Sound Off: How many 10+ year redditors have left the site?

I was just browsing a thread on c/nfl looking for new mods. There were multiple 12+ year Redditors there offering to help.

Got me wondering. There are 14,000 of us in this community. How many of us are ten year plus users who have just had enough?

Edit: I didn’t expect this post to be as poignant as it became. There are so many of you… I can’t reply to everyone. I’m an 11 year user and have modded something like 150 subs over the years. I’m really sad too, but I’m finding that lemmy has most of the content I’m looking for, just needs more comments.

The API was a big blow, but removing awards on past posts and deleting coin balances is really dumb.

flipthetube,

13 or 14 years here. I didn’t delete my account but I don’t even want to give them the traffic from going back to see my join date.

andyburke,
andyburke avatar

same

ZoopZeZoop,

Same as well.

fluxion,

And my axe

Speculater,

This

GuyDudeman,
@GuyDudeman@lemmy.world avatar

Me too!

musictechgeek,

Yep, same here.

LazaroFilm,
@LazaroFilm@lemmy.world avatar

Same. I just refuse to click on Reddit links. Been on it for atrium 12 years.

fmstrat,

Same

guru_hippo,

Same here. Started on Reddit around 2010. Haven’t been back since Apollo shutdown.

grummle,

Ah found my spirit animal.

BilboBargains,

I would imagine the 10+ demographic has the highest rates of attrition. Those people will have witnessed most of the transition from niche to lowest common denominator. Everyone knows the adage that 100k is the subreddit limit after which the community breaks down. It would happen here too. The discourse here is uncannily like the 2009 Reddit I remember. People are polite and well informed. I hope the localised and open nature of the service keeps it that way.

Prediction: Reddit will become a cesspit of advertising and data harvesting, a la Facebook. It’s most of the way there already.

DoisBigo,

In Brazil we had a social media site that was huge during the 2000s called Orkut, it was owned by Google. It was sort of a mix between Reddit and Facebook: you had your own profile with pictures but you could also join communities that were organized in a searchable manner, like Reddit. Several of those communities migrated to Facebook, but they lost A LOT because Facebook wasn’t meant to be used in this way.

I think the same thing will happen with Reddit. It will be more like 9gag and less like Reddit. Communities like r/funny or r/whatcouldgowrong will prosper while communities like r/askhistory will move forward crippled.

I don’t think Lemmy will get a relevant share of Reddit (on Reddit’s perspective) users. It has already obtained a relevant amount of Reddit users (on Lemmy’s perspective) and it should keep being pushed for Reddit orphans, but it will be smaller and communities here shouldn’t be as restrictive as they would be on Reddit. Instead of making c/dogs, make c/pets and include dog owners, bird owners, fish owners, else you will exclude people and have a dead community.

MadWorks,
@MadWorks@lemmy.world avatar

You remember when Reddiquette was a thing? I remember when Reddiquette was a thing.

Hamartiogonic,
@Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz avatar

Been on Reddit for about 8 years, but I’ve seen enough. Once a company starts treating you like trash, it’s time to go. These things have happened with other platforms too, and I’ve always found a better alternative somewhere.

Kidplayer_666,

Same reason here. Even tho I’m quite a recent user to be honest of Reddit (only got in 2020)

Mojave,

deleted_by_author

    •
    Wollff,

    And of course there are the trolls!

    Even they are still properly trolly around here! How nostalgic! Maybe not even a bot.

    oce,
    @oce@jlai.lu avatar

    It happens, but less for now, because of the current pioneer demographic.

    Blamemeta,

    Same here. Came over in the digg migration, left when 3rd party apps died.

    Ohthereyouare,

    Does this feel like Reddit did then? Does to me.

    TheHighRoad,
    @TheHighRoad@lemmy.world avatar

    I’ll piggyback and say that it feels similar. The biggest difference is not having huge default subs shaping the experience. Lemmy also feels more sparse in the comments, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

    GuyDudeman,
    @GuyDudeman@lemmy.world avatar

    Agreed. Feels like early Reddit did. Lower quantity, higher quality.

