From purely practical point of view, what is the selling point of Lemmy for the average user who does not care about the theoretical benefits of software or the open source software movement?
Assumptions:
- The average user will never host a instance.
- The average user is not interested in volunteering or moderation.
- The average user is not looking for NSFW communities or any controversial communities.
If you have an issue with the Reddit admins, you either suck it up or stop using Reddit. If you have an issue with the Lemmy admins, you can migrate to another instance and forget about the old admins.
Communities being smaller is a double-edged sword. Yes, it’s harder to find the content that you want, but it’s easier to be heard here. And it’s overall easier to have a meaningful conversation here, that doesn’t get flooded with sea lions, irrationals, or 11yos. (Note: I’m saying that it is easier, I’m not saying that everyone here is sensible or acts sensibly all the time.)
If you’re left-wing you’ll have an easier time discussing politics here. And if you want/need a safe space there are some good instances for you, like Beehaw or Blåhaj, in Reddit they’d be simply flooded with entitled newbies until the mods give up.
So TL;DR: unless you’re one of those “lol! lmao!” kids or a right-winger, Lemmy is quality while Reddit is quantity.
I went for a federated option specifically so that it’s resistant to one company going rogue like Reddit did with the API fiasco and the banning of every third party app that made Reddit great. That’s really the killer feature, if you’re tired of your admins you go to another instance. No need to protest and switch your subs to private, just move the whole community elsewhere.