this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2023
319 points (97.1% liked)

Asklemmy

43963 readers
2289 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy ๐Ÿ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[โ€“] Barky 58 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I was part of the digg migration to Reddit

[โ€“] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

Yeah, same. I left a bit before the mass exodus, just like I did with Reddit -> Lemmy. I also joined IRC a bit before the Eternal September.

I feel like some sort of herald of Eternal September. So if your social media site is suddenly full of clueless morons, you can just blame me.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Sorry, I've been hearing about this for some time and I don't know the story behind it. Can someone please explain the enshittification that happened with digg? How good was it before and how bad was it after?

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It was amazing but I was young and it was wonderful to discover. I think people have fond memories for it really.

Itโ€™s very similar to Lemmy, if not just the same thing done a different way. I think there were only upvotes (I can Digg it).

For young people discovering Lemmy, as it is now, and discovering Linux subreddits etc, they probably get the same enjoyment/attachment etc.

The redesign of Digg downplayed itโ€™s communities and put mainstream media first (as if Kbins magazine tool was restricted to famous newspapers) and thus it immediately felt like the community had been fractured. Reddit was growing with peoples own blogs and it felt way more community oriented. This is where I think and hope Lemmy will also find its own community.

load more comments (1 replies)
[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (4 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I knew about the migration but this line on that article is super ironic

Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian posted on his personal blog an open letter to Rose[17], where he speculated that "this new version of digg reeks of VC meddling", and that it is "cobbling together features from more popular sites and departing from the core of digg

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[โ€“] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Slashdot -> Digg -> Reddit -> Lemmy. I used to spend lot of time on TheEnvironmentSite.org some time before Slashdot, but I cant recall whether anything else came in between those two.

load more comments (5 replies)
[โ€“] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I am this old:

BBS's -> College's Telnet -> .edu sites over lynx -> Usenet -> IRC -> commercial websites -> Slashdot -> Fark -> Digg -> Reddit -> Lemmy

BBS From the back of Computer Shopper magazine, we would get a list of phone #'s to call which then connected us to various Wildcat BBS's that were filled with interesting & squirrelly information and people. Usually 1 at a time could connect, but the fancy ones had multiple phone-lines.

College/Telnet/Usenet Went to college and got access to a telnet account, which let me run Lynx and open a Usenet reader. From there we bounced all around text-based sites (using the book above) because there were no search engines. You had a big list of all the places you liked to visit, and you visited those. Sometimes, someone told you about another spot, or you played whack-a-mole with various .edu domains. A lot of kids started hosting sites on their dorm-room machines. Usenet opened up a whole world of discussion about topics far outside the scope of my tiny little town.

Next up was a PPoE connection using Trumpet Winsock and suddenly I could load NCSA Mosaic and mIRC and that opened up a graphical web with the easy ability to download software and more communication. Then Businesses all decided they needed to try "internet" for themselves, and you started seeing the rise of commercial endeavors. So early PCMag and other adopters showed up.

Slashdot came along and was primarily a Linux site, with some tech news sprinkled in. I still remember following the threads there for Columbine (when school shootings were still a novelty) and then on 9/11 when just about every site ground to a halt, there was lots of speculation and word-of-mouth, but at least information was still moving. It then expanded its audience with tags so that all sorts of news topics could open up and you could follow specific ones.

Ran with an RSS feed for a while around this point and subbed to all the different sites I liked, so I could get my fix in one place.

Fark came along and was an irreverent alternative to Slashdot. Somewhere between twitter performance art with everyone trying to make the catchiest title for their headline, but also just a lot of goofing off in the comments. Totalfark was $5 a month and worth the money to get at the un-curated content.

Then, just as Tech TV was going south and becoming some sort of wrestling-based channel, Kevin Rose mentions at the end of The Screen Savers about "This new website, Digg!" which in hindsight he was shamelessly plugging. That site offered the upvote/downvote concept allowing the community to create a constant stream of content. Somewhere along those lines Slashdot lost its luster, presumably because all of its content was curated by a handful of people who were in the process of selling out to other investors.

