I did the exact same thing. I’ve been using the name for decades and recently found out about this. My initial reaction was, “Fuck them. I’ve had this username for years and I’m not gong to change it just for them.” Unfortunately, while I know that it isn’t related to them, no one else does. It sucks that they get to take possession of it like that but I prefer the inconvenience of changing usernames over the mistaken association with that shit, so I changed the ones I could and abandoned the ones I couldn’t.

I agree completely. Just yesterday I was trying to get help on a computer problem my son was having. Usually I could just search for the issue with reddit at the end and get sent to a post where someone had a similar problem and others chimed in with possible solutions. I always preferred this because of the variety of answers, as whatever problem I’m having is rarely exactly the same as what the OP is having. Unfortunately all I could find, even without “reddit” at the end of the search, was blacked out reddit posts and thinly veiled ad sites.

I’m sure that lemmy will one day be just as helpful, once it grows and once I’m more familiar with it, but for now the situation is infuriating.