EdgeRouter is proprietary but minimal. You can also look at Opnsense running on a used thin client off ebay.
I was on Reddit since the beginning. It was mailing lists before and Usenet in the 1990s.
Lemmy now is how early Reddit used to be, only more jaded.
Usenet and mailing lists always had threaded view.
With Lemmy and an open source app on an open source platform you're owning the means of production. We don't need mass adoption, just enough users with a higher level of engagement. We're now there, or close.
As long as you do it on your subscribed communities. With the volume going up time to become more focused: /c/technology noise level is getting too high.
Saves money for you and keeps functional hardware away from the landfill.
My data takeout request arrived yesterday, so next I'll be filing a GDPR request which I will use to rewrite my history before deleting it and then filing another GDPR request which then better be empty.
The recent changes made it faster but near useless for coding.
Lemmy now has enough early adopters to be sustainable. And that's the only thing that matters. As to Reddit, my account there is 17+ years old but I was there since the beginning. The early years were amazing but in the last half decade or so it was a visibly dying platform. We should be thankful that its current leadership has now put it out of its misery.
Lemmy.ml announced proactive defederation from Threads, so you can donate to direct development.
I removed myself as a moderator and left Reddit.
Run your own instance and federate with everybody.