I have been joking to a couple of friends today who were also redditors that I've been feeling withdrawals from reddit throughout the day. Like I knew I was addicted, I just never thought I was going to have to face the consequences of withdrawals!
But there's also a major part of me that's feeling a sense of loss. I had two reddit accounts that were 11+ years old. I used an app called Redact last night to totally expunge my comment and submission history, and I just was hit by so many emotions watching my old content turn to ashes.
Reddit is where I always spent my depression spirals, but it was also where I found hobbyist communities and group help support. I found sexual partners through reddit, and used to even moderate in my early days. It's where I used to keep up with a TON of current events but also read from so many diverse perspectives with expertise on topics.
As much as I am tentatively excited for the culture and community we can build on kbin, I truly am feeling the inconsequential reality of all that karma and browsing. Reddit felt like it was going to be immortal, but even the mighty fall.
Anyone else bummed??
Yes! For me, it was extremely effective at its primary goal of being a content aggregator. I kept up with sooooo much news that was thematicly linked (national news, world news, politics, specific country's news/politics) that I could be the smartest person in most rooms I occupied in irl.
I think though that the corresponding magazines will be the first massly populated here on kbin.
This is the thing for me. I think I'm experiencing a bit of news FOMO. Reddit has been reliable for years at supplying news, cat antics, and pretty girls. I also agree that google+reddit has been really useful in solving very specific problems.
Put it this way, the first I heard of Berlusconi's death was on the radio. The radio!!
I think people are jumping the gun a bit on what Kbin is and are expecting it to be as huge as Reddit which it might never be. Most of my news I’m getting via the free version of Feedly which is an RSS reader and I’m only really using Kbin to scratch that itch for a bit of commenting.
I hope people are exploring their options with being able to interact with Lemmy and Beehaw boards via Federation too. If this setup ever gets as big as Reddit it’ll be through the federated whole not one individual site. Considering how much data costs to host I think pushing one site towards a monopoly will always force increased advertIsing and with popularity comes financial predators. This is of course what Reddit is going through now.
Thanks, I'll check out Feedly! I don't know why I stopped using RSS feeds, but the idea of using one again sounds really appealing. I'm not sure why.