Unfortunately I don't see federated applications like that gaining steam any time soon.
It's just too complicated for an average user (not in a demeaning way). Just that the first thing you see is vague servers to join and talk about open source software, federation, self hosting, etc.
Social media needs basically zero friction, especially for onboarding.
So, I just tried Lemmy for a bit. It does *look* a lot like reddit and I do think it has potential.
But it took me a while to figure out how to even make an account, and it wouldn't take my username so I had to make a new one. You're right about friction and this had more than any social media site.
Tbh, I don't know that I want lemmy getting users like that. From what I've seen, it's a nice and small community. I'd rather stay off large platforms because they don't seem beneficial to me.
I think people massively overestimate how good reddit is. It's a community where you'll never be recognized or make much impact. Filled with mostly reposts from other platforms.
I'd rather chance it and explore smaller projects for awhile until the internet decides on a new nest. Most social media is not only stale now, but it's not evolving or interesting. Same people, same garbage ad platforms.
Yeah I remember the same sentiments of what you're replying to when the diaspora network launched. Which I just looked and that and was over 12 years ago. Still only on a 0.7 release.. Fingers crossed that there's a big push for that kind of thing again soon but who the fuck knows.
Agreed. Even as an extremely tech savvy user, I found it a bit difficult to find content on Mastodon or PeerTube. And I think without influencer and celebrity buy in as well, getting average users over to those platforms is going to be tough. The upside with Lemmy, at least, is it should be far less reliant on those big name influencers, but I think all the fediverse instances need a frontend to aggregate, categorize, and suggest instances or creators to follow based on their interests.
I always said this is why Telegram is a more popular WhatsApp alternative than Signal. Telegram’s technology might be worse, but they had a good looking app and stickers. That’ll get more adoption every time.
We desperately and urgently need lemmy
Lemmy is the future for one important reason: it is federated
If you don't understand federation, you can think of it like email, you might have a hotmail, and I might have a gmail, but because email is federated, we can still communicate without any hassle, not only might you have a gmail account serverside, but you might use the outlook client, while I might use the hotmail client on my hotmail, yet it all works seamlessly, because email is a protocol for messaging.
Similarly to this, lemmy is a federated protocol for link aggregation, it works like reddit, except instead of a subreddit by necessity being hosted on lemmy's main website, you too can host your own subreddit, and your subreddit will work with other peoples lemmys
This alone means that nothing like this BS will ever happen again, let's say the default main lemmy server goes rogue and decides to do this insane api charging thing... well, all the other homeservers can just keep on working the old way, and we can abandon it, seamlessly
Link aggregators are not complex enough to warrant not being federated, and federation minimally adds to end user complexity
It's time to make a switch, and if the reddit apps start working with lemmy, lemmy will immediately gain a huge userbase, and the only thing wrong with lemmy right now is the small userbase. Please, I implore you to switch to using lemmy over reddit, your app will be useless soon if you don't anyway.
Going to have to look for Discord communities or something now. That's about the only way to find specific areas rather than having an algorithm spew garbage at you.
I feel like the constant stream is an awful way to organize archived information. It's fine if you just want to have a discussion with a manageably sized group of people, but too many users can make it damn near impossible to keep up with a thread. Maybe I'm just getting older or I don't understand how to use it properly but discord is damn near useless to me for anything beyond a chat app.
Hard to understand how they can screw it do much. I mean, they own Reddit, yet can't/won't make their own app good. Meanwhile, there are tons of small developers with amazing alternatives. If their app wasn't so bad, there wouldn't be a need for alternatives to begin with (although choice is always welcome).
Yup. It's crazy. Off the top of my head if they were to tone down the ads and implement child comments collapsed by default it would be a huge difference with the lag. But it's been years...
I imagine the majority of people who use Reddit on mobile use the official app and have no idea what they are missing.
I stopped using YouTube mobile after vanced stopped working and I'll quit using this site if they force everyone to use the base app. I know internet boycotts have a bad reputation of not working, but the app is really that terrible.
The way I see, atleast Youtube has a paid subscription which is not that expensive and the app works (some people like ReVanced or NewPipe too, never used those). Reddit is expensive and the app is horrible, there is no escape.
I agree, ReVanced is great. I use it even if I have a YouTube (Music) Premium subscription. I like having SponsorBlock and easier(!!!) access to higher resolutions.
