this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2023
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So I've switched to lemmy since the reddit meltdown started, experienced quite some withdrawal symptoms, occasionally turned back to reddit, more often logged out than logged in. Now I am merely using Lemmy occasionally and by far not as often as I used reddit before. No more doom scrolling.

So far so good.

Today I went on reddit for the first time in like 3 weeks straight (I couldn't do that for the last years... yeah, I was very addicted in hindsight). I just... I don't know what it is.

Reddit just isn't fun anymore.

I turned away after maybe 5 minutes. There were maybe 2-3 repost-worthy pics, one interesting video and a few small niche discussions that all went straight tits up within a few replies.

If I ask a question on lemmy, it usually is a straightforward, honest discussion. Almost no blaming of the posters or answerers misunderstandings or senseless answers. It goes a bit back and forth usually and people tend to thank each other for corrections. I can't remember when that happened on a reddit discussion. Maybe years back? Anyway, I'm not going back there anymore, not because I hate the CEO, but because reddit is not fun anymore. Lost all interest in it.

Did anyone of you have a similar experience?

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[–] Jah348@lemm.ee 96 points 11 months ago (15 children)

Idk I don't exactly find Lemmy a bastion of my interests. It's very clear the community is far smaller. The niche communities of topics im interested are mostly nonexistent and it's largely a sea of memes and references I don't remotely understand or care to. Something about communists or some shit? What? Pass.

[–] gabe@literature.cafe 22 points 11 months ago (6 children)

What interests do you have that aren't found here? Some tiny niche interest communities are being built, you sometimes just gotta find em

[–] Frozengyro@lemmy.world 24 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

They're typically so small there is a post a week and few if any comments.

Also I find it's difficult to find communities in the first place.

[–] gabe@literature.cafe 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Speaking as someone actively building niche focused communities (literature.cafe for books and writing & lemmyloves.art for art) this kind of defeatist attitude saddens me. Community's don't explode over night. I fully get that community discovery is hard as hell right now though with lemmy, and attempts are being made to fix it. But with the communities that do exist, it's a matter of participating and starting conversations if you don't see one you want to participate in. On a new and emerging platform like this, you really can't be a lurker. Posting, commenting, engagement, and likes is the only currency here.

The thing with lemmy is that it does feel like screaming into the void sometimes, but you also have the benefit of a smaller community to have more focused discussions. Quality over quantity is the focus here rather than the mess that reddit had. Reddit has tons of content but a large portion of that is just noise and spam, it is much more preferable to have a high quality post once a day with an engaging and thoughtful discussion than a community filled with low quality spam most of the time and only one high quality post a day that's nearly impossible to find.

[–] JokeDeity@lemm.ee 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)

It's wild that art and books are niche in your words. Niche for me would be like a specific author or artist, but books and art I think of as incredibly vast topics, far from niche.

[–] gabe@literature.cafe 5 points 11 months ago

I have specific art medium focuses and book series communities within it that I’m building as well

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[–] elbarto777@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

What interests do you have that aren't found here?

[–] booty@sh.itjust.works 27 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Active communities for specific video games that I play. There are general gaming communities that are active, but I'd rather be able to discuss specific games without having to start my own thread every time.

Tech communities that aren't just "Windows bad, Linux good". I get Lemmy is more likely to attract technical-minded, FOSS fans, and that's fine, but the amount of Linux zealotry is annoying. I've dual booted for 20 years now, but people here act like Windows is actively murdering your pets while Linux "just works" and it's.... Just not true.

Communities for my area. I could make them, but I have exactly zero interest in running a community, let alone one for people I could know irl. I don't have the time to manage or grow a community, and completely lack the desire even if I had the time. My city, county, state, job, and school all have active communities on Reddit.

Acting like Lemmy has it all when it's total active user base is a fraction of some major subreddits active subscriber count is... Delusional at best. I want Lemmy to work and be a replacement for reddit. I miss early, smaller reddit even. But Lemmy just isn't it yet.

[–] Jah348@lemm.ee 9 points 11 months ago

The "windows bad linux good" is a great frame for most communities ive found here. Like often wrapped in some delusional joke-meme that it's an extremely small parody of itself.

[–] vashti@feddit.uk 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I would give my eye teeth for a Persona 5 community on lemmy.

A good one, ideally, which certainly would be a step up from reddit.

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[–] SgtSilverLining@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (6 children)
  • there's half a dozen sewing communities, but no one posts in them
  • fashion communities are also barren
  • pretty sure I'm the only person posting in !DCComics@lemmy.ml out of 200 subscribers. I'm not a mod there (the og mod is an empty account with no comments/posts) and it's not a community I want to recreate on my instance.
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[–] transmatrix@lemm.ee 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah, lots of niche communities are dead compared to their subreddit counterparts. Examples: OnePiece, AvatarTLA, VentureBros, Plex, and the subreddit for my town. I’m hoping this changes over time, but I still find myself going back to Reddit periodically.

