My journey with Lemmy started in 2022 out of interest in the fediverse and paranoia around how much control social media companies have, and how little choice common people are left with over the Internet.

Lemmy was much smaller back then. I really wanted it go get bigger, and tried to contribute to it. But it was small enough to be unsatisfying, so I would go back and forth between lemmy and Reddit.

After the Reddit fiasco, I shifted more and more towards lemmy and less towards Reddit. I finally abandoned Reddit when third party apps broke. I only go there for specific questions in communities that aren’t active on lemmy.

What about you?

  • 𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘬@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    I was a long-time Reddit user but over time it felt more and more not right. June last year I decided to register here and remove my Reddit account. I do not miss anything and I actually started participating more instead of just silently reading comments and posts.

    It just feels right using Lemmy instead of Reddit. Not only there’s no corporate bullshit and dumb algorithms I can’t avoid, it’s also a much nicer community overall.

  • Naz@sh.itjust.works
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    8 months ago

    I began using Lemmy abruptly after quitting Reddit after the API fiasco of last year. With the third party apps on Lemmy like Voyager (lol), picking up the slack.

    People don’t give a shit what service or server it’s hosted on, as long as it’s free and they can continue to interact with other users, because that’s ultimately, what matters, the community.

    If you were having a party with some friends watching the Superbowl and some random corporate ass clowns came in and said: “Pack it up, we’re charging you for the privilege of talking to each other and also we’re selling your conversations on the Internet”, you’d give them a swift kick in the ass.

    The content is yours, you made it, you spent the effort, the mental energy, the loss of actual lifetime to create it, post it, and share it with the world.

    And then they want an IPO and pat themselves on the back for stealing. Get the fuck outta here, y’know?

    Lemmy rules.

  • land@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    When they killed off third-party app support, and Apollo developer exposed Reddit CEO.

  • fubarx@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    Like many people here, long time Reddit user. Lived through RES, Alien Blue, and finally settled on Apollo. When they pulled the plug on third parties, looked at Lemmy and Kbin. Voyager (a pretty decent Apollo clone) is what pulled it over to Lemmy.

    I’m liking how it feels like early Reddit. Hopefully it’ll pick up a bit more.

    TBH, 90% of Reddit usage was just wading through crap, just looking for distraction, or funny crap to send friends. The last 10% was as a realtime side-channel during MLB games. Was bummed to have the new baseball season start without that. But The Athletic has started doing live gameday threads so that might make up for the loss.

    I didn’t delete my Reddit account, hoping they would come to their senses with 3rd parties, but it looks unlikely. Happy to stick around here and even start contributing posts.

  • Aggravationstation@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    Came here when the Reddit 3rd party app threat started looming, loved it and never went back.

    Sure, Lemmy doesn’t have the same variety and amount of content that’s on Reddit but that’s because it’s a smaller and newer platform along with the fact that not all instances federate with each other (which is great).

    I still get my scrolling urge fulfilled and presented with random memes and news that I’m interested in without the data harvesting factor which is perfect for me.

  • happybadger [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    8 months ago

    /r/chapotraphouse was the best socialist subreddit and it got banned over saying “death to slave masters”. The intense censorship campaign, at one point consisting of being site banned if you upvoted a comment in the subreddit, was so disgusting that I wanted to take the Reddit out of reddit. Chapo.chat-turned-hexbear was its direct continuation.

  • Trent@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    Mid-2022. I’d heard about it and finally decided to give it a try, though I didn’t post a lot. These days I mostly only go to reddit when searches for information lead me to a post there, and occasionally for stuff that doesn’t exist/is dead here (emacs, hydrohomies…)

  • Lettuce eat lettuce@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    Came here last year during the exodus from Reddit and never looked back.

    I only use reddit to troubleshoot tech issues now or occasionally to look up info on some topic I’m researching.

    I really enjoy Lemmy, it’s the part of the fediverse I use the most. I think federation is the best model for decentralized networks and I like how it feels a little like the old internet, when things weren’t totally corpo-controlled and hyper-monetized.

  • Aarrodri@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Came with the reddit exodus and have not look back. I used to waste sonmuxh time in reddit. Lemmy feels mmuch more lean.

    I have only gone back when web search takes me there for an obscure answer.

  • CaptainBasculin@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    I joined after EMPRESS got banned from reddit and reccomended here. She got banned from lemmy.ml instance later and didn’t bother looking for another instance. I never thought I’d stick with Lemmy; until reddit pretty much removed all third party apps. I kinda dislike mainstream social media like Twitter and Instagram; so I decided to go with this.

  • MrJameGumb@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I came over the same day that the Boost app for Reddit stopped working. I guess it’s been about a year or so now. I’ve loved using Lemmy so much more than Reddit and from what I keep reading Reddit is just getting worse every day so I don’t plan on ever going back! The only real worry I have with Lemmy now is this Threads crap. If Meta/Facebook sinks their greasy claws into the Fedeverse I may have to keep looking for another home. I really hope that doesn’t happen though. I’d like to think at least one area of the web is still safe from corporate bullshit

  • synae[he/him]@lemmy.sdf.org
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    8 months ago

    16 years on reddit, they killed my client. Now I’m here, probably forever - I don’t expect there will be any permanent issue with the protocol so from here on out it’s just a matter of federation/moderation/blocking the right things

  • vortexal@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    I started using Lemmy a few years ago because of the blackout that happened then (the one that started because they hired a known pedophile apologist as an admin). When Reddit fired her and made what they considered an apology, I continued to use both just simply because I didn’t like the fact that their apology sounded like they were disappointed in the community for not supporting pedophilia.

    When the second blackout happened (the one caused by the API changes) I didn’t support the statements that Spez was spouting about the app developers. At first I waited to see what their response was to the blackout but they, more specifically Spez, made it obvious that they didn’t care, so I deleted my Reddit account and started only using Lemmy.

  • Andrew@gioia.news
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    8 months ago

    Joined last year when Apollo was forced to shut down like many of us. I’d been a huge fan of federated social media and decided this was the time to finally kick my Reddit addiction. So far Lemmy has completely scratched the itch and I rarely check Reddit anymore. That in itself has been a huge win and every month it’s just more and more upside as the communities get stronger.

    I ended up starting a dedicated Magic: the Gathering instance at https://mtgzone.com for anyone interested. We’re small but growing!

  • Gbagginsthe3rd@aussie.zone
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    8 months ago

    I moved over after the Reddit API with third party apps thing. Needed to voice my opinion with action

    Lemmy is great, I spend way less time with it, it’s a nicer and generally more respectful community, and I’ve learnt a lot more about computers/OSS.

    I realised that all my time with Reddit wasn’t actually teaching me anything valuable. I’m now more conscious of my internet usage

    • livus@kbin.social
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      8 months ago

      This happened to me too. I’m more conscious, I feel like I have more free time and am more creative. It’s a life upgrade somehow.