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this is so bittersweet...
(slrpnk.net)
Before Netflix, there was Blockbuster.
Before YouTube, there was Metacafe and janky websites hosting Flash or Quicktime Player.
Before Spotify, there was PeopleSound and iTunes gift cards.
Before Discord, there was IRC and AOL Chatrooms.
Before Facebook, there was MySpace and Friendster.
Before iPhone, I had an LG Dare and Palm Pre. Good god!
Before Reddit, there was Digg, Slashdot and Fark.
Something better always comes along. Especially if that "better" is tied to a streamlined, easy to use, easy to learn UI.
Reddit would've never gotten as big as it did without third party support. Not just apps like Apollo, RIF and Narwhal - but tools like Imgur and RES.
Lemmy and "The Federation" (I'm not quite yet sold calling it the Fediverse...) has a lot of potential to be that "better than Reddit" online space. Nobody owns all of it, so there's safeguards against the things that we're blacked out.
And it's partially why its a fixer-upper.
We, the community, are going to need to make Lemmy the space we want it to be. That means competition between instances and servers, that means user generated tools and content. I read the RIF developer is working on a Tildes app for iOS and Android. Mlem iOS app is in early Beta, but are working hard to have a stable release for 6/30. Jerboa's out on Android already and folks seems to like it so far.
Give it time. We're all new. And whether it's here or somewhere else - we always land on our feet. Maybe the only thing we have in common with u/spez : there's nowhere to fail but up.