this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2023
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It’s not even June 12 for me, yet I suspect many subreddits went dark based on UTC.

I moved to Reddit during the Digg migration. Thus, I got the default subscriptions from back in the day. Over the years, I’ve unsubscribed to things I felt were crap, and I’ve added a number of subreddits.

Already, many have gone dark. My old.Reddit.com homepage already looks much different than normal, and I know that a few subreddits that do show have announced they’ll go dark. I assume they are US based and timing that locally.

I’ve spent more time in the Lemmy fediverse than on Reddit since joining, but I’ve spent time on both.

I’ll admit to cynical skepticism of the impact of the darkening. I still don’t think it will make a difference in Reddit policy, but I now believe it will have a larger impact on Reddit traffic than I imagined.

I still expect it to have no change in Reddit attitude or really in Reddit users.

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[–] nii236@lemmy.jtmn.dev 113 points 1 year ago (17 children)

A weird side-effect of Lemmy being 1000x smaller than Reddit is that I lurk less and contribute more. So there's that!

[–] Spacemanspliff@midwest.social 33 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It feels much more like reddit did during the digg migration. Every thing still feels like you're interacting with real people and a much smaller community.

[–] the_inebriati@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago

I first started browsing reddit in late 2011 and even by then it felt a little like I was arriving at a party that had already been going a while and people had their in-jokes and cliques (to a way lesser extent than today).

In the best possible way, Lemmy/kbin feels a lot like we all arrived early and the host is still running around trying to make sure everything's ready.

[–] BeardedGuy 17 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Completely agree! I think I've made more comments here in the last twelve hours than I made on reddit within the last two years! I love chatting with you all!

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[–] tattooed_dude@lemmy.world 82 points 1 year ago (9 children)

I certainly don't think Reddit is going away forever, but I do think it will push a lot of the OG users out for sure. I just deleted my 10 yr. old account tonight and am just finding out about Lemmy.

[–] lunarshot 35 points 1 year ago (9 children)

hey dude, I did this in Friday night and spent all weekend getting in deep with Lemmy. If you are coming over from Apollo, try the beta iOS app, Mlem.

I really like the communities I found in beehaw but have been steadily exploring.

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[–] phase_change@sh.itjust.works 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, my hope is the small learning curve to join the fediverse means we don’t end up with the bulk of the active posters on reddit.

My fear is that Lemmy is about to see some attacks the fediverse isn’t ready to defend against.

[–] Stormyfemme 17 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Incidental ddos is a possibility as well if the hype builds enough.

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[–] supro47@sh.itjust.works 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Digg is technically still around even though it doesn't resemble anything close to the "Digg" I used before the migration. I suspect Reddit will go in the same direction. They will keep pushing ways to monetize it, pushing out a lot of people who just want to chat and argue with strangers on the internet until it basically just becomes a website with a bunch of sponsored links and articles and no real user engagement.

[–] Deestan 33 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Yep. Places like Reddit don't "die" by going from existing to nonexisting. They "die" by going from "Reddit" to "Did you know Reddit still exists?".

[–] Hellebert 20 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The official Reddit app reminds me of that vibe in that it's trying to be an algorithm-based feed of /r/all garbage to piss you off in the name of engagement and doesn't resemble the Reddit I originally fell in love with years ago.

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

Algorithmically directed social medias such as Facebook are repulsive to me, so when I started using Reddit, I chose that place precisely because you could control what’s in your feed. It felt refreshingly different. Now Reddit is trying to become the next Facebook, so it’s pretty clear that it’s no longer the place for me.

The same thing seems to apply to the history of YouTube as well. Nowadays that site is trying to become just like TV, so perhaps sooner rather than later that site won’t be for me anymore.

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[–] liontigerwings@sh.itjust.works 76 points 1 year ago (11 children)

Most people will go back to reddit in two day. I just hope the whole ordeal seeds Lemmy with enough of a community to grow so one day, it will have feature parity with reddit and an actual community. This probably won't be a Digg like migration, but maybe it's the beginning of a myspace to Facebook like migration.