    TheHighRoad,
    @TheHighRoad@lemmy.world avatar

    Another thing is I feel like I’m trying harder to contribute positively; I want Lemmy to succeed so that (hopefully) we can avoid the enshitification that inevitably plagues the commercialized platforms.

    GuyDudeman,
    @GuyDudeman@lemmy.world avatar

    Totally agree. I’ve only posted a pun a handful of times!

    Ohthereyouare,

    I think this is a good point. When I got here, before I started shaping my feed, it was basically rule196, furry porn, tankies and memes.

    Actually… A lot like Reddit in the Digg days, minus the tankies.

    Less “gems” and rage comics and “Le”, but the same idea, modernized for 2023.

    It was those of us (probably in this Lemmy thread, ironically, 15 years-ish later) who outlasted the Le gems of Reddit, and turned it into the modern place.

    Then, spez. Fuck spez

    Blamemeta,

    Kinda? I was a lot younger then, and this feels way more left wing politically now. Maybe I just got more conservative as I aged, or the internet got more left wing. Or maybe a little of both.

    Ohthereyouare,

    Or, maybe, the world is more liberal than you’ve been led to believe as your circle of influence grew smaller as you got older.

    TheBenCommandments,
    @TheBenCommandments@infosec.pub avatar

    Reality has a liberal bias

    TrickDacy,

    Stopping in to drop a semi-ironic “this^”

    MiddleKnight,

    10 years ago people would write “this^” without a trace of irony on Reddit. So you are kinda ruining the experience by being semi-ironic.

    TrickDacy,

    Only semi-ruining tho. Life is about balance ;)

    FreeloadingSponger,

    There’s similarities, but it’s a little more empty, and it’s a little too reposty from other sites still. reddit then felt a bit more like the place, this isn’t that yet.

    Emptiness,

    Digg migrant here as well. I’m getting cozy over here now, not looking back.

    vanontom,

    Same boat. I remember being a big fan of Digg (and Kevin Rose), and looking down upon “new” copycat… Reddit. Then they completely changed (removed voting?) almost overnight, and so I gave Reddit a chance. Loved it (and later Sync) and used almost daily! Until… well, fuck Steve Huffman, we all know what happened. Hello Lemmy.

    I have not deleted account or comments yet, but logged out everywhere, try to never visit, and will never use the (ad-infested) app. Lemmy community (and Liftoff) has been great, just needs to keep growing with good people.

    Rainy1719,
    @Rainy1719@lemmy.world avatar

    16yrs My account was older than my kid. It feels like some weird breakup. At times I miss it but I feel better for moving on. Lemmy feels like early reddit did so I’m hopeful that the community will continue to grow.

    Quill7513,

    The growth metrics are really interesting. Half year active users continue to steadily climb, however I believe based on the monthly active users being plateued (and even in mild decline) that this will level off in the near future unless something sparks another wave of migration.

    Meanwhile, I think there are two things to be taken from the slow decline of monthly active users now that the big migration is behind us. I think we’re seeing three things

    1. Some people tried lemmy or kbin and didn’t have an experience to keep them around. Maybe they didn’t understand how the federation of communities worked and they ended up leaving because they didn’t like that there was !technology, !technology, and !technology. maybe it was bugs (this whole ecosystem is in an alpha state). Maybe it was simply choice of instance giving them an overall negative impression of the Threadiverse. And maybe it was just that their favorite niche communities moved to other platforms, or didn’t move at all
    2. People who took some time to find the right instance from them have settled into their preferred instance
    3. The Threadiverse has reached a critical mass, and will continue to be a thriving and active community even if the growth will slow down to a more nature curve for the time to come

