Same two reasons, but maybe in the opposite order. If Apollo is dead then by principle I’m not going to use Reddit by any other means. But if some other third party app had been banned and Apollo was still alive, I’m not sure I would have been strong enough to break away on principle alone.
What I'm able to say does not come across well in text. Please know that I'm using your comment as a diving board into a larger conversation and that this isn't about your comment. I too am guilty of what I'm about to say.
But this attitude is the systemic reason why mega corporations, and billionaires are taking over. When the product we consume is good enough for us that we settle.
We're exhausted into complacency until we're personally affected by something.
Sorry, the we didn't start the fire remake really put me in a mood
main reason is the app changes of course, but I've been getting sick of the site for quite awhile.
powermods that run hundreds of subreddits abusing their authority, everyone is snarky and rude, only approved stances are allowed and anything deviating from them get dogpiled/censored, the annoying redditisms (edit: Thank you kind stranger! Wow I didn't expect this to blow up! obvious fake stories in AITA/Relationships, etc).
the entire site was just getting really stale.
the upside was that it had an active forum for almost every niche interest, but that's also a negative as it really killed many of the small special interest communities.
You summarized my experience / feelings on the matter perfectly.
A few of the reddit mods were so obnoxious, they would ban you for posting to other subs they didn't like. Even if you had never been to their stupid sub or cared about it, you would get a random ban notification from some wacky niche sub.
On the one hand: who cares. But on the other hand: it doesn't feel like a very welcoming place when you check the site for the first time that day and some weirdo has banned you "because reasons".
I even saw one mod that would stalk individual users and mock them for getting banned from his precious sub. It was so absurd.
As for the typical users of reddit: I know it's a tired cliché...but it really was like a "hive mind" over there.
It also has a horrible new user experience. To get some basic level of karma you have to jump through hoops. The whole thing feels like a nasty reindeer game.
My anecdotal take:
I got banned from a random sub i hadn't heard of for comments in PolCompMemes and the ban message identified me as a nazi. I replied saying something like Ok, I don't use that sub so great effort, and not a nazi my flair is libleft ffs.
I got a 3day sitewide ban for harassing mods for that one reply to their message. Absolutely unhinged behavior, and the appeal wasn't even looked at. The only logical reason for this is advertising the small sub otherwise it is just a very stupid person wrote the banbot.
THIS. (Sorry, had to respond with a Reddit cliche)
Like you mentioned, the upside of communities for almost all niche interests is the thing that kept me there for years even after the front page went to shit. In addition to the things I was actively following, I really enjoyed stumbling into new niche subs and learning about something from a group of passionate experts by reading threads. I’m hoping we have that same sense of depth here soon too!
Ugh, not to mention the top comments on discussion-worthy topics just being a meme, one-liners or comment chains which somehow get 5000 upvotes like it was so note-worthy and significant when you could find the same thing in multiple posts in r/all for the past month. It still happens on Lemmy, but at least all the thoughtful comments aren't buried under them.
When I first learned that Reddit would be pricing out third-party apps I was angry and upset, but I still entertained the notion of maybe continuing to use old.reddit on the desktop (until they inevitably killed that). I like many of the communities there and didn't want to give them up.
But then came the AMA and the leaked memo and the crushing of the protests with threats and strongarm tactics. Everything spez wrote dripped with contempt for the community and the moderators that had made the site what it was through their unpaid labor. The message became clear: "Let the little users cry it out. They'll have their little tantrum and then they'll settle down and accept that the reality is that we can do anything we want to them and they have to just accept it. Their communities, their conversations, their culture, it all belongs to us, not to them. We have everything and they have nothing".
Basically same idea here. After the AMA I was basically totally done. Fuck Spez and everything about how they've decided to run their site. I'm hoping that Lemmy ends up being a better version of reddit. I understand that not everyone wants reddit 2.0, but something like that but better would be amazing.
Yeah, I completely agree. The main app I use didn't even shut down (Relay) but the AMA convinced me to leave anyway. Spez and the rest of the admins came across as simply vile.
It left such a bad taste in my mouth realizing that they were absolutely just going to let people get their rage out, and then rely on the good ole human nature of just going with the flow. I mean realistically, once you have the momentum of a site like Reddit, you can do some pretty shitty stuff, and not get canned for it. I'm fairly certain they're just going to rely on that, and then make money on what's left after that.
I'll probably still keep using old.reddit.com, but making an account on Lemmy has like 0 opportunity cost, so why not right?
He fantasizes about owning slaves in a post-apocalyptic feudal society. The fact that he makes those sort of statements about the community, us, is just creepy as hell.
Apollo is the only way I’ve used reddit for about 6 years.
I don’t want ads, and I don’t want my data serving as an asset to capitalist pigs!
the fediverse was/is quite a daunting platform. I’m here for the long run (hopefully), but I worry that it will either continue to be a relatively vacant space compared to other media, or crumble under the weight of unexpected operating costs.
To anyone who has been here for quite some time, I ask you: what are some useful tricks to make the most out of the service?
the fediverse was/is quite a daunting platform. I’m here for the long run (hopefully), but I worry that it will either continue to be a relatively vacant space compared to other media, or crumble under the weight of unexpected operating costs.
As a veteran of Usenet/Alternet, the Fediverse feels nostalgically like home in a way many social media platforms failed to capture since then, at least for me. I think it has legs this time, with specialized "galaxies" catering to different media habits and preferences. You have imagos of other platforms for long- and short-form discussion, video, images and mixed-media chat here. The Fedipact even seems to be a good start towards limiting the influence of Big Tech and their playbook to Embrace, Extend and Extinguish. Well... this time™.
I also worry about it collapsing, but more from under its own weight of balkanization: ever more fragmented splinters of the same communities all isolated from one another through defederation and strife. Maybe that's an unavoidable end game for diversity in an ecosystem, or maybe it will scale this time without corporate interest driving engagement through controversy and rage?
We'll see. Nothing is forever, and something different usually comes along when you need it.
Anyway, I'm here for the same reasons as you and many others. It'll be a good thing we build here, if we can keep it.
Ha! Effnet Dalnet Undernet and Newnet represent! I was a Wolf on a certain room with certain eggdrop bots that did certain caching of info interesting to others :)
Seeing the way Reddit handled the protests. It’s one thing to have a business goal of getting everybody off of 3rd party apps (which was obviously the case). It’s another to lie about it, slander developers, threaten mods, etc.
