Ask Lemmy

The API changes. I use Sync, and not being able to use Sync made Reddit more or less unusable for me on my phone. I also fundamentally disagreed with the direction Reddit was going. So, Lemmy it was, and it's great. And now there's Sync for Lemmy, which is even better!

They murdered Apollo.

Shutting down 3rd-party apps

API changes killed the App I used.

API changes. I hate ads.

Reddit is (no longer) Fun.
Like others, the API change was the final straw. I used Reddit is Fun (RIF) for years, even paid for the full version, because both the official Reddit app and the mobile web interface were terrible. I was also using the old web interface with the Reddit Enhancement Suite, and that went on "maintenance mode". Overall, Reddit just reached a point that the enshitification was getting to be too much for me to stomach. So, here I am.

The API-copalypse last year.

API changes / forcing 3rd party apps to shut down.

I'd been dissatisfied with Reddit for a while due to things like hive mind mentality and jokes repeated ad nauseum. I always enjoyed more when people were just posting their honest opinions or analysis of current events from a perspective that I don't have. There wasn't really anywhere else to go as an active "forum based" aggregator, so when the ground swell of people leaving due to the API fiasco came along and enough of a crowd started setting up shop on a different platform I jumped at the opportunity to ditch that place.

Glad to be done with it.

I really don't like Reddit's attitude as a corporation. The sense of entitlement from a user driven content aggregator is insane.

They killed the apps.

My app of choice stopped working.

I felt like Reddit had been in decline for a long time. Then there was the API change and the debacle with the third party apps and I realised it was run by someone with no respect for the users, whose first instinct when something doesn't go according to plan is to lie and blame someone else. I didn't like that much, so here I am.

Because fuck Spez. Lying, greedy asshat.

Like a lot of others I left when spez decided to fuck everyone using the API and kneecapped Apollo.

When Reddit killed the use of its API for third party clients

I left with the 3rd party app ban, Reddit's quality had been dropping steadily for a while at that point and now I couldn't even use an app that worked.

The official Reddit app stopped working for me altogether early last year, with comment sections taking upwards of a minute to load.

I still use Reddit for specific gaming communities that I check from time to time, since they don't exist here on Lemmy.

They’ve been dicks with the API.

Also, Reddit is flooded with coomer level maniacs who are desperately looking for any kind of discussion. To the point they misread shit intentionally just to start some shit.

Aaaaaand I got banned from r/gaming for calling someone out when he tried to justify pedophilia. Mods must be professional SSB players.

I'd been fed up with reddit for a while, but the API bullshit was the final straw for me: As soon as discovered the fediverse I was sold.

Connect is a great mobile app btw.

The killing of the API, and the disgusting behavior of Reddit suspending users like me calling out the violence by Trump.

Apparently, Reddit admins LOVE violence and Trump.

As everyone said, the API change was a big deal. But for me, the cover-up was worse than the crime. I was a 13 year user (came over on the Digg boat) with over 100K comment karma. Reddit's reaction, and Spez's "landed gentry" comments, were so insulting I just couldn't support the site.

I thought they may possibly change in response to the boycott. But when Reddit started replacing mods with unqualified scabs, that meant the site content itself was definitely going to go downhill. It also confirmed that it was no longer a site that valued its users (who, as many have said, were providing the very thing that made the site valuable for free, purely in exchange for not being treated poorly).

At that point, why remain? Niche communities are the only reason I ever check back in. And like others, I'm seeing Reddit devolve into karma-whoring discussions that are just a battle of one-line snarky jokes, a huge amount of bot content, and reposts as a rule, no longer exception.

Conversely, there are people on Lemmy who actually want to read, think and actually respond. Pretty cool. I'm good with this trade.

I like the idea of decentralized social media. Having a single for-profit company moderating all content feels sleazy.

The beauty of the fediverse is that there's independent competition. If you don't like how a certain space is being run, you can choose another or create your own. It's ironically very "free-market capitalistic", in contrast to the political leanings of the user-base. Lol

The end of third party apps was the end of being able to tolerate the reddit experience.

Got sick of being sold to, when they got rid of third party apps I bailed.

The killing of Apollo (and all others) really rubbed me the wrong way, and I refuse to support companies moving in the direction of forcing ads in front of people.

I was ready to switch for a long time. When everyone else left, lemmy got large enough to sustain conversation.

The reasoning behind the API changes, the CEO's entitlement, the ever-more-annoying interface changes (I hate the "More Posts You May Like", the algorithm is pathetically shitty).

I refuse to install apps to navigate websites. If your site is decent, it should work in a browser. If not, I'll just go elsewhere.

I didn’t feel like I was creating enough shareholder value to justify my existence there.

API changes

They killed the standalone apps. The desktop version redesign was/is crap. And the official mobile experience is less pleasant than having the clap.

Everyone else was doing it. I just wanted to be popular.

The amount of obvious bot posts and comments just essentially copy pasting the same basic shit all over the place got exhausting.

I switched over when I read an interview with the CEO — I think with The Verge — and figured it was over. It was obvious he was juicing numbers to go public and there was no point investing time on a platform that would only get worse for users.

I exclusively browse on mobile and their app sucks. The API changes were the last straw, but I was slowly on the way out the door anyway. The bigger an online community gets, the more it will resemble your average online community. The average online community is a toxic mess. Reddit is so big, even the niche little weirdo run subreddits weren't the same anymore. It looked like reddit but felt like Facebook.

Killing third party apps. Fuck that. I didn’t even use a third party app, but that just showed me, clear as day, that they’re not concerned with their users, just money. They benefitted from third party apps, then just stuck a big middle finger to their developers and users.

I came over because spez is a greedy little pig boy

Reddit API + going public

Losing RIF. But after more than a decade on the site, most posts felt like something I had read before.

The third party switch. Plus I have found lemmy to be quite refreshing. On Reddit all I did was lurk. But now I actually comment and participate. Because it feels like I'm talking to real people.