I was on reddit over 10 years and both the actions of the ownership (enshittification, silencing of dissent) and the crossover into more mainstream usage (it became too popular for its own good) had soured it. The final straw was when myself and other moderators who protested the API changes with subreddit blackouts were forcefully removed and replaced with stooges who would do the bidding of the masters. Reddit is just a platform and all of it’s value came from us the users and our generated content, which they now own and sell to enrich themselves and feed evil corporate AIs.

Lemmy is freedom from that. Its smaller and less active, but the atmosphere and community is much stronger IMO, despite some other commenters who feel its just as toxic. And most importantly the federated model means no one can take ownership of the whole thing and ignore its users concerns.

In conclusion, fuck Spez.