Ask Lemmy

The combination of shadow banning on Reddit and the Reddit right wing platform wide rule enforcement shift that happened about a year and a bit ago.

They already made a bunch of decisions earlier that I also really disagreed with, but at some point it was just too much. I still miss the super niche crafting communities. There aren’t enough crafters on Lemmy to go full niche like that, even if I made them myself.

I'd already been on the microblogging side of Fedi for about a year prior, but the first time I saw Lemmy I thought it wasn't really there yet, no critical mass. Then the API debacle happened and I decided to try out Kbin, later Mbin. Never looked back, even if this place can't actually replace the kinds of niche communities I used Reddit for, I still refuse to go back to Reddit on principle.

From a previous comment of mine on the same topic: 

I was browsing around on r/kde sometimes, and there was a banner-thing Saying that KDE Supported open platforms like Lemmy. I took a look at Lemmy's Wikipedia, and browsed around a few days later. I liked the stuff on c/programmerhumour, So I joined. Also my Reddit account got banned (i think, might be deactivated, idk) due to inactivity (I wasn't on for 2-3 years), and I didn't care to do anything about it. Also, as a bit of context for the above, it did take a while from hearing about Lemmy and browsing and joining.

I have recently switched to PieFed because it has a faster development cycle and more features (same username). 

Everyone else was doing it, I just wanted to be popular. 

API apocalypse, stuck around and rediscovered my enjoyment for linux and got into selfhosting. Also become even more anti-corporate lol. I get less content, but I probably was on reddit too much before anyway lol so it's self moderating in a way.

I grew up on forums and 4chan

For the michmichs

Reddits enshitification.

I answered this 5 "Why did you decide to join Lemmy?" questions ago.

Already hated reddit, then got banned for "harassing" a climate change denier by @ing him on climate change related posts. Didn't bug him in his dms or call names, just tagged him. That was a good enough sign for me that it was time to fully jump ship.

Content is better, discussions are better, even though volume of posts and comments is much lower than on Reddit. Reminds me of early Reddit days sometimes actually.

With Reddit’s enshittification, censorship, massive influx of misinfo & propaganda, etc, I am no longer comfortable posting there (but I do still lurk there). I don’t think this place is immune to all of that, but for now it’s tolerable.

I really like Reddit as a resource for niche topics. Would like to participate but it doesn’t feel sustainable to do so on a privately owned platform.

Lemmy has it own problems regarding this like instances shutting off. Maybe it’s not really made for this. Regardless i have stayed because of the conversation and human interactions.

Api thing was the final straw. But also privately owned for private mega media is bad, so fuck them.

My journey here took a while. I was on the standard Reddit app for a while, then they started promoting that “He Gets Us” bullshit ad. I blocked the account and it was gone for a while, then it showed up again. I had been dabbling with the Apollo app and I switched to that to avoid those stupid ads. Then the API stuff happened, I logged off and never logged back on again.

I went to Threads for a bit, which was nice because I had IRL friends there. Then Meta changed the community rules where calling trans folks mentally ill and bullying LGBTQ+ folks wasn’t considered inappropriate. So I logged off and didn’t log back on until I deleted my account in January 2024.

I joined Mastadon, which is nice, but it’s not easy for a newer, not quite techy user to figure things out. I figured it out, but I get why some folks find it confusing.

Then I joined BlueSky and hung out there for a bit. I still do because I like to follow specific reporters and organizations. But I soon realized, I don’t really like the short form formatting, so I joined Lemmy, then swapped to piefed recently.

Since then, I’ve been hanging out here for actual discussions and on BlueSky for breaking news and info.

Banned for reddit

I remember I was talking to a dev who worked for Facebook and he mentioned that big tech shadowbans users and suppress posts which can affect them or the ruling government and nobody will notice it and eventually all thr outrage dies down.

Gave me an example of how people have accepted phones without headphone jack, microsd etc. And are now okay with it.when apple and google wants something to sell, they shadownban and suppress posts that create outrage.

Another example was Facebook pays billions to ISP in 3rd world countries to lobby their government and then pays phone manufactures to preinstall Facebook so it never gets banned even after toppling government, fake news, killings , terrorism etc.

So basically using decentralised apps and avoiding apps controlled by single entity especially built in US us the only way you don't get brainwashed.

Got shadow banned from Reddit for Luigi support last December

I answered the question, “If you had to commit a misdemeanor in 60s, what would you do?” and then used another account.

First one got overturned by the mod, but then the account got banned for ban evasion. When I didn’t break the rule in the first place. /shrug

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

Like almost everybody else - Reddit is just too awful to make excuses for even if you want to.

It’s the same content posted over and over and over with people acting like it’s new each time (probably bots). It’s mindless or disingenuous content posted to evoke emotional responses. It’s everything you’ve ever commented or posted being used to train some corporate slop machine. It’s just… awful. I like the format (of old Reddit), so here I am!

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.