this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2023
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In the last 3 days I've been paying attention to r/all, expecting several posts about it and...

Yeah

Wasn't expecting the website to literally shut down nor to monopolize r/all, because 3rd party users are the minority, but I hoped for more than whatever this was.

At least there's a silver lining, I discovered new alternatives that have healthier communities

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[–] TheAngryBad@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago (9 children)

It went about as expected, IMO. 90% of redditors just don't care that much - even if they agreed with the blackout in principle, most of them were likely just waiting patiently for their favourite subs to reopen so they could go back to browsing as usual. A quick browse through some of my subscribed (and still open) subs revealed a lot of commenters weren't even clear about what was going on.

But it has had the effect of essentially kickstarting a community here which seems to be taking shape nicely and there's finally a (small but growing fast) alternative to reddit - which didn't really exist before. I can see the following months and years seeing a gradual shift in user base from reddit to here.

Reddit's not going to die overnight; that was never going to happen. But it's possible it's the beginning of the end of their empire and the slow decline to the ranks of the remember-that-website-whatever-happened-to-that club. Time will tell I guess.

[–] blackhole@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

I think the death of 3rd party apps in a few weeks could be another moment when we see a big change in consumption habits. I don't know that it'll push people here, necessarily, but I would imagine it'll hurt reddit traffic.

The other wildcard is what do mods do? If some big subreddits never come back, or a lot of moderators leave, what will that do to the quality of reddit?

I agree, this could be a slow burn, and these communities definitely have been kickstarted, which is nice. I just think the slow burn might be over the course of months, not years.

[–] lbc1357@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

Also, when mods of subs announce that their “protest” has an end date, it’s not a statement, just a minor inconvenience

[–] PB-and-Jon@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

The migration will definitely pick up once the apps no longer work, and even if there isn't a seismic growth in users in the fediverse the seer size of reddit was both a blessing and a curse.

[–] GreenPlasticSushiGrass@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I agree, but those who are left are either looking for easily digestible memes or content created by others. Without an engaged community, Reddit has to be afraid of the next shiny thing that comes along, and I think that TikTok has shown us that they don't even care if that next shiny thing is spying on them.

[–] livus@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

think that TikTok has shown us that they don't even care if that next shiny thing is spying on them.

I think "is spying on them" has been baked in since Snowden at least. The TikTok early adopters grew up in a post 9/11 world predicated on being spied on.

The only real difference is it was someone else's government doing the spying, for a change.

[–] Hazbuzan@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago (16 children)

I think Reddit has become too mainstream to die. I think it will simply continue to become mainstream, perhaps eventually become more like Twitter in terms of userbase. and the next generation of niche forums will be born, and therefor the next Reddit. But maybe I'm wrong, maybe reddit will 'never die.'

[–] Kichae@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Reddit isn't going to disappear, but that doesn't mean it won't die. Going public will kill Reddit. The parent company isn't profitable, and the product isn't profitable, and public investors will only tolerate that if growth suggests future gains.

Those future gains will be had by strangling Reddit and twisting its corpse into something much less useful, interesting, and fun.

Reddit's animated corpse will carry on for years, but that IPO will be a poisoned pill for what we know and recognize as Reddit.

[–] Ashlexa@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

Digg was around for a long time after Reddit took over. Hell even fark is still kicking.

[–] Gull@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

They telegraphed this when they started forcing users to look at depressed buskers (in between ads for Jesus and pizza rolls) and making posts scream almost uncontrollably as you scroll by them. It's like someone really wants sfw OnlyFans, or Twitch without the video games, or YouTube except the content isn't very curated. Instagram but live? Anything but Reddit.

[–] Gabbro@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

So how do we stop that happening here? Do we just bounce between admins as they eventually can't pay for their servers?

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[–] Catch42@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The difference that I see between reddit and twitter is that reddit hasn't been purchased to be the plaything of a billionaire. This matters because unlike facebook and google, reddit and twitter aren't profitable. That means that reddit doesn't have to pockets to buy up competitors, lobby for beneficial regulations, focus on expanding overseas, or move into making hardware.

[–] Awwab@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Reddit is just the plaything of anonymous billionaires that's the whole reason they want the IPO at all costs because they can't cash out without it, even if it is less than they had hoped for.

[–] parrot-party@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Yet. It hasn't been bought up yet, but they really really wish they were. Reddit has flipped to profits only mode already and they're never going to change now. Being bought out during
IPO isn't going up change that either, only intensify it

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[–] Craigerade@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

I never would have found kbin if it weren't for the blackout. I plan on staying around too. I will still use reddit for the smaller subs I'm in were discussion threads are actually that, but I unsubed from all the news and politics type subs. I was weening off those anyway since they make me want to just go to comments for entertainment instead of reading the article.

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[–] CarbonOtter@lemmy.one 3 points 1 year ago

The blackout caused some more media attention beforehand, so that's part of the win I guess. Perhaps all the negative attention still isn't enough, but it did sent a message.

[–] rimlogger 2 points 1 year ago

I'm still on Reddit and don't plan to leave, but it's always nice to be on alternative sites like Lemmy. Half of the subreddits I read are still shut down, and there is debate on some subreddits on whether or not to stay shut down. It seems like most average users don't care about the API changes and some are wondering what the big deal is.

[–] AmericanScream@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Don't underestimate the power of disgruntled users. There is no place right now that can handle Reddit - all the alternatives that aren't monolithic corporations can't handle the traffic. Kbin included. So the best anybody can do right now is be on the lookout. This isn't like it was when people left Digg for Reddit almost two decades ago. It takes quite a bit of resources to manage a large migration - it will be in small steps, but rest assured.... Reddit's mods and their communities now are forever changed....

As a mod of some reddits that will go back online, we're now going to be actively promoting alternative sites to also post content on and congregate - we have to do it piecemeal because of the technical requirements. We'll also be expanding the topic of our subs to include any news that's critical of reddit proper and these issues, so we won't let things die.

[–] AnonymousLlama@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

I'm hoping that people who are annoyed by the direction Reddit is taking will help migrate over their subreddits to here.

There's been a huge uptick in users joining by the looks of it and hopefully that upwards trend continues, it'll take months or years I'm feeling to get to the million users mark but so long as there's somewhat of an active scene here then people will come..

[–] Brkdncr@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A private subreddit isn’t going to bubble up to the top. It’s bound to happen.

I think a better option is to let subreddits stay open and simply push their migration agenda to the top of the algorithm naturally. It might be telling their community to move to discord, fediverse, or something else.

[–] AnonymousLlama@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

This is probably the better solution, keeping these subreddits open but focusing on where people can migrate to and the plan going forward. If enough people migrate over and can help populate the main subreddits like news / tech / gaming, it'll make these federated sites feel more active (and in turn a more viable place for people to switch to eventually since people want to see engagement)

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