The 4 best Reddit alternatives: Top picks to replace your subreddits
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Build your communities elsewhere now that most Reddit third-party clients are dead
  • Mario_Dies.wav@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    1683·
    10 months ago

    As for funding, the servers are supported on a donation basis, with no big corporations behind them. This leads to a problem concerning user data and privacy, as there isn’t a single accountable entity behind the network.

    Bit of a weird take now, isn’t it?

    • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
      801·
      10 months ago

      I think both things are valid points, but it’s worded in a weird way

      A more explicit pro/con would have been better

      No big corporation that controls everything

      • Pro:
      • Con:
    • Blaze@discuss.tchncs.deOPEnglish
      411·
      10 months ago

      It’s kind of fair, to be honest, and the “no big corporation” seems more like a pro than a con

      • JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nlEnglish
        302·
        10 months ago

        Eh, it is a con when there are problems, service problems, bugs, etc…

        My instance have had a few of them and for a while our 1 admin was unavailable.

        It is difficult or impossible to get it resolve because there is no contact point, nobody hired to fix issues that need immediate triage, etc… which can result in longer outages or bugs on specific instances.

        I’m not complaining. This is a fantastic service that is being offered completely free from actual altruistic incentives, unlike corporations. There are a few downsides though.

        • Blaze@discuss.tchncs.deOPEnglish
          10·
          10 months ago

          Definitely, that’s why I always prefer instances with at least two admins, and a Matrix room for status updates

      • Mario_Dies.wav@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        12·
        10 months ago

        Yeah, true. It seems like that is a pro that greatly overshadows the cons. Like someone else pointed out, it’s just worded weirdly in the article.

        • Kecessa@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          72·
          10 months ago

          Kind of funny how the privacy crowd is big on Lemmy but it skips over the fact that all of its Lemmy data is hosted on the machines of people that have no accountability…

          • Mario_Dies.wav@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            41·
            10 months ago

            I may be naive, but even though I don’t personally know my admin, this is a person who has a stellar reputation, and who I’d trust far more than some massive corporation that has to abide(1) by some anemic laws

            (1)if it finds it profitable to do so

          • NovaPrime@lemmy.mlEnglish
            31·
            10 months ago

            You’re always free to spin up your own server and host it if you’re concerned about the way your data is being handled. Not something you can do with the corporate alternatives

            • Kecessa@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              3·
              10 months ago

              And only post on your own instance and talk with users of your own instance… Might as well just send emails to your friends at that point…

    • the post of tom joad@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      101·
      10 months ago

      there isn’t a single accountable entity behind the network

      Yeah, Instead of a single entity i know will never be held accountable for selling my data and storing my information in an unencrypted txt file, there are unknown entities! Like the Simpsons (d’oh) quote says, “It could even be a boat!”

      The illogic reminds me a bit of Google’s new targeted ad privacy settings where your “privacy” is google’s pinky swear that they alone are profiting from you.

      When you see takes this weird do you wonder as i do whether it is intentionally worded to push some kind of narrative (though i don’t really know what that would even be in this case), or is it written by someone so deeply in the tech bubble world that they are wildly out of touch? I don’t know.

      Edit: Family Guy

  • LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.worldEnglish
    501·
    10 months ago

    I’m so glad I finally got into Lemmy. Reddit was destroyed on July 1st but I couldn’t get into Lemmy until November because the instances were so fickle.

    In the meantime I tried saidit but quickly discerned that most of the users there were just really bad Reddit rejects. like the worst of the worst Reddit rejects.

    Glad Lemmy finally let me in.

    • Dasnap@lemmy.worldEnglish
      51·
      10 months ago

      This place seemed to attract the older tech crowd instead of the Nazis like Voat did.

      • remotelove@lemmy.caEnglish
        271·
        10 months ago

        I am old’ish so this checks out.

        Lemmy has its quirks and it has its own distinct cliques, for sure. Posting specific viewpoints on some specific instances can be a bit awkward, especially for new users. Let’s just say that if you haven’t been called a capitalist pig baby killer at least once on Lemmy, you haven’t had the full, well rounded experience.

