Why are you on Lemmy?

I like the ability to actually see everything from an API standpoint. Reddit is also overwhelmingly negative, and im looking for a place to discuss with people willing to actually do something other than complain.

Saw the whole fiasco of Reddit unraveling and then went to Lemmy. Seriously fuck Spez and how he treated the developer of Apollo.

Came because of the reddit API. Stayed, because I couldn't stand reddit users anymore.

To spread the word about the ultimate beverage: WATER

Found out about it from Reddit, and it seemed better in several ways, so I tried it out.

Because reddit shut down my favorite app.

Reddit made me constantly angry, then the API thing forced me on their app which made me angrier.

Lemmy makes me feel good and the app I use fits my needs near perfectly.

This is a pretty decent group of weirdos we got here.

I'm a bit less extreme about it than many here. But, in short, back when Reddit made sweeping API changes it immediately gave me 'the ick' and so I sought less centralised platforms. Lemmy is the closest thing I've found to people just hosting their own message boards like back in the early internet.

I'm a big fan of decentralized platforms and I love the concept of ActivityPub.

That said, I still use Reddit and have recently started to really enjoy BlueSky, so I'm not militantly against the corporate platforms or anything.

Finally, I just like the natural selection things like Lemmy and Mastodon have for those who are naturally more techy and nerdy.

Reddit's API fuckery. That's it, that's the whole reason. Fuck spez.

Allows Tor and VPNs

UI is so clean and mobile browser friendly

No "Download Our App" annoying BS

No ads

Federation make it censorship resistant when it comes to discussions, no one person can ban all dissent, while consensus of the instances can ban all the hate speech, and there's the tool of defederation to stop instances that allows hate speech to go uncontrolled.

Lemmy and fediverse platforms are probably the best examples of "Free Speech" platforms there are that, unlike those other "Free Speech" platforms, this isn't just filled with hate speech all the time, although it isn't perfect, and there are still jerks sometimes.

Edit: As to why a "Reddit" type platform with communities and upvote/downvotes, its because I don't like the "Twitter" style of following people. People become bad all the time. I like to discuss topics, not focus discussions on a person.

Reddit was reddit. I left when I was forced into using their stupid app and watch ads.

I've generally enjoyed Lemmy.

Edit: or to and

Came in support of Apollo; I just couldn’t in good conscience continue to support Reddit (even after 19 years) with how they treated external clients.

Found it similar to Reddit so it scratched the same itch.

Because Reddit is a shit hole from which no intelligent life will ever escape.

Was ready to jump ship from Reddit before the API changes were to come in full effect.

Joined Lemmy after I heard about it and saw Jeroba worked well on my phone.

Completely switched over once 'Reddit is Fun' stopped working.

Left Reddit because of the API stuff. Still on Lemmy because it's not as addictive and has a much higher concentration of leftists.

Because fuck Spez, that's why.

Came here because of reddit API drama.

Stayed for the memes

It became large enough to sustain conversation. I hope it becomes large enough to sustain niche communities.

EDIT: also "civility" doesn't mean "don't sass the nazis" like it does on reddit.

I think that public forums should be publicly owned. These are essential social tools that allow us to have discussions with each other and shape our views and opinions. These forums must be operated in an open and transparent manner in a way that's accountable to the public.

Privately owned platforms are neither neutral or unbiased. The content on these sites is carefully curated. Views and opinions that are unpalatable to the owners of these platforms are often suppressed, and sometimes outright banned. When the content that a user produces does not fit with the interests of the platform it gets removed and communities end up being destroyed.

Another problem is that user data constitutes a significant source of revenue for corporate social media platforms. The information collected about the users can reveal a lot more about the individual than most people realize. It’s possible for the owners of the platforms to identify users based on the address of the device they’re using, see their location, who they interact with, and so on. This creates a comprehensive profile of the person along with the network of individuals whom they interact with.

This information is shared with the affiliates of the platform as well as government entities. It’s clear that commercial platforms do not respect user privacy, nor are the users in control of their content. While it can be useful to participate on such platforms in order to agitate, educate, and recruit comrades, they should not be seen as open forums.

Open source platforms provide a viable alternative to corporate social media. These platforms are developed on a non-profit basis and are hosted by volunteers across the globe. A growing number of such platforms are available today and millions of people are using them already.

From that perspective I think that open platforms like Lemmy and Mastodon should be the focus. Instead of all users having accounts on the same server, federated platforms have many servers that all talk to each other to create the network. If you have the technical expertise, it’s even possible to run your own.

