My reddit account age was in the double digits before I closed it down to come here during the 3rd party apps/api fiasco.

It was a little difficult at first, but honestly it was really good for me to break away from so much phone usage and doom scrolling especially. My mental health improved a noticable amount. That first year or so here on Lemmy felt a little empty, but I think a lot of the people that migrated from Reddit realized that to have content one must make content. Personally, I'm far far more active here than I ever was on Reddit.

It's a cozy community 90% of the time, and it feels like a good home that's only getting better and richer with time.

My goal was to use something other than TikTok, facebook, etc.. Even with all its glitches and quirks, the FV has proven to be a great replacement for those corporate apps.

The vibe is a lot like "the old internet". Sure, you don't get a lot of responses most of the time, but those you do get are genuine and in good faith.

On reddit you can post the most innocuous thing and be met with ridicule or disdain. Most of the posts I made were commented on in a negative way. Even harmless things like "I found this funny product at the supermarket" in the appropriate subreddit was met with insults and a bunch of negative comments. Asking for advice on a popular advice subreddit got me a bunch of insults.

Here I have few answers, but those are genuine ones and so far they've been in good faith, no unprovoked insults, no sifting through someone's history to insult them based on a post from 3 years ago.

because of what it’s not

easier ability block right wing astroturfing, or shilling from politics.

I'm still browsing and participating on reddit once in a while, and let me tell you the atmosphere there is dank and vile. You get attacked for the smallest things, people are cynical and sarcastic and heinous.... this agression will not stand, man. Nothing in common with the reddit from 15 years ago. That would be Lemmy. Lemmy feels essentially like Reddit used to. With less people. I like most interactions here, the smaller scale helps and probably the fact that we're -actually mostly- humans. If and when my instance votes on the move to Piefed, I'll go there. It's still the threadiverse, free and diverse

People like you. Love your posts on !eurographicnovels@piefed.social

I dunno where's a better place?

I'm banned from Reddit, but still want a similar fix like a drug addict.

I'm a fan of Mbin, I like using it and enjoy being here. I don't really consider myself to be hanging in there at all.

I don't find that commercial social services are free of bumps and difficulties; they're just different bumps and difficulties. They variously want me to:

• Log in to view this content
• Complete a captcha to view this content
• LOOK AT THIS AD
• Look at this other thing instead of reading through the rest of the comments on the post I opened
• Look at this other content instead of the people I chose to follow
• Consent to 237 different forms of tracking
• Pay for a premium account
• Don't post anything too spicy for the advertisers
• Install an app

And people think picking a server to sign up or using an unpolished UI is a hassle? It's a small price to pay to avoid that load of crap.

I use Lemmy and Mastodon because independent services that interoperate are how I want the internet to work. I still use some of the big commercial services because people or communities I value are there. It's not all-or-nothing.