this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2023

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Lemmy

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5 users here now

Everything about Lemmy; bugs, gripes, praises, and advocacy.

For discussion about the lemmy.ml instance, go to !meta@lemmy.ml.

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

nutomic@lemmy.ml

Welcome Reddit refugees! (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 years ago by nutomic@lemmy.ml to c/lemmy@lemmy.ml

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We are happy to see that many of you are exploring Lemmy after Reddit announced changes to its API policy. I maintain this project alongside @dessalines@lemmy.ml.

Lemmy is similar to Reddit in many ways, but there is also a major difference: Its not only a single website, but consists of many different websites which are interconnected through federation. This is achieved with the ActivityPub protocol which is also used by Mastodon. It means that you can sign up on any Lemmy instance to interact with users and communities on other instances. The project website has a list of instances which all have their own rules and administrators. We recommend that you sign up on one of them, to avoid overt centralization on lemmy.ml.

Another difference compared to Reddit is that Lemmy is open source, and not funded by any company. For this reason it relies on volunteer work to make the project better, whether it's programming, design, documentation, translating, reporting issues or others. See the contributing guide to get started. You can also donate to support development.

We also recommend that you read the documentation. It explains how Lemmy works and how to setup your own Lemmy instance. Running an instance gives you full control over the rules and moderation, and prevents us developers from having any influence. Especially large communities that want to use Lemmy should host their own instance, because existing Lemmy instances would easily be overwhelmed by a large number of new users.

Enjoy your time here! If you have any questions, feel free to ask below or in the Matrix chat.

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[–] _JB@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

A long, long time ago
I can still remember how upvotes used to make me smile
And I knew if I just got rollin'
That I could help keep users scrollin'
And maybe there'd be content for a while

But July 1st makes me shiver
With far less content to deliver
Bad news on the frontpage
I can no longer engage

I can't remember if I erupted
When I read apps would be disrupted
But disappointment interrupted
The day that Reddit died

So bye, bye, old Reddit API
Stuck with Huffman through some updates but the updates were shite
And them good ole boys were snortin' gonewild 'n smite
Postin' this'll be the day that it dies
This'll be the day Reddit dies

Did you read the TOS?
And do you have faith in mods success
If users still engage with subs?
Now do you believe in open access?
Can ads save your failing assets?
And could you be less avarice heedless schlubs?

Well, I know that you're in need of clicks
'Cause I see you suckin' Newhouse dicks
You both killed third party apps
Man, I thought that you might give a crap

I was a lonely teenage software dev
With a git repository and a shit to give
But I knew those apps wouldn't live
The day that Reddit died

I started singing bye, bye, old Reddit API
Stuck with Huffman through some updates but the updates were shite
And them good ole boys were snortin' gonewild 'n smite
Postin' this'll be the day that it dies
This'll be the day Reddit dies

Now for ten years we'd moved on from Digg
And greed grows fast for a ventured pig
But that's not how it used to be
When the users came for the cats and memes
From apps made by the community
And content that came from you and me

Oh, and while those cats were growing old
The number crunchers grew too bold 
The communities dismissed
Now everyone is pissed

And while Lemmy federates with Marx
The concept knocks it from the park
It's time to migrate to an ark
The day that Reddit died

So bye, bye, old Reddit API
Stuck with Huffman through some updates but the updates were shite
And them good ole boys were snortin' gonewild 'n smite
Postin' this'll be the day that it dies
This'll be the day Reddit dies

[–] Aragorn@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

I'm so tired of Reddit, so here I am trying this out!

[–] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

Hello! Also a reddit refugee here. I was thinking of making the switch before all this since reddit needs an increasing array of tweaks & add-ons just to be usable (RES, old reddit redirect, custom ublock filters etc.) so this seemed like a good time to start migrating.

[–] Mordiken@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Lemmy looks great, I hope it manages to comes out on top on the upcomming battle of the reddit alternatives because due to it's decentralized nature it's pretty much impossible for lemmy to go south like reddit and digg.

[–] thoro@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

The biggest issue with this platform for me, as someone who lurks more than posts, is the smaller user base and, consequently, fewer posts and communities. Otherwise, I love the decentralization, open source nature, and general community.

This reddit issue could be what pushes this platform forward. Will be interesting to see.

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Reddit was once tiny too, with very little activity. Now its frustratingly the opposite.... a lot of bots, karma-farming, thinly-veiled advertising, copaganda, unpleasant and rude interactions.

I'd love to have back the feel of old-school forums, with smaller, tight-knit communities, and good content. While at the same time the fediverse gives us the opportunity to click the All / Global view, so we can see a wider universe of content.

[–] thoro@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Oh yeah. I joined Reddit pretty early by most standards (2007/2008), and it was a much different place, especially before the big Digg migration in 2011. Not sure if I was just younger, but the default experience wasn't quite so intolerable as it is today.

I'm hoping this platform can be similar to those early days. I really like the community here. It's probably better than the early Reddit community. And the federated nature offers so many benefits compared to more traditional sites like Reddit.

There is a critical mass of users needed to drive posting and interactions for any online platform like this. It's a delicate balance. Further large growth is when you may start seeing the culture degrade, the dreaded eternal September. Maybe the federated structure will allow this platform to avoid that.

I do think this Reddit issue is definitely an opportunity to attract that critical mass of users though. I think you're on top of that.