I'd been a redditor for about 14 years, if not longer (I was a sophomore in high school, I believe, and I'm 30 now). I've been using 3rd party apps for about as long as they've been around. I tried the official app once a few years ago and really disliked it compared to the experience from things like Baconreader and AlienBlue.
The fact that the apps are dead is obviously shitty, but I decided to quit Reddit because of what the API changes represent - the inevitable descent of a capitalist enterprise into full-bore profit extraction. In my view, that's not going to work for Reddit, which seems like an inherently unprofitable enterprise. Any changes that will drive revenue will also substantially hurt the things that makes Reddit useful and fun in the first place.
More ads? That actively degrades the experience. More monetization of little digital badges? That's not going to be enough to generate the revenue they want, and it's incredibly stupid anyway. Paywalling subreddits? That will kill the entire site in a heartbeat.
Ultimately I just don't think Reddit even can be profitable to the degree that corporate overlords want it to be. Either it's going to die quickly, or it's going to gradually get even worse, dying slowly.
My main reason? The administration team, I can understand needing money and wanting to charge for the API services, and while they were higher than normal I would have probably been okay with paying a subscription to help keep the third party app I was using running.
That was until I saw the CEOs response to the development community and anyone who remotely asked about it. That was before he absolutely butchered the ama, and before he slandered one of the largest third-party developers in the community, and then when being called with evidence the bull crap he was spreading instead decided to attack said Community member saying that he didn't realize that it was recorded and that he stands by what he said. That was before he decided to threaten the moderator teams on the platform who may I remind you was working for free as volunteers comparing them to a landed gentry.
It is very clear that what he says publicly is polar opposite of how he administrates, he may say that Reddit is an open Community where the community has final say, but his actions say completely otherwise; it's his way or the highway. And since he is the CEO of the platform I'm choosing the highway and clearly I'm not the only one.
At this point even if he decided to do a complete 180, and made a formal apology to the site and reversed the actions of the API changes(which I personally think financially wise would be unwise they should have funneled it into Reddit Gold somehow) I wouldn't go back, it's clear how the leadership is on the site and quite frankly that's not something I want to contribute to.
But for me, once the blind moderators said they can't work with the new system, that's pretty definitive for me. When people with disabilities have found and built their own ways to exercise equal power with others and protect their communities, and then those ways are wantonly taken away from them — yeah, that's bad.
The tone shift, mainly. I mean, I knew it was going downhill, but I didn't realize it'd happen so quickly until the huge shift in tone after the protests. Then it kinda clicked that "whoa this place is turning into a shithole fast".
It's good old cancer. The influx people don't really know how to use the community, they don't "get it", and now there are enough of them to resist being driven away. It's unstoppable now. Every sub slowly turns into a shitpost sub, bit by bit, as the negatively creeps in subtly.
A single mod team can't hold it back, trolls are too smart for that, and trolling mods is too fun. It takes a larger community culture to keep them at bay. Lose that ... and watch for yourself. Should take a year or two, off the top of my head. Not even r/humansbeingbros with a mod army could withstand the coming times of darkness and despair. It would merely be the Rivendell among Sauron's endless hordes. lol
I gotta admit, I thought reddit was immune. The karma system. But a critical mass of users is capable of undermining and subverting it, and then spez came. While he could backtrack and possibly cure the cancer by inspiring some decency again, I don't think that's very likely. No profit in that.
I was on the fence about it until the Spez AMA. Then, I decided I'd be leaving on the 30th.
Then, I had a user call me "fucking stupid" for supporting a sub shutting down, and that was the final straw for me. I had seen how friendly people on Lemmy are and this showed me how toxic Reddit is by comparison. So I immediately nuked all my comments & posts and deleted my account. This was around two weeks ago and I've been much happier here.
In that AMA I discovered a subreddit literally named friends of spez they were going around that ama and raining people with legitimate criticisms with downvotes although most of the other redditors tipped the scales fairly quickly they were also throwing reports on these users as well and of course they weren’t banned because they’re friends with spez
I'd been looking for a good reason to leave reddit for a while.
Lately I've been growing tired of the push towards reddit mobile app. I only use the desktop app, even on mobile, and slowly but surely reddit has been hiding things behind their app or requiring you to sign in. I don't want to sign in, I don't want a mobile app.
Despite how big it is, it's very easy to not actually engage with anyone. I miss forums, so I didn't like that.
Opening up popular posts and scrolling down pages of witty one liners.
General rudeness, brigading, and the all or nothing mentality concerning many topics.
Reading pretty much any comment in /r/worldnews is discouraging.
I know people like googling with 'reddit' at the end, but marketers also know this and I've become suspect of 'reddit recommended' products. In general, reddit is turning into a product and not a place of knowledge and discussion.
I know this is probably my own reddit settings, but I don't like how comments have been collapsing. So I open a post with 9000 comments, I see like 3 top comments and have to click to open the children, which can take a second to load. If I reload the page then I lose my place. Clunky. (I've never used any app to access reddit).
World news is one of the main reasons i left Reddit especially the brigadering and the same copypasta that some “users” post in every thread about a specific conflict
Because of the amount of times i have seen the same comment spammed in multiple subreddits in just 3 days I naturally reported one of these comments as spam and insted of taking it down they just perma banned me from Reddit
Part of it was the platform getting worse, sure. All the reasons others said, the algorithm getting worse, the API, etc.
A big part of it is the people. The more people from Facebook and Tumblr and other big apps came to reddit the worse it got. It also happened at a time that subreddits and the algorithms and rules were creating stronger echo chambers. What it created was incredibly toxic braindead circlejerks.
I'm so tired of the braindead circlejerks. Basically everything was. I'm so tired of seeing copy pasted musk threads where everyone tells everyone else how much they hate musk saying the same lines over and over, for example. Or repeating the same misinformation about topics they're fired up about because it fits their bias, while also complaining about misinformation. Pushing the dawn project videos for Tesla circlejerks or literally anything related to crypto for example.
I hope one of these new forums or social media sites popping up creates good communities and somehow avoids creating these echo chambers and reinforcing them with their algorithms, moderation, general design, etc.
I miss old reddit and old forums and IRC so much these days. They weren't perfect but they weren't as bad as modern social media.
I left Reddit because I gave them so many years of dedication (and $ via Reddit premium), not even considering the fact I bought coins on multiple accounts.
Reddit became way too focused on Karma. Karma is great in concept, but more than half of the users are only posting for internet points at this point. It takes away from the validity of posts imo. How many "I stopped drinking for 30 days!" posts did you see on there with like 70k upvotes and thousands of karma?
