I wish there was an alternative to leaving Reddit
The biggest thing I’ll miss isn’t actually being on reddit but the fact that basically any time you needed to look up somthing you could just google it and add site:reddit.com and find some good threads about it… it’s been a valuable knowledge base.
I also do this, but even before the recent turmoil I started losing confidence and trust. Brands know about this trick and they know how much consumers trust honest reviews by real people.
Generative AI like ChatGPT makes it easier than ever to flood subs with search-engine friendly posts and comments how awesome product X is…
True… look at reviews too for instance. Feels like more and more of them are generated by their owners in different ways to trick people. Same with tracks on spoitfy and so on as well, companies script playing their tracks all the time so they’ll end up higher in rankins.
It’s really starting to be hard to find anything that’s honest these days.
But you can check people’s comment history, at least for the time being it’s easy enough to notice if an account isn’t organic.
Agreed, although I do love that their own search engine was complete dogshit. That said, many of the posts I found really useful were at least five years old, sometimes as old as 12. In some ways it may be good for the knowledge base to update a bit. Actually, are Lemmy posts searchable the same way as Reddit?
They should be when the search engines have had time to index them. You can access them without loggin in so it should be fine?
Agreed, I feel like the social part of reddit is pretty easily replaceable but the amount of niche and specialised information was incredible
Isn’t there the reddit archive project?
deleted by creator
Really don’t know tbh, could be useful but extremely storage heavy.
Absolutely the best way to get answers to specific things. Avoids any paid blogs and questionable answers. Not to mention perfect for getting actual recommendations and reviews on things.
The only thing that’s usually better is the Arch Linux wiki but you sadly can’t use that for everything. :)
Here’s the thing, as much as I’m going to miss the convenience, I’m willing to suffer thru discomfort for not having that information readily available. LLMs now paired with web searches should be able to serve such content, and in the interim, I want something like Lemmy, a decentralized collection of instances with user generated content to grow, so that a single asshole ceo cannot ruin it for everybody else, particularly when the content in question is user generated and managed.
I’m sad too. I grew up in the early 1970s loving newspapers and oddly loving the classified ad sections (that sounds strange, but reading scattered somewhat classified content still is pleasing to me. That is how my carefully curated Reddit home feed felt.) As newspapers died, I realized that my small metro area had no good written way to interact or hear about local issues. Our local subreddit became my best source.
And I loved reading subs such as /nursing and /medicine and /talesfromyourserver not because I work in those areas, but because they are IRL communities that I count on for my quality of life and hearing their stories helped me empathize with them and (I think) made me a better human.
If I woke up in the middle of the night, I could read something to get my mind off of whatever was running through my head.
Other than paying for my Apollo subscription, making about 25 comments a year, and using the upvote function liberally, I didn’t interact much. My almost 10 year old account is very shy. I was always wary of being attacked or ignored. Oddly, IRL, I’m very apt to dive into any conversation.
I’m tentatively trying to be more interactive here. Smaller groups feel safer.
As someone who worked at a major U.S. newspaper in the late 90s, I think the world needs more people who think the way you have just expressed… valuing local information, empathizing with people outside your circle, and considering how your words will be received. I hope you find Lemmy to be a place where you feel comfortable contributing.
For now it’s great! I loved newspapers and was a co-editor on my high school paper. Reading and writing have always been favorite things for me to do. Thanks for your time in the newspaper business. Wonder how many here still seek the goodness of that medium that was also largely lost?
I prefer non-corporate alternatives, like lemmy or mastodon. However, if it’s going to last, users are going to have to contribute what they can to keeping the lights on, otherwise, if lemmy grows, they’ll have to resort to things like ads to cover their costs and it will become reddit all over again.
Well, we are on the ground floor here. Let’s find something that keeps the lights on and gives everyone the incentives they need to make a great community!
Perhaps a good start would be a page that gives statistics about the time and money required to run an instance. I really appreciate those who have dedicated their time money and reputation to start things up. Lets find a way to build a better social media experience together.
I think many of us would be OK with a number of different models, donations, non-intrusive ads, reasonable subscription fees, etc. Perhaps there could even be incentives for people who put time into building communities by moderating or other tasks. The important thing in my opinion is that everyone feels they contributed to the structure in a way that they want to keep participating.
