Ask Lemmy

Losing RIF. But after more than a decade on the site, most posts felt like something I had read before.

I like that Lemmy is independent and Im not providing free content for a giant corporation

I got permabanned for telling someone to crawl back in their hole and apparently that's a euphemism for telling someone to kill themselves?

Meanwhile the person I was replying to was talking about how she saw female genital mutilation as abhorrent but all her sons were circumcised for "visual reasons" (she thought uncut penises looked gross).

So yeah, I noped tf outta there and have been here ever since.

It's an upgrade in most ways but lemmy seems pretty 50/50 on how they treat poor people and technology.

We all have essentially the same answer.

How did a non-ex-redditor get here?

I find Lemmy much more ethical. It truly is by the community, for the community.

On reddit, a select few are getting rich by the content YOU create. Seems a bit weird to me. You create content, they get to buy a new house/yacht. No thank you.

Reddit is Fun no longer worked, that was my initial reason for leaving. Then I started to see that reddit was becoming more of a corporate thing that regulated what we could see and couldn't see. I know it was like that before but now it just seems to be more...sanitized in a way if that makes sense.

Unlike most, I survived the API garbage because I primarily used the desktop site.

But the subsequent response and then the removal of the "don't sell my personal info" option was clearly spez saying the quiet part out loud. Asshole doesn't deserve to get richer off of my effort.

the june 2023 api protests

The API changes were the last straw; but it had been heavily destroyed by astroturfing for years before the API restrictions finally just pushed me over the edge.

Technically, the fediverse would be even easier to astroturf. Luckily we’re early enough that astroturfing is foolish on Lemmy.

Two years ago, I noticed the comment section was getting worse.

Someone would post a thoughtful post, and the top comments were jokes. Thats not my problem. But when I clicked on the commenter, I noticed a pattern. All their comments were a single sentence joke for like a year. I'd do it a hundred more times and would continue seeing it for the top comments.

Bots or not, it didn't feel like comments meant anything anymore. Redditors weren't sharing thoughts or talking to each other. It just felt like they wanted upvotes and validation. That sucks for conversation.

I wasn't enjoying myself there. The API fiasco made me aware of lemmy and I switched over.

The main cause for why I wanted to leave reddit was the "hustle" for getting as many upvotes as possible. It just felt like the content was not genuine, but merely manufactured for clicks, meaning that you wouldn't really get proper or meaningful conversations with other people. What triggered my switch to lemmy was reddit's api changes and the censorship moderators and spez did.

Here, I can have an actually meaningful conversation without the toxicity and childishness of redditors on reddit. One thing I miss though is leaving the huge bank of information that accumulated on that platform from decades of people sharing information.

I loved using Reddit Is Fun, and I couldn't stand the amount of bots on Reddit in recent years

I might be one of the few that was already on their way out. I had been getting sick of Reddit It wasn't the same thing it was when I first joined in ~2011ish. Back then, content was more scrutinized and users were kinder. As Reddit became mainstream, the content slowly changed to reflect that. It started to be more like an anonymous Facebook. I remember it sticking out especially after the Game Stop incident on WallStreetBets.

A few months before the API fiasco, I was banned from a sub because they misunderstood a comment I made as violating their rules. Because I had been banned from another sub recently (I think I had joined a China one then commented in an anarchist one for the lulz), I was suspended from Reddit entirely for a week. I didn't realize that I was doing it, but I used several usernames depending on what content I wanted to focus on. I commented using another username and was permabanned from Reddit entirely for trying to bypass the temp suspension. The specifics might be slightly different since I'm going from memory.

From then on, I would lurk in my favorite subs sporadicall using Reddit is Fun. Once the API fiasco kicked off a few months later, there was a push for Reddit alternatives, which gave me the opportunity to find and join Lemmy. I've been here ever since.

RIP Apollo

Fuckers killed rif is fun and I was gone, once they took the api away you could see the entire project it was already well enshittified. Had an account of almost 20 years too.

1. They killed 3rd party apps, and I'm not going to use their shit app or the shitty layout on the web version.

2. Their admin staff is full of Nazis.

...catastrophically hostile UI + overrun with bots...

It was a progression of things. Closed source, ads, Spez, terrible content feed filled with reposts and the same botted comments, and finally the end of API and 3rd party apps.