        All in all, Lemmy is fairly nice but people can still play follow the leader with comments. That is a curse with all social media, I’m afraid.

        • Serinus@lemmy.worldEnglish
          142·
          10 months ago

          capitalist pig baby killer

          I’m guessing your instance hasn’t blocked Hexbear and Lemmygrad yet.

          • remotelove@lemmy.caEnglish
            9·
            10 months ago

            That specific incident happened a while ago, just as those were getting more widely blocked. There is still an instance or two that can be vocal, but it’s not nearly as bad as it was.

      • Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        10 months ago

        I think that was just a matter of fortunate timing. The other Reddit migrations were due to toxic subs being banned, so the worst parts of Reddit migrated to whatever platforms were being discussed at the time, which happened to be mainly Voat.

        The July 1st exodus was due to the Reddit API being paywalled at extortionate rates to crush third-party apps, which affected normal users - particularly long-time contributors and the tech-savvy. Lemmy discussion was picking up steam at the time, so that’s where a lot of these users went.

        If the timings were reversed and Lemmy got the worst users Reddit had to offer Lemmy probably would have handled it much better than Voat did (especially since the devs would loathe the new users), but I’d imagine a split forming between instances, with right-wing instances being defederated and creating their own bubbles of toxicity.

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        10 months ago

        Yeah the thing I got from here was an understanding that focusing on free speech just means you have the worst users. If you want a free speech instance you’re free to be on one that others are defederated from

    • CosmicTurtle@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      10 months ago

      Reddit was going down hill long before the API paywall. That was certainly the final nail.

      I’d say the first nail in the coffin was when they fired Victoria.

  • Snapz@lemmy.worldEnglish
    332·
    10 months ago

    Fuck Reddit, but shouldn’t be so excited for external validation. We’re doing a good thing building this community, we know that without them signing off.

  • Suavevillain@lemmy.worldEnglish
    281·
    10 months ago

    I really like Lemmy’s UI and general nicer community. I hope we see more people joining.

  • Psythik@lemmy.worldEnglish
    272·
    10 months ago

    How did Discord make the list but not Imgur? At least Imgur is somewhat like reddit.

        • nomous@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          10 months ago

          IRC is a completely open source protocol that anyone can develop clients and servers for, it’s been around for decades and has an army of dedicated fans and devs.

          Discord is a program owned by a private company that everyone is using to chat while the company slowly implements pricing and walls their proverbial garden off.

      • LCP@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        10 months ago

        Ease of use.

        With your one Discord account you join all the servers you care about and interact with online/IRL friends.

        There are downsides that people at Lemmy will find dealbreaking and I absolutely agree with them, but the convenience of it being a chat, forum (almost), voice/video calling and gaming platform for free with (currently) no ads triumphs all of that for the majority of people, and that’s what makes it popular. It’s also cross-platform so no one’s left out.

      • Die4Ever@programming.devEnglish
        2·
        10 months ago

        Discord has a really low barrier to entry for conversation, it’s low friction. If someone playing a game gets a sorta funny screenshot they can share it in Discord and have a decent chance to get some responses or reactions.

        But they won’t post it on Reddit or anything because there’s more friction there, it feels like more work to create a post and then you’re unlikely to get any responses anyways, and even if you get upvotes you can’t see who upvoted like if it’s someone you know, and there’s no easy emoji reactions. And users making comments to respond also feels higher friction than a message, people are just less likely to do it for whatever reason.

        It just feels like small scale conversations are more likely to happen in Discord than anywhere else. If you have a small group of people then something like Reddit/Lemmy probably won’t be sustainable, it’ll never take off, but get them in Discord and you’re more likely to keep the group active.

    • LazaroFilm@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      10 months ago

      Imgur was originally designed as an image server for Reddit. They actually share front pages (or used to, I haven’t been in a while)

      • Psythik@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        10 months ago

        I remember that post from MrGrimm. It went something like “there are no good image hosts for reddit, so I made one”.