Edit: I found a budget page from the donation link on the side bar of the main page of lemmy.world.
Perhaps a good start would be a page that gives statistics about the time and money required to run an instance.
Yeah, that’s not not a bad idea.
I’m ok with some non-intrusive ads, also. I’d also be ok with chipping in $5 a month, or so, if it’s something I end up using a lot.
From a personal perspective, I would like to see a model where basic access is free. A 5$ a month fee is fine for you and me, but I think there are a lot of people who may not have that in their budget or who don’t want the paper trail of payments (e.g. if they live in a country that is restrictive of free speech). I am really hoping that voluntary donations are sufficient, but I guess we will see.
I am really hoping that voluntary donations are sufficient
I hope so too.
I really love that idea.
Regarding ads, I almost always turn on an ad blocker because the ads I see are over the top and either obstructive or somehow offensive, so figuring out a way to monetize that isn’t also horrible is kind of a delicate balance. Like, no autoplaying video/audio, for one.
Tip jars, things like possible user customizations allowable for those that donate above a certain threshold (so like, specific color callouts for donators of $x in the last month, or the ability to add highlights inline in comments, or something) and other incentives other than, y’know, getting your average user to understand that servers and time are things that need money to keep going. That said, that stat page would be super helpful on the main instance page, like maybe over on the side.
Yeah, reasonable ads are key. Moving/flashing things are a show stopper for me. Also, ads shouldn’t track private information, I think its fine to base them on the contents of the current public info on a page, but tracking data across sites gets creepy. I don’t like using ad blockers if I can avoid it, but many websites are completely unusable without it.
Honestly I’m fine with some amount of ads as long as they are unobtrusive and inoffensive. Either that or there’s a free tier with some minimal ads and a paid tier with no ads. Nothing outlandish though.
No instance admin should have to bear the cost.
Unfortunately with the current structure of things, that’s probably what will have to happen for a bit.
Lemmy is decentralized and federated and there are pros and cons to that system. One of those is that users expect a completely free experience. However, I have a server at home, but I have no way of scaling it. So despite there being a community I’d love to spin up, I can’t because I have no way of scaling it.
Most people are going to have to go through Cloud providers for that, which can get pricey.
Just like people share the cost for a Netflix account they could probably share the cost of their fediverse access. IF people really wanted that is.
At least with Lemmy there’s lots of different servers, each with their own running costs.
Each could try a different way of keeping the lights on. Some could run on donations only, some could use small unobtrusive ads on the side, some could do lots of ads. If any server does too little they’ll go down due to lack of funding, if any server does too much the users will migrate elsewhere, as it’s quite easy to make a new account on another instance and keep following the same communities.
Even if we end up with some large-scale instances with big servers, millions of users and serious money involved, they won’t have a monopoly on all the content like with reddit, so the competition should keep them from doing anything stupid.
That’s true. That’s definitely why I prefer open source and federated models. No one can have a monopoly.
I’m actually kinda glad reddit is dying, this seems like a much better place. Short term it’s a pain but long term I have a good feeling about this platform
I love the thrill of discovering something new on the internet, and then sharing the content with my friends.
Reddit substituted that thrill by localizing it through all the niche subreddits, but as time went on it was obvious how dangerous that can be.
I’m personally excited to get back to exploring.
The downside is that the internet of 2023 is not the internet of 2013, and definitely not the internet of 2003 - but that doesn’t have to be encumbering.
But I understand that most people don’t want to work for that shit. Hopefully the added competition spurs innovation from all over.
This is how I feel! Very few people I know IRL spend time on Reddit, and it was always fun for me to bring up something I found there. Lately, I have a couple of friends who do read our local subreddit and I enjoy discussing what we’ve read there.
I feel that whether or not I choose to go back, all the reasons I still went will be degraded after recent events. And frankly, that sucks.
Thanks for saying what I didn’t realize I was feeling!
Reddit has always had a massive problem with misogynists, racists, pedophiles, etc. and the staff never does anything about it until there’s media attention. They monopolized the web forum medium which basically forced communities to have to exist on that extremely toxic, hate-filled website.
I’d say I’m elated to see it go, but to be honest I don’t think it is going anywhere. With any luck, Lemmy will become a vibrant community while all the assholes stay on the site they deserve.