Now I'm on a better platform helping to build out my smaller communities.

API stuff and the general response to the community feedback and blackout. I used Apollo and wasn’t interested in switching to the ad-riddled official reddit app. Tried Kbin first and eventually found myself on lemmy. Liking it here.

API changes I learned about them in a really good infographic.

Content there is artificial. Getting banned for providing uncomfortable historical fact in the "wrong" sub, perma banned.

At some point, makes you wonder who is filtering these discussions.

line This, RIF dying, and the general apathy people had to Steve bald face lying to everyone and banking on people just forgetting the whole thing.

Everyone cheered when the jannies got booted for "abusing their power" only to be replaced by someone less capable but more willing to toe the line for the company

I actually stayed after the API (I used Relay and paid), but Reddit just seems... Mean, I guess. People say awful things to each other on there, and the shift in the community has been distressing. It also feels like the dead internet theory in practice. Repost after repost, bots commenting, commenting to themselves/each other. Ads, and not regular ads but "omg, I just happened to go to McDonald's and got this ccrrraaazzzyyy drink." And, God, so many communities about just women? Big tits, small, tits, red head, goth, this celebrity, that instamodel. It's like a menagerie of porn over there. And not even anything good.

I also realized I was blocking way more than I was looking at. I didn't feel good after being on reddit. I either had my feelings hurt, was outraged, or disappointed because I was comparing myself to everyone. I don't think that it's reddit fault for all of that, but I like this better. I know this may sound backhanded, but there's less here. I remember feeling kind of bored when I first switched. Like, where's my endless stream of garbage??? But I find myself looking at my phone less, and I feel like the information I do see makes me want to engage more. I've posted more on this account than I have in my entire time on reddit, and I was on that site for almost 7 years. It's not that everyone agrees with me, but I'm not afraid I'm going to get my head chewed off if I get something wrong. It feels like moving from table to table at a bar ~~I guess. I've never been to a bar~~, instead of trying to hear a voice through a mosh pit.

The API thing. After so many user-hostile and manipulative UI changes I was done with the official app. I also loathe the algo feeds and blatant manipulation. That and the complete disregard for the disabled made me commit to not give them more content or traffic.

Also, not great that the CEO is a musk fanboy and wannabe slaver.

Two words: Fuck spez

Banned for expressing my more than esoteric dislike of a certain fat orange child rapist that reddit deeply loves

The API changes, and that reddit now blocks VPN users which means that I can’t even browse the site to read.

Lost Bacon Reader app, Redit's app is a shit show. I use Boost for Lemmy and it's got its problems but it's better than Reddit's hot pile of garbage. I used reddit mostly to read the news and make snarky comments and I can do that here so...bye reddit.

The demise of third party apps made me look for a Reddit alternative. I had been using Apollo for years, and it was so much better than the official app. I had been using Reddit for more than a decade when they made the API changes.

The official reddit app is trash. The’ve injected more advertisements, and now they’re even injecting ads into comment sections. it’s the very definition of enshittification.

This is all only stuff that’s visible on the surface, too. Under the hood, there’s definitely bots manipulating the conversation and posts that get upvoted and downvoted.

It’s still fine for smaller communities that are more niche, but that doesn’t change that Reddit has a monopoly over online forums and we really need alternatives. The fediverse seems like it’s able to do that, though it still needs to grow and diversify a bit more.

I wouldn't say I switched because Lemmy isn't perfect and lacks a lot of the smaller communities that Reddit still retains, but:

1. API apocalypse. I didn't like Reddit's upper management at the best of times, but Spez showed how much of a money-grubbing snake he was.

2. Power mods. Many of them are sociopathic basement dwelling assholes who will banhammer you for breaking hidden rule #273, and then cry 'harassment' to the admins when you call them out. To be honest, the only silver lining to come out of the API purge was watching iBleeedOrange and AwkwardTheTurtle finally piss of Spez enough to get the banhammer. Fuck those guys.

3. Bots. Aside from automoderator being used to effectively censor and shadowban 'bad words' on a lot of subs, the fact that 95% of the chat requests I get are from spam accounts and e-girls mindlessly spamming their OnlyFans to every user in existence should say it all.