The API changes were the last straw; but it had been heavily destroyed by astroturfing for years before the API restrictions finally just pushed me over the edge.
Technically, the fediverse would be even easier to astroturf. Luckily we’re early enough that astroturfing is foolish on Lemmy.
Maybe. I feel that Reddit cares little about bots and astroturfing. It drives up the engagement numbers. Independent server operators care more, but have fewer resources. Time will tell.
This seems to be the case so far. I hope it scales. Lemmy servers actually have an incentive to eliminate those things - they drive up server costs and could lead to defederation. Plus, they are usually running a server for the sake of enjoying giving people a place to socialize.
Ever tried getting an obvious bot/spam account banned from Meta? Good luck! Those accounts are generating ad impressions, so who cares if they're fake? Meta could invest the profits generated in 2 minutes and fix the problem for good, but their incentive is to keep the problem just below the threshold that people leave the platform.
I still use Reddit, but less after the API changes. I was already using Mastodon and aware of Lemmy when that happened, but the biggest server previously was lemmy.ml, and even that wasn't very active. I put it in the back of my mind to check on again in hopes it would gain relevance. Reddit pissed off a bunch of its users, so it did.
Lemmy.world launched around then, and I'd heard of its admins by way of their well-known Mastodon server so I signed up.
I was one of several mods of a niche hobby sub. All of us were modding mostly from mobile phone 3rd party apps. Killing the API seriously hurt our ability to moderate the sub.
The hobby is historically male-dominated but had a nice, inclusive vibe going where most people understood a penis was not required equipment for this hobby. The API changes also coincided with a wave of incel gun-nuts. We couldn't stay on top of it. Every time we logged on, another nut telling women inappropriate things and ruining constructive conversation on actual questions about the hobby.
At one point I enjoyed modding, I rarely had to ban anyone, it was mostly just chiming in to clarify something or helping a poster ask questions in a better way or pointing them to resources they may have overlooked or otherwise trying to encourage positive engagement. Logging on to a wave of racist, sexist asshats was not what I signed up for.
It no longer brought me joy, so I Marie Kondo'd it right out the window.
Multiple reasons. I first started on Slashdot as a news aggregator/discussion forum. Also SomethingAwful, then Digg. I've moved from platform to platform as the enshittification spreads, until I've landed here. I think the fediverse has the best chance to not go down the same holes the others have. The final straw though was the API change and elimination of 3rd party applications.
As everyone said, the API change was a big deal. But for me, the cover-up was worse than the crime. I was a 13 year user (came over on the Digg boat) with over 100K comment karma. Reddit's reaction, and Spez's "landed gentry" comments, were so insulting I just couldn't support the site.
I thought they may possibly change in response to the boycott. But when Reddit started replacing mods with unqualified scabs, that meant the site content itself was definitely going to go downhill. It also confirmed that it was no longer a site that valued its users (who, as many have said, were providing the very thing that made the site valuable for free, purely in exchange for not being treated poorly).
At that point, why remain? Niche communities are the only reason I ever check back in. And like others, I'm seeing Reddit devolve into karma-whoring discussions that are just a battle of one-line snarky jokes, a huge amount of bot content, and reposts as a rule, no longer exception.
Conversely, there are people on Lemmy who actually want to read, think and actually respond. Pretty cool. I'm good with this trade.
Yeah, I think if they hadn't tried to break the boycott / subreddit blackout, I might have stayed. But, reddit had made it pretty clear they didn't really want me around, since I was holding on to the old interface and RES for dear life, even before they attacked the API.
The reasoning behind the API changes, the CEO's entitlement, the ever-more-annoying interface changes (I hate the "More Posts You May Like", the algorithm is pathetically shitty).
I refuse to install apps to navigate websites. If your site is decent, it should work in a browser. If not, I'll just go elsewhere.
The way the API changes were done showed a disconnect between public best interests as a public commons and corporate interests to monetize. It implied that I was being targeted individually for monetization. I feel that anyone collecting individual data about any human and selling that data is a new form of slavery through an ownership of a part of that person with the intent to manipulate. The manipulation of information through the nondeterministic targeting of search results is a coup of a pillar of democracy and all governments of the world. The free press must apply to all information on the internet. With the monopoly of only 2 relevant web crawlers providing results directly or indirectly, there is no freedom of information in digital form. This would be no different than every news paper stand being owned by two companies a hundred years ago. Targeting the individual directly is what the API move was designed to handle. So, to me, it was an attempt to enslave my digital autonomous person. When faced with such a subtle attempt to subterfuge one's autonomy, I feel like the choice was obvious.
Everything I say here is scraped, but only the server host knows my dwell time, sensors, and various fingerprinting mechanisms. Ideally I would self host, but lack the skill and resources. This place is still hosted in a datacenter, but I'm using the API through a 3rd party, so it is even more obscure. I used reddit through an app with a scraped interface before, when that quit working, I quit using the site. Reddit proved it can only get worse, not better.
Also, Reddit is flooded with coomer level maniacs who are desperately looking for any kind of discussion. To the point they misread shit intentionally just to start some shit.
Aaaaaand I got banned from r/gaming for calling someone out when he tried to justify pedophilia. Mods must be professional SSB players.
Ah sorry. It’s kinda super specific. Back in the day there happened to be a couple of news about pro SSB players grooming minors. I tried to be funny and failed.