Reddit came along, and further customized the upvote/downvote/commenting experience. It also allowed you to create your own communities/subreddits and follow those. Because its audience was basically "anyone" it allowed for tons of creative content. Right as it started to take off, Digg made a huge faux pas on how they moderated content, which annoyed all the content creators and they moved to reddit as well.

I loved what Reddit could have been without the enshitification taking over. If you look at that list, Slashdot, Digg, Reddit all suffered from busily trying to monetize their users, and all of them died (or are dying) a slow, sad death. Fark is still owned by Drew Curtis, and as far as I can tell, still has a similar feel & userbase.

Lemmy honestly feels like finding Usenet, IRC & Lynx again. There's a learning curve you have to get over, and then you have to be willing to hunt for your information. But the quality of the content is higher than reddit, and each one of those other services went through the same decline as we jumped ship to the new one.

In a world where every new "service" just annoys me now, because I know it's going to be frustrating to use, and will likely just steal my data, turn into a content/ad mill and eventually turn to shit Lemmy feels like a big middle finger to those sites. And I'm here for it.

[โ€“] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Slashdot -> Digg -> Reddit -> Lemmy. Back then, web servers didn't have a lot of resources. So if a Digg post was popular, it could slow the site to a crawl. Then we all knew the site was being "Digged".

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

And before that, sites got slash dotted

[โ€“] kale 18 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I switched from slashdot to Digg. Digg to Reddit when Digg started censoring the Blu-Ray decryption key (before v4), then was on Reddit until RIF shut down. I'm scheduled to get my 16 year badge this year I think. I haven't posted or commented since RIF shut down though.

I'm debating whether to sell my account or delete it. $75 could buy a lot of printer filament.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Where can you get $75 for your Reddit account?

load more comments (1 replies)
[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (4 children)

16-year Reddit account here. It was the HD-DVD encryption key leak in early 2007.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[โ€“] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, and also watched the Diggnation netcast.

load more comments (1 replies)
[โ€“] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (4 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, I know this guy was on reddit.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

At least we can edit post titles here

load more comments (3 replies)
[โ€“] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Put it this way, I still remember the drama around MrBabyMan and other power users!

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

OMG we all hated him so much. Every single post on the front page was from him. Then v4 came along and that was it, everyone left.

[โ€“] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I used Digg and it was great while it lasted.

I am not sure how many years I used Digg. In the rear-view mirror, it feels like a temporary gig between Slashdot and Reddit.

[โ€“] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

I went Stumble->Fark->Digg->Reddit->Lemmy. Fuck Iโ€™m getting old.

[โ€“] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Me! I was a huge fan of Kevin Rose due to TechTV and jumped on board as soon as he released it.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm in a similar boat. I used slashdot occasionally (still do), but once I heard Kevin Rose was involved with digg, I started using the site heavily. I only stopped when digg v4 dropped.

I'll have to see what he's up to these days.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)
[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I went from stumbleupon/fark, slashdot/google reader, digg, reddit, lemmy

load more comments (2 replies)
[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

I was using Digg and Reddit both at the height of Digg. I had already mostly moved over to Reddit at the time of the migration but still was on Digg some. But I was among those that abandoned Digg then.

[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

I used to lurk on digg a long time ago, when the itnernet was good :(

[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

I was a casual lurker of Digg. I would open it up and scroll through for a bit, never spending more than 20 minutes or so just looking for something interesting to read. I donโ€™t think I even knew it โ€œdied.โ€

In 2013 I joined Reddit, and somehow began spending hours reading posts and comments, and then becoming a poster/commenter myself.