The amount of not genuine posts is alarming. People have become addicted to the upvote/downvote system moreso than boomers on Facebook have become attached to their pages.
The amount of hate speech, misinformation and blatant lies the site actively promotes is insane.
They literally made everyone NFT wallets...???????
NFT wallets?? Why the fuck was this ever approved? Oh yeah, more $, and something else for Spez to add to his IPO rubbish. Hey look at us we have some NFTs too type beat.
The userbase is pretty shit and Spez has even admitted to not caring about the people who made his site what it is.
Why would anyone ever stay on a site where the literal CEO says he doesn't need nor care about you?
To expand on 1 & 2: the amount of karma farming accounts and the monetisation of karma. It became second nature to check the OP account and top comment accounts to see if they were repost bots. Supporting them through engagement meant inadvertently helping bad actors who needed legitimate looking accounts, to either sell of to use. Reddit was absolutely rife with them.
That one article that coined the term 'enshittification' and made me realise centralised, for-profit social media will always turn garbage after awhile. I'm tired of changing sites every few years. Time to use something that'll stay good this time.
(Final straw) Spez said that he spoke with Elon Musk and looked up to his “cost saving” measures. It is apparent he wants Reddit to be like Twitter so I said fuck it I’m out
This! I was initially just planning to support the blackout. Then huffy opened his mouth just as i was beginning to get comfortable with lemmy. I've continued to check in on a few subs and posted links to matching Lemmy communities, but deleted the app yesterday.
I was a mod on Reddit so I was personally aware that for years Reddit's mod tools have been totally inadequate for the job, that Reddit has been promising to give us something better, and that Reddit has failed to deliver. Honestly, it was even worse than just not delivering: we'd get new tools that didn't solve the main problems, were only available on the iOS app, coming to Android eventually, and coming to the websites never. Third party API tools were the only thing that made modding vaguely functional, even on a small sub.
I'm also a supporter of accessibility in apps, which is also something Reddit has been promising for years and Reddit has failed to deliver. Again, third party API tools are the only thing that makes Reddit vaguely accessible right now.
Reddit's API changes are not realistic to implement in a single month. This was made clear early on and Reddit has refused to budge. So at this point Reddit is knowingly upending an ecosystem that makes their site usable by groups of users with no first-party replacements ready. And given their history of failing to deliver these very tools, I have no confidence that they will ever do so.
And THEN the Spez AMA happened. I was hoping he'd listen to the community, engage with our concerns, or at the very least actually do an AMA. Instead he got caught lying, he got caught astroturfing, and he inadvertently made it clear that the real issue was that he was butthurt over these third party apps being better at business than Reddit was. Oh, and later we found out the Reddit CEO really admired Elon Musk's handling of Twitter, a platform I left for all the reasons Spez seems to like it.
Even if none of these issues affected me personally (which they do), Reddit has made it clear that I just can't trust them to run a fair and functional platform. They do not take their obligations to their users, mods, and business partners seriously. If they don't like the way the game is going, they'll change the rules without warning. They will promise features they will not deliver even when those features are essential to their site working for the users who keep it alive.
I don't want to help Reddit build what Reddit wants to make anymore.
It became very focused towards the 18 year old mindset and if you didn't always adhere to the same ideology, you'd get trolled and/or downvoted.
The fact that a huge portion of the big subs were controlled by a small contingent of mods.
The API was the nail in the coffin. I stopped contributing the week of the 12th and only logged in to look at the general state. It was a little painful (and still is to some effect), but cutting something off after 14 years wouldn't go unnoticed to most people.
I'm acclimating fast and enjoy the feel of this place. Thanks to those of you making it what it is.
You're helping! I was nowhere near as much of a contributor on Reddit as I have been on Lemmy these past few days. Users like you and me will help build this place into something hopefully even more special than Reddit was.
RiF shutting down, deleted my account on the 12th and cited it in the "why are you doing this?" Section. I doubt it even saw human eyes but if you want something to change you have to be willing to give it up 100%. Anything less and u/spez has already won.
Lemmy.world is a nice place and it's getting pretty big. I hope other instances keep up. I'd enjoy seeing four or five main instances with dozens of smaller ones for specific use cases propping up the content aggregation side of the fediverse into a viable option. Mastodon already has the community size they need to be self sustaining IMO.
Hell if YouTube dumpsters it soon it might actually get the web 3 we really want to see off the ground.
I was looking for an alternative during the blackout. I knew that I wouldn't use it after the blackout since it would only be delaying the time of the switch. I always used RIF and I definitely wouldn't switch to the official app.
I had just switched to using Infinity a couple months before the announcement. I was sick of seeing the endless He Gets Us ads and being able to do NOTHING about it. Now Infinity seems like they're going to try and pay while switching to a subscription based app themselves.
I'm really hoping lemmy fills out with the wealth of info reddit had. Looks like it might but still...
I came here to watch something new grow...and be a part of it. For me it's become clear that reddit is on the 'our investors demand monitization' path and I have yet to see a single good outcome of that.
For me 90% of it was how badly they handled the paid API transition.
If they had given more than 30 days notice so Christian and the others could have actually handled the changes financially and logistically I would have stayed
If they had just mandated Reddit Premium to be able to use the API instead of weighing the cost on third party apps I would have stayed
If that AMA wasn’t an absolute fucking train wreck I would have stayed
If their official app wasn’t a enshittified mess of advertising dark patterns, user tracking and useless avatar bullshit I would have stayed
It was obvious the writing was on the wall for third party apps and they really didn’t care about fucking them over.
Also - whilst I miss some of the communities greatly (webdev, bluey and formulae being the prime candidates) when I step back and looking at it my feed is a mess of the same reposts, karma farming, doom-scrolling and negativity.
It isn’t the same place it was when I migrated from Digg all those years ago, which is sad but understandable.
Just couldn't trust them anymore. Stuff like that always turns into a slippery slope. Besides the fediverse feels like the old internet with web rings. But better. It's nostalgic in a good way.
Been on Mastodon for about two years now and honestly just found out about Lemmy. My primary app for Reddit was Bacon Reader and, now that it's gone dark, I don't really have a desire to continue to use that platform.
I haven't completely quit reddit yet but the third party apps shutting down and the way reddit handled the whole thing led to me looking for an alternative because fuck using the official app or mobile browser version, when old.reddit goes that'll be the end of any use of reddit for me but hopefully Lemmy can build enough of a community to keep me away sooner because it definitely feels like reddit is circling the drain in terms of quality.
