Reddit API change, I never use any others

I killed Instagram and Whatsapp recently when Mark started buddying up to Trump.

Deleted Twitter shortly after Elon took over, which bummed me out since it was a good place for software development information.

Quit reddit after the API ordeal when I didn’t want to use the official client.

I was a long time user of each platform, and I was bummed when I had to leave each.

Now I have bluesky, lemmy, mastodon, and some occasional discord servers I hangout on. I miss Instagram as a time waster, but I’ll survive without funny dog videos and fitness models.

I quit Reddit and deleted my account after nearly a decade last week. I just found it to be a source of consistent stress. It got to the point where the most innocuous comments kept getting me temporarily banned from subreddits. The final coffin nail was when somebody posted an article about how the Trump administration scrubbed all the information on HIV/AIDS from government health websites. I replied in the comments, “Double plus good.” Apparently Redditors thought that I was endorsing this censorship as a good idea and downvoted me. So to clarify, I edited my comment and said underneath, “For those downvoting me, read the novel 1984 by George Orwell.” That’s all. I didn’t say, “You fucking idiots need to read a goddamn book!” I simply cited the reference for my original comment. For this statement I got a three day ban not just from the subreddit but all of Reddit due to harassment. The ban was automatically imposed by the bots, so I had an opportunity to appeal and have a real person review it. I did so, fully expecting anybody who actually looked into it to be reasonable, but they kept the ban in place, so I decided enough was enough.

I left fb when I realized I was on it out of obligation and not because I wanted to be on it. The experience was degrading minute to minute. So I just decided to delete the account one day.

Never been on Twitter as I find in rather dumb long before it was bought by Musk. I am still hanging onto my reddit account because some of the communities are not there elsewhere.

I only really used Reddit, so during the API crisis I left.

Musk unbanned Trump from Twitter.

My family relied on Facebook messenger for communication for a long time so I only just recently deleted it and Instagram after Zuck announced hate speech was explicitly allowed

I left reddit over API stuff, obviously.

Twitter had a few weeks where the algorithm was so broken people were getting recommended gore videos. Just a description of the most common one set off my OCD trying to avoid it. It was always kind of a shit website and not worth having an episode over, so I just deleted my account.

Tumblr’s nsfw ban also nuked a bunch of communities that aren’t inherently nsfw, but have large factions that are. Think like the furry fandom. I just woke up one day and my tags didn’t work and my favorite creators were gone. PLUS the wording included the phrase “female-presenting nipples”, which just sounds wildly transphobic and has no definition so they can ban whoever they want. And they doubled down on it a week later. Immediately uninstalled, heard they’ve only gotten more overtly transphobic since.

I don’t even remember when I stopped using Facebook. I don’t like being stalked by every heterosexual mom I went to church with as a teenager, so I never used it long.

I quit Facebook/Insta long ago but started perma deleting stagnant accounts a little after Cambridge Analytic stuff I think? It was my first real eye-opening moment when it came to data privacy and the whole misinformation cesspool that is social media.

Reddit when 3rd party apps were dropped.

Twitter partly when Musk killed 3rd party apps…then fully when he became a shithead.

Snapchat mostly because it annoyed me.

Never used TikTok other than viewing a video someone sent me in a web browser.

Bonus because I’m still salty: Prime when they introduced ads in Prime Video.

FB: I gradually felt more bored with it, so I started to log in less frequently. I think I haven’t logged in for at least five years, but I had already stopped using it regularly about a decade ago.

Twitter: As above, but the toxicity of the environment was what pushed me away.

YouTube: Newpipe. I only log in when I really, really really need to message someone on the platform or if I need to upload content (like once in a year or less).

Reddit: the API change, although I have logged in a couple times last year to ask things we don’t have active communities for here. Niche stuff.

Deviantart: their Eclipse “upgrade”, which trashed all the search system and the way art circulated.

back when one could make the little text ads in facebook i saw how one could use the facebook graph to basically zero in on one person and then thought “wow this is gross imagine if i was a bad faith actor zero-ing on one facebook person to target them repeatedly through these little text ads” and that was enough for me off of facebook.

that was like 2008 or so.

when I saw the graph and the possibilities of bad actors abusing it i drove myself off most social media. here isn’t too bad. i like the federated nature.

I left Twitter sometime after Elon bought it. The content in my feed drastically changed and was filled with racism, Nazi glorifiction, and child prawn. Reporting these posts did nothing, the automated respone system kept claiming there was no violation. So I deleted my account and never came back. I also actively avoid clicking on Twitter post links.

I didn’t quit Reddit, but it quit me. Reddit perma-banned me for speaking out against the genocide in Gaza. An admin even called me a “disgusting Nazi simp” because I opposed the genocide. The amount of admin and mod gaslighting & abuse is at an all time high.

I don’t do the Meta stuff because of all the cross platform account linking. I still have a FB account, but it’s not my real name, it lacks personal info, and it’s only to stay connected with family and IRL friends.

I got banned from Tiktok preemptively and I never learned why. I didn’t even have an account, but when I went to make one on my work phone, it said I’m banned. Weird. I tried making an account using my home phone as a test and it worked, but I just deleted it afterward without posting anything.

There really needs to be a digital bill of rights or something.

Snowden’s Permanent Record book was a strong motivator for me.

Snowden revelations in 2013

Twitter/X was easy for me, as soon as Musk touched it I closed that account. Wasn’t too active on there anyway.

Still on Instagram but planning to close that soon. Facebook is a bit trickier with all the older friends/family on there that probably won’t move elsewhere. Then again most of the friends/family I see regularly already stopped posting/commenting on Facebook so there’s a lot of dead accounts on there.

Left Reddit during the API exodus.

Stopped using Facebook when they killed the feed and started inputting random shit instead of posts of people I actually know. Slowed way down on reddit and came here when they killed RIF. Never had Twitter because it was a cesspool even before Elon. Never had Snapchat, or be real or tiktok because they all seemed stupid, and in the last one’s case, I didn’t want the CCP having any information about me. I still technically have a Facebook for marketplace and will check it on occasion, but I haven’t posted on probably like 8 years.