Well summarized!

The issue with FOSS software is it attracts people who use FOSS software. I'm not saying I want the reddit of 2021 back, but the reddit of 2016 would be nicer than the reddit of 2009 we are emulating now.

Once a few of us get our friends on board and we grow a touch more, I think Lemmy has a real chance of capturing some more of the "middle" tech literacy users, giving us some of what I, and I presume you, miss about Reddit.

This. And I've found that putting my Sync for Lemmy app where reddit was on my phone makes it easier, I impulse scroll sometimes. Yah it's dryer but also I don't waste hours scrolling, I get a small taste and move on.

This is the way

I want to count myself in, but man am I struggling so hard - I basically attempted/started to migrate to fediverse day 1 of the api announcements. When I browsed reddit, I would find content entertaining and makes me laugh, stuff I would share, and I would have fun browsing. I am finding a whole different humor that I don't like, too political and unfunny. Maybe I need to fix my subscriptions but idk

Maybe I haven't figured out lemmy yet but there's a lot that's a hassle for me, I feel like I've subscribed to most things I enjoy. I've tried various apps and have enjoyed Connect the longest but am holding out for Boost for Lemmy. Like I have a lack of notifications for replies (which I thought I figured out), lack of things I'm used to that reddit has, desktop browser view not having expanded cards (I like to see full media and not having to click), having different instances not all 1 account (like I had posts from lemmy.world which I switched off of, now I'm in lemm.ee but I wish I could have all my history and everything, being duplicate communities across different instances, home page sorting view (I've tried 6h, 12h, top month, new, I just feel like I see the same old posts way too often and not new hot stuff). Then there's just small stuff here and there, like seeing the card preview that looks like an image, so I click it, but get redirected to an article which I don't want. There's more stuff, but I'm already rambling way too much, I've just been looking for somewhere to post this

There's so many times where I have a question about something or need advice, like intermittent fasting or gym stuff, and could quickly and easily post and find on reddit. I feel so dirty using reddit but all this complication makes me want to give up and give in. I care about not supporting a shitty app and garbage CEO/decisions but now this is probably affecting me more than them

I was a Boost user, I still have it installed and once in a while use it when finding information, and at least it still works somehow so fingers crossed lol

Like you said though, protesting isn't easy. This is just a lot of effort and sacrifice man that most people probably aren't willing to give, which is understandable. I'm not sure if this will ever fully replace reddit unless reddit keeps killing itself and manages to somehow push away casuals that don't care about ads or shitty app design or shitty decisions