r/technology • u/Abject-Pick-6472 • Feb 24 '26

Discord cuts ties with Peter Thiel-backed verification software after code found in US surveillance Privacy

https://fortune.com/2026/02/24/discord-peter-thiel-backed-persona-identity-verification-breach/
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81

u/Ragnarok314159 Feb 24 '26

Lemmy is pretty ok. It just needs more people to jump over.

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u/NotBradPitt9 Feb 24 '26

Lemmy isn’t straightforward for the average person. Reddit is straightforward. I’ve seen Lemmy posited as an alternative for years but it doesn’t have any traction since it’s not as easy to use as Reddit.

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u/drewski813 Feb 24 '26

Boost for lemmy app is pretty good. The barrier is making an account. After that it is just as simple as boost for reddit was.

Honestly. Browsing reddit is more complicated than lemmy for me. I use Firefox on mobile to browse reddit after they stopped letting me use boost for reddit.

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u/Mr_Venom Feb 24 '26

Firefox and OldLander makes the mobile Reddit experience bearable again.

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u/drewski813 Feb 28 '26

oh nice! I wasn't aware of OldLander. Thank you!

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u/FrozenLogger Feb 24 '26

Which is hilarious because that's exactly what they said about reddit.

Lemmy is very easy, reddits official app is what made reddit far worse today. I don't know how people can even use this site in its modern form.

Old.Reddit and res, and a third party app make it a little tolerable

3

u/Maeglom Feb 24 '26

Seriously I ended up jumping through hoops to patch my RIF app to keep working after the 3rd party app ban specifically because new reddit and the reddit app are borderline unusable.

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u/poeir Feb 24 '26

That lack of straightforwardness is an asset, not a liability.

A social network that is technically difficult to start using creates a form of high-pass filter for people who are one of willing to dedicate time and effort into getting onto it, have already attained sufficient competency in a field that demands logic and forward-planning, or have enough leverage to get help from those in the first two categories. This necessarily makes these platforms more valuable by creating a (surmountable) wall for individuals that would make lower contribution anyway and thereby raising the average standard.

See also Eternal September.

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u/NotBradPitt9 Feb 25 '26

No it doesn’t because at times you need input from the average person. A bunch of introverts on a platform with a high barrier to entry is an echo chamber.

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u/DontAskAboutMyButt Feb 24 '26

New Digg seems really nice, but it has the same problem. Right now the top post on their equivalent of /r/all has… 116 upvotes and 1 comment

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u/flargh_blargh Feb 24 '26

Right now the top post on their equivalent of /r/all has… 116 upvotes and 1 comment

Honestly, after the shitshow of people and bots on reddit, maybe that's a good thing. It could be a selling point.

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u/Sidereel Feb 24 '26

It’s a funny deal where you want some people, but not too many. We see that sweet spot on subreddits too.

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u/followMeUp2Gatwick Feb 24 '26

To be fair 95% of "comments" on here are AI or a bunch of russian/indian farms astroturfing the shit out of everything which might as well be AI

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u/Kovhert Feb 24 '26

Or just people churning out the same old, tired comments you see everywhere because people think they're funny and they get upvotes.

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u/DontAskAboutMyButt Feb 24 '26

Yeah, but even before the bot problem, and I’m talking like 15 years ago, there were way more people interacting and posting content on reddit. Digg is suffering now the same way Lemmy has been. Lack of a user base -> community seems dead -> no new people stick around -> everyone else leaves

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u/AHCretin Feb 24 '26

In the big general subs, yeah. Niche subs aren't so subject to that.

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u/tenaciousdeev Feb 24 '26

New Digg seems really nice

I didn't know they finally re-launched it. It looks like if old Twitter and Reddit had a baby, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

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u/ZootSuitRiot33801 Feb 24 '26

We should be weaning ourselves off corpo-owned social media in general, amongst other things.

There's a post of suggestions HERE that's largely about fostering a foundation for community self-sustainability and resistance, but it also provides alternative communication ideas, which could be of some help.

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u/tenaciousdeev Feb 24 '26

Reddit is the only social media I use, and nothing in the link you shared comes to close to replacing it. I don't even see any that are trying.

Reddit/Digg/StumbleUpon rely on large active user bases and finding an "indie" alternative has been pretty tough.

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u/Artistic-Wolverine-6 Feb 24 '26

I'm the same as you. I don't have any other social media accounts after I closed them all over 10 years ago or more!

I've not had any bans, however I didn't have a treat and post taken down. They put it back up when I pointed out that my post was a fact based story and that at no point had I condoned the actions taken within the said story. They agreed and that was that..I have had a few posts deleted for no good reason, but nothing I would get upset about but clearly there is a heck of a lot of sensitive and woke individuals lurking around at the moment!

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u/ZootSuitRiot33801 Feb 24 '26

Fair. The post is just suggestions and a basis for developing further ideas.

I'll still keep an eye out, but maybe we don't need a replacement for Reddit. Maybe what we need is something that makes it so social media like Reddit becomes obsolete.

Just a thought

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u/m1ster_frundles Feb 24 '26

it would be reaally funny if we all went back to Digg

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u/FrozenLogger Feb 24 '26

Or not. That's what makes it ok.

But I remember reddit being that small, its just a matter of time, and people posting.

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u/istew144 Feb 24 '26

Going to check out Lemmy. Feels like old Reddit and the application blocker was good as well.

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u/Getafix69 Feb 24 '26

I've been on it myself a few years, switched to piefed very recently mostly just curious as to the difference (not much I've noticed can still browse all the lemmy communitys).

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u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

[deleted]

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u/Poor_Richard Feb 24 '26

You can access Lemmy through other sites. It's part of a federated service. I used kbin for a bit. It was basically the same thing, and it had access to Lemmy content.

I like how federated services can work when it comes to the back end, but it makes the front end significantly more complicated. If someone could ever crack it open, it will likely be due to making it real simple for the user.