One day, I was about to install RedReader through F-droid. For some reason I searched for "Reddit" in the search bar instead of "RedReader" and saw Voyager, Jerboa and some other Lemmy clients there.
I got curious and installed "Eternity for Lemmy". I browsed around, then decided to created my first account on lemmy.ml. Instantly fell in love with how nice most people were, how quickly I got answers and replies and the closely-knit feeling of a small community where it's not surprising to see the same user in many different places.
I found Lemmy and decentralized social media by sheer luck.
I know most of you came here after the reddit API changes to spite the corporate site, but I wonder if there are other stories.
P.S. I find it sort of weird how lemmy.ml censors the word for "female dog". Cmon, that's such a tame and common insult! Can't even quote Jesse Pinkman properly.
I started using Lemmy because, after a previous Reddit blackout a few years, the CEO of Reddit (Steve Huffman, AKA Spez) released a statement that (while I've long sense forgotten exactly what he said) made it seem like he was disappointed in the Reddit community for not supporting pedophilia. I used alternativeto.net to find Reddit alternatives and, because Lemmy wasn't at the top of the list at the time, I used a few other websites before using Lemmy. At first I used both simultaneously but I deleted my Reddit account after the API changes.
i used the android app "reddit is fun". i had stopped using reddit well before the api and public offering drama so i had absolutely no idea it was going on. i needed to get an answer to a question and the google search led to a reddit link. typically i normally chose web links, but this time i said, what the hell, and opened the link with rif. then i read the changelog of the app. that pointed to a lemmy instance for rif (which does not have a lemmy version btw) and that's where i caught up on all the bullshit i missed during the intervening 3 years.
ps i also have a .ml account. it was the easiest one to create an account with at the time. if i could transfer all the stats and comments i made with this account and transfer it to one that allowed swearing (for instance you can't use the word that describes selling one's self for money or other favors that sounds similar to a garden tool called a hoe) i'd do it.
In the wake of the Reddit API changes, I decided to jump off that ship. Saw Lemmy mentioned but a lot of posts were painting it negatively, due to federation things and tankies. I was on Squabbles (lol) as my Reddit replacement platform for a few months before that disintegrated and then finally arrived at Lemmy.
Moved to Lemmy during the Reddit API stuff too
Saw Lemmy mentioned but a lot of posts were painting it negatively, due to federation things and tankies.
The tankie stuff was what made me try lemmy out and stay.
Thought that it'd be an actually leftist community, if it was facing such terms.
And it was indeed one. And is quite good.I got know about the Dessalines audiobook channel too and that's nice too.
EMPRESS moved here after getting banned from Reddit, so I moved. She got banned from ml shortly afterwards; but i stuck with here since i liked the concept.
+1 for Reddit API exodus.
Lemmy was sold to me as a Reddit replacement. And it is, superficially. I knew it wasn't going to be drop-in going in. But the longer I use it the more I think it's not really quite like Reddit, and never will be. And that's fine. Lemmy is its own character and I like it for what it is.
I still use Reddit. Lemmy doesn't scratch all the itches for me. But only old.reddit on the desktop and on mobile with a UI de-shittifying extension. I'm amazed they still offer it at all. Once that's cut off, something I've been bracing myself for for years, I'll consider the UX enshittification to have fully completed and I'll truly bail. I simply refuse to use their gentrified UI. And I'm tired as it is having to slap on compatibility layers just to keep their less terrible alternative on life support; I'm not going to do the same thing to make their mainstream UI somewhat more palatable.
When the Reddit API thing was going down I was looking for a place to jump ship before Apollo went down and Lemmy was one of the options. I found Voyager and later I joined other parts of the Fediverse
Earlier this year, I decided to engage with social media, so I searched for lists of social media websites and signed up on the ones I could find. Lemmy was on one of the lists and also happens to be one of the websites I enjoy the most! 😃
When the chapotraphouse subreddit was banned I learned about lemmy and hexbear. I lost the password to lemmy.ml u/HamidPayaamAbbasi now I have my own instance.
Wouldn't stop promoting killing slaveowners after Spez said he would probably own slaves in a post apocalypse scenario.
A better more exhaustive answer here: https://hexbear.net/post/56333
Who knows, they said because of glorifying violence when people were praising John Brown, but really I think Reddit is anti leftist and used quarantining The_Donald as an excuse for "fairness"
Reddit is a captured propaganda tool of the US state department and heavily botted by their political parties.
It was indeed during the API exodus. I used the official app so I didn't have strong feelings about it, but I really hated how they handled it all. Of course it was discussed everywhere and I was like "I hate it like everybody else, but there isn't really an alternative" and someone was like "uhm, how about Lemmy or kbin [or other stuff I don't remember I think]?".
I looked into it, got confused, asked the guy some questions and they were kind enough to explain. Looked into it more and made a slow transition. Really helped this was at the peak of the exodus so everything was firing up here.
When Elmo bought Twitter I moved to Mastodon, when Reddit got rid of third party apps and the API changes I asked on Mastodon if there’s is a Fediverse Reddit, not really expecting a yes.
The one thing that does my head in about Lemmy is how USA centric it is.
Reddit is pretty USA-centric, too, or at least it was the last time I was there
I remember seeing lemmy maybe 4+ years ago on some open-source subreddit. It had practically non-existent user base, so I've ignored it. After that, I remember a first wave of people making mastodon accounts (even before elon). There I've first heard of concept of "fediverse". I liked the idea but I honestly thought it had zero chances to compete with mainstream social media.
And then everything turned to shit, making a gap between something like lemmy and reddit a lot smaller. So I've jumped the ship with everyone after the API shitstorm.
Initially made an account on lemmy.ml in 2022. I was eyeing the fediverse, and when I found that there is a "reddit alternative", I wanted to check it out, but there wasn't much activity so I didn't use it much other than checking on it occasionally.
Then in 2023 I made an account on tchncs...when majority of users also hopped on lemmy.
