I voluntarily quit Reddit when the API fuckery happened. Deleted all of my posts, comments, etc. after 16 years, and millions of useless points. I don’t and never will give a fuck. Also a refugee from Digg before that, Fark, /. etc. I’m pretty happy with the fediverse so far, and will likely stand up my own server(s) in the next year or so.

Oh, you want a story? I’ll give you a story.

I was banned for using a MVNO while on holidays. A MVNO (mobile virtual network operator - aka a phone company) often has changing IP endpoints.

I was in Japan (using Rakuten) which has dynamic endpoints in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore. To the reddit bots, that seems like someone stealing or spoofing your account.

Reddit flagged my account and forced password change to confirm identity “for my safety”. I complied. They then silently shadow banned my account after I did so. Like, immediately.

I followed the appeals process (such as it is - basically howling at the moon). I provided logs, GPS co-ords and even details of my flights / boarding passes.

Auto mod basically replied “lol, get fucked”. (Its an auto mod, BTW. Their entire appeal process.Very easy tell).

OK then.

I then used their takeout service to at least grab my old posts, which have some niche technical know how that is worth preserving.

In the course of that, I notice reddit has set up their system in such a way that unknowingly (?) breeches GDPR rules and privacy laws.

Well, well, well…

At this point, I’m stunned at what a cluster fuck reddit really is. Like…wtf?

I then emailed them directly and basically said “listen.I know the laws that govern this. You have 48hrs to email me XYZ or I escalate”

A few days later, Reddit legal emails me saying “hi…we’re not sure what your complaint is. Please clarify”.

So I do - with forensic level detail. Politely. Professionally.

No response.

I send a follow up email a week later saying “look, one way or another this issue needs to be resolved and my complaint answered. I’ll give you 3 days. If its still radio silence, I escalate”.

I fly home yesterday (a full 7 days after the fact). Still radio silence.

Perfect! Today I launch GDPR and OIAC complaint, with full evidence trail, screenshots, logs - the whole works. Takes me 5 minutes.

Will that get me unbanned? Don’t know, don’t care.

Will it cost reddit time and money? Very likely yes.

For those not in the know, breech of GDPR and OIAC laws carry pretty significant penalties for the service provider (to the tune of several million pounds)…and reddit is registered in a EU country. Oops.

The moral of the story (if there is one) is this:

Reddit is rented land. Lemmy is too…but at least with Lemmy, if you really wanted to, you could set up your own instance, with n=1 users and turn off new sign ups, effectively creating a sovereign, unbannable island, where you actually own what you post.

I suppose I should thank Reddit, really. This is the second account in as many years they killed like this, for this very reason.

I was going to set up my own homelab anyway: this just pushed me to do it faster and create a telecoms stack to replace cloud based social media services.

What gals me the most is I spent a fair bit of effort rebuilding my fake internet points over the course of 3 months, to satisfy their “yo, is this a human?” algo…all the while watching bots and stolen accounts spam and flourish.

To add insult to injury: today I received a message from one of the (many many) bots on Reddit offering me a chance to purchase a particular SaaS (?). So apparently I’m still good to be spammed, but other wise I can FOAD?

Fuck you, Reddit.

You owe them nothing - not your knowledge, time or efforts. Let it enshittify.

I think the majority of Lemmy users are Reddit refugees, not because they got banned, but because of the Reddit API changes that forced 99% of the third party apps to shut down.

Since the API exodus, yes.

I made a very conscious choice to leave reddit at that time, due to that particular bullshit, and I don’t regret it.

Doesn’t mean I don’t miss reddit though, because I do. Reddit has a lot more traffic which obviously means a lot more content in the sort of niche communities I really love.

But I made the right choice. I don’t want to be part of that any longer. And the more of us make this choice, the better things will be for us all.

… Every single person on Lemmy is a Reddit refugee. You’re not going to find a single person here who has not used Reddit before.

I left during the api bullshit, fuck spez

I would probably even say: Who wasnt?
You either came from Twitter, Reddit or some other major social media as a primary user.
I don’t believe someone just was old enough to join the internet world and decided to just join lemmy/fediverse at first sight.

I left with the disabling of API.

Today, I went back in to my account to delete every single comment I have ever made, one by one, then deleted the entire account. Should have done it ages ago, but better now than never.

I was reading about bans and stuff and all sorts that I didn’t care to understand, so instead of using a third party apps to change/delete/etc my comments, I did it manually. It felt pretty satisfying.

My last “fuck you, r/jailbait Spez”. I’m not letting them use my comments or account for anything. Hopefully, I’ve done it right.

Yes, I’m a Reddit refugee.

The site changed so much over the ten years I used it. When I started, there was plenty of good discussion and the most informative comments got voted up. Then power users started playing the same games with karma that rich people play with money. Near the end the negativity and superficiality were overwhelming. Then the API business happened and I realised Reddit was in the last few stages of circling the drain. I learned about Lemmy from a comment by someone who announced they were leaving for good, and I followed them.

If you look at Reddit today… the posts and comments share the same quality regardless of whether they’re human or AI slop.

Same here. Permanently banned from all of Reddit, and I was never told why. I suspect it was my criticism of the Orange One. I appeal every day, just to give them a little more paperwork.

I still consume on Reddit, but won’t post or contribute there anymore.

I am here from reddit but I wouldn’t call myself a refugee. More like an immigrant. I wasn’t banned. I just tried this, liked it better, and since I disagreed with the API changes I settled here. I still browse reddit when I can’t find specific stuff on Lemmy, and very, very occasionally (like once or twice a year) I post there in subs that aren’t as developed here.

I left Reddit in 2023 when they decided to mess with third party apps. I went to kbin initially and then moved over to here.

I’m also here from the API thing. This scratches the itch for me and that’s more than enough in this day and age.