It took me probably less than a month to completely stop checking Digg altogether. Reddit’s decidedly less slick interface had me confused and the content wasn’t as easy to digest as with Digg, but it didn’t take long to completely abandon it. That was like ten years ago.
I guess a small point I’m trying to make is that you shouldn’t feel “shame” for checking reddit. You’ll adjust and learn to love whichever alternative you choose
Where were you seeing ads? Not on a browser (ublock origin) and not really on apps (ad blockers and 3rd party reddit apps).
Not OP but Baconreader had ads but they were small, obvious, and always in the same place. So I left them there cause I figured gotta fund the thing somehow