I'm 32, I remember using the internet before google was a thing, discovering flashy websites, hanging out on all kinds of internet forums and chatrooms, ebaums world, MySpace, new grounds... I rember when YouTube was just starting off and it was exploding with all kinds of content.
I joined Facebook in 2005, I remember when it was the talk of the town, it used to actually kind of be decent, all the content was from actual real world peers.
I remember when pages became a thing, and you could like certain topics, and then eventually it unfolded into something enterely different, I remember when it became New Facebook, and there became a chatbar. And then eventually it became a cespool of garbage.
I remember when reddit was at it's prime, I discovered it in 2011, I spent hours scrolling and engaging in discussion. The content was always new and original, every day on Reddit my mind got blown by something, this is before all the algorithms, and when upvotes and down votes actually dictated where your post would be jn the feed. You could litterally refresh your page and watch your vote counts.
Since then I've watched it change, I could always tell something felt off about it over the past few years.
Everytime I would google something on the net on my phone and click a Reddit link, I would be prompted to install the app. I tried it and it was shit. Once upon a time I could just open Reddit is Fun through the browser. Reddit made it impossible to do that.
Since discovering this place a few weeks ago now, I have been hit with a familiar feeling, and that is I am actually enjoying my time here as much as I did on Reddit in the early 2010s.
The communities are more grounded, there is no bot activity, my big long posts aren't deleted after posting them due to shitty rules.
I like how it feels free, and everyone agrees to just follow the rules of the community and if the post isn't quite fitting, people can vote on that, as it should be.
Thank you all for restoring something that was once great, I really thought there was no chance in hell people would get away from those platforms. I always told people we need a new website, a new Reddit, and I guess this is it.
Funny how it feels like the old forums isn't it?
I'm glad we found this place.
My biggest worry is that it becomes over moderated like all the subreddits.
I fucking hated writing a heated passionate post, only to have it automatically removed because I didn't read the fine print.
I prefer when everything is voted on in the community, vs automatic removals and strict mod's.
It actually took my motivation away to post, so I ended up just being a lurker.
The fact that there are so many Lemmy servers makes me feel as if one server goes to shit, there will be another one that offers more freedom of expression.
I also enjoy that that there is a specific instance for NSFW content, it keeps things organized.
OMG, writing a lengthy post just to get in auto-removed sucks so hard...
I'm hoping that mods will be fine.
I literally stopped to write answers on stackoverflow.com decade ago because mods were fixing my bad english (it's another story) and always somehow kicked me for it.
That's kinda why I joined Reddit originally. I couldn't really work with platforms like Twitter or Facebook that are sort of about "me". I just aren't that egocentric. I don't want to post daily shit about my life, and I also don't really have an interest in reading about private daily lives of others. Reddit always felt like a classical forum, but adapted to have more of a constantly moving content. You were part of a computer / tech forum? Now you'd join some subreddits about this topic and be informed while also able to partake in discussions about it. Same for everything else.
I never wanted all that drama from the extremistic sides (remember T_D dominating /r/all through vote manipulation? Or "uncensored news"?), I never wanted the sluggish & bloated redesign with its thousands of awards and distracting animations, I never wanted mods & admins / AEO to turn abusive and / or completely incompetent (literally all my bans have been within the past few years, which was the minority of all my total Reddit time). And now they think they can dictate the content that once made them great & brought them to the point where they are now. If they cannot find a way to work with the users, then the users should stop working for them. Simple as that. Because in the end it's the user base that made the platform great and filled it with content.