One important aspect of the Fediverse is that it’s much harder to censor and manipulate content than it is with centralized networks such as Reddit and BlueSky. There is no single company deciding what content can go on the network, and servers are hosted by regular people across many different countries and jurisdictions.

Open platforms explicitly avoid tracking users and collecting their data. Not only are these platforms better at respecting user privacy, they also tend to provide a better user experience without annoying ads and popups.

Another interesting aspect of the Fediverse is that it promotes collaboration. Traditional commercial platforms like Facebook or Youtube have no incentive to allow users to move data between them. They directly compete for users in a zero sum game and go out of their way to make it difficult to share content across them. This is the reason we often see screenshots from one site being posted on another.

On the other hand, a federated network that’s developed in the open and largely hosted non-profit results in a positive-sum game environment. Users joining any of the platforms on the network help grow the entire network.

Having many different sites hosted by individuals was the way the internet was intended to work in the first place, it’s actually quite impressive how corporations took the open network of the internet and managed to turn it into a series of walled gardens.

Marxist theory states that in order to be free, the workers must own the means of production. This idea is directly applicable in the context of social media. Only when we own the platforms that we use will we be free to post our thoughts and ideas without having to worry about them being censored by corporate interests.

No matter how great a commercial platform might be, sooner or later it’s going to either disappear or change in a way that doesn’t suit you because companies must constantly chase profit in order to survive. This is a bad situation to be in as a user since you have little control over the evolution of a platform.

On the other hand, open source has a very different dynamic. Projects can survive with little or no commercial incentive because they’re developed by people who themselves benefit from their work. Projects can also be easily forked and taken in different directions by different groups of users if there is a disagreement regarding the direction of the platform. Even when projects become abandoned, they can be picked up again by new teams as long as there is an interested community of users around them.

It’s time for us to get serious about owning our tools and start using communication platforms built by the people and for the people.

Just like everyone else: APIcalypse and enshittification of Reddit.

I think the real question is: Why a social news aggregation content rating forum instead of any other type of social media?

If I cared about people, I would be spending my time on Mastodon. Since I care more about specific topics, I’m here on Lemmy instead. IMO, the structure of conversations is also much nicer and more readable here on Lemmy.

Left reddit for the #FuckSpez incident. Stayed because mostly everyone here is a lot nicer than reddit and there is almost no transphobic shit on here(at least on my instance) which is really awesome!

It's an alternative to reddit.

Reddit bad.

I got on Reddit because it's pseudonymous, and the nesting of threads is good. I didn't appreciate it for a while, but upvote/downvote also provides a useful proxy for what body language does in real life.

Mostly because it's fun to use sarcasm and hyperbole without attaching an obligatory /s in a den full of Linux users

Because Reddit can fuck right off

The UX barrier of entry is a good idiot filter, not perfect but better than reddit.

I'm a rifugee.

I was here before the Reddit API kerfuffle, because I care about an open and decentralized internet.

because I can't use my favourite reddit app anymore

Got bored of Reddit's capitalism

I discovered the Fediverse through Mental Outlaw and then started using Lemmy after the Reddit API thing.

Because I believe in the idea of the Fediverse and I want it to succeed.

Because fuck Spez, that’s why.

You're right, I should go to bed.

I've been posting on internet forums for almost 30 years now. It's just a thing I like doing.

I'm here now because it's the best place I know of at the moment.

Mostly for memes about beans.

Uh but for real because reddit quite literally sold out and went full corpo.

Because fuck u/spez

I like having ownership of my internet experience so I run a lemmy instance and my friend administrates it. It is more fun than using a botted network.

1. The r/conservative mods got my main account global banned for using the “report misinformation” button too much. That sub used to have good quality textposts but when the trump cult took over, it changed to nonstop ragebait/lies/propaganda news articles. And on slow news days you’d see articles like “Throwback: Dont forget that Obama did X six years ago” to keep the people furious 7 days a week
2. Enshittification

Reddit got redundant. I like arbitrary All and Popular feeds and boy did those suck after the nth made up feel good repost.

As for staying, I'm more inclined to comment here. I'm shy even by online standards but Lemmy feels like it needs more commenters.

Big, centrally owned platforms aren't a good idea.

Reddit did some API nonsense, and that was when I left there. I was already off twitter, and never used facebook stuff.

I need somewhere for my meme and internet highlights supply, and lemmy has been ok so far.

Fortune and glory.

Non-ideologically: the culture is measurably better. Here's why.

