this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2023
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I think it depends on how successful the blackout is, because truthfully, most Reddit users probably don't care about 3rd party apps, and just want to continue using Reddit, but if their favorite communities shut down indefinitely, I think there's a chance.
But Spez also seems dead set on their plan, so only time will tell. But on the bright side, if it doesn't we'll see tons of new faces here
Agreed that most Reddit users don't care about 3rd party apps. They are also more likely just to be lurkers and not interact with the content as much, besides up and downvoting.
So if a larger number of the power users leave, Reddit's content could become more stale and just turn people off from going to the site.
Of course this is all very hypothetical and I don't have stats to back any of this up. It's just a hunch.
As a long time reddit lurker, I care very much that RIF is dead :/
They might not care about the 3rd party apps themselves, but having massive functioning communities would be near impossible using only the official moderating tools. The quality of the website is going to diminish a lot. A lot of niche communities have only a handful of spare time moderators that benefit greatly from the 3rd party api. It's not possible to say the exact scope of problems until the day comes, but by most accounts it's going to be a massive hit.
Even still, people will hold on and reminisce of the good old days for another 10 years. The impact will be notable, but you can't save them all.
Same, most users will continue to use, but the content will change.
Without mods many subreddits will start to get filled with spam and reposts.
I don't see myself using the official, and even the mobile website on a browser isn't the same thing.
Maybe i'll use RedReader if that's an option or continue to use Infinity if I could use my own token.
But if Lemmy/Kbin continues to grow and more content are being posted, i'll probably just use Lemmy/Kbin
PS: Kbin just needs mobile apps to be successful, already have a similar interface to Reddit
I forgot the sub, but I saw one that did a poll and it was only around 20% of their users who used a third party app. It surprised me because for a long time there wasn't even an official Reddit mobile app, so I figured most people would have settled on a third party app years ago. Plus they're so much better.
Anyway, my hope is that Reddit is more vulnerable to a user revolt than most social media sites because the loud voices that do most of the posting are exactly the people who are most upset about what's going on now. I certainly remember how a vocal group of users turned the tide against the Digg all those years ago.
The content became stale years ago imo.
But look how fast Mr Trump's network - truth? Truthier? - dried up. I forget why, but I'm assuming that after each hillbilly is done virtue-signaling then there's little left to do but get off the site or plan a cou-- oh, now I remember.
I am a former redditor (and mostly lurker) who never used a third party app for Reddit. I still quit. Have hope.
When on pc I exclusively used the new reddit format (so not old.reddit) and was used to it. But on the phone it was only Apollo for years, and I mostly consumed reddit on my phone. I was considering ditching reddit mainly because of how they've now (most likely successfully) tried to muscle out 3rd party app developers in order to force mobile users on their own app; but now sifting through kbin here the conversations and the topics seem much more genuine than reddit as well. I think you kind of start to become desensitized to the bot network and hivemind with time, so it's a nicely refreshing experience really.
This is how I feel, too. I spent a long time on reddit searching for places with genuine, meaningful conversation, and Reddit had it more compared to other social media, but it's clear that fediverse exceeds in providing that space.
Very much this take. I came to Reddit because it mostly housed the communities/topics I cared about. I can't in good faith continue using a platform that has decided it is worth more than the users who provide content for it.
Valid point, I wonder how the quality of posts will be if power users leave... and then you got the moderation site of things too. Will be interesting to see how it all turns out.
My guess is that it'll still exist, but worse overall. Less content, less quality content, less engagement, more shitposts. It'll live on as a shell of what it used to be.
I hope you're right but I think most people will go on and use it. If they quit for the next couple of days, they will go back after a while.
Does anybody have the numbers for twitter? How many people stayed away?
If you post about your disdain for Reddit's handling of the situation on a mainstream subreddit you get downvoted and spammed with "official app isn't that bad" replies.
The sad truth is: only power users care about 3rd Party Apps and those make up for a very small percentage of the userbase.
Reddit doesn't care about us.
Maybe a small percentage of the overall userbase, *but *a huge percentage of the mods (who do most of the janitorial work that keeps the place mostly clean of spam and other miscreants so it's usable) use those 3rd party apps.
That's what I'm hoping for. We'll see come June 15th how the blackout really affected the site, and on July 1st if content creators / mods / power users where really committed to the cause.