        When they added user accounts a few years later to spin it off into its own thing, I was among the first to create one. Managed to snag the username “anonymous” before anyone else could. Never actually used the account until last June, when all the 3rd party app drama started on reddit. Now I equally split my time between here and Imgur to replace reddit: I go to imgur for the memes, and Lemmy for the news. Don’t even miss reddit.

  • kandoh@reddthat.comEnglish
    221·
    10 months ago

    Lemmy is great if you love Linux and Star Trek. If you’re really into cybersecurity and privacy Lemmy has it all.

    • SuperSpruce@lemmy.zipEnglish
      9·
      10 months ago

      I’m into Linux, but also into Factorio and motorcycles.

      Lemmy genuinely is a replacement for r/Linux because the activity here is just as high as there.

      But there is very few content about Factorio and motorcycles here. They are communities, but they don’t really replace the reddit ones, especially r/factorio.

      Edit: Almost forgot about incremental games. Basically no content exists on those here.

    • Perhapsjustsniffit@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      10 months ago

      As a not really techy person but one who has been cruising online for a long long time I feel Lemmy is a lot like old old Reddit. Reddit was full of techies when I joined. It grew over the years into a bigger thing but it started with a bunch of nerds talking about shit I didn’t understand.

      • kandoh@reddthat.comEnglish
        3·
        10 months ago

        Yes, I feel the same way. Reminds my of reddit circa '07 back when r/Conservative was an anti-Bush subreddit.

    • datavoid@lemmy.mlEnglish
      11·
      10 months ago

      Tildes is the only other reddit alternative I’ve been using. It has really high quality content, but posting there can be intimidating if you don’t have 20 minutes to write something insanely detailed.

    • Kierunkowy74@kbin.social
      10·
      10 months ago

      kbin.social is only PWA right now. There is Interstellar app for Android being developed right now, but it is available only via Github releases (no Google Play nor F-Droid). And it works only on https://kbin.earth (or instances of /kbin fork called /mbin) right now.

  • CultHero@lemmy.worldEnglish
    212·
    10 months ago

    I had been on reddit since 2008, I was looking for an alternative to the message boards I belonged to after the popularity of Facebook killed them off. I really enjoyed it, not the same level of community that you find in a message board but still good for conversation.

    Then trump happened and it turned to shit. It’s so fucking toxic and I ended up getting banned for defending myself. Apparently fascism is good and standing up for yourself goes against community standards.

    I’m a disabled 49 year old just looking for conversation. Facebook is also a toxic wasteland now. To say I miss myspace is an understatement but there’s hardly anyone there anymore.

    I’m happy whenever I find a place that’s put the social back into social media because antisocial media is just trash.

  • ApeNo1@lemm.eeEnglish
    131·
    10 months ago

    Mentioned the Apollo / Reddit saga but did not list Voyager as a client for Lemmy which at least for me has been the closest client in terms of Apollo experience. I know this is Android Police but it did talk about Android and IOS clients in the article.

    • hobbicus@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      10 months ago

      Currently on voyager. It’s not perfect yet, but as a 7+ year Apollo user I honestly forget I’m not using Apollo/Reddit sometimes. I’d be interested to see if Christian gets involved in a Lemmy client. Apollo was the only app I’ve ever seen that never got worse and just worked in its entire life

      • ApeNo1@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        Avelon was also showing some promise, at least visually, but I keep coming back to Voyager. I found Avelon had a few annoying little bugs like default theme settings not being remembered etc and Voyager whilst not perfect does the job reliably. It would be great to see Christian involved again especially with all the experience he would bring in like working around YouTube video playback etc.

    • SomeoneElse@lemmy.caEnglish
      2·
      10 months ago

      I’m an Apollo refugee and have tried a number of apps but I keep coming back to voyager (the web app, not the app app). It’s far from perfect but it’s the closest to Apollo imo too.