However this whole saga unveiled other disturbing things such as how Reddit is leveraging its communities for advertising in this post:
https://lemmy.world/post/837198
I've been noticing the quality of posts just dropping. Nothing interesting or useful or insightful. Just junk food. The API thing, although not directly affecting me was just badly handled and considering how many people were screwed over by it it didn't feel right to continue. I definitely miss older Reddit. 10 year account here. So here I am. Better username though, my Reddit handle was cringe lol
Reddit, like Digg before it, was a gathering place, where people could post or consume content, and interact with other users. It was much like a town square, where people can set up their soapbox and bark, or where a person could go and listen, interact, and enjoy.
Reddit is now like the Home Owners Association for that particular town square, and are actively trying to control the entire experience, by acting like they own the soapboxes, and as though the barkers are now obligated to ensure that content is HOA approved.
Their own client on Android is incredibly poor and riddled with ads. I strive to filter all advertisement (using adguard) on my phone so this is a no go.
I left when Reddit started effectively taking over subreddits by forcing them to open or change their content to what Reddit thought it should be. I was planning on paying for Reddit premium so I could keep using it ad-free. I am sympathetic to Reddit’s desire to make a profit. But when they started effectively taking over subreddits it stopped being the Reddit I like and I’ll never return.
How they handled the third party thing and the I don't give fuck attitude in the whole context. To me reddit is the baconreader and without it I won't use it. I'm happy that I managed to get on board of this new thing here and I like it very much.
It's why I'm moving on fully now as well.
The official app is the worst garbage pile app I've seen in a while.
Only apps woede are the low-efdort moneygrabs.
That and loosing boost is why I'll probably not be seen on Reddit for a WHILE.
Put simply, I'm tired of being the product, and it's obvious that Reddit wanted to implement more data harvesting and more advertising to their platform. Couple that with the outrageous cost to use their API, and it's bye, bye Reddit.
Honestly I was using reddit app on all my devices, but I kinda despise big ass tech companies who think they are too big to fail no matter what they do...
Because apparently Lemmy was blowing up. I really support FOSS, but the only reason I don't migrate right away is the lack of activity. And then Reddit just became unbearable all of a sudden, then there's the surge of new Lemmy users. I'm finally happy to join.-
I can understand that u/spez has the power to whatever he wants to with his platform. I don't agree with his decision to ice out clients like boost for reddit and other clients with out providing some sort of transition plan. That really rocks my confidence in reddit which I have been a member of for 10+ years. With this change I feel the days of smarter than the average bear organic content on reddit will take a turn to favor the everyday idiot echo chambers of other social media platforms. It felt that is has been a long time comming for reddit, and the api fee put the nail in the coffin.
I can't say I definitely won't go back...I like Lemmy's community better than Reddit's but I'm not sure it'll ever be as popular or as reliable as a source of info as Reddit. I think the Fediverse runs into similar problems to Linux, where it's definitely superior in most ways to the nonfree competition, but that superiority goes hand in hand with inaccessibility to non-nerds. I like Tumblr's community less than Reddit (and Lemmy, Reddit, and Tumblr are the only three social media sites I even find the community tolerable, though I don't have Mastodon because I don't have anyone I want to follow there) and Tumblr has never been useful for searching info.
But let me tell you, Spez's conduct and praise of Elon Musk is what has me considering not going back. It's just...he tried to act on the pulse of the userbase and failed spectacularly. Also hearing that Reddit is a noticably higher percentage assholes after the protests started.
Reddit has gone down-hill significantly.
Over the last week most people have been gone while I was hesitant to leave reddit, and I've seen maybe one or two higher quality post. It's gone to absolute shit.
Best part is, reddits solution? Ban moderators and close the subreddit.
Sure, the fact that my preferred Reddit app was going the way of the dodo and the fact that they weren't even trying to negotiate in good faith were reasons, yeah, but at the end of the day, I was just gonna grit my teeth, patch the Reddit app with Revanced, and have that be my personal and insignificant F you.
Then I realized a bigger F you was to deprive them of content, future or present, (mine, specifically. As insignificant as it was) so I did.
Honestly same! There's no particular reason for me other than solidarity
Like, sure, some communities were getting better or worse, but that's wasn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things, and honestly due to Reddit's age it was bound to lose it's spark. Change is inevitable, so I jumped shit early
Significant increase in non-human/bot accounts makes it difficult to know whether you're actually talking to a real person anymore.
I was not personally affected by API changes and do not sympathize with for-profit 3rd party developers, however reddit's withdrawal of support for communities like Transcribers of Reddit is mean-spirited and marginalizes our friends and neighbours who want to enjoy social media like everyone else.
Nothing good ever happens for an existing userbase when an organization/product joins the zombie death-march of publicly-traded assets. Capitalism will inevitably ruin everything it encounters, and reddit will not be spared from this outcome.
My remark is probably too harsh. I meant that companies developing for-profit products based on another company's product/infrastructure, which they do not own, will be subject to whatever changes the latter decides to make. Any company that develops such a product should understand and take that into consideration. That said, I think reddit made a mistake re: its pricing for API access because the site benefits from that collaboration more than is harmed. However, if reddit wants to cut off its nose to spite its face they're entitled to do so, just as we're entitled to leave.
Apollo is about to shutdown and reddit seems to be muskifying. Some of the posts from Christian (The Apollo dev) with transcripts and recordings with Spez pretty much solidified it for me.
Long term I’ll completely ditch it, but I currently rely on it for GME news. I likely won’t check it more than once a day now, though, and definitely not from their app.
RIF was the catalyst, but since then, learning about the fediverse and its philosophy and potential has got me so excited about it. It could be a new direction for the internet, a way to stop the eventual enshittification of any site that gets popular, and it has so much room for innovation. There's already several "services" (I'm not sure what the best word is to refer to things like Mastodon and Lemmy) that use it in different ways, but I can imagine new ones being created to improve, expand on, and combine these ideas.
I havent fully left. I'll probably still use it on my browser for some time while also visiting lemmy. It'll be dead to me on my phone though, boost was my window to reddit on mobile, removing that is a death sentence.
I just wanted to support the moderators who the Reddit CEO, et al, treated SO disrespectfully considering the amount of free labor moderators gave and the amount of grief they had to deal with.
I didn't even know about 3rd party apps before this all went down. I just used Reddit (for 11+ years) on my laptop, never on my phone.
No, Reddit's not going to disappear right away, but without the moderators and users, quality content will.
