This is not the end of reddit. It is just a hiccup for them as they go public. But the protests was a good opportunity for folks to learn about alternatives. I certainly didn’t know alternatives existed. I’m glad to have found fediverse. I fully support the idea and want to see it grow.
It may not “end” Reddit but I do think this will end Reddit as we know it. It will just be a shell of itself just like Facebook is no longer a place for college friends to connect and share photos.
This is what I’m expecting. A year from now someone will mention “reddit” to me and I’ll be like “that’s still around?” and I’ll check it out and it’s just turned into TikTok challenges.
It’s ironic how I heard from a Facebook employee that the staff members of Facebook have their own internal Facebook network, and it functions a lot more closely like how Facebook was originally supposed to be designed—versus the public model’s cesspool of marketing, ads, privacy violations, and manipulation that is the only one we now all know.
Wow that’s really interesting but not surprising.
This I can believe. The only reason I still have facebook is for the precious few friends whom I use messenger with, as well as the group that the rescue I adopted my dog from uses. Every time I scroll through my timeline it’s 90% random garbage, advertisements, and “suggested” bullshit.
You can actually use messenger without a Facebook account which is what I do for the rare occasions I need that
That brought back memories of AOL Instant Messenger for me :)
I bullied my friends into using Telegram. Although, I do use Instagram, so some of them message me there instead.
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Yes I did the same. I used redact on my 14 year old account and edited all my comments and posts saying “removed due to Reddit’s new api policy”
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During the last site-wide protest in 2015 I set up a VOAT account with all the similar subreddits that I had at the time. When people first started suggesting abandoning ship, I thought “Well, at least I still have Voat”. Checks Voat. Turned into a alt-rght haven and then shut down in 2020. Dho!
Yup. I checked Voat several times and checked out when I saw it was alt right bullshit.
I also set up a Voat account then and tried using it for a few days, but it did not take off anywhere near like what Lemmy has with this protest.
This is the gist of it. It will happen again, and again, and again. After they go public, every quarter that they need to come up with some shenanigans to satisfy shareholders, it will happen again. Eventually, either a new thing will come up and start it all over again, or we will be mostly decentralized.
Fluctuation of user numbers should at least impact the value of their stocks when they go public.
Agree. I don’t plan to leave Reddit but it’s good to look at the alternatives that are available out there.
I would like to leave Reddit but I don’t know if my favorite communities will migrate or grow here (and I sure don’t have the time to maintain them all, or the know-how to keep generating the content that they do).
same. i’d like to spend most of my browsing time here on lemmy rather than reddit if possible, but i doubt i’ll fully leave anytime soon. unless my favourite communities (r/battlejackets, r/visiblemending, r/posthardcore, etc.) migrate, i’ll be going back from time to time for them and their like minded user base
Same boat as you, but now we have a new way to connect to other people on the internet. On top of that, lemmy has a bunch of new users now. Far more people can make content to make this engaging and exciting at the same time. I will miss f/nba though.
What’s that?
sorry, r/nba sub for nba fans. It’s private at the moment so the refugees of the sub are in r/nbacirclejerk
I just came from a Reddit r/tech thread where all the upvoted comments were people making fun of the title, without realizing the title was descriptive of the linked article.
Make a website for idiots, and only idiots will stay on it.
This is kind of what I see happening. They’re on their way to making reddit Facebook where it’s only 1. Memes, 2. Hot chick’s, 3. Angry people
I’ve also learnt about several awesome subreddits. That made me double mad, knowing all the things I’m just missing.
The real sub closings and mass exodus from Reddit will most likely begin after the end of the month, when significant and popular 3rd party apps like Sync and Apollo will be shut down.
I deleted RIF on Monday and went to Reddit today via mobile and it was such a pain in the ass as soon as I shut it off I instinctively hit the Jerboa icon (I intentionally put it where RIF was on my homescreen).
Also the Jerboa app is getting better almost daily.