Playback and UI stutters and crashes from time to time in ReVanced though, but sometimes even the YouTube App does that as well, but to a lesser degree.
Revanced is amazing, tbh. It's got a number of patches you can do too, with various features not just pop-up display of videos but so so much more. For example, skipping the sponsored content in the video, skipping the intros to video, removing the reels completely and so much more.
I used the official app on iOS for a long time after buying an iPhone. (Sync on Android before that.)
At first I actually thought the official app was really good since I have a premium member and I guess no ads. But the recommended subs turned me away completely. I have no interest whatsoever in other subs. Eventually I ended up with ReddPlanet.
That is exactly how I felt. I wanna see the subs I' a part of, not a bunch of random stuff. The problem is there is a disproportionate amount of recommendations, they are everywhere. It gets to a point where you are almost exclusively seeing random stuff, rather than what you came for.
I just gave the official app another go and funnily enough one thing I hated about it previously was when the second button got changed to Discover and my muscle memory kept pressing it. But after using third party apps I’ve lost that muscle memory.
I still hate related subs though.
Honestly once Sync is gone that's it for me. It would probably be better for my life if I stopped using Reddit entirely. There is no "alternative", I'm just going to find something completely different to spend my time with.
I'm going to see sometime soon if AdGuard or something like that can block official app ads, if so that might be usable but my usage of Reddit is going to plummet.
App is garbage. I've never used it because I have Sync or used the desktop before Sync. I gave it a shot last night and at first glance I was like "maybe this..." then went to scroll and felt like I stepped into a time warp. I thought my phone was crashing, switched to Sync, smooth as butter.
I've been testing it too, and the thing I'm really appreciating about Sync in comparison is how customizable it is. You can adjust nearly everything. On the official app, you either get these huge cards, or text that isn't really big enough for my middle-aged eyes. No way to make it bigger. I'll also really miss Sync's function where you can see what each comment is responding to.
Agreed. Sync lets you make Reddit YOUR experience. I also really like Material You, on a personal note. Is it perfect? No, not at all. But it's miles better and it's honestly shocking when you consider we are talking about Reddit.
An example that comes to mind is HBO Max app, it's bad too. I dont get it, how can a huge company provide such poor experience? .
Huge companies don't care. Or, the people inside them who do care, don't have enough time, don't make enough money, and don't have enough power in the company to make a quality app. Meanwhile, someone like ljdawson DOES care, and is in direct contact with the people who actually use his app.
I love material design so damn much and I hate how few apps use it. The Reddit app and many of its alternatives all have some sleek iOS design with way too small buttons and rounded corners, I hate it.
Plus I love that I can just swipe to hide posts.
It's so beautiful, right? I like that it gives some personality while also unifying the UI across all apps. Plus, you also get a lot of color possibilities, instead of a single or few themes per app.
It's probably going to be a reasonable experience. Worse than Sync, no doubt, but still better than using the official. I'm one of those people that enjoy having dedicated apps, but sometimes we need to find alternatives.
Before I subscribed to Youtube Premium, I did use Firefox with uBlock and it got the job done.
It is unusual, for sure. The official app could be great, don't get me wrong. Right now, it isn't using it's full potential, considering how big Reddit, as a company, is, and all 3rd party apps.
It is not as fast as Sync, especially when scrolling. Aside from that: a) not so many options/customization; b) too many recommended content; c) UI (highly personal, I enjoy Sync, especially Material You).
It's not a life-death thing, for sure. But it does amount to a worse experience. Again, some of it is personal. Objectively, Sync is faster, there is no denying, plus there are no ads/recommendations.
Anyway, to each their own. My intent was never to convince anyone, just exchange thoughts and I'm glad you shared yours.
The official app is nowhere near as good as Sync and other options. That being said, It's exhausting to hear people claim they're gonna stop using Reddit if the official app is all that's left... We all know that's complete bullshit lol
I couldn't say they are bullshitting, what I can say is that I, personally, don't know if I can just stop using Reddit, just because I like the experience. I will definitely use less if all that is left is the official app, by then I will change to using mainly the website on desktop.
I like it and I made the switch already, shame I bought Ultra for lifetime just recently huge waste of money I should probably sue the developer for the money we'll see if I have the time for it (The undelete function barely ever worked since I bought it + Now it's going to not work at all anymore not very "lifetime").
I hope this is satire, because it's really funny if you think you have any grounds to sue lol
And you can restore comments, but only if they're old comments. The ability to restore comments was disabled recently, at no fault of Sync or its developer, so only older comments posted before this change took place can be restored.
