1. Started a small mutual fund and retirement fund when I was just starting out and still in undergrad. I did not have much and was fully self sufficient. But someone came to my job and showed us how retirement plans worked and convinced me to start one. Same with a mutual fund. I never put more than $20-$40 in each because I didn’t have much but boy did that pay off.

2. I purchased a small condo in the city with some of the money I put away in #1. Just sold it recently (20 years after purchasing it; lived in it for 5 years, rented it out for a profit for 15 years). I made a lot of money off that sale. More money than I’ve ever seen at once.

3. My spouse and I have always lived below our means. Now we’re not frugal - we go out for nice dinners, travel, have kids. We also have good jobs. But, when we purchased a house we could have afforded to get one that was $600k and instead opted for a smaller townhome in a nice neighborhood for almost half the price. Living this way has paid off more than I could have ever imagined. Both of us don’t have to work. We travel whenever we want. We could technically both stop working in our 40s/50s and probably be fine. It’s a feeling of freedom. We’ve never over-extended ourselves. When our colleagues and friends were buying expensive homes and expensive cars and extending themselves, we just didn’t do that.

Memmy has more customization options and I’ve found it to work a bit better than WefWef. For me, WefWef has been very sporadic in its functionality, with it sometimes just generating errors and requiring me to refresh.

Health-related communities, particularly those for specific medical conditions. Those are the communities that really become a lifeline for people, help them through diagnoses or just difficult times, and can serve as an excellent resource. I was active on r/diabetes_t1 on Reddit and am trying to get a community started here on Lenny.world (!T1diabetes).

If the content gets great enough, that will happen. Going to take time, but it will absolutely happen. Especially with so many people deleting their comments and Reddit having their feet held to the fire with people making complaints about them violating GDPR.

Lemmy, Mastodon, and the entire Fediverse are really what the internet was supposed to be. I am glad to see the pendulum swinging back and I hope it continues. I am mostly really excited about the mobile apps being developed for Lemmy. Those are coming along at lightening speed and I those will be THE THING that makes Lemmy happen.

Don’t go back. Even if Reddit makes concessions, the CEO has shown that he will do whatever he wants and doesn’t give a crap about the users of Reddit, you know, the people who actually make him money. Any site controlled by a CEO is at risk of this happening.

Yep, it’s not searchable and just another corporation. It’s fine for certain things but it’s NOT a replacement for Reddit.

I think we learned in January 6 that allowing these communities to exist online is more than just letting people express a different political worldview.

Given how much they have lied about already and the crap Huffman has pulled in the past, I would not doubt it in the least. I am sure they are doing all sorts of mind-games crap like this to try and keep users from fleeing. They have to be freaking out right about now.

All I can do as a user is take my content and time elsewhere. Which is why I’m here. Hoping that like has happened on mastodon, we will slowly move past the “Reddit news” phase and just transition into people contributing to communities and building apps for Lemmy/Kbin.

Agree. It’s good for small communities that want to have an ongoing conversation but it’s horrible for large communities. No easy way to scan content, find info, or even engage in a conversation.

Reddit is only valuable because of the content users provide. If you don’t post valuable content, the site is worthless. Reddit can force subs back open, but they can’t force users to submit the content that makes the site valuable to begin with.

I don’t think it’s necessary “CEO proof” but it is definitely a bit better positioned to avoid the pitfalls that Twitter and Reddit have experienced. Hence the reason I am here. But there’s nothing stopping a for-profit corporation from buying out the owner of a large instance (or multiple large instances). I think the best way to try and prevent that is for people to join hyper-local, hyper-specific instances that can all connect with one another. I assume that would be the benefit of Lemmon.

It’s more akin to the early 2000s to me. Not in the sense of how the tech works but more in the feeling of nothing being “owned” by any one person or entity and things just being…free.

This is what I want to see personally.

I think this is what Lemmy and other Fediverse sites need - a really good mobile app. once that happens, I think Lemmy, kbin, etc will start really attracting users.

There were the time-sucks like r/amitheasshole that I loved, but what I really miss is the practical every-day subs where people shared valuable information. I am really into vegetable gardening, mechanical keyboards, and a few other hobbies and it was great to go to those subs and ask questions or get information. Vegetable gardening was particularly helpful in the last month so I am really missing it! Also, I was really active in a sub for people with type 1 diabetes and that was a huge resource in my life. Really missing that one.