Edit: Also, Reddit is designed to be addictive and has a reputation for it’s negative, doomscroll-inducing atmosphere. Then there’s the whole race-to-the-top karma system that ensures that Reddit has a monoculture where all the replies are predictable and similar.
Fediverse platforms aren’t built around being addictive and in general tend to be more positive and diverse, making them feel large in spite of actually being significantly smaller than mainstream platforms.
Personally I’m eagerly awaiting Reddit’s demise.
I also feel sad about leaving Reddit. It’s been a constant in my routine for almost a decade. If I needed anything - opinions, suggestions, advice - about literally anything I’d immediately head to Reddit. It’s bittersweet having to leave, but I know deep in my heart there was no other way especially with how it was going and how it was treating its users. But honestly seeing a new, fresh feed actually felt… nice. I don’t see much negativity. I actually see people replying to each other mostly decently. There’s not a lot of trolling or passive aggressiveness. I feel hopeful that this will be the start of seeing healthier communities and more positive interactions. In any case, if you’re here anyway, you’re a part of the group of people who don’t think what’s happening on the other side is acceptable, so it’s already a pretty great filter if you think about it.
You know it’s funny, I thought I would be sad to see Reddit go but I’ve been lurking here on Lemmy for a day or two and I’ve realised that Reddit actually was a pretty toxic environment a lot of the time.
I will miss some of the long running in-jokes (broken arms, coconuts etc.) but overall maybe moving on from Reddit is a good thing.
I hope Reddit doesn’t die entirely though. It does have some uses, particularly if you need help on a. particular topic. The specialist subreddits have a large amount of knowledge available through their subscribers and I’ve often turned to them for help on a tech issue when I have something I can’t answer with a quick Google search (for example, a weird issue with Sonarr which wasn’t covered by the *arr wiki) and it would be great if this doesn’t go away.
What I am sad about is seeing the demise of some great 3PA (I was an Apollo user). The amount of work put in by the devs is huge, and this is their livelihood being destroyed. So for folks like Christian I do feel bad.
I’m interested to see how Reddit comes out of the other side of the blackout. Wait and see I guess.
The Narwahl Bacons at Midnight
Thank you very much for this meme. Gonna try and bury that one deep into my memory so I never forget :D
Blimey I’ve not heard that phrase in a long time. Welcome fellow refugee!
Orangered
I’ve been active on reddit for 8 years and I have no idea what those in-jokes are. Care to fill me in?
Oh man, idk about the broken arms one but the coconut one is LEGENDARY
Broken arms is legendary as well, tbf
What’s the broken arms about? I would just look it up but it would benefit the site to share it here!
Good god, I suppose you’re right. Basically some dude posted an AMA about how he broke both of his arms when he was 14 and his mom would help get him off.
How does that video only have 15 likes?
Because up until now everyone would just link to the actual post but now it’s down so I’m glad these youtube videos are still around now for sure! Also I am sad to see Reddit go BUT I like the idea of Federation much better so, all for the best!
Jesus fucking Christ, what is wrong with people. That was definitely an… Interesting watch.
Broken arms was something about a teenager who had broken both his arms. I forget the exact way the conversation arrived at this but the joke is that his mom would help him jack off since he couldn’t anymore.
Sure. :)
Here’s a link to some info about the broken arms story: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/reddit-broken-arms-story
Going forward any posts which vaguely related to incest or broken arms would invariably have comments referring to the original story.
As for the coconuts, there was a TIFU post about a guy who made a hole in a coconut and used ti to pleasure himself repeatedly. iirc he’d use it and then store it in his bedroom and one day he put his dick in it and it came out covered in maggots.
This link is dark but in case it comes back up: https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/6rr6ay/tifu_by_cumming_into_a_coconut/?st=JL9NG1AP&sh=cfe1e15a
There was then just a long running joke when people mentioned coconuts…
Thank you! With context I actually do recall the broken arms one. The coconuts was new to me though
Be the change you want to see. Start a community, advertise it, start bring the reddit folks over here.
I’ve been on Reddit for almost 15 years and it’s just gotten too big and too moderated for me.
