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.
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.
Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a very long time
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.
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… :')