Were you a part of Reddit before signing up for Phuks? If so, why did you leave Reddit?

Yeah ran a little sub there even. But definitely spent a few years as a redditer. I reflect fondly on that time as it introduced me to a lot of new stuff and parts of the internet.

But I think 2015ish? I started to notice things to come. Deleted comments, weird shadow bans, Nuked threads, increasing circle jerks, promoted pity drama, power tripping mods enforcing increasingly specific rules. Finally it was the public announcement of moving towards a more marketable reddit or some shit, maybe tracking outbound links, I don't quite recall. But it drove me away.

Found voat in the early days and tried to be a central part of the community there. Until it was overtaken and now I just exist here for shit posts, pc flexing and lulz.

I haven't left Reddit.

I did leave Voat, though, for basically the same reason. Also because I don't like to talk about politics, I'm tired of hearing of some political spin for any given topic. These types could make the type of pencil you prefer a political argument. Reddit can be the same way, but at least you can avoid it there.

I completely left reddit around 2015 once they started mass banning subs for hurting people's feelings. The banned subs weren't any subs that I actually ever used or visited (like FatPeopleHate and neofag), but when Chairman Pao just started banning them for "being abusive" (ie - someone's feelings got hurt from hurty wordies), then the writing was on the wall for that site. I went to Voat right after that, then left Voat after 2 years or so fully for largely being a massive predictable circlejerk. Phuks moves a bit slow some days, but at least it generally has interesting content and is certainly not a circlejerk.

I agree with PhunkyPlatypus that 2015 was the tipping point. Things had been getting squirrely for a few years but you could put it down to trying to manage a site that was hugely popular. But 2015 saw it go from a site for free speech to a place where opinions that ae contrary to the hivemind went to die.

There's still value in Reddit though. Lots of great subs where you can get help with or just have discussion about specific topics. But even still you have to be care what you say or else. Trolling is fantastically easy but, like shooting fish in a barrel, gets old pretty fast.

And you'd be hard pressed for a better source of random vids to brighten your day or give you a chuckle.

I got pretty active on VOAT but it's getting to be as bad and since it doesn't have nearly the same depth of content and users there isn't the same value -- ie. specialized knowledge -- that Reddit still offers. But at least you can still whine about niggers or Jews there and not have to worry about it.

I was a user for about 8 years (this whole thread sounds like Reddit A.A.). Modded a bit, started a few small niche subs. One day I was shadowbanned with no explanation (I didn't ask for one either, the way the site was going at that point I didn't even want to be associated with it anymore). I had been somewhat critical of the shadowbanning policy (it's basically them saying "look we want your website hits but don't want people to see you so we're not going to tell you you're banned and hope you keep coming here) and the lack of transparency as far as moderation. It did happen to coincide with a time in which I criticized a highly opinionated /r/science mod (one of hundreds) by rebutting their statements with a peer reviewed article or two.

Everything just got way too political, it went from a site that valued its users/contributors and had interesting communities to a site that was hell bent on controlling a narrative.

No

no. I was not a member of reddit, etc.; just the typical social media; now deleted.
The world is big and we all have issues.
Phuks offers a cerebral break. Phuks is refreshing.

I was still visiting reddit for the T_D circlejerk and some niche subs, and now it's just the niche subs.

The censorship, Chinese government investment, and financially corrupt moderation made me leave.

I haven't left Reddit. Yet. But the longer I use my main account, the more I get posts inexplicably removed and downvoted to hell for no reason whatsoever. Just started about a year ago. Not real sure what exactly is going on with it. I just found out about Reveddit the other day, and when I typed in my main account username, I saw tons of stuff that had been censored and/or removed for no particular reason whatsoever. Really strange considering I've never posted anything that could be considered controversial with my main account. All I can figure is it must be simply because of the age of the account - it's nearly 10 years old and has a lot of history.