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!

  • PrimalAnimist@lemmy.worldEnglish
    57·
    1 year ago

    Former redditor. What do I call myself now? Lemming? lol But I also noticed that I don’t see some Karma score equivalent, which is a great thing to leave behind. Those imaginary points were just useless at best, and used against people who were new at the worst.

    • SanguinePar@lemmy.worldEnglish
      24·
      1 year ago

      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” :-)

    • kryostar@beehaw.orgEnglish
      11·
      1 year ago

      @MountainWolf> What do I call myself now? Lemming?

      That’s perfect haha. Lemmings. We’re all lemmings now.

      • bastion@feddit.nlEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Wanna go for a walk with me? There’s this place I know with a really nice view.

    • casey@lemmy.wiuf.netOPEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      I would be curious if there might be a way to give some sort of “attribute of credibility” that we could come up with.

      • PrimalAnimist@lemmy.worldEnglish
        10·
        1 year ago

        That’s really difficult to do with a karma-like system. People posting in echo-chambers can post misinformation but receive many up votes.

        Credibility is subjective. For example, people on one side of a political ideology will not think people on the opposite side are credible. So who can really determine an “attribute of credibility”?

        We would have to agree on a standard first and that’s just not going to happen.

        • casey@lemmy.wiuf.netOPEnglish
          4·
          1 year ago

          I agree, which is why I offered no solution as of yet… I suppose best we have right now is resounding opinion of ‘most liked’ in a thread. I suppose that would lean itself to revealing the idea which holds the highest consensus.

          In some tech groups, it may become feasible for malicious actors to feign intelligence, and that’s partly what I’m hoping this slowly curtails. Use of LLM and the rest in our discourse.

          • AndreasEnglish
            8·
            1 year ago

            User flairs are going to be implemented on Lemmy soon, so people with verifiable credentials could come forward to the mods with proof and receive a special flair. Doesn’t entirely solve the problem of groups of users brigading and spreading misinformation, but showing discretion towards things one reads on the internet should be the standard practice, especially in tech communities.

  • Carlos Solís@social.azkware.net
    19·
    1 year ago

    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!

  • Sly@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13·
    1 year ago

    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!

  • IowaMan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • CannaVet@lemmy.worldMEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      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.

    • nickel@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Have a link to that hacker news discussion by any chance? Would love to read through that.

      • IowaMan@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Unfortunately I do not :( it was on a discussion from an article about Reddit standing firm on API changes iirc

  • greenhan3le@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    1 year ago

    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

  • ShutYourPieHole@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    9·
    1 year ago

    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.

  • TheInsane42@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    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.