Though this account is only a few months old, I’ve been on Lemmy for a few years under various accounts.

I joined because of the API changes. Fuck Reddit and fuck spez

Anybody on here with an account age of roughly 2yr 10m is probably here because of the API changes lol

When these threads come up, it’s always interesting to see how many of the “I was banned for no reason at all, I only said puppies are cute” users have a post history here on Lemmy that makes me think “I don’t agree with full-on bans, but in this case, I can kind of see why they might’ve done it.”

Also, I always wonder with these how many people are saying “I was banned from Reddit” when actually they were only banned from a specific sub. It’s super easy to get banned from the average sub on Reddit (at least it used to be). Much higher bar, generally speaking with caveats, to get banned from the site itself.

Having said all that, I did get a temporary site-wide suspension from Reddit, the REAL DEAL, for using the word “retard” in the accurate non-abusive way when discussing methods to slow the growth of mold. So, there’s that.

As for what made me join this place? I was already ready to be done with Reddit. I was aware of Mastodon, checked it out, definitely not for me, but by looking into that I found out that there was a news aggregator style alternative of similar principle called Lemmy.

Back in 2021 I fell really deep into the whole Privacy Rabbit hole. Switched to Linux, degoogeld my Phone. All the classics. I never had much social media, no insta, no tiktok. I only had Reddit. Then I searched for alternatives of Reddit and found the back then freshly created german server feddit.de (sadly not arround anymore)

So yea. Was not really active in the first two years, because it was reeaaallly dead here. Felt like one new interessting post a month. Not much more. Then in 2023 suddenly there came a huge wave from more Reddit users because of the API Situation. Since then there is finally enough action here, then I fully deleted my Reddit and was finally able to call this my new home :)

Still thanks for all of you coming around in 2023. Was really boring here before you guys.

I actually joined Lemmy three times:

The first time, I became a Linux user and quickly dove into FOSS and all that stuff. But using proprietary and centralized Reddit felt like a hypocrisy for me so I started looking for alternatives. That’s how I found Lemmy, a year before it will be found by fleeing redditors.

Early Lemmy was very quiet. Many instances you are used to now didn’t exist (no .world, shitjustworks, blahaj zone, dbzero, etc.) The three biggest instances were lemmy ml (the more generic, tech-focused), lemmygrad (you know that one) and wolfballs (some awful alt-right bully instance, will be later known as explodingheads). Beehaw literally just appeared when I was looking into Lemmy.

Overall, it wasn’t really enough to make me want to stay. I had no confidence in my English and social anxiety wasn’t helping too. So I quickly lost interest and moved on.

Despite all my searches, I couldn’t find a fitting replacement for Reddit. Then, my friend came out as trans and I started lurking trans-related subreddits like r/traaaaaaans and r/egg_irl and thus got back to the platform. This time I was using libreddit (still maintained by the name of redlib) and Infinity for Reddit (a fork called Eternity for Lemmy adopts it for, well, Lemmy) because the FOSS world had spoiled me and I wanted actually usable UI.

And then, the APIcalypse. I was naive enough to think that people will actually resist greedy corporats and force them to change their mind or sink their platform. Of course not. Like it or not (personally, I don’t), Reddit is still alive and well, and likely very, very profitable. But there was one beautiful consequence of the enshitifaction - this place!

Unlike my first visit to Fedi, the second time I entered not as a FOSS fangirl - posts about Linux and Firefox aren’t gonna cut it. And thus, once again I found myself on a platform with not much content that I wanted to actually see. I was still very much a lurker although it was the time I tried to break through my lurking habits and to start contributing something.

Long story short, most of my time on Lemmy was spent reading and talking about Fediverse. When Meta announced its plans to connect its Xitter-alternative to Fedi, I started spending way too much time arguing with strangers about it. Until I realized just how useless all that was. I deleted my account and took a break from all social media for months.

I decided to return at some point. I was already more comfortable with posting and more aware of just how much I hate arguing with strangers. So I made a resolution: my Lemmy time should be spent on discussing stuff that actually matters to me. While it took me quite a while to figure out how to chase interesting interactions here it brought me the best online experience since my group chat broke up.

So, I hope y’all enjoy my presence as well!

Apollo for Reddit shut down, and Reddit’s app sucks. Voyager looks identical to Apollo, so I moved to it.

I was banned from Reddit for posting NSFW pics of my own body in the right adult subs, and appealed and they still did not unban me, so here I am! I miss the friends I made there but I don’t miss the site… they are too ban happy over there and it was becoming buggy.

Because reddit cutoff API access to third-party apps.

Reddit exodus. Started on lemm.ee but it is not existing anymore, so here I am at /0.

Freedom to choose (servers). no corporate shilling.

I browsed as Anon some years ago, signed up to .world and have moved servers since, along with a backup on piefed.

i left Reddit long before i signed you on Lemmy. I came to Lemmy from Mastodon. I mostly don’t use that anymore but do have a gotosocial account

Bots, and because Reddit admins don’t do shit, and fuck Spez

The Reddit website began stopping me from browsing on mobile

Mega band me from Reddit for suggesting somebody should drill a hole in the Charlie Kirk statue. it was just a suggestion I didn’t say I had a plan or pay someone to do it or I was going to it. was just a suggestion and now I’m in a better place

Got banned from reddit for telling someone to crawl back into their hole because they were defending circumcision while saying female genital mutilation was disgusting and abhorrent.

I was on my way out anyway but getting banned for thinking infants shouldn’t have their genitals mutilated at all was the final nail that made me jump ship.

I still use it occasionally anonymously for porn but I’ve noticed a lot of the porn subs are shutting down so I’ll eventually quit using it altogether.

I miss lemmynsfw. Fedinsfw isn’t even remotely as good and as far as I’m aware there’s no app for it so I’m forced to open it in my browser and it’s not very optimized