Reddit killed the app I used.

I'd been using Reddit for quite some time. I wasn't willing to use it if they weren't going to allow third party clients.

It's the same layout/format as Reddit, but with far less bullshit or total fuckheads. When it was announced that Reddit was shutting down 3rd party API access, Lemmy came to my attention and I've been here since (though a couple previous accounts were on instances that have since shut down).

I'm a hipster and also anti-capitalist. Tired of dogshit corpo social media enshittification

Less corporate, less centralized, open source tech. I don't quite fit in here, but I guess I'm weird enough to stick around anyway 🙂

wow, nobody mentioned the open source thing yet. I'm here because I really like the open source thing and the idea of federated servers run by hobbyists.

the API exodus finally drove enough traffic here to keep it lively

Reddit basically banned 3rd party apps to fake a growth and show shareholders they can be profitable... so yeah, they can get fucked.

I couldn't use boost in reddit anymore and the native app is complete and utter hogwash.

Reddit removed free API access and simultaneously became more corporate than Walmart. Is fully enshittified now.

https://fortune.com/2024/03/19/reddit-ceo-steve-huffman-defends-193-million-compensation-following-backlash-unpaid-moderators/

Reddit is a Wall Street corporation that sells users to corporate advertisers

Lemmy is free and open source.

First time I was banned from Reddit. Now I’m permanently banned so y’all stuck with me.

Reddit got rid of my All button because they want to push people into echo chambers and controlled feeds. I only made an account to bitch about the Knicks, let me lurk.

When you browse by all, you see the patterns of subreddits turning political, same recycled posts being passed around, generalizations, things taken out of context, agendas.

By the way this place isn't as different as you'd like to think, just a lot more 'fuck the USA' posts so idk, I'm still searching

The API shenanigans

Reddit has just been steadily declining in quality the past few years.

The bullshit with the api and 3rd party apps was the start of it for me. I use to love alien blue. Then came the censorship… I’ve gotten two warnings so far within maybe a year of each other about upvoting, not making a comment or a post that would be offensive, inappropriate, or alarming but a fucking up vote. Apparently it violates a Reddit rule. Best part… they won’t even fucking tell me what I upvoted that was so egregious.

That was the final straw for me.

I didn't want to install the official Reddit app on my phone.

I left reddit when they shut down the 3rd party readers. I don't like ads, and I wasn't willing to compromise and use their shitty app, so I came here and haven't looked back since!

Democratic freedom and democracy in practice.

I left Reddit for Lemmy for the same reason I left Digg for Reddit: Enshittification, both technical and administrative.

Left reddit as part of usa boycot. No regrets.

Fuck Spez

Reddit was a death of 1000 cuts.

The strictness of communities. Shadowbans. Intercommunity drama. Overly critical usrers and doomers. Removing the ability to see upvotes/downvotes. Old reddit slowly going away. Api changes.

One day i just found i wasnt having fun on reddit anymore. It was just doomer content rolled into just another social media. I spent 12 years on that platform and l learned a lot. But now its mostly its just clickbait and drama to keep you on.

So i went on lemmy, contributed to the code for a bit. Found i liked piefed because of the better fediverse interop. Stayed here and contributed a tiny bit of code.

The great Reddit APIcallypse exodus - but not for the reason you'd think. I actually used official app, didn't care much for the 3rd party stuff. Though I understood why people might care about it.

No, what did it for me was how Reddit handled it. The arogance. The hostile takeover of the subreddits that went down. I didn't like that one bit. Plus, every day Reddit felt less like how it used to and more like your typical social media. But what can you do, eh? I liked the format. But there is nohing other like it... right?

Well I said something like that in some thread where the discussion went off-topic to discuss the situation (pretty sure it was a Harry Potter sub). "If only there was an alternative!" Well there was, and it's called Lemmy, one user said. Intrigued, I checked it out - and was utterly confused. Instances? Federation? Makes no sense. So I figured I would ask. The guy (or gal) was super nice - answered all my questions, gave me pointers... and here I'm.

It was like you don't know something was broken but suddenly it's fixed and you don't know how you could've functioned like that before. It certainly helped that at the time I came here for the first time, the activity was booming so it was easier to switch. Died out a little after a while, but I feel like it is in a very good place now, activity wise. There aren't ultra specific communities for everything, but usually there is a general one at least. And it feels more like the Reddit I first joined than what it ended up being.

Infinitely grateful to the guy (or gal) tbh. Inevitably, being here taught me there are alternatives to more than Reddit. That open source apps are great, actually. That there is something like degoogling. That Linux might not be as scary and foreign, or for programmers only.

I don't know who you are, kind lemming - but hope somehow you read this.

Reddit was going downhill. Conversations are near impossible. You have to agree with the hive mind or you get down voted into oblivion. The monetization of the platform. The gamification of the platform. The AI bot problem.

There are too many to count. Lemmy is still small, and while it has its own problems, is not completely fucked yet.