Especially when you consider that the lemmings were forced off the ledge in the original footage. They don't actually follow each other to their deaths.
In 10 years only old people will even care what Reddit was. I think it's better to define ourselves entirely within the context of Lemmy, rather than in reference to events at Digg/Reddit/whatever.
I'm not going to complain about people talking about Reddit in the short term, since the implosion of that site was a fairly recent (and ongoing) thing that most of us experienced (I imagine there are one or two Lemmy users that just picked it as their first link aggregator/discussion site, but realistically most of use came from Reddit) so naturally people are going to want to talk about it. I'd rather not make the Reddit exodus part of our central identity.
Lemming is fine. Sure, we spend most of our time just walking from left to right, but any one of use could be the one to build the next staircase, bash through the next wall, dig the next tunnel, etc. that will let the rest progress to the next stage.
And then of course there are the blockers who get blown up when their usefulness has run its course. Not sure how they fit into the metaphor.
I am also giving it a pass for the first few weeks, but I'd really like to stop seeing so much reddit content soon. Lemmy is its own entity, and we can respect that by letting it become something independently of other sites.
It's like when a friend complains about an ex; let it go on for a while because they're still hurt and need to vent, but at some point letting things go and moving on is the healthy path to healing
I think a big part of the problem is that the exodus happened in waves. Some people were on Lemmy for ages. Others came over when Reddit announced its API charges. Others came when Spez did his AMA. Others during the blackouts. Then finally there were the people who came over when the apps stopped working. Each of those people come over with fresh wounds that they want to talk about, but for the people who were among the first to come over it can get a bit tiresome.
I mean I am a reddit refugee myself and I don't really like the idea. It feels a little bit like a "Hostile takeover" if we reference more and more reddit stuff. Lemmy has its own culture. And personally I don't want Lemmy to become like reddit. I like it the way it is.
I don't want our whole identity to just be anti-Reddit. We should be called whatever feels most natural to say, rather than some less-fitting word with an unintuitive meaning we'd have to explain all the time. Yes, we were mostly all brought here by a common ostracization from Reddit, but we've got plenty of other content to provide to this site than just that shared sentiment. Plus, if this site is going to be successful, it'll need to grow a lot more, so it won't have this strong of feelings toward the site pretty soon.
Beans, beanies, lemmings, lemons, they are all ok. Bit who needs a label. I'm a lemmy user. Sure I came here from reddit but I don't want this to become reddit.
"Look, if life pushes you down, you gotta PUSH BACK! If you're dealt a bunch of lemons, you gotta take those lemons and stuff 'em down somebody's THROAT until they see YELLOW!!!"
The funny thing about that saying is that lemons aren't a naturally occurring plant species and humans engineered them into existence. So when life doesn't give you lemonade, you make lemons.