I have just been tossed off Reddit. No bad behaviour but Reddit suspects I am not old enough. I have been an adult for quite a few years. Note that age verification is not (yet) required under EU law.

The age verification on Reddit runs through a third party which is associated with Palantir. I will not do this, and there’s enough data associated with my account to show I’m an adult.
In general I am extremely sceptical of giving this level of personal information to any third party but especially a company that just cannot be trusted and has proven itself to be a destructive force in the world. I would not recommend anyone to use this, even if it may lose you access to platforms.

On Reddit there have been concerns among the various European subs and its community. I have encouraged various mods to collectively search for a solution. A move to Lemmy seems the obvious one - also just for the sake of supporting European tech and platforms. Alas, none have acted. The best I got was ‘good idea, we’ll look into it’.

My guess is I am far from the only one to lose access, if not already than soon the same will happen to other users. It may destroy the community that exists there, and my guess is that it’s the largest online truly pan-European community.

Anyway, I’ve signed up for Lemmy / europe.pub a while ago and am eager to use it instead of Reddit. I just hope this place becomes a little more lively.

  • brave_lemmywinks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    1 month ago

    Funny how we get waves of users for different reasons, I created an account when the blocked the API and left definitely when they started banning people.

    I think for random use it fine, but more specific stuff will be harder. We don’t even have a big football\soccer community.

    • lieven@europe.pubOP
      3·
      1 month ago

      The only reason for me to be on Reddit is because that’s where the people are. While the European subs, and some others, were generally positive with interesting people there’s of course a lot wrong with the platform.

      More generally, I actively try to support European platforms but they tend to be far less populated.

      As for specific communities - I can’t join you in a football one as I know nothing about it. Beyond that, it’s a bit exploring for me what’s there.

      I know Reddit has pulled a bunch of tricks over the last few years making the platform ever less appealing. Sadly, most people won’t move once they’re stuck in their ways and platforms abuse that. Cory Doctorow has a word for that.

      • GardenGeek@europe.pub
        2·
        13 hours ago

        This post is a little old, but: Welcome, glad you’re here.

        Lemmy is still pretty empty right now. But on the other hand: Be the change you want to see in the world.

        I was just a lurker on Reddit, too, but here I’m actually ready to contribute and post every now and then in communities that interest me—simply because I feel like I’m creating content for the community here, not for some money-grubbing company that wants to sell it all for advertising and AI training purposes.

        With that in mind, I’m also really happy about every upvote a post gets.

        • lieven@europe.pubOP
          2·
          11 hours ago

          Thanks. I find myself struggling a bit with Lemmy.

          I check in most days but there’s indeed relatively little going on and there’s not really a blossoming European community. Happy to play my little part but at the same time it has to come down to everyone. I’m not sure what it takes to make it more thriving. Lemmy is nowhere near the numbers of Reddit, obviously, but it’s enough to think more would or could be happening.

          As for contributing - I prefer that over here as well, largely for the same reason. At the same time, putting effort into making a post (I am not the type to just post a link or something) you do hope to get some interaction.

          It’s really about how many people want to make the effort but also the fediverse remains confusing. Two friends of mine tried to sign up and even with my guidance they couldn’t quite figure it out, had to wait for days to get login credentials, passwords somehow didn’t work… and these are not troglodytes. That is an issue too.

  • one_old_coder@piefed.socialEnglish
    6·
    1 month ago

    I just hope this place becomes a little more lively.

    Feel free to post stuff in every community. It’s relatively empty because people don’t post, you can change that.

      • tfm@europe.pubM
        2·
        1 month ago

        If you see something interesting somewhere just post it in fitting communities. The fediverse is also a lot less restrictive in what you can post in most comms than Reddit.

        If you make this a habit you can become a powerful force in the liveliness of the fediverse. Only a few percent of users actively post.

        Welcome btw

        • lieven@europe.pubOP
          1·
          1 month ago

          Thanks. I absolutely want to be active but I also am still figuring out a bit how things work here. I’m rather just part of the community than a ‘powerful force’, also feels a bit rude to take that on as a newcomer.

          But I’m around and all the time I used to spend (lose?) on Reddit has to go somewhere…