7h ago

What does make any user who can access and use Reddit choose Lemmy instead?

In theory as far as I can see Lemmy is heading for Reddit 2.0, which is way worse.

In my eyes, currently:

Mods are abusing their powers, as usual.
Lemmy. World is acting more like a company by day.
Some instances block VPN and Tor.
Federation is kinda of not that perfect right now.
I guarantee that not a single instance will defend their users privacy.

So.. That bring me to my question, Why would anyone who can use Reddit, use Lemmy instead?

11 comments

Some counter points:
I'm not seeing a lot of mod abuse here. I'm sure some occurs, but generalizing it to all or most mods is a gross exaggeration. And aside from that, it happens on Reddit too, worse from what I've seen. So it's still not as bad here.
Again, I'm not seeing lemmy.world acting like a company (whatever that even means). You know what is a company, and one that sells it's data and flagrantly shits on its users? Yeah, Reddit.
Some instances block VPN and Tor? Okay. If you say so. That's not a big concern of mine personally. At least Lenny instances didn't go to war with their users, mods, or API developers.
Federation doesn't need to be perfect. It's still better than a closed system in principle, even with its flaws.
That's a bold claim about no instances defending their users privacy. Where's the proof? Either way, at least all or most of them don't seem to be aggressively selling their users data to AI company as training material. So they are still better than reddit even if assuming they don't defend user privacy.
Side note: reading the title of this post gave me a headache. But I know sometimes it's easy to over-edit and have text get away from you. Or maybe English isn't your primary language.

Lemmy is worse than reddit in almost every measureable way. The reason I haven't gone back to reddit is purely out of principle and it's not a principle if it's not costing you anything.

Mods are abusing their powers, as usual.
That's a "people" problem, not a "Lemmy" problem. Lemmy is just a software.
Lemmy. World is acting more like a company by day.
lemmy.world isn't all of Lemmy. That's like looking into r/conservative or r/genzedong and claiming "Reddit" is "Far-Right"/"Far-Left"
Some instances block VPN and Tor.
I've used many instances and I've always used Tor with no issue. Again, that's a lemmy.world issue.
Federation is kinda of not that perfect right now.
As with most free software/platform, its gonna be less-than-perfect since its not funded/controlled by billionaires.
I guarantee that not a single instance will defend their users privacy.
You have to keep in mind this golden rule of the world: No one is willing to go to jail to protect your privacy. If you an instance owner, and were put in a position to either comply with legal requests or go to jail, you'd probabaly prefer to not go to jail. Everything you do is on Lemmy is public anyways, just use Tor/VPN to hide your IP from your instance owner. Use Matrix if you wanna DM someone.

Zero interest in corporate social media.

mods are abusing their powers
Seems like most of the mod actions taken about you are about off topic posts: https://sopuli.xyz/modlog?userId=16440635
LW
How so?
VPN and tor
Some instances do, and you can choose to use them instead. That's the main pro of federation.
Federation is kinda of not that perfect right now
What issues do you face?
Users privacy
It's a public forum, so privacy has a limit. However, you can delete your account and posts. Also, Lemmy apps have much less permissions than the Reddit one.
- Yeah, I've not had issues accessing my instance with a VPN. But it's the world we live in. I had a vigorous discussion with someone (it's in my history), vigorous because I replied to a post aggressively, about the poster blocking VPN clients on their self-hosted blog. Someone quite rightly pointed out that botnets, hackers, and spammers are heavy users of VPNs, and sometimes it's just easier for a hobby admin to block VPN exit nodes. I've come to terms with it; there's nothing online I need to read so badly that I'm going to compromise my own security for their convenience.
  As for privacy, you're absolutely right. Privacy? In a public forum? A federated public forum?? Pick an instance that doesn't require an email address to register, or use a throw-away email.
  But to answer OP's question: Reddit is owned by a single group of people with complete admin control over the site. Lemmy has many diverse site owners and admins; there is no Spez.
- Seems like most of the mod actions taken about you are about off topic
  Did you dive in the removals to understand them? They were Tech news posted in the tech community and removed as off topic. Some of them are even posted by other users using different sources.
  How so?
  Are you seriously asking?
  Some instances do, and you can choose to use them instead. That's the main pro of federation.
  What happens when most instances choose to implement this?
  What issues do you face?
  Try to use any small instance and try to find communities outside Lemmy. World.
  It's a public forum, so privacy has a limit.
  So, it's accepted in your eyes to have a limited privacy here?
  
  Did you dive in the removals to understand them? They were Tech news posted in the tech community and removed as off topic. Some of them are even posted by other users using different sources.
  Was it on !technogy@lemmy.world? Feel free to document the actions on !yepowertrippinbastards@lemmy.dbzer0.com . Alternatively, you can use !technology@lemmy.zip
  Are you seriously asking?
  Yes. LW still doesn't have ads or AI deals with Google, which Reddit does.
  What happens when most instances choose to implement this?
  A few instances like lemmy.dbzer0.com are pro-VPNs. Others are pro-Tor. Still, having the option is better than Reddit where you just can't use VPNs and can't use another instance.
  Try to use any small instance and try to find communities outside Lemmy. World.
  I'm currently on a smaller instance and interact with all LW communities just fine. Still, if you want some non-LW communities
  !ask@lemm.ee
  !communitypromo@lemmy.ca
  !fediverse@piefed.social
  !movies@lemm.ee
  !science@mander.xyz
  !android@lemdro.id
  !privacy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
  !linux@programming.dev
  !funny@sh.itjust.works
  So, it’s accepted in your eyes to have a limited privacy here?
  Reddit comments are archived in real time by websites like https://www.reveddit.com/ , that's just due to the nature of a public forum. How would you expect things to work?

Federation works against mod abuse. A mod can only abuse their power on one board. If enough people get sick of it, they'll leave for a different one and it will be almost frictionless (discounting defederation issues).
Landlords (a rough analogy but bear with me) only have power due to the friction of packing up all your belongings and going elsewhere. Lemmy has about the minimum friction you can have. I have entire instances blocked. I don't need them. I can find people discussing my interests on a dozen other servers.
In theory, Reddit isn't much different. Don't like one subs mods, join a different sub, but Reddit itself kinda puts its finger on the scale there. Plus, fuck Reddit's API changes. They own communications infrastructure, they don't own the thought's and minds of users, but they act like they don't understand that.

11 comments