I don't want to support a company that conducts itself in a predatory manner nor encourage other sites to enshittify themselves. The idea that the drop in traffic will further devalue reddit gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.
I was actually fine with the reddit app. All I want is memes and some news. I left to support the rest of the communities that were adversely impacted by the changes
What everyone else has said... but also I had already noticed the quality of my feed dropping. I don't know exactly why, but things just felt emptier and less useful. Then I saw this place had enough users to be viable, and I jumped.
Every time I discover an interesting new subreddit, the people there are always nice and friendly, and willing to listen.
And every time these subs grow past ~20K subscribers, the comment quality always takes a nosedive.
Just everybody yelling over each other with tired jokes and pointless arguments. And the place becomes just pure misery. But there is nowhere else to go, until now.
I want to see if federation can resolve these issues.
Well, the main thing is that they're killing BaconReader. I've used BaconReader for about a decade now, it just isn't the same without it.
And then when I came over here to try Lemmy out, I found it's pretty nice here. Especially with all the protest infighting Reddit has been pretty toxic lately. Or always, I guess.
The loss of 3rd party apps and the disgusting arrogance and entitlement displayed by reddit, especially them lying and doubling down about Christian threatening them
It wasn't one thing, but the final straw was how Spez handled the API changes that killed all the apps. I was already annoyed at the algorithm changes, the ads that were being served, how they handled so many things like firing Victoria (yes it was a while ago but I never forgot it), among lots of little things. But even with all that shit the thing that pushed things over was when they killed the apps and specifically how Spez handled it. What a choad that guy is. Maybe I would have stuck around if they'd done things differently, but damn man.
I actually left Reddit in early 2022, I'm not from the latest migration wave. I left for a combination of these reasons, the first of which is the main one:
algorithmic feed designed to arise strong emotions, often negative
snark and noise in the comments
ads
impenetrable moderation rules that often make it difficult to figure why a post is rejected, even after carefully reading all the sub's guidelines and FAQs cover to cover, as well as reviewing past threads
I used Reddit is Fun for about 7 years, I can't imagine going back to the official app with its clunky format even on the most compact setting and its hundreds of trackers mining user data for who knows what. The browser version still a useful enough tool for news, but that only lasts as long as users keep posting. Once they migrate here or somewhere else, that's the end for Spez's moneymaking scheme. I heard the RIF developer's working on an app for Tilde, but Connect for Lemmy has been a pretty good alternative so far.
I deleted 50k karma worth of posts and comments and my account when it occurred to me that they're charging these API fees to essentially make money off content that I - and others like me - made. Screw that. I'll take my two cents elsewhere, thank you. It's pretty exciting to be part of something relatively new as well. There are already Lemmy reproductions of some of my favorite subreddits, and despite being significantly smaller, there's much less meta to slog through. People are talking about the things that made them passionate about those subjects to begin with again, rather than some obscure piece of memery that has taken over the entire community.
Killing off third party apps was the straw that broke the camel's back. I still browse Reddit, not gonna lie, but I don't contribute anymore. And my mobile browsing will likely stop entirely once Apollo stops working tomorrow. I'm using Lemmy as a substitute, but also using this whole thing as a general opportunity to use social media less... less time mindlessly browsing reddit, more time doing things I actually enjoy.
Death of the 3rd party apps. I used to use BaconReader but switched to Sync for Reddit a couple of years ago. Both way above and beyond the official reddit app that's full of bloat and ads (unless you pay for gold).
They really just didn't seem like they were going to bring the functionality of a lot of the 3rd party apps so I can't see myself using their official app long term.
Oh, plus the Sync dev said he is creating an app for Lemmy, which I had never heard of before this, so that's how I found myself here!
The business model of silicon valley tech companies makes them worse to be a user of, but it also makes them less stable over time. I'm pretty sure fediverse apps can outlive corporate platforms.
And, frankly, i'm not looking forward to contributing to a publicly traded company, both as a user and as a moderator. Their interests fundamentally diverge from their user's.
I’ve been following Lemmy and the fediverse in general for a while so I’m excited about this new energy. Like others have said, my reason for leaving Reddit specifically are:
I won’t ever use the official app, fuck ads and bad U
it sounds like old Reddit is going away, and I can’t stand new Reddit
a platform more resilient to this type of changes is appealing
I spend 80% of my time on Reddit on mobile. Now that Apollo (which I use on my iPad) and Sync (which I use on my Samsung phone) is shutting down, I just don't feel like using Reddit all that much anymore. The official app sucks and I hate the way Reddit is treating the community. If I need to use Reddit, I'll be sticking to the old web version with adblock running.
Losing Apollo made Reddit too hard to use as a visually impaired person, and the quality of reddit is gone now that so many of us long time members left. I deleted my 11 year account because reddit made it clear we don’t matter.
I think what reddit didn't account for is that when sync, etc. shut down, I didn't seek alternatives ways of looking at reddit. I sought reddits alternative.
My local subreddit was blasted with even more racist spam than usual leading up to our mayoral races a few months back and that motivated me to shift towards using rss, mastodon, print media, going directly to different sources, etc. Third party clients were one of the last reasons I felt better about reddit than other social media.
Deleted my account today. Their website is unusable on desktop or mobile. Their android app is also terrible. Infinity for android was really nice to use and made using Reddit a pleasant experience.
But then I get drawn in to looking at the Popular/Trending stream and it was doing my head in. Third party apps couldn't filter this to a country specific stream so it was only US content that I am not interested in. Honestly it seems like a shit show over there and I don't need to be bombarded with such negativity especially when it's not relevant to me. And switching to use the Reddit app was not going to happen.
I tried Lemmy out at the start of the blackouts and have found it a much more pleasant place to be. I can self host it too, which is a bonus.
I haven't missed it and it'll just be one of those places I once went.
Obviously losing the third party apps and spez's lies about the Apollo dev were the big ones, but honestly, I have had negative feelings towards the reddit community for a long time. Everyone is perpetually negative. They seem like miserable people. And the fact that every single comments section was same 3 fucking jokes repeated over and over and over. "I'm grieving my wife who passed away this morning" "I also choose this guy's dead wife." "Hahahahahahahahahahahahalolololoollolololol" "no it's okay, the guy who the original joke is about thinks it's funny, so it's not offensive to say it to this guy."
I was using the official reddit app for years and didn’t know there was alternate better apps.. Still, once I could get my head around the shit reddit was pulling I was onboard to give it the arse.