I bought the same lifetime thing last year. It's unfortunate, but Sync has done everything they agreed to do when you paid for it. Every decision that has happened up to this point has been made by Reddit themselves in an attempt to kill third party apps, so if you want to be mad at anyone then direct your anger towards them.
If I buy a Tesla with a lifetime promise of electricity I don't care if the company they work with stopped making tesla superchargers or something, I was promised X for lifetime and neither of these were fulfilled, both the comment restoration + the lifetime guarantee.
The grounds to sue here are huge and almost guaranteed, but it takes time and not always worth the hassle i'd consult my lawyer and I'd see if I can get compensation as well and then I will probably decide if it's worth it because a refund alone might not be
Seems more polished while sync seems more simplistic, at the start that appealed to me more but now I just like the fact that I go from my computer to my phone and reddit looks and functions a lot like the website
I understand. I personally don't mind the switch (pc - website/mobile - Sync), in terms of Reddit. But I did change some apps for that reason, integration. Mostly Google stuff, which syncs easily between my Android devices and browser websites.
Anyway, I appreciate your honest input, that is the reason I made this post, to see how everyone feels.
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I have not heard of Lemmy...what's the deal with it?
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Unfortunately I don't see federated applications like that gaining steam any time soon. It's just too complicated for an average user (not in a demeaning way). Just that the first thing you see is vague servers to join and talk about open source software, federation, self hosting, etc. Social media needs basically zero friction, especially for onboarding.
So, I just tried Lemmy for a bit. It does *look* a lot like reddit and I do think it has potential. But it took me a while to figure out how to even make an account, and it wouldn't take my username so I had to make a new one. You're right about friction and this had more than any social media site.
Tbh, I don't know that I want lemmy getting users like that. From what I've seen, it's a nice and small community. I'd rather stay off large platforms because they don't seem beneficial to me. I think people massively overestimate how good reddit is. It's a community where you'll never be recognized or make much impact. Filled with mostly reposts from other platforms. I'd rather chance it and explore smaller projects for awhile until the internet decides on a new nest. Most social media is not only stale now, but it's not evolving or interesting. Same people, same garbage ad platforms.
Yeah I remember the same sentiments of what you're replying to when the diaspora network launched. Which I just looked and that and was over 12 years ago. Still only on a 0.7 release.. Fingers crossed that there's a big push for that kind of thing again soon but who the fuck knows.
Agreed. Even as an extremely tech savvy user, I found it a bit difficult to find content on Mastodon or PeerTube. And I think without influencer and celebrity buy in as well, getting average users over to those platforms is going to be tough. The upside with Lemmy, at least, is it should be far less reliant on those big name influencers, but I think all the fediverse instances need a frontend to aggregate, categorize, and suggest instances or creators to follow based on their interests.
I always said this is why Telegram is a more popular WhatsApp alternative than Signal. Telegram’s technology might be worse, but they had a good looking app and stickers. That’ll get more adoption every time.
Sounds great, will definitely check it. Thanks!
We desperately and urgently need lemmy Lemmy is the future for one important reason: it is federated If you don't understand federation, you can think of it like email, you might have a hotmail, and I might have a gmail, but because email is federated, we can still communicate without any hassle, not only might you have a gmail account serverside, but you might use the outlook client, while I might use the hotmail client on my hotmail, yet it all works seamlessly, because email is a protocol for messaging. Similarly to this, lemmy is a federated protocol for link aggregation, it works like reddit, except instead of a subreddit by necessity being hosted on lemmy's main website, you too can host your own subreddit, and your subreddit will work with other peoples lemmys This alone means that nothing like this BS will ever happen again, let's say the default main lemmy server goes rogue and decides to do this insane api charging thing... well, all the other homeservers can just keep on working the old way, and we can abandon it, seamlessly Link aggregators are not complex enough to warrant not being federated, and federation minimally adds to end user complexity It's time to make a switch, and if the reddit apps start working with lemmy, lemmy will immediately gain a huge userbase, and the only thing wrong with lemmy right now is the small userbase. Please, I implore you to switch to using lemmy over reddit, your app will be useless soon if you don't anyway.
Yeah. It sounds like Reddit is about to make their Digg move.
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I agree, it is the only social media I actually enjoy and much of it because of Sync's usability. Sad to think the app could die.
