this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2023
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[–] [email protected] 315 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Crushed? Or drove away tons of OC creators and active members leaving a bot filled wasteland?

[–] Naz 153 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

I mean, it's a victory if they shout it loudly enough, right? A lie repeated long enough, so it goes:

Company is going bankrupt, users are gone, laying off the bottom quartile of the company, but they stopped the protest! Etc.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Reddit_API_controversy

https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/reddits-golden-geese-foul-up-its-ipo-plans-2023-06-16/

It's like reading the top two lines of a disaster report and declaring victory. Fuck Reddit.

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Well, I still visit Reddit once a week since there are communities there that don't yet exist here (or they are nearly empty).

I'm now all the time on Lemmy and am even much more active than what I ever was on Reddit, but I only have so much time.

I noticed there are slightly less quality posts in some subreddits, but I wouldn't call Reddit crushed.

In fact, subscribers in all the subreddits I used to follow are actually up and even by a lot, while Lemmy users don't really seem to increase by much (though I'd like them to).

I'd like to see a sudden growth in Lemmy and fall of Reddit, but I don't think it's anywhere near (though I'll keep doing my part here!)

[–] [email protected] 37 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (5 children)

The comments on Reddit are way worse now, it's extremely noticeable. Look at comments on /r/science for example. They're all shitty jokes which used to get deleted.

The vast majority of subs are completely unmoderated now or taken over by a small group of people. Like /r/worldnews allowing people to openly support literal genocide of Arabs.

Reddit quality absolutely took a hit after this debacle.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (5 children)

🙄

Crushed. Lots lots more of over at reddit as well as a smaller percent reposting.

Lemmys front page is a ton of bots reposting content from Reddit.

Neither of the services have a lot of OC.

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[–] [email protected] 169 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Is "Crushed" a new term for driving away the most active and interesting users away?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (11 children)

I sometimes use Instagram though and it's soo much bot and ai contend.

Idk Reddit cuz I don't go there anymore, but it seems the internet is fakker and fakker.

I just hope it's real people that im messing with here in Lemmy. Because at least y'all still fight and argue XD, the comments aren't brain dead.

Except for these guys that I just talked to that said they didn't like Oppenheimer

[–] [email protected] 30 points 11 months ago (1 children)

As an example, I don't understand people decrying reposted content from reddit. Also we have Risa, they don't.

But reposting is literally what reddit is too. And how it got started, reposting and bot comments from Digg. At least here you lot are all great to talk with.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

Dead internet theory

This post made by a normal human person

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[–] [email protected] 136 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I havent used reddit at all since August and from June 12 to August i was on the site for ~10 minutes total. I am a total lemmy user now with no need to use reddit at all. I dont even miss it since i can get everything here i did over their.

[–] Ashyr 84 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Same. I had an account that was probably 12+ years old. Reddit was a huge part of my recreational schedule.

I genuinely prefer Lemmy. The lack of algorithms pushing engagement is good for the soul. It's here when I want it and I can leave it whenever I'm done.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago

Reddit was a big part of my day too. I had redreader easily accessible so i could just pop it open whenever i wanted to. Now Thunder has taken its place.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I did the same, but athough I love this place, there's still a huge scarcity of contents. Sometimes, as a lurker, to find more stuff. Here we're just an handful, thus I cannot still find here what I used to find on Reddit.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago

What is really lacking is all the very specific communities centered around common interests. The more specific the harder, especially if it's not a traditionally nerdy subject. I mean, there's an obvious bias, and I won't pretend I am not part of it.

Those used to have dedicated forums, but Reddit manage to capture them all for convenience, and now very few subsist. A good part of what's left has been abandoned to AI spambots.

Part of this activity is now on discord, but the invite structure isn't great for those. It makes this content hard to discover and impossible to search if you're not aware of it.

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[–] [email protected] 135 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

IMO they didn’t crush anything?

The apathetic remained.

Those who have niche communities that aren’t available elsewhere likely remained.

Several of my subscribed subs are completely gone or functionally extinct due to lack of participation.

Anecdotally I find reduced participation in other subs, people seem less willing to have a discussion.

Personally I’ve moved on to Lemmy/KBin/etc. and spend most of my time there now.

But “crushed”?

[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago

Nah I'd say crushed because they started forcibly reopening subs, removing moderators, etc etc

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[–] [email protected] 86 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I know how everyone just wants to pipe up and say, "well it didn't crush me hur hur", but I actually watched the video. It's a good record of what went down. I wish it would've mentioned Reddit alternatives, but it's still solid work.

And to anyone who still maintains that the protest has fatally wounded Reddit, look, I'm on your side but Reddit is still the 800 lb gorilla of link aggregation, and most folks still don't get why they should care about API pricing.

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[–] [email protected] 82 points 11 months ago

Oh yeah I feel soooooo defeated and crushed just like soooooo sad that I have to be here and not with spez

[–] [email protected] 81 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Good video, though I feel that it just ended abruptly, almost as if they had more to say.

Reddit did stop the protest and after a month, Reddit was back to business as usual. With that said, due to the protest I got exposed to Lemmy, Mastadon and the Fediverse. And if you are a company, the last thing you want to do, is expose your customers to competition.

From a personal note, outside of a few niche communities I am subbed to on Reddit, like /r/vita. I've noticed a decline in quality in the posts, and outside of these small communities discussions are far and few between as well. Lemmy I've found is a lot more active, and I am interacting with it more.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I too have noticed a general drop in the quality of content on Reddit. Some of the smaller communities keep providing good information but now it's a bit harder to find and sort them, others have absolutely went to shit.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I was just on Reddit for the first time in awhile and all of my old subs, which are mostly niche interests, aren't doing too well. There are far fewer quality posts and lots of spam. I was getting Facebook vibes.