Sync going away -- and now coming here, yay! If they're giving their users the finger, and there's a reasonable alternative, why would I stay? I was mainly there for the communities related to my interests (their size, not their mere existence), and those are present here and elsewhere in a growing capacity.
I did like AskReddit, though, and I'm not sure if Lemmy will ever get anything like that...
I started with the official app for the longest time, but then it just got worse and worse.
Constant A/B tests, godawful changes, the video player, etc.. There was a subreddit made to complain submit bug reports and discuss the app, r/redditmobile. At first, the devs were quite receptive with the community, even apologizing for removing a swipe gesture that they thought no one used and re-introducing it, but eventually they just stopped caring. Cries from users went unheard, and the app just felt worse and worse to use.
I kept hearing people say “I’m moving to Apollo” in the comments, which caused me to look in to whatever an “Apollo” is. Boy, was I glad I did.
A consistent UI, changes and additions that were commonly disabled by default when added, and zero ads. It was exactly what I wanted.
Aaaand then Reddit killed it.
At least wefwef is helping me stay in denial here on lemmy.
Spez’s treatment of the Apollo dev and complete disregard/contempt for those of us who want to continue to use Reddit in any way besides their shit websites and app.
I just don't feel like Reddit management remembers what the point of their system is. If they have such contempt for the mods and the users, what even is the point anymore. I get that they need to make money, but they need to do it in a way that keeps reddits positive aspects. This can't end well, the only hope for them is if enough people leave and they readjust their perspective and become a little more self aware. I'm not holding my breath...
Apollo dude.
Third party apps in general. It's the only thing that made using reddit on a phone bearable.
Combined with the fact that I've gotten kinda complacent in scrolling the same front page every day, so it's exciting to be part of something new and discover new communities.
To be honest, I had no beef with them. But I left in solidarity. Then they showed their true colours with the doubling down/strong arming/disastrous ama. If they had just been nice and polite and understanding about the whole thing I'd be back there. They dug their own grave.
Yeah same here, I used the main app and none of the API changes affected me, but with how God awfully they treated people and handled the whole situation I just couldn't stay and support that
I used to post things sparingly on Reddit because my username was the same as the one I used on Twitter, where I had over 100,000 followers before the pandemic. I never shared anything personal about myself, considering that some people followed me only to insult me if the meme I had created mocked something they idolized.
I abandoned my Twitter account years ago, and some toxic followers followed me to Reddit. The changes in the API have finally convinced me to leave that past and username behind, and start completely from scratch to be able to talk about anything.
I have tried Reddit's official app and absolutely cannot stand it in the slightest. Going a few days without it then made me realize just how much time I spend and waste on that site, and that I really should try to cut down on my time on social media.
I'm going to be using Lemmy, but it'll be much more sparingly throughout the day compared to how I used Reddit.
Reddit always felt like "The Inquirer" magazine to me. It was mostly trashy gossip, but I had a few forums that had good discussions.
2 I'm not really involved in any of the commercialized social media platforms because I don't like feeling like I'm the product. I don't like feeling like I'm being manipulated by an algorithm. I don't use YouTube or Facebook or any if the others either. I liked Reddit in that I could just browse without an account.
My phone and computer is my most personal storage. It's my diary, bank account, addressbook, calendar, personal correspondence and more. I can change my life and become a digital hermit, but I shouldn't have to. For this reason and #2, I only install applications on my phone and computer that I can trust will behave alongside all that juicy data about my life. I trust my spouse, doctor and lawyer with this information and no one else. This means that your spy app (Reddit app, too) doesn't get to be on my phone or computer. I only run apps that I can view the source code for (with a few exceptions, like banking). Same for the operating system (sorry, Apple. Sorry, Google). I know it's not bulletproof, but it's better than most.
Finally, I didn't know that there was an alternative. When this API stuff started, I first learned about Lemmy and Mastodon.
There's a lot more, but Lemmy's what I've been looking for for some time now, I just needed a nudge.
I've tried both the app and "new" Reddit a couple of times and find them both to be hard to use and an overall poor experience. Six months ago they were telling third party app developers that no major changes were coming to the API before at least 2024. Well, that was a lie. Currently they're saying that Old Reddit isn't going anywhere. I suspect that is also a lie and it will be gone soon. No reason not to jump ship while the jumping is good.
I was using RIF for about ten years, and RIF Golden Platinum for some large chunk of that. The site redesign annd the mobile app are pure dogshit, and over the years, RIF was my only access point. I even had it installed on my Windows 11 PC. I was distressed and alarmed to see it so viciously and obviously slated for destruction by Lord Farquaad. I initially and immediately supported the idea of the 2 day blackout. Then I heard about the absolute lack of concern for Reddit's blind users. I've never been one to simply not give a fuck because something doesn't affect me personally. TBH, I consider that to be a moral failing. Then /u/Phlegm moved on to spreading sheer libelous claims about the Apollo dev. At that point, I had heard about a few alternatives people were promoting and decided to look into them. Before the blackout started, I deleted all my posts and comments, deleted my accounts, and learned how to use Lemmy. I couldn't comfortably support Reddit anymore by then, and being here has really opened my eyes to how shitty Reddit is these days anyway, with the bots and politicall/science disinformation campaigns, the pure bullshit stories, the tired assed in-jokes, the power mods, etc. ad nauseam. I'll miss RIF a great deal - I don't even want to uninstall it, lol, but Jerboa and WefWef are coming along nicely. It's honestly been a breath of fresh air.
I've been cutting down on my time using Reddit a lot lately. Reasons being that for quite a few years now, I've felt like it took more from me than it gave.
After this shit show and the prospect of being forced to stop using Sync, I just decided to uninstall the app a couple of weeks ago.
After hearing that the Sync developer has started working on a Lemmy app, I joined an instance yesterday, and I gotta say, this feels more like the early Reddit I joined 15 years ago. Didn't know how much I've missed that sense of community.
Just like everyone else, reddit cutting 3rd party apps. Hoping this is the alternative that takes off as the more I read and understand the fediverse the more I like the concept.
If I’m interacting with a business and then that business closes the method I’m using then fuck them I leave. I’ve done it with streaming services as my preferred devices have lost support through upgrades as well and I’ve done it at restaurants for forcing QR code menus.
Two of my three main subs have migrated over here including the whole family of one of them. And once I tried Lemmy I really liked it and support the concepts and philosophy.
So I’ll only go back to the old place to check in on that last main sub periodically until an alternative appears or I talk myself into creating it.
