Selfhosted @lemmy.world casey @lemmy.wiuf.net 1y ago

Reddit Exodus: Welcoming the Selfhosted Community to Lemmy - Migrating to Freedom! (Crosspost)

Greetings, self-hosting enthusiasts and welcome to the Selfhosted group on Lemmy! I am formerly /u/Fimeg now Casey, your tour guide through the labyrinth of digital change. As you’re likely aware, we’re witnessing a considerable transformation in the landscape of online communities, particularly around Reddit. So let’s indulge our inner tech geeks and dive into the details of this issue, and explore how we, as a self-hosting community, can contribute to the solution.

The crux of the upheaval is a policy change from Reddit that’s putting the existence of beloved third-party apps, like Reddit is Fun, Narwhal, and BaconReader, in jeopardy. Reddit has begun charging exorbitant fees for API usage, so much so that Apollo is facing a monthly charge of $1.7 million. The ramifications of these charges have resulted in an outcry from the Reddit community, leading to a number of subreddits planning to go dark in protest.

These actions have pushed many users to seek out alternative platforms, such as Lemmy, to continue their digital explorations. The migration to Lemmy is especially significant for us self-hosters. Third-party applications have long been a critical part of our Reddit experience, offering unique features and user experiences not available on the official app.

As members of the Selfhosted group on Lemmy, we’re not just bystanders in this shift - we have the knowledge, skills, and power to contribute to the solution. One of the ways we can contribute is by assisting with the archiving efforts currently being organized by r/datahoarder on Reddit. As self-hosting enthusiasts, we understand the value of data preservation and have the technical acumen required to ensure the wealth of information on Reddit is not lost due to these policy changes.

So, while we navigate this new territory on Lemmy, let’s continue to engage in productive discussions, share insights, and help to shape the future of online communities. Your decision to join Lemmy’s Selfhosted group signifies a commitment to maintain the spirit of a free and open internet, a cause that is dear to all of us.

Finally, in line with the spirit of the original Reddit post, if you wish to spend money, consider supporting open-source projects or charities that promote a free and accessible internet.

With that, let’s roll up our digital sleeves and embark on this new journey together. Welcome to the Selfhosted group on Lemmy!

P.S. Thank you to Ruud who is actively maintaining the moderation front in this community!

40 comments

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- I love Lemming as a name for users. But also as a verb describing the activity of using Lemmy, eg "I spent way too much time lemming last night" :-)
  
  That really sounds like a verb for the thing I do with my second Reddit account.
  
  same here, it seems fun :)
- @MountainWolf> What do I call myself now? Lemming?
  
  That's perfect haha. Lemmings. We're all lemmings now.
  
  Wanna go for a walk with me? There's this place I know with a really nice view.
- I like Lemming, that's what I'm going with
  
  Fellow refugee :)
- I would be curious if there might be a way to give some sort of “attribute of credibility” that we could come up with.
  
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- Agreed ,glad to see Karma go away. Not that I was active enough to actually get any :)
I'm really glad that self-hosters are finally starting to "eat their own dog food" so to speak and finally start to self-host their own community discussions. And what better place to do so than on the Fediverse!
Awesome to see the selfhosted community coming together to tackle the massive influx of Reddit refugees (Myself included). It's crazy to see so many people flock to a new platform this quickly and even more awesome to see how much support is being given to the people actually putting forward their time and effort (And money) to bring the fediverse platforms to more people!
Can we call communities "lemlets?"
You're welcome. Enjoy!
Former Redditor. For those that are partaking in the Reddit walkout, with no plans on returning, is there additional information available for the datahoarding effort? The amount of information stuck in Reddit is overwhelming and we need to free that information for ingestion elsewhere.

I actually was searching for a solution to an issue today and the solution was on Reddit, which was set to private. I would love to help ensure this information is made available elsewhere.
- You can head over to the ArchiveTeam Warrior site for more info. You can set up a Warrior instance in Docker and assign it to the Reddit archive project.
  
  Also did not know about this, will help this effort!
  
  Nice! Thanks for the info! I'll get something set up today to start contributing.
  
  My first post in Lemmy, and instantly joined this effort via Unraid (set to reddit!)
- Great question. I was wondering the same myself. I'm liking Lemmy so far
I have a small contribution: another kind user I have since forgotten (rip) recommended Jerboa for Lemmy as an Android app to use. It's much nicer than the web browser experience IMO. I heard there's also a good option on iOS, so feel free to chime in if you know what that is. I heard on HackerNews that some people plan to make their own Lemmy instances effectively private so they can simply use it as a personal feed and go anywhere they please. Sounds like a great idea, honestly. Imagine an IowaMan instance, for example, and I would simply control it however I want. Not sure what the reqs would be tho.
- I've heard it runs real nice on pi in a docker container. If you're just using it as a private instance you wouldn't have to worry about scaling.
- Have a link to that hacker news discussion by any chance? Would love to read through that.
  
  Unfortunately I do not :( it was on a discussion from an article about Reddit standing firm on API changes iirc
just joined after I promised not to use reddit after RIF died.

So here I am; it took several attempts to join, but I expect that's due to mass user influx.

hello Lemmy
Glad to see one of my favorite hangouts on Reddit here!
This is a test from a Pleroma instance to see if it federates back to Lemmy properly. Whew!
- @th0mcat @selfhosted mind = blown.
  
  Sent from Mastodon
As most I jumped on the Lemming train out of Reddit. I have 2 accounts, which I believe can be linked someway, still need to figure things out. This one is fresh, the other is on lemmy.ml and a week old and programming/development oriented. Browsing trough the communities I found this one, will be an interesting read.

Hosting all I need myself, including web, dns, mail (postfix with full dmarc/dkim support), some databases, domoticz, ... At home on Rpi 4 and 3 running Debian, external dns, mail and webserver on a VPS (intel), again running Debian.
- Did you figure out how to link accounts?
  
  Alas, nop. You could mentione them in the account description, but who reads those...
  
  I have 3 now, 1 for programking communities, 1 for music, 1 for rest. (Until I have my own instance running)
Of course only a self hosted community would be as good (if no better) than Reddit.
💯
I was only just starting my selfhosted journey when Reddit pulled the plug on my preferred client, Sync for Reddit. I'm glad people realize the tech is good, but the people are not so much so. Online communities like this are what makes the internet alive and useful. Can't wait to get started building my server - including my future Lemmy instance!
Happy to be here with you :)
Hear hear!

40 comments