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[–] [email protected] 79 points 11 months ago (5 children)

They can spin it that way all they want but personally I just left. Granted, I was mostly a lurker but I'm quite sure they lost many of them.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago

I was pretty active for about 10-12 years. Then things gradually started changing. As the platform got bigger it also got more toxic. I found myself commenting less and less because when I did I'd often be met by trolls or contrarians who didn't want to have a discussion in good faith.

Outside a group of fellow mods who I got to know very well (and who I spoke to more outside of reddit anyway) I was disengaging from reddit, and I was getting disillusioned with it.

Lemmy feels a lot like reddit from around 2009/2010. In some ways it feels even better: it doesn't have that underlying unpleasant corporate odor, and you have more confidence you are talking to a real person who is what they say they are, instead of a bot or a troll.

Saying reddit crushed the protest is accurate in some ways. But the next question is: what did they lose in doing so? I think they lost a lot of their charm, their character, their very essence.

I was already sniffing around for a new reddit before the whole protest thing. Turns out Lemmy is what I had been looking for off and on for the last couple of years.

I'll take 1.5m or 150k or 20k or whatever the actual user count is over the shit show that has been reddit for the past few years.

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[–] [email protected] 77 points 11 months ago (4 children)

I haven't been back since the exodus. Fuck reddit. Fuck spez

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[–] [email protected] 69 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I moderated a couple dozen specialized communities. I left them after 15 years of being on Reddit, and haven't been back in 5 months. They're effectively dead now, weeks between posts and no activity.

Many niche sub's have been murdered but the big shitsubs are still going strong with bots and spammers, so they have that going for them, I guess.

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I deleted my account and it was liberating. Nowadays I only go there when I want to look up something for a game on Google.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Unfortunately, the vast storehouse of information on Reddit makes it impossible to remove it from your life completely. Of course, a lot of that was built up before the douchebag decided to kill third party apps and tell Reddit users that they didn't really matter that much to him. You mean the people whose comments built your site brick by brick? Okay, sure. Why would they be important?

If I'm that unimportant to you, I can be unimportant elsewhere.

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It wasn't really a protest to me. It was more of a migration. Some people stayed I guess. Whatever

[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Reddit was. The fediverse is. Nuff said.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago (10 children)

Reddit is still one of the biggest websites online. Hardly anyone outside of tech circles is familiar with Lemmy or the fediverse.

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[–] spyd3r 50 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Reddit crushed itself more than anything. Sure they ended the protest, but that place is a ghost-town now, all that's left are the bots and politcal propaganda pushers. Stale links that are several days old populate the front pages of the big subs.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 11 months ago (2 children)

The only thing that matters to me is that the vast majority of my interactions on Reddit are shite ones with negative assholes, while the vast majority of my interactions here are pretty chill. Reddit won't die, but if it did.. I wouldn't miss it one bit.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I used Reddit from 2010-2023. They crushed the protest alright and also ruined the site. I’ve lost all interest in using it. Fuck Reddit. Fuck Spez.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The title does make it look like reddit is completely fine...when it's like them burning down their own house to get rid of a house guest that was just staying to long.

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 11 months ago

Left reddit and never looked back

[–] [email protected] 46 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Hey, I'm over here in Methadone Reddit, getting by. It's not as fun as Reddit used to be, but after the bug-eyed lemur boy decided to be a leading tech giant(tm) and fuck over his users in the process, I decided it was time to amscray. Sorry, King Julien. It was fun for a while, before your embarrassing power trip, but now you're just going to have to kiss my mad-ass-gasgar.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 11 months ago (2 children)

not as fun as Reddit used to be

Reddit isn't as fun as Reddit used to be either

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

All reddit did was unmask themselves a little but only for those with their eyes open. Social media is close enough to a cult operation utilizing addictive behaviors and conditioning to control people. People are scared to leave their church and be shunned. Reddit is just another exploitative techbro run business. It isn't a social enterprise or open source community and it is weird that volunteers invested so much of their time and effort propping up shareholder value instead of contributing to real communities.

Plenty of independent thinkers left and found federated alternatives or walked away. The predatory and manipulative nature of social media was bad enough when it was all about controlling and manipulating the masses but now it is also a huge machine learning harvesting operation. The only people who really benefit are the ultra rich.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 11 months ago

Joined Lemmy a few months ago as a direct result of how the responded to the protest

[–] [email protected] 37 points 11 months ago

I'm almost glad they did this. It cut my social media time down drastically, and really nothing of value was lost.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 11 months ago

Yeah, they threatened and when I didn't budge, they disabled my account. I found out lately, because I have been gone from that hellhole since summer. Somehow they forgot to reopen my subreddit I've marked as Private. I'm (was) the sole admin. Well, go fuck yourself Spaz.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Reddit didn’t do shit. Lemmy and Kbin crushed it by existing as alternatives. People who were unhappy just went there and settled.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago

Reddit’s Largest Protest.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago (1 children)

To be honest, the quality of content went down even years before this spez/API thing started. It's like Reddit got more polluted with shit even tho some quality stayed intact. The time was ripe for a change is what I felt anyways. So it was nice to learn more about the fediverse, and easy to move here because of all of this.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago

This video sponsored by Reddit!

[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Went back to Reddit and immediately saw some homophobic trite. Friend of mine also had something happen to them and Lemmy users have said they experienced similar things.

Reddit is no better than Elon's plaything at this point. In fact I'd say they're just as bad. (and yes, I know Spez is influenced by Elon)

[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago

Reddit sucks donkey balls

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago

I deleted my Reddit accounts on the morning of the apicalypse, I still read Reddit though, but Lemmy has mostly replaced my social media use, and I spend more time on Lemmy than on Reddit these days.

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