Not totally sure off the top of my head but I guess I was on Reddit for about 13 years, give or take. I moderated some communities for many years as well.

I'm done now.

I have not found replacements for most of my Reddit communities — not the ones I actually cared about. It's a crying shame that online communities keep getting fractured by shitty corporate behavior (see Twitter). That is the main reason I will not get involved with another proprietary platform. Why should I invest my time and effort into building a community that will eventually be ripped to shreds by profiteers?

I don't know if Lemmy is "the one" but I feel like the principles of the fediverse have legs. The internet is going to have some growing pains in the coming years, and it's going to take a long time for anything like Lemmy to reach critical mass. I mean, even Reddit was still kind of niche when you compare it to, say, Twitter or Facebook. My grandma's on Twitter and Facebook, while Reddit even to this day is too technical for "the masses".

Honestly, it took me longer than it should have. I should have ditched Reddit years ago. But I'm here for it now. Fuck Musk, fuck Spez, and fuck the advertising-supported corporate hellscape of the modern internet in general.

Of course, many of these problems will come to the fediverse as well. Instances do indeed cost money to run. Too much for an intrepid webmaster to pay out of their own pocket just for fun in the long-term. Lemmy might just be a stepping stone.