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[–] AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml 35 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I've noticed Reddit is full of people who just don't understand how Reddit is supposed to work. Comments stopped being fun and it just feels like Facebook now

[–] GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk 12 points 11 months ago

It's funny, I was noticing that. A little bit eternal-september-ish, fewer people willing to gently nudge people to the way it worked, more people not learning.

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[–] Maddie@sh.itjust.works 26 points 11 months ago

Nope. Their app and their CEO are both garbage, I'm not supporting either

[–] croobat@lemmy.world 20 points 11 months ago

Too much rage bait, also after a time in here it's quite apparent how much the algorithm tries to push you to addiction.

I miss the niche communities tho.

[–] NevermindNoMind@lemmy.world 20 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Reddit isn't fun anymore, I agree with that. I checked /r/all for this first time today in months. I haven't logged in or browsed since the blackout, but there are a few communities I miss and was thinking about going back over for those, so I checked r/all out of curiosity to see how things have been. The content was just so much trash, and I don't even think it's that much worse. It's just that I've been away for so long that I'm looking at it now like "how did I spend my days scrolling through this garbage for hours?" It's just boring, it's like just interesting enough to keep you scrolling hoping to find something actually interesting.

Here on lemmy there is far fewer users and far less content. But I'm starting to see that as a good thing. I pop by and scroll, but I don't spend hours here like I did on reddit. The discussions are smaller, but more engaging and thoughtful. I remember before I left there were certain threads I'd see and just skip because I already knew exactly what all the comments would be. Also, I'm actively engaging more here, so there is actually some "social" in my social media use, instead of just passively consuming like I mostly did on reddit.

Overall I think ithe switch to Lemmy has been good, for me at least. It's like I've broken the reddit addiction, and looking at it now I can't understand why I got so caught up with it in the first place. To me, reddit just isn't fun anymore.

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[–] eldrichhydralisk@lemmy.sdf.org 19 points 11 months ago

I've occasionally ended up on Reddit accidentally when following a search link. Which immediately blasts me with notifications and pushy requests to browse in some other way than I want to. After using Lemmy for this long, which lets me peacefully do my thing my way, it comes off as really rude even before I get to the comments.

At this point, I've actually started actively avoiding Reddit links in my searches. I can generally find the info I need somewhere else without getting yelled at by the website.

[–] orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I went over for an article I found. Scrolled out of morbid curiosity. It's just awful. Ended up commenting about it and was down voted back to hell, apparently where I'm told o belong.

[–] jeanofthedead@sh.itjust.works 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)

The mood has shifted drastically! I can’t believe how much negativity I receive nowadays. It’s like all the friendly and helpful people left.

[–] Fiivemacs@lemmy.ca 6 points 11 months ago

Because they did leave. It's like when Facebook was good for info, then the masses showed up and just went apeshit. Over population both digitally and physically is never a good thing.

[–] AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml 4 points 11 months ago

Yeah you can post fairly mundane shit on Reddit now and you'll attract a down vote and extremely hostile response. Even in niche game communities where it used to be friendly.

[–] atlasraven31@lemm.ee 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, I still exist on reddit for news or a few niche communities. I see a lot of the recycled memes and point gaming. The few discussions get no traction or an overwhelming response. You can't really argue with anyone. It becomes ad-hominem and hurt feelings.

[–] Spike@feddit.de 11 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I see a lot of the recycled memes

I think the % of OPs that are just straight up reposting bots has increased considerably. Front page is even more unusable than during TheDonald times...

Its just low quality trash.

[–] Draghetta@sh.itjust.works 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

TBH that’s Lemmy too.. the front page is kinda boring and most of it is reposts from reddit

[–] Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 11 months ago

I blocked all memes communities, makes the experience better

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[–] JokeDeity@lemm.ee 9 points 11 months ago

I think for the way I personally used Reddit, Lemmy still feels lacking, and I'm excited for it to grow. The good news is it's getting bigger every day and niche communities are being created all the time, so we'll get there. But there's no doubt a treasure trove of question and answer posts on Reddit that I still need to access at times, so it's still useful to me in that regard, but I'm not actively checking it at all anymore.

[–] Wage_Slave@kbin.social 8 points 11 months ago (10 children)

Depending on which subs you see, the assholes have won. Holy shit the amount of right wing bullshit that got into the place. Like wallstreet silver. I didn't much give a shit before it started looking like the front page of diet stormfront.

The remaining mods are at large, S class window lickers and ableist who have been applying to get a position for years and just now get their chance to goatse the corpse of what was once a great website. Started seeing tons of people getting banned for the most petty of shit. Buddy of mine got a 30 day ban for linking another sub reddit in his comment.

Of course, I got banned too. on my 12th cake day no less, for saying a kids attitude was going to get him beat up in high school or worse.