The official reddit app has actually made significant improvements to their mod tools in the last month, but holy fuck, it should not have taken this long. It still has a long way to go, and the app as a whole sucks balls. But I’m not planning on modding any longer, so, I don’t really care any more, I guess.
I wish iOS has an app like Jerboa :( Mlem misses so many features unfortunately…
I’ve been using Memmy since it became available yesterday and it looks promising so far. It’s already had about 4 updates just today:
Running the Memmy update today with dark mode and I had moments where my brain thought I was scrolling through Apollo. Gonna be very happy with the app if it continues down this route.
I wish Lemmur was still being developed. It looked pretty clean and was built on Flutter, but the devs stopped working on it in February due to lack of interest and political differences (I guess referring to the tankie Lemmy devs). I was thinking of making my own Lemmy app with Flutter for fun. If I do, I’ll probably write the UI myself but fork and use the dart API library from Lemmur for the backend stuff. Jerboa is nice, but I’d prefer more of a native Android looking app, kinda like Sync.
Same brother. Same. I’m actually surprised how good the Jerboa app works. I thought it be way crappy since everything now is scrambling to get away from reddit and catching mass exoduses is a hard thing to do. But it’s smooth as soft serve ice cream. I think that’s why Lemmy might work. It’s not a single break, it’s more like an ABS and it’s kinda magical (to me) how you can go and discover new communities. If one instance breaks you can always go to another one and it works almost the same atleast on a technical level.
Today I logged in on my trash account to see what’s going on. On r/gaming there was a really interesting conversation about the protest. Seems to me that there is no shortage of people who merely see the protest as an inconvenience. Many of them don’t even see any issues with the default reddit app. It’s sad that there are so many people like that.
Well, they seem to like the ad infested reddit, so let them stay there.
Yeah, they can have it then. I’m done with that site.
Yea I wanna see if any are going to be deleted if its possible. That would be a interesting metric. Because if they arent listening to the black out I think they might start to listen if dubs get permanently deleted and A LOT of their content dissapears
Yea the past few days I saw posts about the biggest influx is coming today at the start of the blackout, but I gotta say most people are fine with reddit if they get to use their 3PA. I think when some shut down there might be a bit more people comming opposed to the last few days
I’m here and plan a complete exit from reddit at end of June. I love my 3PA and won’t continue without it.
Honestly, there won’t be a mass exodus and Reddit will live on. I’m sure a bunch of users will flock to other platforms but in the long run Reddit only care about people that are already using their new UI and their new app. And those users won’t be leaving.
Regardless whether Reddit survives or not I am glad I found this space and excited for the future of Lemmy/Fediverse.
I don’t want to nitpick, but I used the default reddit app and have switched Lemmy based on principal. I don’t think most or even many people are like me, but there are a few of us out there that just don’t like supporting companies that clearly don’t have users interests in mind, and this has been the wakeup call needed to get us off the platform.
The official app is so terrible. I’ve tried it a couple of times. I think once people are forced to use that, we’ll see more folks move away from reddit. Looks like they are already killing browsing on a mobile browser to force you to use the app.
I remember back at Digg and MySpace. Same vibe.
“This will blow over.”
It always blows over until it doesn’t. Only take once.
It’s funny how these social companies get huge and think they are irreplaceable… when all of them started as a replacement for something else.
Once you think you’re too big to fail? That’s when ya trip.
Slammed gate syndrome
I think the real test will be when these API rules go into effect at the end of the month. Will all these people who showed solidarity the last two days leave the site then, or will they just quietly download the official app and continue on?
People are ADDICTED to Reddit. So much so that they are using Reddit as their primary resource to talk about how much they hate it.
Once the craziness around the API stuff dies down and it’s time to stop using Reddit for good, I’m willing to bet nearly all of these people cave in some way.
It is truly an addiction platform.
To my credit though I shredded all of my accounts today and deleted them. I’m 100% all in on lemmy and this new and exciting fediverse stuff.
Hey I’m even a mod now for NSFW! I’m a big boy now.
I never realized how much some people rely on Reddit for social interaction. It’s truly fascinating. Also, their unwillingness to even consider using other platforms.
