sopuli, a local Finnish instance with a small but active number of users, who post about and occasionally comment on local things in !suomi@sopuli.xyz. It’s still quieter that reddit in that regard, but I do at least get some local news.
I’ve also made a huge effort to bootstrap an active anime community here on lemmy, and luckily I’ve not been alone in that. !anime@ani.social has been growing steadily. Instead of getting my anime fanart on reddit like I used to, I upped my usage of pixiv significantly, and then translated that into several communities and activity on lemmy.
If you can, try and get your news from local outlets, and if you actually get into that habit, set up a community for your local area, and start curating articles worth sharing, and posting them there.
My problem with ani.social is that it’s full of moe, and I HATE moeshit with a passion.
That’s too bad, because I’m almost solely responsible for that particular genre of post on the threadiverse, and I don’t plan on stopping.
A “passionate loathing” of a concept sounds like a 100% “you” problem.
Also, I list literally every moe community I run in each of the sidebars of every community. It’d take you less than a minute to find and block them all.
And if you’re using “moe” to refer to anime in general, you know v19 introduced instance blocking, right?
Edit: I don’t understand why anyone would bother downvoting me or any of my posts? Do you people think anime-fans will just go away or stop being anime-fans if you disapprove hard enough?
Just to prove the point, I commit to making ten more posts for every downvote I get. I’m up to over 600, configured and ready to go. If you don’t want to see them, just block me already.
I like the idea of moe culture in theory, but on Lemmy, Moe is exclusively drawings of unrealistically busty young girls in provocative poses.
It’s gross.
I block and I block, but there’s always a new subforum on the front page.
I have no clue what you mean by “moe culture”. And please look up what “exclusively” means. Your use of the word here is a bit too far beyond hyperbole.
The word “moe” refers to the attachment people feel for fictional characters, and as different people like different characters, it can be felt towards nearly any type of character. Japanese vtuber Oozaru Subaru used the word to describe how she feels about BT, a 40-ton three-story battle-robot from Titanfall 2.
In the case of the moe communities I run, that means neat character art. Various niches of such, depending on the community and explicitly the kind that doesn’t go all the way to porn. Short of that, it includes the full range from completely platonic to full on implications.
What you think is gross could not interest me any less. The idea that arousal is off-limits in art is a view held by the narrow-minded, prudish and boring. It’s as valid a feeling for an artist to set out to evoke, as any other.
Again, I list every community I run in the sidebars of them all, and the last time I set up three new ones was two months ago, but I’m so sorry I didn’t DM the updated list to you for you to block.
Anime and TV discussion threads are what I miss most about reddit.
So long as the anime sub doesn’t overly gatekeep shit near to anime but refuses due to arbitrary FetchFrosh reasons then I’m good.
Stopping shit like Thunderbolt Fantasy or near Chinese /Korean anime from being discussed was absolutely ludicrous. But then they have anime best girl competitions constantly like wtf.
The amount of sidebar bullshittery just gets stupid.
Like animemes and animeirl should really all be combined for now until there’s enough people here.
There has been some drama around anime because the largest communities used to be on .ml. But they made the bonkers decision to defederate ani.social, which then caused people to make new communities on ani.social in order move away from .ml entirely, in response.
The discussions over on !dungeonmeshi@ani.social are likely some of the most active, but the anime community also has them, though not every series has enough watchers to get comments.
For animemes !animemes@ani.social is the most active, ATM.
Since the whole API fiasco and losing reddit is fun, I wiped my reddit account, downloaded my comment history and then used a bot to wipe all my comments and posts, doing so got me banned from commenting on a lot of subs, something to do with the speed that the comments were edited at or something. Either way, I don’t really care.
I still use my reddit account for lurking, there are some niche active subs that still have good information/discussion that unfortunately haven’t been picked up elsewhere, but I have those subs opened in old reddit on Firefox and I don’t venture outside of that, and I’ll never contribute or comment again.
I get that I’m contributing to their traffic still, but I was an active member for 12+ years, and I’m still pissed they fucked the entire community to profit from our fucking content. Definitely won’t be contributing to their content again.