• The Lemmy Algorithm. This is a big flaw with Reddit -- people have the attention span for the first ten comments, and then subcomment upvotes halve (with decent std. dev -- we aren't Zipf's Law devotees there) until invisibility. I don't think my Reddit comments are even seen, let alone replied to. But here, new comments have a chance.
• The sense of "mineness". A lot of people see this place as "their own", so there's responsibility to raise your communities right, and another to interact (hence, variably lower hostility). I don't post much but I respond a lot to the people who comment in them, because I feel that it'd be nice to contribute to do my part and keep this place up.
• At risk of sounding self-absorbed/elitist, the entry level helps culture too. People are here because they were dissatisfied with the state of other sites, then made a jump; this is a sieve that to an extent increases the standard of sorting by new. (This has limitations of course -- we still have extremists for example -- and it isn't necessarily advocating for Lemmy to never be mainstream.)

e.g. that Draw a Duck post a while back is probably far beyond a lot of platforms' capabilities/proclivities.

(I admit: this is a paraphrased comment I made a few months ago)

Better engagement than Reddit at this point I'm starting to believe it's all bots for real.

Just want to support Fediverse 🙂

Once RiF announced it would shut down due to the API changes I made my account here. I only used Reddit on mobile so just staying on old.reddit wasn't an option. Tried a few different apps for Lemmy and landed on Sync since I can set it up as close to RiF as I could, but with improvements like sliding to up vote.

It's a much better place here, and I actually comment more here than I ever did on Reddit due to the toxicity and just getting buried by bot accounts. My account was 12 years old when I left, now I've been here over a year and don't plan on leaving any time soon. You're stuck with me now

i dont have anywhere else to go

i came here like most lemmy did; because reddit; and i hope to be here for a long time since all substantially financed social media platforms enshitify eventually like reddit or facebook did or enshitify immediately like bluesky did when they banned gazans.

Because spez was being a dip shit. Other than that, yeah, idklol

As in, why here and not reddit? I drifted away from posting on reddit about 5 - 8 years ago. I was icky over their ads and tracking and it was just a time sink I didn't need back then, but I would still use alternate frontends (the current equivalent would be libreddit) to lurk while on the train trip to work and back.

I forget whether I found lemmy from /r/piracy exploring bunker options (raddle and lemmy) or if it was through FOSS, but I liked its potential and have been here posting here since 2022.

Because I love sync

I ain't gots nowhere else to go.

Reddit banned me. They hate anti capitalists and anti fascists

For the snacks

It started with a distaste for how Reddit was treating developers and moderators, but now I genuinely believe in the future of the fediverse.

Came because I liked open source software and hate corporations. Stayed because communism

Cause need to take the web back.

I tried Reddit but I had enough with all the rules and corporate cleanliness of it. I used this site called 'Saidit' for a bit but but no one ever posted there so I looked into Reddit alternatives and stumbled across Lemmy. The rest is history

Spite

For an actual community. I was tired of Discord and Reddit.

Corporate greed puts me off.

I just enjoy it here.

I was meant to be doing something but I got distracted

I have no idea what I was meant to be doing because I smoked the mystery joint

I think most of it was probably blue cheese

Honestly don't remember why I signed up. I like it though. Kind of similar vibe to when I used Reddit except much better. It's got some nice small-ish (but not too small) communities for FOSS stuff.

I was in F-droid searching for stuffs, then I found lemmy, since my phone can't install reddit cause I have storage problems, I tried out lemmy. And now I believe this is better than any community apps.

Well I was IP banned on reddit. Anybody on reddit that uses my ip address gets an automatic ban forever. I don't know exactly what I said or do. I tried appealing no response till date. Got tired of trying different vpn just for reddit and had to move.

Lemmy tell you how...

API changes killing Apollo.

sync for Android

Reddit went ban happy and nuked my 13 year old account over attempting to appeal a mod power tripping over an innocent comment they didn't like.

Which was after the api think killed RiF

The people inside the walls told me to. I no longer dare to defy them.

Because Kbin isn’t around anymore

Grew up on enthusiast BBS, Lemmy is like a bunch of them are linked up.

Dislike for profit internet as it must inevitably lead to enshitification, just never had a term for that in the past :)

I don't have an issue with "toxicity" as i just ignore it, like a dog shit on the side walk. I prefer the "BBS/Usenet format" to Twitter like Mastodon though I am over on Masto and had been there for many years. I don't participate much though.

Got banned on Lemmygrad for being hitler. Most of my family considers me Stalin.

Reddit's app is a pile of shit and I did not want to be forced to use it. I have donated to Boost a couple of times.

To monetise it and extract wealth from lemmings.

apology for poor english

when were you when Reddit dies?

i was sat at home eating smegma butter when pjotr ring

"Reddit is kill"

"no"

I'm here because Reddit got shitty. And I really wanted a decentralized platform, where one person couldn't screw things up for everybody else. It's a lot harder to "take over" a social media platform when it's spread out over 600 Instances in many different countries.

