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.
I like the idea of decentralized social media. Having a single for-profit company moderating all content feels sleazy.
The beauty of the fediverse is that there's independent competition. If you don't like how a certain space is being run, you can choose another or create your own. It's ironically very "free-market capitalistic", in contrast to the political leanings of the user-base. Lol
It's so easy to switch from one instance to another (in fact many people advocate having alternate accounts on multiple servers as a rule). Anyone can start a community and truly moderate it how they choose, or choose a server with the rules that they choose. It's not surprising that the Federverse has succeeded in creating spaces that are much more healthy, especially for vulnerable people. It is impressive how stark that difference is; harassment and abuse are accepted as given on just about every corporate media, with very little recourse.
Killing third party apps. Fuck that. I didn’t even use a third party app, but that just showed me, clear as day, that they’re not concerned with their users, just money. They benefitted from third party apps, then just stuck a big middle finger to their developers and users.
The killing of Apollo (and all others) really rubbed me the wrong way, and I refuse to support companies moving in the direction of forcing ads in front of people.
API changes, I use to use Infinity for Reddit and it was good. Then they killed it effectively.
So I moved to Eternity for Lemmy until support dropped. Now I'm on Voyager.
Good apps design keeps me using a platform and I like the slower pace of Lemmy. I still use reddit for time to time especially for smaller communities. But do my part here.
I switched over when I read an interview with the CEO — I think with The Verge — and figured it was over. It was obvious he was juicing numbers to go public and there was no point investing time on a platform that would only get worse for users.
For the most part, it’s probably better for me. I never really got into the big subreddits that make the front page anyway. It was mostly a place for me to nerd out on small, more academic or hobby subreddits anyway. (I’m a Linux user and software developer so that all pretty much transferred over here fine.)
I find the quality of posts/replies here to be better in terms of quality but, obviously, sometimes there’s fewer (or, worse, zero). I like Voyager as an app (or web interface if your instance supports it). And I’ll pretty much always accept the less and the more to support open standards/communities/software.
When they killed Apollo. Fuck using that shitty official app.
I would have tolerated ads if it meant Apollo still existing. I know Christian wouldn’t have made them as interrupting as Reddit does and the overall experience was wonderful.
The third party switch. Plus I have found lemmy to be quite refreshing. On Reddit all I did was lurk. But now I actually comment and participate. Because it feels like I'm talking to real people.