Because the API changes forced 3rd party apps into their graves. Don't get me wrong, I can probably figure out the official app, but I don't want to. It's a matter of principle. I did the same with Twitter. I'm tired of social media being driven mad by advertising dollars and I just want a place to chill with people who share my common interests.
Been wanting to quit reddit for a few years. Recent incidents just accelerated the process. I will still visit few smaller subreddits from time to time as I still see the original reddit charm in those places.
A) their official site and apps suck ass, and B) it's clear their sterilizing the site and working to make it more corporate friendly, and they're doing it in a way that kind of undermines what reddit stood for.
I don't want them making money out of the content I voluntarily and freely created. I was contributing in subs like C_programming to help newcomers. I have been thinking that all these posts I made will help the next AI - and Reddit (not me) will get paid for it.
So I mass edited each post and comment I made. They won't get away with my data. My data belongs to me, not them.
It was long overdue. The API pricing changes have helped fediverse alternative like lemmy/kbin to gain traction. So it was a good opportunity to jump ship and so I did
Apollo leaving was the last straw for me. It has slowly become worse and worse over the years and I think most of my time on there was out of habit anyway
The official app is complete and utter garbage. There was no way I would continue on Reddit using this waste of bytes.
At the beginning I was hopeful that the devs would work something out with Reddit. I would have paid for a subscription on Boost for sure.
Well, we all know how the admins responded. Zero respect for moderators or users, the very people who keep their product alive. If you have the tiniest bit of self-respect leaving Reddit is the only choice.
I used RIF. Before this went down I tried the official Reddit app because I wanted to follow some accounts and make a news feed out of them. It was so crap. It was so annoying. Random notifications, not allowing you to open threads in browser... Just felt overall very intrusive. Deleted it in two days. There is a small random invite only community that is wholesome and I really love, but I couldn't even get myself to download the app for it. Also using Reddit just feels really icky now.
I was already seeing Reddit hitting an "Eternal September" situation where the general vibe was a total antithesis to what had me there for over a decade to begin with, but then they forced my preferred app to shut down which kind of forced my hand to jump into something and Lemmy was as close to the format I prefer, along with it being the number one solution most others in the exodus were proclaiming to try. This and Tildes, but Tildes requires an invitation, so... Here I am.
Their weak approach to hate speech meant that it wasn't a safe place. I basically stopped using it around 6 months ago, and have been on Lemmy since. Though it hasn't been very active until recently
The censorship of posts and comments and spez showing his true form. I quit when I heard about the blackout realizing that reddit will never be what it once was.
Reddit users are (mostly) wack, unfunny, self-absorbed losers who might as well all be the same exact person. Always have been, there just hasn’t been a viable alternative for me until now
where do I start, censorship, the free speech side died as soon as the Chinese investors came in, the owners not giving the third party any leeway, and of course my favourite apps going, but im praying Lemmy become the new reddit.
Two things they deleted Reddit is fun from existence with the changes and I got Perma banned for expressing how shitty of a place they became in a support ticket for charging so much money for the api.
I'm Relay user. It's not dead as other 3rd party reddit apps. Most of reddit migration is happening here. So, want to join this new site to know what's happening on this side too by becoming part of it.
API changes primarily. Especially given the vast majority of my browsing was done on mobile, that and the increased monetization of the platform overall drove me away.
Lemmy sounds neat though it'll be interesting to see how something so nebulous grows on the internet. It's sort of a neat experiment. It'd be neat to see it get a kick in the pants lol.
It harkens back to the days that we all had a piece of the net.
I refuse to use the official app. It's garbage. 99% of my reddit browsing is on my phone. Lemmy has a smaller but nicer community and scratches the same itch.
Reddit has gotten incrementally worse every year in the past decade. I was already over it when spez made his power play. I’m glad I stayed on for little while more though or I would have never discovered Lemmy.
I used Boost exclusively. Great app with a lot of costumization and the ads weren't intrusive. I'll blow my dad before I ever use the official app. It's slow, comments take ages to read, and there's a million ads.
At this point, I won't return to reddit event if they were to roll back the changes and made ammends. I'd put money on them fucking up the experience further down the line.
I did not use Apollo. I used the alien blue / official Reddit app. It’s not the best Reddit client out out there. The thing that annoyed me the most is the toxic masculinity and the deterioration of subreddits in the last few months. I don’t know the challenges that mods face with regards to api changes, but the line for me is when spez talked about musk and twitter. I mean, I left twitter almost a month into acquisition as things got very toxic and inflamed. I have a suspicion Reddit will go into a slow death spiral with content being just reposts from tik tok(which was already happening).
At the end of the day, I find lemmy a bit more palatable for two reasons, it’s slow moving and there is quality content, and not just some staged videos from tik tok. If I wanted to see tik toks I’ll be in TikTok.
I want to be a part of something new. And I want to see it from as early in the process as possible. I've been opening issues on lemmy apps, helping users, better understanding the technologies, the intricacies of federation, and the process of building and nurturing a positive, supportive community. That's fun, and rewarding. And it feels like we get to own it a little. And someday I may have my own Lemmy instance and I can continue the work, all in my own way.
Reddit has gone downhill so much over the years; RIF was the only way I could continue to enjoy Reddit, get past the fake-post ads, get past all the stupid bells and whistles and flashing awards and whatnot. Without RIF, I can't stomach what Reddit has become.
How Reddit reacted to the 3rd party apps builders also really pissed me off, too. Solidarity to people, not money hungry corp.
I may occasionally go to Reddit via my desktop, to visit some communities that I love. But I'll be reading, not participating.
Honestly, I always really enjoyed the idea of fediverse and federated social media/forums. It's like the good ol' forums from back in the day but more interconnected! The issue has always been that there were too few users to make it even somewhat useful, so now with so many reddit refugees, it's finally becoming feasible
Also, reddit admins suck for killing Sync for Reddit and I will never forgive them. Can't wait for Sync for Lemmy!
Right now, all the useful stuff on reddit is private and it's burning down - Main reason.
I tried joining lemmy like 2 years ago I guess, but back then lemmy was very strict, did not allow typical users. My appeal was rejected.
I try to move to a decentralized platform if I can. I left meta, snapchat long time ago cuz there's nothing to lose.
I may be unusual for around here: I was using the first-party app and thought it was fine. When it was announced that Reddit was effectively closing their API to third-party apps, I thought “welp, sucks for those people, but it is their API; if it puts them in trouble, maybe they shouldn’t have put all their business eggs in one business basket”. (Honestly, I still think that.)