I’m sad too. What’s with these tech companies making the shittiest changes lately? I thought I’d be fine deactivating my Discord after their horrendous username change since I’d still have Reddit but now Reddit is going to become lower quality. I’ll be active on here and Twitter since its fandoms are similarly, like Reddit, seperated by subtwitters (communities)
I just renamed myself as same as i was before: [mynickname][myoldnumber] (i wanted to add # too but damned thing didnt let me)
Well, what else to expect from these companies? Pretty sure the big companies that listen to their users can be counted on the fingers of your hand
What was so bad about the Discord username change? I literally just dropped the number they had forced on me.
This won’t work for a lot of people though.
I’m aware. Doesn’t answer the question.
The bad thing is that people are forced to give up their username to make it a unique token with people they will never meet and care about.
Question for most people is: Why? Where is the good reason to force this upon everyone?
And even as a techy guy I have no clue to be honest.
Seems a bit dramatic to completely abandon the platform over a username change though, especially since you can still use whatever nickname you want on the servers.
Glad to see it go. It was not as useful as it once was and the community had grown very angry and bitter.
It was their crappy mobile UI and app that drove me to Relay for Reddit. Now that they’re getting pushed out I’m done, it’s going to hurt a bit but it’s the right thing to do.
I just logged out of my account and uninstalled the app (Sync) for the protest, only to realize that I needed an ELI5 30 minutes later… Hopefully my favorite/most useful subreddits manage to join Lemmy as well!
ChatGPT has replaced most eli5
Tried asking chatgpt some r/eli5 and the answers are often comparable to the top comments
What do you need explaining? I am curious.
I need an ELI5 of how the fediverse and federated networks work. I’m trying to make some kind of guide/explanation (a “dumbed down” version so other people that are highly confused (like at was at the beginning) can understand, but I realized that I don’t really understand it fully yet, so I needed some help from ELI.
But I’m in complete refusal and denial to enter Reddit at least until a week goes by.
The ELI5 is actually pretty easy: e-mail.
You know how you can have an account @gmail.com and I can have an account @hotmail.com and we can still send each other emails? That’s because gmail and hotmail (and every other email server) talk to each other when you send an email between them.
The fediverse is just applying the same model to other services. Lemmy is this for a Reddit-like forum. Mastadon is this for a twitter-like feed. And so on.
This makes it nearly impossible for one company to “ruin” any federated service, the way twitter has gone under Musk and the way Reddit seems to be heading in advance of its IPO. Google might ruin gmail someday, but all you have to do is sign up for another email address somewhere else.
i wonder if the corporations will try to push to change laws in such a way it would cripple or outright prevent fediverse from functioning. That seems to be general way of things on how they handle competition they can’t directly attack
It’s hard for me to imagine any legislation that could affect fediverse that doesn’t affect email (unless email is explicitly excluded from the legislation I guess), which is good because email is one of the few parts of the internet that even old farts understand. No chance they vote in a bill that kills e-mail.
I can help you out here! It’s not easy to wrap your head around at first because of how accustomed we are to the centralised internet by now, but it’s actually fairly simple. Let’s take Lemmy for example, anybody can create their own Lemmy instance (e.x. Beehaw.org, lemmy.world, lemmy.ml) and basically have their own functioning Reddit clone website. The fediverse/federated network only comes into play when a bunch of these instances connect to one another. You can totally just have a Lemmy instance and not federate with any other instances, but if you do, they share content with each other. This content is copied over between the two, and regularly synced (there’s some more complicated wiring happening in the bg to make this more real-time, but what happens is essentially a sync between the content of the instances). In the case of Lemmy, that means the directory of subreddits on one instance is exposed to the other instance. This extends to the posts and comments as well. When you see a post from another server in your instance, it means that the instance you signed up on is “aware” of the other instance and shared content with it, and when you comment on that post, your comment is created in your instance and then later on shared with the other instance (which is why you can comment on a post in another instance and see it in that other instance).
That’s how Lemmy takes advantage of the “fediverse” but it’s not the only one. You’ve probably heard of Mastodon, which does the same except with tweets. There are also efforts to replicate other social media, such as YouTube (see: PeerTube), Facebook (see Friendica, GNU Social, and Misskey), Instagram (see PixelFed), and I’m sure others as well.
Tl;dr the fediverse is just a bunch of independently-run websites that share content with each other.