Digg seems like it went down overnight lol.

[–] itty53@vlemmy.net 31 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not those of us who exclusively used the 3rd party apps. Former RiF user here, reddit for 12 years. Not doing it on their app, you couldn't pay me to tolerate that experience. Using Jerboa right now and with a couple tiny improvements, I got no problem switching.

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[–] Vinnyboiler@feddit.uk 22 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Sowing the seeds is what I hope happens. I'm not moderator material, I don't normally post content and I normally prefer to lurk. Yet I'm going out my way to cultivate a successful migration so the real guys who know what they are doing can take over and allow me to once again doom-scroll lol.

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[–] Hellstormy 72 points 1 year ago (11 children)

I just hope that most of the people who migrated here to Lemmy will stay and not just go back to Reddit like nothing ever happened.

The huge activity in even small communities is what always kept me on Reddit, and I really look forward to see if Lemmy continues to grow to become what we all hoped Reddit would be for us.

I'll be abondoning Reddit completely and deleting everything as soon as RiF stops working.

[–] Kwakigra 18 points 1 year ago

I'm sure there are many like me who have not had fun on Reddit for a long time and were sticking around because they weren't aware of a better alternative for relatively anonymous social media. I've been wanting to step back away from the internet monoliths for a long time and the fediverse has been pretty promising to me so far.

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[–] xavier666@lemm.ee 54 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I'm expecting the CEO to push back the date of the API implementation by a month or two (still a bit doubtful) but I don't see him changing his original stance given his narcissistic attitude.

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 60 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I’m expecting the API change to happen exactly as planned. As a result all 3rd party apps will die by the end of this month, and the user count will take a severe hit. Many essential mod tools will stop working, so those who actually found the default app tolerable, will get to see all subs go downhill since they aren’t really being moderated anymore. As a result, the user count will continue to decline in the following months as people come to terms with Reddit sucking harder than before. Oh, but then it gets even worse when the spam bots and official ads start taking over every sub. Most likely the next year is going to be very rough in terms of user count.

[–] xavier666@lemm.ee 57 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Unlike other social media sites, where people stick around because of family and friends, at reddit-like sites, people stick around for the content and discussion. Once the content gets taken over by spam-bots, it's over.

[–] catacomb 34 points 1 year ago (11 children)

There's some apps I hate like Instagram and WhatsApp, but stick around because it's the only way I can contact some friends and family. The network effect is strong and I can't really leave.

With Reddit, I don't care. If there's enough content somewhere else, even if it's a fraction of the volume (there was no way I could get through everything on Reddit anyway) then it's an easy switch.

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[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 23 points 1 year ago (10 children)

As far as I’m concerned, Reddit just died today. It’s game over now. Time to start over somewhere else.

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[–] ngwoo 36 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I don't have any faith they'll even push it back. That "ama" was such a disaster, spez is a complete narcissist.

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[–] FuckFashMods@lib.lgbt 50 points 1 year ago (8 children)

5497/7047 subreddits are currently dark.

https://reddark.untone.uk/

Absolutely amazing show out so far. Actually pretty proud of the Reddit community

[–] hyperlink2236@feddit.it 24 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's astounding how consensus can be achieved on certain topics. Our planet is burning, yet we struggle to come together and agree on the urgent need to take action. However, when it comes to a change in Reddit's API plan, we suddenly find ourselves capable of mobilizing en masse for a common cause. Humans are truly peculiar beings.

[–] DarbyDear 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's unfortunate, but I think it's because in this specific instance, there is a clear and immediate impact on people's lives. Meanwhile, climate change is a gradual change over a longer period of time and a much larger area. Climate change also requires action beyond stopping visiting a website and actual cooperation among the entire human race. It's short-sighted, but it's also an example of how hard it is to get people to care about things that don't clearly and immediately affect them (see also: people who are militant homophobes until someone close to them comes out).

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[–] followthewhiterabbit 18 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Showing 6,149 of 7,265 dark for me!