I’m sort of one of them? I mean I’m married, got my own place, now got a stable job etc, but I barely ever see my friends (all moved away), and my work friends from an old job I have just lost touch with.
Trying to replace the online social life with Lemmy, maybe something like IRC? Who knows.
Just look at all the people who claim to hate Musk and everything he stands for, but continue using Twitter like nothing changed.
I think a good portion will do both frankly. Half will go elsewhere or reduce usage. Half will stay like nothing happened.
A 25% loss in overall user traffic would be a low number I think to an extent. This would be enough for the valuation of Reddit to drop. If anything, it would hurt spezs pockets.
At the start of all this when Christian first posted I figured I would just use some sort of workaround like old.reddit in mobile browser; the official app and new reddit are non-starters for me, it’s just not how I browse.
However, in the days since I have been increasingly dismayed by Spez and the rest of the leadership response, a lack of interest in even engaging on the subject and outright hostility towards a community that has been dedicated to reddit for years. I can’t see myself going back there, it’s been poisoned for me.
I was considering using i.reddit.com (the compact layout) until I discovered it just redirects to the new layout 🙄
If people have to download a new app to replace apollo, sync, RIF, etc then they should download Jerboa and sign up to Lemmy. If you’re gonna have to get used to a different app interface nows the time!
I agree, but the whole “instances” and federation stuff can be overwhelming for the average user. As long as enough power users and content creators make the move, then Lemmy has a good shot long-term.
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Huffman says the blackout hasn’t had “significant revenue impact”
So two-day revenue change is his preferred metric? If I were a Reddit investor, I wouldn’t want this guy as a CEO…
Two days ago they were, as of his words “not profiting”, and suddenly a blackout doesn’t affect them? What a clown.
His unethical behavior is why I’d want him out as an investor. His decisions are directly harming Reddit’s reputation and damaging the IPO when it happens. The point is to increase value, not damage it. He must really think that the revenue syphoned by third party apps is worth all this.
At this point, with the way he has behaved and things he said, I am convinced that this was just an effort to shut Reddit down. There have been a lot of dissenting voices on there, just like on Twitter, and they cannot control this content as easily. So they send in Musk and this other clown to run these companies to the ground and make everyone flee, then they can claim the only people that are left on these platforms are the extreme crazies. Then the general public will no longer take things said on these platforms seriously. We have been watching this systematic effort to silence free voices everywhere, this is just another example. I would not be surprised if they take this time to permanently shut down sub-reddits that doesn’t agree the main narrative we are being given.
Can you elaborate a little more? If I were an investor in reddit, my primary concern would be whether the blackout was actually impacting revenue. If the revenue is flat, then the blackout is just noise and things will return to normal soon.
Impact on revenue could take months, if not years, to materialize. Most redditors will probably stick around for the time being, but if content posters / moderators leave the ship, the site will eventually die.
If I were him, I’d be looking at account deletions (especially from mods), number of new posts/comments, etc.
Exactly. Ain’t no way you can get an accurate view from 2 day. Though I don’t think he really cares as long as it doesn’t affect the IPO.
Those are a great points, especially about the mods- they are a key piece of the future-of-reddit puzzle. Thank you!
I think he means that long term effects are the real concern, not the effects of two day revenue
Add a month to the blackout each time Spez refers to Reddit’s employees as “Snoos”
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“Femputer sentences them to death… by SNU SNU!”
Unfortunately Reddit is almost too big at this point to fail. The fact that official communities exist over there is enough to keep them afloat. But Reddit as we all knew it is dead. I was always worried about Reddit going public effecting it’s quality, and the staff have only confirmed my fears. Luckily Reddit offers nothing anyone else can do, and jumping ship to a competitor had never been easier.
Long live the Fediverse.
