@TheColonel@TimTheEnchanter 17 years ago is pretty much exactly when reddit became accessible. You were there from the very beginning.
I've been there for 14 years, and this kerfuffle has killed all enthusiasm I had for staying. I've switched to using reddit's RSS feeds for the few subs I can't give up yet (mainly those related to the Ukraine war) but I expect I'll stop using it altogether in short order.
On the plus side, it's furthered my deep distrust of big tech companies.
I felt like a Reddit old-timer and I have (had?) been on there 12 years, ha ha! Seventeen years is wild! I don’t have much enthusiasm for staying/going back, either.
I’m really enjoying the vibe of Lemmy so far! Still figuring out how to effectively discover communities on other instances, but I’ll get there eventually.
I’ve been using Memmy for that Apollo-like experience, ha ha!
I’ve been trying to comment and post way more, too. Feels nice trying to grow/participate in communities instead of just getting lost in a sea of rage bait. So far I’m liking the slower pace and kinder tone here!
Word! I’ve been bouncing between wefwef & Memmy, and just started trying Mlem today.
And yeah! I realize in retrospect that’s what I loved about Reddit and had to pare things way back to smaller subreddits in order to keep it feeling that way.
One thing i've been thinking since a recent CatValente essay from a few days ago, regarding Reddit: Saying "Fuck Spez" sounds quite nice and is catchy but kinda makes it feel like Steve Huffman was one of your buddies that betrayed you, and he never was. We should start using his full name, and accordingly distancing us from that person. Let's not give him even the privilege of using a nickname. His name is Steve Huffman and we should stop using "Spez" altogether.
I had been on Reddit for a similar amount of time, but I had cycled through a number of usernames during that period. So it wasn't nearly as big of a loss for me as it was for you—I appreciate the lengths you went for supporting the cause. Thank you. 
14 years here and did the same. Deleted it all. And have not been back on reddit since jul 1. Im pretty happy with lemmy so far. And yea it feels like old reddit. Time will tell
Some of our most active mods on /r/android left once their apps stopped working. We still keep it up with barebones modding, with a prominent link to !android@lemdro.id. Something I'm noticing is that people who were banned from communities on Reddit for inflammatory remarks, trolling, and spam are carrying over their vitriol to the Fediverse.
I and another dude modded a 30k+ sub. There were 5 mods, but the other 3 are basically gone at that point, and I was brought on because I was active in the community. We both left, and within a week users are complaining about the slacking mods and wondering why spam is getting through, why discussion threads aren't posted, etc.
We didn't do anything with the shutdown, as it wasn't "our" community to shut down. We were just brought on for workload reasons. But we're both gone now, and the cracks were showing immediately.
Sadly, I'm fairly certain it's literally just me in the equivalent fed community. Haven't seen any other subs, at least.
I used to moderate a lot of huge subreddits. Eventually got into the top 50 moderators by subscriber count. It was never a power trip, I just really enjoyed cleaning up garbage from the mod queue.
Obviously reddit is still running without me, but I used to do a shitload of unpaid labor to help keep that site clean. It was worth doing at the time, but everything I used to like about Reddit is gone. I don't regret doing the work, and I don't regret leaving.
I stopped moderating all of the niche subs (that I created) except for two and have, basically, let the mod team run things. I only dip in to check modmail in case a mod needs me. Otherwise, I don't use Reddit at all. Beehaw!
Yeah, niche ones provide the most value since the popular ones are the easiest to replace with the larger user base that seeks them out. Too many niche subs sold themselves short on their importance when it being niche was what kept people coming back over leaving due to lack of alternatives for that interest.
Oh absolutely! I'll remain the 'head mod' of /r/AskBibleScholars but the mod team there can handle the day-to-day. I'm still considering (and working on) the Q&A section of askbiblescholars.com and hope to provide the same service to the wider Internet.
I still visit using the website in a desktop browser because I can't help myself, but it's noticeably different, even on subs like r/games where there was never a shutdown at all. The weekly "What have you been playing?" topic isn't getting nearly the number of responses as it normally does, and those responses aren't as well moderated. They used to be very good at keeping people on topic and formatting their posts with game title/system/etc. but all of that is getting a little sideways now, too.
I started noticing a drop in the quality of some subs after the blackout, before the third party apps shut down, too. I suspect a lot more subs are that way now.
I also still browse the desktop site when I'm at work and I feel like the vibe has nosedived. Shit post subs like AITAH are front paging more than ever, the subs I frequent have less activity and that activity is lower quality. I am getting way more rude, unhelpful, ignorant comments.
I took a peek at my local sub and a thread asking about a car incident was full of one-liner jokes voted to the top. It was about 2/3 down before I saw an attempt at a real answer and even further down still before anyone wondered if the occupants were OK.
I was a mod for a 500k+ sub, and I left. I wrote the post about us going dark in protest, and that was the last thing I did. I left myself in the list of mods for a few weeks, just lurking in modmail, seeing the threats from the admins come in. I officially removed myself from the mod team about a week ago. We had 6 active mods, and there are now just two remaining.
I know dndmemes went back to sfw, and I'm pretty sure there are no active mods anymore. It looks like one person can post a few things a day, granted this ability by a mod before they were removed.