I’ve noticed that most people here are ex-redditors, migrating due to the API changes and u/spez’s problematic leadership. I’m wondering, though, how many people here use Lemmy despite never using Reddit?
Personally, I only ever interacted with r/place, and lurked a few times, but I kept up with the protests and I liked the idea of building up Lemmy as a Fediverse alternative for Redditors to migrate to. So I’m not sure if I count.
I tried out Lemmy because I wanted to support the protests against Reddit corporation, then I found I like the topic-based format a lot more than the person-based format most sites use. Tried out Mastodon to support having a good Twitter alternative back during the musk takeover, didn’t like it as much and stopped posting there.
In general I’m excited about federated social spaces, since they allow for better moderation and less enshittification than the walled gardens that populate Web 2.0. If more Fediverse social media sites come around that start gaining genuine traction, then I’ll use them just because they’ll make me feel excited for the future.
I’ve also used Tumblr because my favorite youtuber recommended it, and I liked the posts that got screenshotted off of it, and I stuck around because I liked learning about disability and queerness (and discovered from tumblr that I myself am asexual). I only ever lurked, though. Lemmy is the first social media platform that I’ve genuinely interacted with, unless Discord counts.