Asklemmy

The CEO is a total scumbag and Apollo closing down.

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.

Losing Apollo was the main reason.

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 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.

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.

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.

1. 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?

2. 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.

3. The amount of hate speech, misinformation and blatant lies the site actively promotes is insane.

4. They literally made everyone NFT wallets...???????

5. 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.

6. 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?

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.

That kind of neighborhood holds no appeal for me.

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.

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...

So, here I am.

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 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.

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.-

Losing RiF, I can't use the official app it's trash.

• 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.

Rif is getting shut down. And most of the sensible people seems to be moving to kbin+lemmy. I just followed suit.

Greedy little pigs fuck u/spez what an enormous piece of shit

Reddit deleted all of my accounts and IP banned me a few months ago because of a shitty power tripping mod on the Android subreddit.

You have no idea how happy I am that Reddit is imploding right now. I finally get to be part of conversations again.

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.

Honestly, mostly solidarity.

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.

And here I am

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.

I’m finding Lemmy to be a breath of fresh air.

Spez

It was based on principal. And Apollo RIP

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.

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.

And there are third party apps allowed here!

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.

I found a mastodon instance with a god tier domain name (wetdry.world) and I'm satisfied

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.

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).

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".

I'm not going back to that.

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.

The API change fiasco and the fallout from it was definitely the straw that broke the camel's back for me, but if I'm being completely honest all the other missteps and fuck-ups from the company were pushing me closer and closer to finding an alternative for years. I stayed for as long as I did mainly because it was a good place to get news and interact with various niche communities, but really Lemmy does all of that just as well, for the most part.

That said though, I don't think I would've been as ready to leave Reddit were it not for Elon buying Twitter and absolutely fucking that up too. That was the main thing that got me to look into alternative social media sites in the first place, though I haven't been as fruitful with finding a good Twitter replacement yet.

To be honest I'm still winding down there.

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.

Apollo going away was the catalyst for me. I will never use Reddit's garbage website or first-party app.

Plus Lemmy gave me an excuse to host another neat service and still waste the same time I did on Reddit.

Honestly? Reddit's fuck up. I'll always self host stuff if it makes sense, and all of a sudden Lemmy started making sense!

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...

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'm 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.

all good things come to an end

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 ain't using that goofy orange app.

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.