[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

I remember visiting Reddit and StumbledUpon and thinking to myself how ugly these sites were compared to my beloved Digg

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I found it through StumbleUpon, which until reading comments here I always thought was just a sweet browser plugin. Never knew it had a site beyond a landing page and download button. Stayed at Digg until a friend showed me Reddit after Digg started sucking.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Same.. Stumbleupon -> Digg -> Reddit -> Lemmy

I don't recall why I went away from SU but both the others were as a protest

load more comments (4 replies)
[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Me!

I loved Digg back in the day. I had a reddit account too, but preferred Digg by a lot. Then the enshittification of Digg via v4 came along and I hopped wholesale over to reddit and never looked back.

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I was one of a group of power users alongside mrbabyman and a few others that probably collectively amounted to 90% of the frontpage of the site.

load more comments (4 replies)
[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I left shortly after the HD-DVD fiasco. When people talk about the Digg migration, this is what I think of. Looks like there was another mass migration years afterwards

load more comments (2 replies)
[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Fark man myself. We watched the Digg implosion with great smugness. Then everyone left for Reddit.

load more comments (1 replies)
[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Learned about digg and started using it only for it to die a few months later. Discovered Reddit back in the 2010s while searching for Bodyweight fitness advice and stayed till the API fiasco.

Digging Lemmy now (โ˜ž๏พŸใƒฎ๏พŸ)โ˜ž

load more comments (1 replies)
[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I skipped right past Digg and went from 4chan to Reddit

load more comments (1 replies)
[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

StumbleUpon and RSS feeds were my go to for internet aggregation before I ended up on Reddit.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I was and used to watch the Diggnation podcast all the time. Loved Digg in its heyday, and it was sad when it went downhill. Reddit ended up being excellent though, and better than Digg ended up being. Sucks that it died too, but hopefully the Fediverse ends up finally being the chosen one.

load more comments (3 replies)
[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I was a Slashdot -> Digg -> Reddit -> Lemmy (and actually quite a bit of imgur) wanderer.

I did do some local/regional dialup boards before that too.

I was reading /. when they opened up account registration and my friends got 4 digit ids, but I didn't sign up right away and have a 5 digit one. At the time it was of great import. I tried it last year. Still works.

I moved to Reddit from Digg with the great pre v4 exodus.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Forums/Slashdot(still alive ๐Ÿ˜ƒ)/digg/newground ยปยป Reddit/facebook/twitter (all dead) ยปยป fediverse ยปยป [the cycle continues] ยปยป โˆž

Most of the time, I have been a lurker without an account and only bothered to make an account or even log in with said account whenever I had to ask a question or answer something I knew about well.

I like forums and sites where you don't have to have an account to post/reply. However, with the growing issues with bots/sockpuppets/trolls and general troublemaker those beautiful vestige of an old trusting era are getting rarer and rarer (still lively, vibrant and growing as they and new services transitions to local networks/intranet though).

In any case, the internet has always been in constant flux. Nevertheless, I have always adapted myself with the changes and try not to put too many eggs in a single or few services. I usually prefer systems and services I can run/host myself for family, friends and myself.

load more comments (3 replies)
[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Never used digg. I went directly from Slashdot to Reddit.

load more comments (2 replies)
[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Yeah I moved from Digg to Reddit around 2008/2009. Was also a fairly low numbered user of Slashdot.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I used message boards well into the 2010s. Digg and reddit were a curiosity that I mostly lurked.

I remember I got downvoted on Digg for anecdote about how the climate had been changing over the years in my area. The comments in those types of posts were primarily deniers saying there wasn't scientific evidence of climate change.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Even though I was in the prime age group for Digg, I shockingly never even heard of it until after I became a Reddit user and heard tales of its demise.

StumbleUpon was my main Internet resource during those years. I still miss it.

load more comments (1 replies)
[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I never used Digg, but I discovered Reddit around the time just after the Digg exodus happened.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I discovered Digg about a year before the Digg Exodus to Reddit, so I don't know if I'd call it the "prime" but I was there just in time to watch it fall.

load more comments
view more: next โ€บ