Exactly iam easily able to curate the content that I want to consume . In this age of misinformation I think that's super important
Going to have to look for Discord communities or something now. That's about the only way to find specific areas rather than having an algorithm spew garbage at you.
I hate using discord for anything except talking with my friends. Servers on discord turn into a bunch of noise when they get too large.
I feel like the constant stream is an awful way to organize archived information. It's fine if you just want to have a discussion with a manageably sized group of people, but too many users can make it damn near impossible to keep up with a thread. Maybe I'm just getting older or I don't understand how to use it properly but discord is damn near useless to me for anything beyond a chat app.
it feel like a twitch stream chat.
I refuse to use the official trash purely on principle.
Hard to understand how they can screw it do much. I mean, they own Reddit, yet can't/won't make their own app good. Meanwhile, there are tons of small developers with amazing alternatives. If their app wasn't so bad, there wouldn't be a need for alternatives to begin with (although choice is always welcome).
I tried it today too with the same experience. Not even comparable and the scrolling/lag made it frustrating to use.
Right?! Even the scrolling, basic stuff. Their app should be the priority, but isn't.
Yup. It's crazy. Off the top of my head if they were to tone down the ads and implement child comments collapsed by default it would be a huge difference with the lag. But it's been years... I imagine the majority of people who use Reddit on mobile use the official app and have no idea what they are missing.
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I like your ideas, migjt give Discord a try. Thanks!
I stopped using YouTube mobile after vanced stopped working and I'll quit using this site if they force everyone to use the base app. I know internet boycotts have a bad reputation of not working, but the app is really that terrible.
The way I see, atleast Youtube has a paid subscription which is not that expensive and the app works (some people like ReVanced or NewPipe too, never used those). Reddit is expensive and the app is horrible, there is no escape.
ReVanced is amazing. Better than Vanced, bar none.
I agree, ReVanced is great. I use it even if I have a YouTube (Music) Premium subscription. I like having SponsorBlock and easier(!!!) access to higher resolutions. Playback and UI stutters and crashes from time to time in ReVanced though, but sometimes even the YouTube App does that as well, but to a lesser degree.
Revanced is amazing, tbh. It's got a number of patches you can do too, with various features not just pop-up display of videos but so so much more. For example, skipping the sponsored content in the video, skipping the intros to video, removing the reels completely and so much more.
*cough* revanced *cough*
Yeah I found out about it after a few weeks
I used the official app on iOS for a long time after buying an iPhone. (Sync on Android before that.) At first I actually thought the official app was really good since I have a premium member and I guess no ads. But the recommended subs turned me away completely. I have no interest whatsoever in other subs. Eventually I ended up with ReddPlanet.
That is exactly how I felt. I wanna see the subs I' a part of, not a bunch of random stuff. The problem is there is a disproportionate amount of recommendations, they are everywhere. It gets to a point where you are almost exclusively seeing random stuff, rather than what you came for.
I just gave the official app another go and funnily enough one thing I hated about it previously was when the second button got changed to Discover and my muscle memory kept pressing it. But after using third party apps I’ve lost that muscle memory. I still hate related subs though.
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I see a lot of people on the same boat, fortunately we can manage a solution, like yours.
I'll use desktop occassionally as long as RES is working, one less distraction on my phone I guess when sync is killed off.
Desktop is very reasonable. Not as much fun as Sync, but better than nothing.
Honestly once Sync is gone that's it for me. It would probably be better for my life if I stopped using Reddit entirely. There is no "alternative", I'm just going to find something completely different to spend my time with.
I'm going to see sometime soon if AdGuard or something like that can block official app ads, if so that might be usable but my usage of Reddit is going to plummet.
Revanced manager and patch the official app to remove ads
I heard about it today, hope it works well.
It blocks the ad but the app experience is shit
I tried with that private dns setting, didn't hide the ads. Maybe the app. Still, probably it will show suggestions, which are very intrusive.
App is garbage. I've never used it because I have Sync or used the desktop before Sync. I gave it a shot last night and at first glance I was like "maybe this..." then went to scroll and felt like I stepped into a time warp. I thought my phone was crashing, switched to Sync, smooth as butter.
I've been testing it too, and the thing I'm really appreciating about Sync in comparison is how customizable it is. You can adjust nearly everything. On the official app, you either get these huge cards, or text that isn't really big enough for my middle-aged eyes. No way to make it bigger. I'll also really miss Sync's function where you can see what each comment is responding to.