What pushed me over the edge was Selig’s post which exposed Huffman’s entitlement and his pushing Selig under the bus, without realizing that the calls were recorded. I have no respect for that kind of behavior. I considered deleting Reddit at that point, but I didn’t, thinking I wanted to first see what they had to say in their damage control.
And then, there was the AMA where he doubled down. So much for damage control. That’s when I deleted the Reddit app. I assumed it would be a tough detox, so my main reason for actually deleting the app, was to avoid opening it without thinking. My stance was “I’ll go back to Reddit when they fire that guy”.
At some point I heard of Lemmy, so I signed up, and then something happened that I didn’t expect: it made the Reddit detox very, very easy. Lemmy posts would have links to Reddit sometimes, and it would refresh my memory of how much negativity there is in that community, all the while I was really enjoying my time in Lemmy and basically all interactions. Eventually it became clear I wouldn’t be interested in going back to Reddit anyway, so when they started sending those nasty threats to mods, I went ahead and destroyed my Reddit account.
Even if Lemmy as a community ended up shrinking again and becoming boring (which I’m really rooting for it not to happen), I’d probably stop using Lemmy of course, but I don’t think I’d go back to Reddit anyway. By showing me what Reddit could have been, my pleasant time here has totally ruined Reddit for me.
I really believe in open source in community-owned projects. The federated model fits right in with those values, and I believe it offers brightest possible future for social media.
I signed up during the blackouts, but before the mod removals. I honestly didn't (and don't) hate them for the API decision, but I was super excited for the influx of new users that would make Lemmy more viable. Then the mod drama started, and it's illustrates so well the advantage of the fediverse.
I left Reddit years ago when Reddit turned into the personal fiefdoms of the mods. Almost all political subreddits became echo chambers where holding an opinion different from the subreddit consensus got you banned.
I’ve been super interested in Lemmy and the fediverse for years. I was also a long-time Apollo user. As soon as the migration began I deleted my account.
Community issues. It's such a big place that most sections are oversaturated with crap and there was gatekeeping towards newer users. A breath of fresh air was needed.
Principle, I’m not using their shitty app after years of Apollo. I’m still waiting on any of these apps to have ‘scroll past to mark as read’ but loving wefwef and Memmy so far.
Also, snippy little cunts that come out of the woodwork and make a mountain out of a molehill over the smallest thing, momma said never argue on the internet. Just eye rollingly exhausting to witness.
I’ll miss Reddit and will still search engine append Reddit for niche searches but mobile browsing WILL be dead tomorrow.
I’m a plus one here, as are many others present and future. Gotta be part of that change lemmys right?!
It feels like they're imminently going to make it impossible for me to use. They already did that to a lot of app users, I can't image old Reddit is far behind.
I have not been active on Reddit for a while. I mainly just doomscrolled a bit in the morning and evening. My habit for a long time.
During the blackout I still caught myself doing that but stopped it over the days afterwards. My feed mostly still worked but I also noticed the interesting posts I actually looked deeper into seemed to vanish (or I just doomscrolled less and didn't find them).
I've finally stopped that habit now (though I liked it since it was not excessive and hope to replace it with Lemmy).
Especially since my Reddit-App of choice, Infinity, will be switching to subscribe-only (decent way tbh) I don't see myself paying for it for the bit I use it. And I won't go back to the offcial app. That one started (literally!) draining my battery like crazy because Pi-Hole blocked the trackers and it kept Brute-Force attempting to connect to a specific one. My smartphone was hot for up to 2-3 hours after using reddit. I reported the issue, it got supposedly fixed, then returned a few days later (after which I switched to a 3rd party app). Otherwise I actually liked the official app and didn't have any (other) performance issues at all.
Stopped using it for the initial blackout. Heard about lemmy, signed up 14 days ago, and have only visited reddit briefly (to see for myself that John Oliver took over r/pics / see if the reddit-is-a-dumpster-fire was hyperbole, etc.).
I have been very impressed with lemmy so far! Web client is totally usable on desktop, and I'm deciding between Jerboa, Summit, Connect, and most recently wefwef for my go-to mobile client (wefwef maybe in the lead, but I've only used it for a day or so).
Lemmy is to Reddit what Mastodon is to Twitter so I want to give it a try. I confess I haven't left Reddit but I've certainly lessened my presence including removing their app.
Personally, it was a lot of reasons as time went on and at the very start it wasn't just about the API pricing. I have only tried 3rd party apps recently (relative to the total time I have spent on reddit), and as crazy as it may sound, I was used to the official reddit interface. What pushed me to make an account on Kbin (and Lemmy) was when I heard that u/spez lied about Christian Selig blackmailing him and also accused him of "leaking conversations" for refuting the blackmail accusation with proof. I did out of spite, essentially. What made me stay here and significantly reduce my reddit activity is that the wider reddit community migrated here, and not just a bunch of assholes who came here for "free speech". It felt right at home, why would I even need to return to reddit to scroll when there's Lemmy? Other than for being able to search for specific information, which reddit still has the advantage of. Then when I started hearing and personally witnessing more and more of u/spez's dick moves (as well as attempting an experiment to block mobile users from accessing the website), that's when I started deleting my comments en-masse.
Also, they killed off edgy content like /r/imgoingtohellforthis. And censorship got out of control. Sadly, I expect the same will happen here. But I remain cautiously optimistic.
API changes. I was using official Reddit app but decided to support those who was affected by changes. My ideology is: help peoples and eventually they will help you back.
I've had the patched official app for awhile, but will not be using it right now as a form of protest. I'm still on reddit, but will be sticking to desktop only.
To support the initial blackout I uninstalled the Reddit app (yes, I was using the official one...). But when after a few days it started to look like spez isn't going to meet the demands and protest won't end anytime soon, I needed an alternative and decided to try Lemmy. And here I am...
I don't like reddit the way I used to before and then they decided to kill the app I used. I'm also a former mod so I was aware of the lack of official moderator tools from reddit which also annoyed me.
I left when Reddit started effectively taking over subreddits by forcing them to open or change their content to what Reddit thought it should be. I was planning on paying for Reddit premium so I could keep using it ad-free. I am sympathetic to Reddit’s desire to make a profit. But when they started effectively taking over subreddits it stopped being the Reddit I like and I’ll never return.
Because it became a hivemind of only one allowed thought process. If you disagreed with the vaccine being mandated and forced on people, or disagreed with masking inside of a car you were downvoted and ostracized. Reddit mods started going after communities just because they disagreed with them politically and it became unfun to use.