I'm returning to Reddit, here's why

Although the idea of decentralized servers sounds nice, there are at least two serious problems IMO that make me return to Reddit for at least now.

(1) Continuity. Although many accounts and communities are created on large instances like lemmy.world, not all accounts and communities are. Which means accounts and communities on smaller instances are at serious risk to be shut down suddenly. This is potentially also the case for accounts and communities on larger instances, but it’s less likely considering their size.

But a large instance tends to be slow because it cannot always keep up with a surge of new accounts. Furthermore, non-US content like political news from other countries seems to be completely absent. Making most of the communities interesting for those interested in US-politics, but that’s about it.

(2) No urgent response from those developing Lemmy to prevent unsollicited direct messages. This is not a problem as long as one does not receive direct messages, but you cannot prevent getting them. Moreover: you cannot delete DMs you didn’t want to receive in the first place.

Without some form of continuity management (community moderators or users being able to backup and migrate their community and account) or a way to block direct messages from being received (blocking users isn’t a solution) my personal conclusion is that Lemmy or Kbin aren’t a suitable replacement for Reddit.

And yes, I understand Reddit administrators can remove subreddits, but so can Lemmy administrators. There is no difference if you cannot move a community or your account.

But Reddit does allow DMs to be blocked and the number of users far exceeds that of Lemmy and Kbin.

So although the idea is nice, I’ll no longer post or comment on Lemmy or Kbin. The platform isn’t ready yet IMO.

HopeOfTheGunblade,
HopeOfTheGunblade avatar

Meh. Stuff here is flawed. Stuff there is fucked. I know where I'll be.

novamdomum,
novamdomum avatar

I occasionally peek at reddit through a periscope just to see how the dumpster fire is going. Each time I've done it it reminds me of what a toxic hellscape it is. I'm never going back to that horrible place. I use kbin and don't really know Lemmy and only vaguely understand what instances and federation are but so far there's been more than enough content to keep me... ahem... content. I've also noticed that over the last couple of weeks the content on kbin has increased both in quantity and quality. It's not an easy transition because I was very badly hypnotised by reddit but I know it's the only way forward.

thingsiplay,
thingsiplay avatar

@UnanimousStargazer You are right, Lemmy and Kbin has its flaws. They are still in heavy development and servers grow slowly. The off times got better, at least here in Kbin works pretty well now. The critique about the smaller servers that could shut down anytime is not without any reason, I give you that. But I argue the problems Reddit has is worse. A single maniac controls it and lies to the people, they don't care about the community, threatened the moderators and so on. I mean you know what happened. Do I miss Reddit? Yes! There is a reason why we liked to be there. I personally don't want to be part of Reddit and don't accept that platform anymore.

To me, going back to Reddit is like going back to Facebook, Tiwtter and Windows. Not gonna happen after the shit show.

AcumenDonor,

I think KBin and Lemmy could've both used being a bit more fully developed before Spez started throwing his tantrums tbh. Like, I've no intention of going back to Reddit, I very much see KBin/Lemmy as works in progress that will only get better, but I do think friendly criticism is really important and should be taken on board.

With this in mind my biggest gripe is that the magazines/communities I subscribe to are buried in my profile. Every time I'm on here I keep clicking on Magazines or searching for communities when trying to find what I'm subscribed to, rather than remembering to check my profile.

I also agree on the migration point. It's something that's a wider Fediverse problem too - Masto really needs migration that moves toots and likes as well.

Packopus,
Packopus avatar

@UnanimousStargazer Nothing starts out perfect. Google and Facebook had growing pains too. Hell, Windows can still barely figure their shit out. The biggest tech still has flaws.

It just depends on your usage and expectations. If you prefer Reddit, and the content is still relevant to you, go for it. For me, I was a lurker and didn't really expect much past the front "hot" page. That's exactly how I use the federated sites, so to me I lose nothing because I expect nothing.

I respect your opinion to return, and yes this place has flaws, but if we don't use it, it won't get fixed. Going back to Reddit for your reasons is like saying you won't live in your new house because it doesn't have furniture. Like, yeah, you just bought it, it's new, it's empty. Put shit in it and make it nice! Invite your friends over! Have a party!

AidsAcrossAmerica,
AidsAcrossAmerica avatar

I find myself browsing Reddit more and more lately, but still don't have an account or participate.

I occasionally post on kbin, but the way the homepage appears to feed content is just awful. Doesn't seem to prioritize magazines I actually sub to. I haven't found any magazine for my local city either. Kind of feels stagnated in here.

density,
density avatar

there's DMs?

Are people DMing each other? Regarding what? Nobody is DMing me. Should I feel hurt?

OP did you have problems with getting too many DMs? Or weird DMs?

bbplay13,

Even when I was on reddit, I had 1 DM my entire 13 Years there. I actually didn't even know you could DM here.

Johnvanjim,

I like the fact that Kbin/Lemmy are at the beginnings of what they'll eventually be along with a good non-corporate control system backing it all. It feels very early web and has more than enough content to methadone me off my 14 year reddit fix.

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