I Tried Reddit Again and it Sucks Now
I Tried Reddit Again and it Sucks Now
I installed the official Reddit app and went on it to see what the old place was looking like now. My inbox was filled with spam. The "home feed" shows subs I never subscribed to. There are so many ads. Between the ads and the the extra subs in the feed, it's hard to just scroll. I also noted a lot of spam in some of the subs. Maybe they are subs with no mods? I'm not sure what's up with that.
Interesting to hear your experience. It took me 3.5 months to fully remove myself from Reddit. (March to July):
- I started just poking around Lemmy while using Reddit
- to occasional commenting and posting on Lemmy
- to using them about equal time
- then making a final few posts and comments in the protest weeks and helping people migrate
- then I was only upvoting
- then I made a final goodbye post on my Reddit page
- then I stopped voting but still looking around Reddit and the playplace.
- then when that was over, I uninstalled my favourite RedReader app and stopped using it altogether
I'm not one who likes to go cold turkey, but when once I commit to boycotting something I stick to it until my condition is met. In those final days I came across many Reddit users who were like "if you hate Reddit that much why are you still using iiiiiit?", that was annoying but that's behind me now and there is no condition for me to go back to it.
Long before the big fiasco I had already taken up the habit of nuking my own Reddit account after ~6 months or ~20K karma, whichever came first. I had noticed that an attachment to such accounts creates inner turmoil. Like when you get unfairly banned by some powertripping mod. I simply didn't like the fact that someone else had any kind of emotional power over me, no matter how slight, so I taught myself to kill my accounts without attachment.
So when the shit hit the fan before summer it was trivial to just delete my latest account and not make a new one. Been a happy Lemming ever since, not planning on going back. Sometimes the urge to lurk creeps in but so far I've been perfectly able to ignore it.
I honestly feel happier than before. I already don't use any news apps and limit my exposure to actuality, and Reddit was pretty much the last "toxic" thing to hammer into my mind 24/7.
I'd say I miss it, but I really don't. The hours of doomscrolling I spent on there were not only wasted, but 100% counterproductive to my happiness as a human being.
I spent over a full year /played in Wow loooong ago, and that time at least wasn't wasted because I enjoyed most of it. Can't say the same for Reddit.
Ads every few posts. Ads inside comments. Ads ads ads.
I deleted my account as part of the Great Reddit Exodus of 2023 but have periodically visited the site since without an account.
Many of the posts I see now seem really sensationalist and almost like they were created by bots. Of course, maybe Reddit was always that way and it just some time being away for me to realize that.
Standard “wHy Do YoU cArE?” Post, ignoring this is the Reddit community.
But in all seriousness, not surprised. It’s likely only gonna get worse until it dies as a platform.
I'm not using Reddit since the whole API stuff got closed. However I posted something to get some tech help on a specific service online. Despite being nothing wrong with my post it was getting down voted. The mod perked up and said it's just Reddit and just get used to it. No thanks.
I miss the amount of content that would make me laugh but I don't miss the utter dickheads that reside there. I'm sticking with Lemmy.
Reddit is now only useful for finding answers, not for browsing
It’s old.reddit.com or nothing for me.
The app is also so slow and laggy af
A subreddit I used to mod which shut down in protest when the third party apps controversy happened has completely vanished from Google search.
I noticed when signed out, there is a lot more fight videos, rate me, am I ugly, kinda clickbait stuff that's wasn't there before the API change. It's gross, like being on youtube while signed out.
It really feels worse now, even in terms of topics in the subreddits for which there is no equivalent here.
Still, until certain things are born here or well populated, I'll still check it out from time to time.
At least, so far I seem to check it less and less and am grateful for Lemmy and its growth. I hope it keeps growing!
I find that most of those issues are nonexistent the way I am on reddit - just use old.reddit everywhere. Yes, even on mobile. I'm special, and not in a good way, but it works.
I fear the day old.reddit gets shut down, considering the amount of communities that don't have an (alive) analog on Lemmy, so for now I use both...
I still believe all the big subs are just bots. Yes, social media communities tend toward an echo-chamber (that's true on Lemmy and Mastodon depending on your instance and the people and communities you follow) but Reddit's echo chambers are on another level. It's basically that "danger to our democracy" video in written form.
I like to be surprised on the Internet. I like to hear and read something I haven't heard or read before, and on Reddit, outside of some niche small communities, that's not possible anymore. I suppose a part of it is because the powermods have way too much power on Reddit and they're very ban happy even for total bullshit. So over time, only bots and people who can conform to the ever tightening rules stay on.
Since the whole fiasco started reddit took a turn, I was a scab for longer than I should have. I check in periodically specifically to keep track of Ukraine stuff, it's still a hive of activity compared to Lemmy but I don't care for it. If I was savvy I would have a script running to scraping content from Reddit and mirror it here on Lemmy to keep in tune with certain feeds.
Yeah, it's absurd to see the spam that gets shown by users on default / when joining. It's when you realize that if you've just visited reddit on your own account for a long time that you've just been living in a bubble when it reality it was being set up to tailor to something else. I found this out during the heights of its crypto/memestock rush.
I actually have tried to use reddit multiple times, however they've soft-disabled most new accounts. It's around a 50% chance in my experience if your account is shadowbanned immediately, with a slightly lower chance it'll be shadowbanned within a week, regardless of what you post. If you use a privacy-focused email provider or use a vpn, or use a browser that is resistant to fingerprinting, you're basically persona non-grata at reddit. Which is honestly fine with me at this point, half of all content you encounter in almost any major sub is either bot posted or "totally a legitimate user that uses the site 24/7" posted.
Deleted my account, but I installed a firefox extension that forces every reddit link through the old.reddit interface and it's okay for lurking it.
One of my most favorite subs used to have the usual lovely posts and interactions. After the drama, one mod just posts a daily question. It's boring. Hardly anybody responds. I don't think people are allowed to post freely anymore, because it's just full of these boring questions. One way to take down your subreddit.
I got the app when lemmy was having some issues and I needed to scratch the itch. From what I gather, the sorting options are shit. There’s only popular, home, latest, news and watch. I only downvote now, especially ads.
I've noticed it cycles between two posts I'm subscribed to, an ad, a popular on Reddit post, and a recommended community post. You can't just see what you're subscribed to anymore.
The content has become pretty boring too
I wouldn't have expected anything different.
You're not alone. Reddit is now basically just a shadow of its former self. And it's all to make money.
Don't you love it when big companies practice corporate greed? Because I f***ing don't.
It sucked before, too.
still use old dot, but the moment that goes away so do I
Infinity for Android is subscription only as of August 31st so it's time to pull the plug for me!
Even if I wanted to go back. There was only one private community I’d like to visit. The mod of that community wasn’t active for awhile when I deleted my account so getting back into that space would be unlikely.
I’d hit up the redditors I was close friends with, if they are still active. However they know where to find me if they ever decide to join the fediverse.