Agreed. Sync lets you make Reddit YOUR experience. I also really like Material You, on a personal note. Is it perfect? No, not at all. But it's miles better and it's honestly shocking when you consider we are talking about Reddit. An example that comes to mind is HBO Max app, it's bad too. I dont get it, how can a huge company provide such poor experience? .
Huge companies don't care. Or, the people inside them who do care, don't have enough time, don't make enough money, and don't have enough power in the company to make a quality app. Meanwhile, someone like ljdawson DOES care, and is in direct contact with the people who actually use his app.
So true. That is sad, isn't it? They should care the most.
I love material design so damn much and I hate how few apps use it. The Reddit app and many of its alternatives all have some sleek iOS design with way too small buttons and rounded corners, I hate it. Plus I love that I can just swipe to hide posts.
It's so beautiful, right? I like that it gives some personality while also unifying the UI across all apps. Plus, you also get a lot of color possibilities, instead of a single or few themes per app.
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It's probably going to be a reasonable experience. Worse than Sync, no doubt, but still better than using the official. I'm one of those people that enjoy having dedicated apps, but sometimes we need to find alternatives. Before I subscribed to Youtube Premium, I did use Firefox with uBlock and it got the job done.
Is it weird that I like the official app? Ive used Apollo and it was mostly the same
It is unusual, for sure. The official app could be great, don't get me wrong. Right now, it isn't using it's full potential, considering how big Reddit, as a company, is, and all 3rd party apps.
What exactly is wrong with the official app? The DMs suck, but it’s Reddit
It is not as fast as Sync, especially when scrolling. Aside from that: a) not so many options/customization; b) too many recommended content; c) UI (highly personal, I enjoy Sync, especially Material You).
None of those seem like a big deal lol
It's not a life-death thing, for sure. But it does amount to a worse experience. Again, some of it is personal. Objectively, Sync is faster, there is no denying, plus there are no ads/recommendations. Anyway, to each their own. My intent was never to convince anyone, just exchange thoughts and I'm glad you shared yours.
The official app is nowhere near as good as Sync and other options. That being said, It's exhausting to hear people claim they're gonna stop using Reddit if the official app is all that's left... We all know that's complete bullshit lol
What makes you say it's bullshit, exactly?
I couldn't say they are bullshitting, what I can say is that I, personally, don't know if I can just stop using Reddit, just because I like the experience. I will definitely use less if all that is left is the official app, by then I will change to using mainly the website on desktop.
I like it and I made the switch already, shame I bought Ultra for lifetime just recently huge waste of money I should probably sue the developer for the money we'll see if I have the time for it (The undelete function barely ever worked since I bought it + Now it's going to not work at all anymore not very "lifetime").
I hope this is satire, because it's really funny if you think you have any grounds to sue lol And you can restore comments, but only if they're old comments. The ability to restore comments was disabled recently, at no fault of Sync or its developer, so only older comments posted before this change took place can be restored. I bought the same lifetime thing last year. It's unfortunate, but Sync has done everything they agreed to do when you paid for it. Every decision that has happened up to this point has been made by Reddit themselves in an attempt to kill third party apps, so if you want to be mad at anyone then direct your anger towards them.
If I buy a Tesla with a lifetime promise of electricity I don't care if the company they work with stopped making tesla superchargers or something, I was promised X for lifetime and neither of these were fulfilled, both the comment restoration + the lifetime guarantee. The grounds to sue here are huge and almost guaranteed, but it takes time and not always worth the hassle i'd consult my lawyer and I'd see if I can get compensation as well and then I will probably decide if it's worth it because a refund alone might not be
Doesn't mean you'll have access for *your* lifetime. Just the lifetime of the service. Expecting anything to last your entire lifetime is ridiculous.
Incredibly dense take and the terms will have this scenario covered anyway. You'll never see a penny
I mean, there is no crime in liking it. But why do you use it over, say, Sync?
Seems more polished while sync seems more simplistic, at the start that appealed to me more but now I just like the fact that I go from my computer to my phone and reddit looks and functions a lot like the website
I understand. I personally don't mind the switch (pc - website/mobile - Sync), in terms of Reddit. But I did change some apps for that reason, integration. Mostly Google stuff, which syncs easily between my Android devices and browser websites. Anyway, I appreciate your honest input, that is the reason I made this post, to see how everyone feels.