    I also do foresee more migrations in our future. I know multiple friends who are waiting for their favorite apps (Sync and Boost in their cases) to be ported over. We’ve probably already experienced our biggest mass migration, but I’d say overall the past two months have been a win for the Threadiverse

    iBaz,

    Would have been 12 years this month. I left when they pulled that crap with Christian (Apollo), he’s a friend IRL and I support him 100%.

    negativeyoda,

    I’m loosely friendly with Lawrence from Sync. Same boat here

    ChunkMcHorkle,
    @ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world avatar

    I’m not friends with either of them, never even met them, but I left for the same reason: it doesn’t have to be happening to me personally for me to realize I want no part of that shit. (That, and gleefully fucking over the accessibility users at the same time. Pick one.)

    Either way,

    “This is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass.” – Walter Sobchak

    negativeyoda,

    I’m a simple man. I see Lebowski references, i upvote

    ChunkMcHorkle,
    @ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world avatar

    Man, when I wrote that I was SO close to going with “This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps” (because that was the censors fucking the script in the ass) but then I thought, nah, too meta. Reading your comment makes me think I should have gone with it, lol. I too upvote Little Lebowski-isms in the wild.

    masterofn001, (edited )

    14 years with an account. A year or so of lurking before that.

    Sites come and go.

    I like telling stories of the olden days of the internet. Like being user on mp3.com and having chats with people like Darude (before sandstorm) and Dido (before Eminem). It was an amazing place. Now it isn’t.

    Reddit will follow.

    As they all do

    Edit: I also had the comment of the day on Reddit once.

    It had 500 upvotes.

    I was also a beta tester for duckduckgo. Not the app, the site/engine. When everyone else was putting him down, I believed.

    That’s how long I was on there.

    poxonus,

    Jolly Rancher

    FourPacketsOfPeanuts,

    Gargh!

    blargh,

    Swamps of Dagobah

    Wollff,

    My greatest internet achievement: I came up with the name for that story!

    Okay, not quite, I came up with calling it “The Dagobah Story”, but close enough! :D

    STOMPYI,

    Once had a front page rage comic… man I was flying high that day!

    RickRussell_CA,
    @RickRussell_CA@lemmy.world avatar

    Yeah, I was never a fan of Scrubs, but several years into the show I heard Lazlo Bane’s “Superman” in the show titles and I was like… huh, they got that from MP3.com? Turns out Zach Braff was friends with the band members.

    I still have lots of MP3.com stuff in my music archive, including folks who never made the transition to Youtube and pretty much don’t exist on the Internet at all anymore.

    Sekrayray,

    deleted_by_author

    •
    BallsInTheShredder,

    What a coincidence I discovered the site around 2011 and it was the API changes that did it for me too. They’d already made the site terrible and the only thing that helped make it tolerable was Boost (for me) with that out the window and them basically extorting the devs I just couldn’t in good conscience keep using it.

    Brandon658,

    Pretty sure I joined in 2011 as well. I’d check but why give them traffic. The website was only still usable with old reddit and the app is total trash. RiF is what I used to interact with reddit about 99% of the time. When they axed it I left and the flow of people over to Lemmy has made it just fine for my needs.

    Sure it is still a little lacking for some of the subs but it’s getting there.

    deadsenator,
    @deadsenator@lemmy.ca avatar

    Very similar story. Left Digg during the exodus, loved reddit for a while using BaconReader. Unknowingly the Outrage machine was doing a number on me and once I left last month, I felt a large weight lifted. Quality of conversations are greatly improved, but I’ve noticed some howling monkeys here too. Far fewer though.

    I have noticed I’ve split my time to several instances as well as using Tildes, BBC and a variety of other sources to fill the space reddit used to do as I had it curated over a dozen years. Hard to flesh that out in a month.

    wreel,
    @wreel@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

    I was 2006 adopter when Paul Graham dropped a link to it on his website. I was there before the original programming subdomain Reddit and even before they supported picture thumbnails. I’ve seen its wild mutations over the years. Bacon, narwhal, Mr Splashypants, Colbert name dropping, the original video IAMAs, the jailbait fiasco, spacedicks, random celebrity users, the redesign from hell, etc etc.