I found it in the reddit kerfuffle and stayed because it reminded me of a combination of Usenet text forums and early Reddit. The pace here is manageable and it's mostly nice.

So I am here for whatever I was on Usenet then Reddit for, just to have a space to read people's opinions and maintain a niche community.

just one more fedi account bro just one more

In the past, I always felt good about never being on Twitter, considering how much people complained about it on Mastodon.

And then I realized I instead visited Reddit daily. To maintain my perceived superiority, I had to quit that and ended up here.

To give me something to do on my phone during work hours since there's no way I'm touching the official reddit client

I first knew fediverse through Mastodon, so my answer has more to do with the whole concept of fediverse than with Lemmy alone.

My main reasons initially were the following:

1. I don't really like crowded networks (it's actually a personal trait of mine, derived from the physical fact that I don't really like crowded places at all).
2. I hate when algorithms try to lead me, ruling over what I write and/or ruling over what I read.
3. I like alternative options and the unknown. Between a latin/roman A and B, I often tend to choose a greek Gamma (trying to always think outside boxes).

And I kinda of liked it. Well, Mastodon has been a cemetery, so most of my fediverse interactions happen through Lemmy.

Just out of curiosity: among several Lemmy instances, I specifically chose The Lemmy Club as an instance for having a Lemmy account for a symbolic reason. Back when I was signing up on Lemmy and trying to find a good instance, the initial "thelem" from "thelemmyclub" got to my attention, because at that time I was delving into Aleister Crowley's Thelema (Liber Al Vel Legis, The book of the Law). So "the lemmy club" kinda of resembled "Thelema club" to me. I'm not a Thelemite, at least not entirely, because I'm more inclined towards a syncretic Luciferianism, but I liked the hidden symbolism that I got to see within the instance's name (also it's actually another personal trait of mine, trying to find patterns everywhere at every time, even though it's just a pattern to myself).

Quora's enshittification ~2018-2024 went too far, and I'm still looking for something good enough. Checking out Lemmy, Trust Café, and Kialo.

I want to talk to people online but reddit is too yucky. Lemmy has a better community than reddit and it's not for proffit open source decentralized and all the other things that I love.

Cuz there are 3rd party apps on both Desktop & Android

Reddit killed third party apps and their mobile site barely functions, so I wasn’t able to use reddit on mobile without installing spyware/adware.
Lemmy was the best alternative.

I left Twitter and Reddit and I found Lemmy and Mastadon. Lemmy is going much better than Mastadon.

I don't think all social media should be based in one country because that creates a risk of political censorship.

The lack of accountability of mods on reddit. Reddit doesn't want to lose their free labor.

Initially because reddit permabanned me. Then I got comfy here

I can't be on Reddit, but I like the branching comment format and thematic post grouping ideas I learned there.

waiting for a bus

I'm new here, but the straw that broke the camel's back was reddit getting rid of r/random. Also more reposts than new content. Also feels like there are more bots than people. Plenty of other anti-user stuff over the years.

Got banned from Reddit. Enjoying Lenny so far but there’s some subreddits that don’t have enough traffic so I still go back to peruse. Anyone got advice to get around the reddit ban?

Reddit mobile app support was the last straw.

just lemmy or the federation? im on mbin and I left with the big reddit migration and was pleasantly surprised to find something a bit closer to the old internet I knew. Im one of the few who don't see the need for it to get popular but its fine to me if it does.

API issue made me leave, AI scraping posts and forcing ads made me stay away.

I have created different emails and using different ip address form different networks. The moment I use the account on my current ip, I get banned

Reddit banned me for saying I should be allowed to punch Nazis, appeal silently declined within the hour. Didn't consider it worth pursuing further, had reddit-shaped hole.

For BSD and Unix community

Much better community. I've posted on Reddit and gotten posts removed, downvoted, and no interaction. Communities are smaller here but if you post something, you will get interaction.

Edit: also, after you scroll through reddit for a sufficient amount of time. You realize everything on your algorithm is karma farm bots reposting stuff. Every now and then you will get decent posts and then you look through the comments and there are karma farming bots. Essentially, you have to sift through a pile of shit to find good content.

API changes killing Apollo.

Where Boost goes, I go.

less bootlicker trans community here than on reddit

It's the spot!

Got banned from reddit too many times. It's just like reddit here, but also worse in every possible way.

Peak liberal echo chamber in here...

I came because I was sick of Reddit.

I didn't realize how horrible a lot of users on Lemmy are.