Looking forward to seeing how it goes

[–] BrooklynMan@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

the big Digg migration in 2011

fyi, that was in fall of 2010. although, I suppose, more people continued migrating into 2011, but the mass exodus was almost immediate in 2010. I remember how reddit had trouble handling all of the new traffic, much like lemmy instances are now, lol

[–] BrooklynMan@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

i moved over to reddit from digg in 2007 during the whole digg v4 fiasco. migrating here feels very much the same. it's new, much smaller, works a bit differently (in a good way), and is still mostly undeveloped. This platform has a ton of potential as a reddit replacement, and, if they really do go through with pricing out the 3rd party apps, you'll likely see this place explode with traffic.

[–] Pepp3r@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I also lurk a whole lot and thats my biggest issue as well. It looks like a lot of people talk about Lemmy when the topic of migrating from reddit comes up though, im hopeful that it takes off.

[–] EnglishMobster@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

I've been on Lemmy for years now (before it could even federate!), but never really used it because there was nobody really here (and at the time there weren't any good Android apps - that's changed with Jeroba though).

The biggest competitor I've seen appears to be Tildes. I actually got an invite link to Tildes and have been trying it out.

The main difference is that Tildes is focused on high-quality discussion, trying to replicate old-school Reddit - before it went mainstream. Tildes purposely doesn't have memes or cat pictures, and comments are closer to paragraphs than anything else.

I think that's valuable... but I also know one of the big things that attracted people to Reddit were the memes. Not having memes is going to cause a lot of people to not want to stick around.

Lemmy is a lot more loose, so those people will be right at home. The main complaint I've seen from Reddit is that a lot of people are turned off when they see Lemmygrad as one of the most active instances, and they've been associating Lemmy with hardcore tankies.

[–] KelsonV@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

This post alone now has as many upvotes as I saw someone on Reddit claim Lemmy had total users.

[–] BlazingFlames6073@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

Anybody know if we had a spike of new users and activitiy here after reddit's announcement?

I joined lemmy like a week before reddit's announcement after checking it every now and then for months. I didn't see so many comments and upvotes on posts last week.

[–] heimchen@techhub.social 1 points 2 years ago

@BlazingFlames6073 @nutomic I at least joint because of reddits announcement, but I think the real wave will come when the technical subreddits go dark.

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[–] kernelyoda@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Thanks for the welcome. :-)

Is there a guide on how to get started here? Searching for posts and communities, posting and commenting etiquette, etc.?

For example, when searching for communities focusing on movies, I found 3 communities named “movies”. How are these different?Which one should I be browsing?

If there isn’t such a guide, I can spend some time exploring and write one.

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[–] bec@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Thanks for the welcome! Hopefully Lemmy will grow with the Reddit changes, I wanted to join a while back but the lack of users held me back; since the news I decided to join anyway, and hopefully others will do the same!

One question: I'm browsing via Lemmy app downloaded straight from GitHub, but some posts don't show the comments, even though I see there are several and if I use the browser everything is there. Bug? User error? Thanks in advance!

[–] sexy_peach@feddit.de 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It might have something to do with the language settings introduced with the latest update?? It's unintuitive for me.

[–] bec@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

No idea, I'm here since a couple of days lol

[–] Ephera@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

If you go to the settings on the webpage ( https://lemmy.ml/settings ), is "Undetermined" enabled in the language menu?

The posts you're seeing might also simply have comments in languages that you don't know (and have rightfully disabled in the settings).

[–] bec@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Thanks for the help! I checked and English is enabled. The comments I was referring to are in English so I don't think it's that. Thanks!

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[–] Barbarian@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Hi all! Happy to be here. Been thinking about moving to an open source federated reddit-like for a while now, and the imminent death of RiF is what finally pushed me to sign up. Spent the last hour or so poking around different communities, and like what I see.

[–] EnglishMobster@sunny.garden 1 points 2 years ago

One neat thing is that because Lemmy is ActivityPub, your posts show up on anything that follows the ActivityPub protocol (like Mastodon).

Speaking of which - hello from Mastodon!

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

Glad to have you!

Federation is really our best hope to beat these US tech giants. People making instances and connecting with each other, and cultivating communities here and on other instances.

At some point I think the fediverse / lemmyverse will reach a critical mass where there's enough good content, that people won't feel the need to open up reddit at all.

[–] biscuitsofdeath@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Does Lemmy have any rss support?

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Yes, click the rss button on your fron page or communities.

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[–] anji@lemmy.anji.nl 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This is the way. As a bit of a Reddit-addict I hope Lemmy (and perhaps other interoperable projects one day?) will take off. Centralized social media sites appear to be doomed to inevitable self-destruction. Protocols can survive.

Like Mastodon and other ActivityPub applications however, it is the Federated nature which IMO still needs some work. Not being able to easily browse remote communities, posts, scores, comments, etc. from the comfort of my home instance (which will also be the only portal to the federated world visible to mobile applications) is a problem. On Mastodon I often don't see all replies, and likewise on Lemmy I don't see any comments to this post yet.

I hope ActivityPub apps figure out a way to better synchronize remote and local state so users won't keep seeing incomplete/fragmented views of Fedi content.

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

Someone did create this Lemmy community browser, which searches all known instances for any community. It might be useful to integrate that into lemmy, or at least link to it, in some way, to help people discover communities not on their own instance already.

[–] ArtVandelay@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Something I just found out in the Settings page that I wish existed in every social media site: you can turn off scores!

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[–] davidgro@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I just wasted a ton of time trying to create an account here and it not working before realizing that I already made one nearly 3 years ago. Fun times. At least I'm here now. I'm also really scared/frustrated with the direction Reddit is going.

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[–] Valmond@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Hello and thanks!

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