3 Liberating Decentralized Alternatives For Reddit

Reddit is a news aggregator & community discussion platform. It has gained mass popularity and wide adoption in the last decade. It continues to be the favorite online discussion platform for most people.

However, there are some downsides to Reddit. A few are listed below.

• Centralized Server: Reddit's content is stored on a central server. They have total control over the data. The user does not have any privacy. Reddit can moderate content in any way.
• Censorship: There are cases in Reddit where communities discussing Reddit Alternatives are banned. This platform is so protective that many posts are removed. This thwarts free of speech.
• Advertisements: Reddit can show you promoted Ads based on your browsing behavior. These Ads can interfere with and hinder a seamless browsing experience. Thus, Advertisements can act as a disturbance.
• API Changes: Reddit recently made a few changes to its API (Application Programming Interface). It changed the method and technicalities related to API access, which is set to harm third-party users using Reddit API services for business purposes.

Are you tired of companies like Reddit holding so much power?

There is a need for a Reddit Alternative, especially a decentralized one. A decentralized alternative to Reddit provides a solution to all the above challenges. The solutions are listed below.

• Decentralized Server
• Censorship Resistant
• No Advertisements

I have discussed 3 decentralized alternatives to Reddit, which liberates from the clutches of centralized systems.

Let’s get the ball rolling.

Aether

Aether is a decentralized Reddit alternative that offers both an online and a desktop version. It follows the decentralized ethos with a democratic governance model. The platform does not govern the users; instead, the users govern themselves.

This innovative Reddit alternative was founded by Burak Nehbit and Benedict Lau. In a recent move, Burak Nehbit accepted a job at Google. However, he claims to manage the Aether application outside his job hours.

There are no censorship issues, as one can frequently experience on Reddit. The data is not stored in a centralized server. Instead, the content is stored on different nodes on different computers. In short, there is no one central server like Reddit.

Although censorship-resistant, it has a BlockList feature to remove content that is not required by law. Individual users can talk to BlockList and remove content based on voting.

People feel the BlockList feature hinders freedom of expression. Lau, the founder, says people can fork this open-source project and create their own version of the application if they feel the platform does not support freedom of thought.

The content is ephemeral in Aether. As in SnapChat, content eventually disappears from the application. Lau says users can take a backup.

Let’s move on to discuss the next alternative, Lemmy.

Lemmy

Before discussing the next alternative, you should be aware of Fediverse. Fediverse is a collection of many social networks that can communicate with each other. It is a portmanteau of the words ‘Federated’ and ‘Universe’, meaning ‘Federated Universe’.

Lemmy is yet another decentralized alternative to Reddit. Like Reddit, it is a news aggregator and community discussion platform. Lemmy is also a decentralized forum for the Fediverse, which means it can communicate with other social platforms belonging to the Fediverse. Kbin is another Reddit alternative, which we will discuss in the next section. Just because Lemmy and Kbin belong to the Fediverse, they can communicate with each other.

Lemmy supports the hosting of many Lemmy instances or servers. LemmyML and LemmyWorld are widely recognized Lemmy instances, but there are many others. You can find all Lemmy instances on this page.

Lemmy is an open-source software created with the Rust Programming Language. Any developer can fork the code stub and create their own version of Lemmy.

Lemmy is created under an AGPL License. AGPL means GNU Affero General Public License. AGPL is a free & copy-left license designed to ensure software community cooperation.

This platform is very similar to Reddit in terms of features and operations. One can subscribe to forums and participate in community discussions. One can upvote or downvote any post. Any post has a title, body, URL, and NSFW (not safe for work) marker. Lemmy shows trending communities, which is another important feature.

Lemmy mobile apps are available for both iOS & Android systems. The availability of mobile apps is another reason for the increased user base. The Web App is also responsive and mobile-friendly.

Moving to the next alternative, Kbin.

Kbin

As already mentioned, like Lemmy, Kbin is a decentralized community discussion forum for the Fediverse. It is a Reddit-like content aggregator and micro-blogging forum for the Fediverse. This means Kbin can communicate with other Fediverse services like Mastodon and Lemmy.

Kbin can have many instances. KbinSOCIAL & KbinCAFE are widely used instances of Kbin. It is found that Kbin has a total of 24 instances with total users exceeding 62 thousand. So far, the total number of post exceeds 1 lakh. For more detailed statistics & rankings, you can visit this statistics page. You can also find all the available Kbin instances on the statistics page.

Kbin underwent censorship issues with Reddit. There are cases of Reddit banning subreddits that detail how to move to a competitor like Kbin. This reiterates the importance of having a censorship-resistant decentralized Reddit Alternative like Kbin.

Kbin initiatives aim to promote a free and open internet with a democratic governance model. The control is no longer with the creator; it is with the user. Kbin is privacy-focused and advertisement-free.

Beginners may have a steeper learning curve. There are magazine features that are equivalent to subreddits in Reddit.

Kbin provides a good user experience. It has dark modes that are comfortable for browsing under low-light conditions.

Moving to final thoughts.

Final Thoughts

With these Decentralized Reddit Alternatives, you are well on your way to a democratic governance model. No longer do you need to put up with censorship issues—these alternatives are censorship resistant. You no longer need to tolerate Privacy issues—these alternatives are privacy-focused. These alternatives are highly acclaimed among Web3 communities.

You can start using these alternatives and share your feedback with us. This will help us to improve the blog content. You can also suggest your choice of Decentralized Reddit Alternative. This will allow us to consider adding your suggestion to this listicle. You can reach us at [email protected]