“downloaded my comment history”
But… Why?
Cause it’s fun to sometimes go back and see what you were like at that point in time, just like photos
Lemmy scratches the itch that reddit filled and I’m on my phone less. I left before the blackout and I won’t be back.
I miss the sheer size of the site only because I can no longer find my niche. If I want to talk or read about a specific anime unveiling, there’s maybe a few communities on Lemmy but they’re completely dead. Reddit had the benefit of having a single sub for X thing be modestly active instead of as many communities as you like but nobody keeps up with them.
I agree. We need to grow Lemmy. Not sure how to attract more users.
Let’s take an ad out on Reddit!
I’m very likely the only siren enthusiast on Lemmy. Even if I opened my own community about them, I doubt anyone would care enough to use it. On Reddit, there is a small but very active sub for siren enthusiasts, although lack of moderation has led to it being overrun by obnoxious kids.
I just post siren stuff on relevant communities here, but they’re not explicitly for that kind of thing and I worry sometimes that I’m annoying people with my hobbies.
You post away. Don’t stress about others not being interested. Some will be, some won’t. The more posting that happens, the more posting will happen. It’s a positive feedback loop and it’s how Reddit grew to it’s current size.
You make a very good point. The ball has to start rolling somewhere, right?
yup, if you can make just one post per day, even if it just to the void, it will be there, with recent posts, in case anyone else interested in the subject moves to lemmy
Like others, being on Lemmy dragged me away from the constant stream of endless gratification. I still check it a few times a day, at most, but much less than Reddit.
What Reddit still has over Lemmy is a huge database of answers. While many people have left Reddit or moved on, their comments stayed, and that includes many searchable and genuine answers.
It also has more communities. Game devs still use Reddit to host a lite web page (subreddit) for example. While the fediverse has many communities, alot of them are duplicates. Every instance has their own Memes community for example, which pollutes the feed sometimes.
In the last year, I’ve made less than 5 posts on Reddit, mostly asking questions. I don’t browse it, I just end up on it from search results.
I wish the fediverse agreed on unique communities. It’s cool that I can communicate with several different websites, but imagine if there was 5 reddit.com’s and they all made their own memes subreddits. Either you have to subscribe to all of them and get duplicate memes, or you sub to one and miss out of 4x more.
Because those 5 reddits are all divided, so is the potential user base. I’m not saying we should go back to a single website, but rather that each website in the fediverse hosts one major community.
Alternatively, have an instance that merges all the other instances’ communities so that all the meme communities appear as one, and all duplicates are filtered out.
I too miss reddit sometimes. Mostly because it had such a large userbase that there was always something interesting to find/read. If you had the right subreddits it was a very nice and friendly place. I like the fediverse (I’m on mbin) but there are still some hurdles to take. Such as finding nice magazines not on your home server. There are some lists and stuff, but I just want to search in the search bar of the site and find them. Also, there is still a 20 year gap of information. If you have a question it is most likely already asked at reddit. So searching on DuckDuckGo or Reddit will almost certainly give you an answer. Searching on the fediverse won’t give you the same hitrate. Especially for more non-mainstream subjects. For instance: I have a specific kind of motorcycle, the magazine on the fediverse is dead. Not one post, no activity (so that’s my fault as well). On reddit, there a couple of thousand threads. I just recently decided I wanted to interact more on the fediverse (hence this reply) to put in my effort to keep the fediverse alive, active and growing. I just need to find some subjects to start a relevant and interesting new thread.
I don’t think lemmy/mbin/etc. will be as popular since it’s too much trouble for the non-techies. I do think mastodon/misskey/etc. is quite active and interesting. It’s better then twitter. And since I follow the right people I really like pixelfed instead of instagram. I think those are better, but it is an adjustment. Since you have to put in the work to find the right people to follow. And while I dislike the instagram algorithm, it did offer some very good, high quality photography. But I think it’s going the facebook way. Facebook in it’s early days was a great way to see what your friends and family where up to. Now it’s just old memes, stupid jokes, fake news and advertisements. Instagram is becoming that as well.