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[–] tRFRmrNe8Nj2Kimc@lemmy.fmhy.ml 46 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Yeah, the past two days on reddit have been quite barren from my perspective.

Just switch to lemmy(this is my first comment!) And I'm still figuring it out.

I used RiF for years, so there's gonna be a bit of adjustment. But I can say without any doubt it already better than the official reddit app, functionality wise. Would like some more customization options. Hopefully in the near future!

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[–] shanghaibebop 40 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So far I haven’t felt any overt political views other than be respectful of other people.

I used to be pretty extreme on the free speech side (a la Ellen Pao saga), but I think the biggest lesson I learned is that unfettered trolls just drive out solid content and create very toxic communities.

[–] BlackCoffee@fedia.io 44 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Free speech absolutists have nothing to do with free speech.

These just want to say what they want without having to bear the consequences.

The right to say what you want is a good thing. But in the end it doesn't mean that the other side should be accepting of the speech you deem free.

If one is spouting vitrol/hate/intolerance towards a group of people under the banner "free speech" then don't look up weird when the affected are not accepting of that speech you deem free.

For me the whole idea free speech is to express yourself how you want to (within what is reasonable, use your common sense) without the police and/or government knocking at your door.

At that point my boundary is at spewing or pushing for intolerance. I refuse to be be tolerant towards intolerance.

[–] DarbyDear 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This is exactly it. They don't want freedom of speech, they want freedom from the consequences of their speech. They don't like that the people affected by their speech have a voice too, and that the hateful rhetoric they spew into the world is finally being pushed back on. To the privileged, equality feels like oppression.

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[–] Rentlar 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think Reddit will just accelerate its descent into low-quality spam and repost bot hell. Half of it will be Facebook Memes posted to Twitter posted to Reddit. Or Tiktok videos posted to Instagram posted to Reddit.

Not everyone will leave and many subreddits will return but unless there's a MAJOR walkback, concession and promise then Reddit will remain as a husk of its past. Every move Reddit has announced since April just sounds like they are trying to wring out every penny from users that care to use their platform.

I'm weaning off of Reddit mostly, the blackout helps with the transition.

[–] Veraticus@lib.lgbt 25 points 1 year ago

You know thinking about it, so much of its content had already become this. Basically half of all posts I'd seen had replies like "this is a karma farming bot, ignore it." And the other half were just reposts from TikTok.

[–] root@lemmy.belclayfer.net 30 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I really dont want to go back

[–] StringTheory 23 points 1 year ago

I have no intention of going back. I’m much happier here.

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[–] overlordror 29 points 1 year ago

I love how many of the subreddits are going dark for this protest. The community IS reddit. It is NOT the assholes who took VC-backed money to fleece crypto bros out of money. It's idiotic. I hope everyone understands that you can find quality discussions in the fediverse and leaves reddit accordingly. They're not the gatekeeper of good conversation online.

[–] deedasmi@lemmy.timdn.com 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I pulled an all nighter and went to check on PoE2 trailer thoughts and was hit with private sub. So I spent a couple hours setting up my instance instead lol.

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[–] ax28 25 points 1 year ago (7 children)

A lot of subs have already gone dark (over 4000 as of now), you can see a live progress tracker on reddark.untone.uk if you want to watch 😊

[–] Stone4D 33 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Always funny when a notification for an NSFW sub going private comes up.

You go, r/amateurcumsluts.

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[–] tezoatlipoca@lemmy.ca 25 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yeah, I'm only seeing plumbing and homeimprovement subs. :)

And a lot of people posting "hey, what happened to ?". Like... have you been living on the sun the past two weeks?

[–] setsneedtofeed 29 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Crowds of people can be incredibly clueless. Before the blackout, there would be stickied posts explaining the whole situation in plain language, and then dozens of comments like “What’s going on I don’t understand??????”

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[–] poohbear@toons.zone 17 points 1 year ago

Even a change in atmosphere with communities from this would be substantial, though - even if there isn’t a day and night change with active users, if enough of the power users have left and discussions don’t really meet the “vibe check”, that’ll just naturally kill off user activity and it’s pretty much the same result

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