But if anything, there are so many folks out there that can say they were there before they got spez'd and the assholes took over. It was nice for a while, but in the end, fuck reddit.

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[–] fsxylo@sh.itjust.works 8 points 11 months ago

Reddit is still a much larger archive of crowd sourced knowledge, so until Lemmy becomes more comprehensive there's still some reason for me to use reddit. Though I don't actively participate anymore.

[–] indigomirage@lemmy.ca 8 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Honestly, the main reason is no fun anymore is the lack of a decent app (I loved BaconReader - YMMV). Since the UX has been downgraded severely (most have lost their preferred app), the user base, community and content have suffered.

I'd have been content to pay a reasonable subscription fee to keep using BaconReader. I'd even pay for ad removal - I'm not after a free ride. However, an enjoyable ride is now unavailable be it free or paid.

So, here's Lemmy. I hope it works out long term, but the growing pains associated with scaling are not to be underestimated. I suspect the challenges will be less technical in nature than in user wrangling and moderation. (though running the tech ops mustn't be underestimated).

TLDR - Yes.

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[–] Sev@feddit.uk 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (6 children)

I’m back to Reddit, I kinda gave up here, but I’ll look a couple of times a week.

Too much politics. Linux. Privacy. Bidet talk. ADHD. Bad memes. Techbabble. Snore

No matter the filters I just can’t get an interesting feed, I just blocked about 6 political subs just today - it’s kinda shitty content imo (for me anyway)

I’m happy this exists but the rage honeymoons over for me. Old habits die hard I guess …..now……..back to arguing with bots!!

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[–] psion1369@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

There are a few subreddits that don't have a counterpart on lemmy, or the counterpart isn't as active yet. But when I go on Reddit, I'm spammed with posts I'm not subscribed to, nor really have a want to be subscribed to. As more communities become more active on lemmy, the less I will need Reddit.

[–] townfox@lemm.ee 7 points 11 months ago

I occasionally go there but for specific reasons. No more late night browsing for me.

[–] HellAwaits@lemm.ee 7 points 11 months ago

I love Lemmy and reddit, but I couldn't stand how reddit was data harvesting if you looked at how many trackers were being blocked. Like literally in the thousands. It was completely out of control.

I would by lying if I said I didn't miss it. There's far more content on there and far more engagement. Lemmy is cool and all, but it doesn't even remotely compare.

[–] harpuajim@lemmy.ml 6 points 11 months ago

I still use it from time to time because sometime I just need the information I'm looking for. I've justified it telling myself that I'm using it 1/100th of the time I used tt and only use it when necessary.

[–] scytale@lemm.ee 6 points 11 months ago

I only check back once in a while for my city’s sub because the lemmy equivalent isn’t as active yet. I no longer have an interest in checking out r/all or the frontpage.

[–] TomMasz@kbin.social 6 points 11 months ago

It's really different, that's for sure. The front page is full of subreddits I've never seen much (or any) of before. Comments on posts seem lower by an order of magnitude on the most popular ones. I don't know about site visits but engagement seems way down. How u/spez will spin it for the IPO remains to be seen.

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 6 points 11 months ago

During the APIcalypse I deleted my glorious multireddits and unsubscribed from nearly all the subreddits. This way I’ve intentionally made my Reddit experience very boring. Now that my favorite Reddit app is dead, I have to use a mobile browser, and the experience is… well not as bad as with the official app, that’s for sure. But it it’s still unpleasant or boring.

Because of all that, I don’t visit Reddit anywhere as often as I used to. Nowadays I check Reddit maybe once a week, browse for a few minutes, get infuriated by the ads and move on to something nicer like doing the dishes or folding my laundry.

[–] gowan@reddthat.com 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

A lot of my favorite subs aren't the same. Many are gone. Askhistorians has even dimmed a bit. Pretty much the porn is the only thing left

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[–] ImpossibilityBox@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

My trouble at the moment is that I am reaching myself 3d modeling and texture skinning for trackmania.

Wanna take a guess where the largest repository of blender/substance painter tutorials and trouble shooting is?

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[–] R4iNO@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 11 months ago

The don't miss the "Popular" of reddit, but the small specialized communities are not present here. I'm still using reddit for r/clashofclans, r/thedivision, r/printedcircuitboards, r/gradschoolmemes, r/phd and the discussion threads on r/movies about the movies I have watched. The community didn't move here.

[–] boringbisexual@lib.lgbt 4 points 11 months ago

The only thing I miss is HighStrangeness which was fun to go through every once in a while. The rest of reddit isn't really worth looking at. But here there are tech nerds and Linux enthusiasts ~~and pirates~~ everywhere! I am among my people.

[–] ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 months ago

It's been a pretty clean break for me. The only times I have found myself in reddit the last few months was just for some archived post that answered a question I had.

Nothing feels like it was lost.

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