https://gist.github.com/MaximilianKohler/3bdedd0185283ac30c1f1422f9626947
If you have a Reddit account please post this to /r/RedditAlternatives.
Why move from Reddit to a forum?
Reddit has been going downhill on the path to enshittification for many years. But recently, they really s**t their bed. They’ve made communities no longer autonomous, and completely ignore their Terms of Service. Meaning there is no guarantee that any user or community can freely participate under the ToS without fear of the admins randomly stepping in and asserting their power – whether that be via banning users or communities without cause, or turning over the community to complete outsiders or hostile entities.
Reddit showed that you can’t trust a 3rd party. They can rapidly and drastically change their policies to screw you over after you’ve put in a decade of work hosting & growing your communities on their platform. With hosting your own forum, there is no such risk; you are under complete control.
Hosting your own Lemmy instance is a similar possibility, but Lemmy is early in development, and has various issues and more limitations currently. For me, adding a traditional forum to my existing website seemed like the best option at the time.
I wanted to move away from Reddit ASAP without losing any of the functionality/features, and I was able to accomplish that.
Pros & cons of Lemmy
I posted this to lemmy.world/c/reddit https://lemmy.world/post/3125497 and it was deleted without any reason/notification and I don’t see a modmail feature. They have a modlog but it just shows an endless loading icon. There is also no access to your content after it’s deleted, unlike with reddit.
There was another thread where people were discussing the need for attracting more niche communities & content creators to Lemmy. Well you’re not going to attract them like that. As a content creator that hosted a handful of niche communities on reddit, my /c/reddit experience seems to confirm that making my own forum was the right decision.
I made the below comment about some of the drawbacks of Lemmy and I guess these are more to add. Perhaps Lemmy would be the best option in the [near] future. Unfortunately, forums lack the networking exposure of the fediverse.
I’ve seen people complain about the phpBB UI, so that made me shy away from using it for my website even though I personally like it.
I started looking into forums some months ago, and in that time Lemmy has already come a long way, to where I think Lemmy would possibly be the better option soon. But I wanted to get my site up and running ASAP.
A few things that factored into my decision:
- I think Reddit and its alts need the features of /r/enhancement and /r/Toolbox.
- I don’t like the default UI of Lemmy. It’s too bloated. I’m using old.lemmy.world now but it’s definitely lacking in features and a bit buggy (IE: I had to switch to the “regular” site, and log in separately, to edit my post).
- I saw beehaw defederate due to lack of mod tools.
- lemmy.world showing Lemmy’s vulnerabilities (ddos, security, etc.).
- I’m still familiarizing myself with Lemmy and the fediverse. It’s a bit complex.
- The voting system has its upsides and downsides. I think no downvote button is the best option.
- I don’t like the time-based nature of reddit-type sites. With forums, you don’t need to always be there to answer right away. Discussions can take place over longer periods of time.
- As you say, a full step-by-step guide is essential.
- I’m now very hesitant to trust any 3rd party. I’d have to trust that the Lemmy instance I choose won’t do the same thing reddit did to me.
I wasn’t really considering hosting my own Lemmy instance at the time. But I think it can be installed onto a subdomain of any website?
Why move from Reddit to a forum?
Sadly, I don’t see the answer to this question. While reddit shares some features with classic forums, these platforms are different. Moving to XenForo, which also requires a quite expensive license, is not the best choice as a reddit replacement.
Forums are different for sure, but I think they’re similar enough. There’s even a phpBB front-end for Lemmy.
I picked Xenforo for my own reasons, but there are plenty of free forum software (which I listed in the link) that can be used.
I think the one thing missing is a way to federate forums.
I think the one thing missing is a way to federate forums.
Isn’t that what Lemmy is/is going to be?
In theory, existing forum software could implement activitypub and link with lemmy & kbin…
I hope to see fediverse SufficientVelocity and Spacebattles one day ^.^
Lemmy only federates Lemmy instances as far as I know. Forums have lots of benefits that Lemmy instances do not. They’re way more polished due to being around for so much longer.
What can you do with forums that you can’t do with Lemmy? I’m no expert of one nor the other.
The main issue is that Lemmy lacks many basic features that are included in Reddit, either by default or via RES and Toolbox addons. I listed some in the OP and the OP link.
I chose Xenforo because it’s been around for a long time, is feature-rich, and the most polished/professional software.
I also wasn’t considering hosting my own Lemmy instance at the time, which I now recognize as a future possibility, if it continues to develop more basic features.
communitys are also federated
Im all for continuing communities 9utsideof Reddit, but porting posts/content is like putting up pictures of your ex everywhere. Why is everyone still so obsessed with this?
Some subreddit are a treasure trove of technical information. It’s like if your ex was a renovation specialist and you kept her phone number in case you decide to redo your kitchen. Except the phone number leads to a carbon copy of your ex, so the cheating bitch never gets to find out just how much you miss her. Fuck you Maria, you broke my heart.
Yeah, this has been one of the suggested uses of attaching wikis to communities and would mean you wouldn’t just be dumping a lot of posts into the community but would have an archive of useful posts, whether from here, Reddit or elsewhere.
I had lots of important content I posted to reddit, as did other members of the community. The subs I ran weren’t fluff subs.
I wasn’t really considering hosting my own Lemmy instance at the time. But I think it can be installed onto a subdomain of any website?
Subdomains work
- lemmy.world showing Lemmy’s vulnerabilities (ddos, security, etc.).
…
- I’m now very hesitant to trust any 3rd party. I’d have to trust that the Lemmy instance I choose won’t do the same thing reddit did to me.
That seems an argument not to start your communities on lemmy.world. And…
There was another thread where people were discussing the need for attracting more niche communities & content creators to Lemmy. Well you’re not going to attract them like that.
L.W isn’t Lemmy. In fact, Lemmy isn’t the threadiverse.
I’m still familiarizing myself with Lemmy and the fediverse. It’s a bit complex.
It’s not that difficult once you get stuck in. I did struggle to get my head around everything when I signed up to Mastodon and just let me account go dormant. However, jumping into Lemmy was a lot easier and the whole Fediverse idea clicked quite quickly. I am now on Calckey, which works better for me, but I may have to conclude I am more of a forum guy than a microblogging one but perhaps I’ll warm to it.
If you have any questions just ask - I’m sure someone can help. However, you don’t really need your own instance, you could just start a community on a friendly instance - it is also the best way to learn.
That seems an argument not to start your communities on lemmy.world.
Lemmy.world was the main one targeted, but they all use the same software and have the same vulnerabilities.
you could just start a community on a friendly instance
The problem is knowing how long that instance will be friendly to you. Will they start blocking other instances you want to interact with? Will other instances start blocking them? And so on…
I’ve set up and run many forums over the years (going back into the ancient history of the Web) and, if I was going to start a forum today I’d likely spin up a Lemmy instance. If someone else was asking about starting one I’d want to talk through their requirements but would definitely have Lemmy in the list of options.
I’d be interested in your reasons why. The Lemmy limitations I listed are pretty important for me.
I don’t get this post. I don’t see any advantage of moving to a forum. As a user I’m still trusting you to host and not do what reddit. Which was your complaint about lemmy.
It is most aimed at community creators, not users. It’s true that users have limited options & autonomy either way.
But from my experience, forums tend to have less of the “mod corruption” issues that Reddit has. Probably because a forum is a monetary investment and they have an incentive to draw people in. Whereas lots of people just mod on reddit for power.