    I left.

    It was a good site for a long time but after being on Lemmy for a while I can see a clear difference in experience and now I realize Reddit has been bad for a while. Terrible discourse, lowest common denominator posts, and falling into the trap of continuous engagement just to get the next hit of dopamine. Honestly, spez ruining the site has been good for me personally.

    I’m proud of our rejection of a commercial online experience. This is the thoughtful community I want to be a part of. This feels like the Internet of the late 90s in terms of authenticity. With its revival with the Fediverse I’m hopeful that these types of communities will forever be part of our digital experience.

    Razgriz18,

    My Reddit account is about 10 years younger than yours. I did not know what spacedicks was, but because it sounds funny, I looked up an article (I know better than to image seach such things, just to be safe)… My god… :')

    melechric,

    16+ years. Learned about it from Joel Spolsky’s blog.

    I pretty much agree 100% with your characterization of the decline and your overall experience.

    I also hadn’t realized how dysfunctional Reddit had become or how much I’d tried to adapt to that dysfunction.

    AustNerevar,

    spacedicks

    Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a very long time

    Willer,

    6 year.

    SloppyPuppy,

    12 years here. The day apollo died is the day I stopped logging into reddit.

    And it is really hard. That was my default go to free time app. I spent AT LEAST 4 hours A DAY on reddit for most of those 12 years.

    Its hard. But on the other hand that site disgusses me now.

    FlyingSquid,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    Funny, it was hard for me too… for about three days. Now it feels fine just doing Lemmy.

    kenoh,
    @kenoh@lemm.ee avatar

    Yeah, just muscle memory was there to go to reddit for about a week. I still kind of lament how easy it was to type “redd” with my left hand and the click it on the url bar.

    Gnemesis,
    @Gnemesis@lemmy.world avatar

    Count me in that. Left when rif bit the dust.

    IndiBrony,
    @IndiBrony@lemmy.world avatar

    Likewise. Signed up in 2011, I’ve completely migrated over here now. Sadly the communities that I were a part of aren’t particularly active, but here I will have to pull up my boot straps and help with that!

    Rhynoplaz,

    10+ club here. One day, RIF just didn’t load, so I uninstalled it and found Contact for Lemmy.

    Despite less content overall, I’m still finding significant news updates, and a few things each day that I can laugh at and share with my wife, but I spend less time doom-scrolling.

    krakenx,

    I joined Reddit 13 years ago when Digg made their site unusable. I joined Lemmy 1 month ago when Reddit made their site unusable (on mobile). History repeats itself…

    Chunk,

    I suspect that those who joined reddit during the Digg exodus are more likely to have come to Lemmy.

    fuck_u_spez_in_particular,

    Digg exodus

    It’s ironic: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZcASzFlrQE&t=56m57s

    NewLemmyUser123,

    what makes you think lemmy will replace Reddit?

    krakenx,

    Reddit probably won’t implode like Digg did because they got a lot of users used to their terrible app, and power users can still use old.reddit and Revanced to patch the third party apps. But enough people have left Reddit that Lemmy is now it’s own thing, and unless Lemmy screws it up badly, it should only keep growing.

    phil299,

    me too

    jayemecee,

    Same as me

    Euraru,

    I’ve been using Reddit since 2012, as soon as the fiasco with third party apps began I started to move to Lemmy.

    Haven’t looked back once.

    brap_gobbo,

    I had used Reddit for probably 11-12+ years. Which is why the slow death of the site was so sad. It was one of my favorite places on the net

    Pons_Aelius,

    I'm Spartacus.

    IPimpMickeyMouse,

    I’m Steve Rogers.

    cloudy1999,

    I’m Spartacus

    FlyingSquid,
    @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

    I’m Brian and so is my wife!

    cloudy1999,

    Hi ‘Brian and so is my wife’

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