I saw a comment making the good point that Reddit doesn’t have that thing which locks people into other social software - your friends using it, i.e. it doesn’t matter that some people will still use Reddit, you go for the content not the people. The Reddit management seem to think that they have something special, ignoring that there will likely be a measurable disappearance of content due to these changes. While this won’t “kill” Reddit, in ten years or so when someone’s writing a blog post called “what happened to Reddit?”, this event will probably be noted as one of those turning points that was the beginning of the end. Reddit will live on, but it won’t be the same beast that most of us actually liked using.
I’m getting used it here and Kbin and that’s all it took for me to leave Digg back in the day.
That’s the thing that kills me. There was a time when Digg was the king. Also for a while Slashdot. We left before and we can leave again.
I am liking Lemmy so far.
I feel like this thread is a circlejerk. I agree that reddit screwed up bad, but there is a difference between now and the migration from Digg to Reddit. When that migration happened, Reddit was already reasonably sized with active communities. I’m trying to move to Lemmy but I don’t feel that it has the vibrance that Reddit did when Dogg died.
I’d love for this to bring Reddit to heel, but I don’t think Lemmy has the momentum needed just yet. Maybe some other parts of the fedivers does?
I’m going to keep trying to switch to Lemmy l, personally, but I am skeptical that the momentum is there. Look at how many threads there are per day in the main news community… There isn’t enough buy-in…
No mention of alternatives in the article :(
It’s rarely talked about, frustratingly. I didn’t find Beehaw through articles or suggestions from people online, which I should’ve been able to do - I just found it because I have a friend into the fediverse space. Pure luck.
Imo the creators of third party apps should be talking about moving to alternatives (not moving their own apps, if they can’t, but just being voices for it).
to be fair, reddit strung them along and made them think it was all smooth sailing until about last week. The devs have to figure out what they even plan to do before they can start announcing plans. And there aren’t any real fully developed apps yet from what I can tell. I think, given some time, these developers may move their apps over or create new apps
I’m not faulting the devs for believing Reddit, but it was pretty obvious from their initial “API changes” announcement what their desired outcome was.
It would’ve been very powerful if there was a remote consensus on where to setup shop during/after the blackouts rather than framing them as a wholly temporary thing. I completely understand that that would’ve been tough, but imagine if Lemmy/Beehaw/whatever else was mentioned in all of the Subreddit messages about closures.
There is a mention of the tracker though and the tracker has a link to lemmy :D it’ll get anyone who’s interested in how many sites are down (its not perfect but its something)
I may be missing something, but the article completely loses the thread when it starts grousing over "why won’t the 3Ps pay up? " Because even if they pay, NSFW content is still not available for users. Reddit is attempting to force third party devs to charge for an inferior product, which is obviously untenable for all parties.
I agree, the Verge’s coverage has been much better on this subject. It isn’t about not paying for use, it’s about a reasonable price that isn’t so exorbitant to essentially bankrupt them and make them go away. Christian has addressed this point several times already.
Regardless of whether or not anything serious happens to Reddit, it’s just not the same for me anymore and I won’t be going back. I can see the vibe and audience further shifting ala Twitter. It’s too big to just fail, Digg, MySpace and other older sites still exist, they’re just shadows of themselves now.
Exactly. There is no winning here, but at a minimum, another corner of the internet grows that isn’t controlled by a singular entity. That should be real goal along with moving away from Reddit.
It’s just a small multi-time fee of 500 morbillion dollars, jeez, just pay the redditorino CEO a fair price, you 3rd party bullies.
There’s also been a lot of misinformation and misunderstandings going on regarding the blackout, which doesn’t help.
This site has a graph that shows how many subs are private: https://blackout.photon-reddit.com/
I find it a good way to see how the situation is evolving as a whole.
This is a great resource, thank you! Interesting to like that there was an impact over the past 2 days, but it looks like it’s going back up to normal today. I guess we need to wait until the end of the month to see what happens with apps shutting down and subs continuing/going back to blackouts. Hopefully this wasn’t just a one time, 2-day reduction in traffic.
I replaced all my comments with garbage and deleted my account
https://github.com/j0be/PowerDeleteSuite
All you have to do is follow a link from this page, then drag a bookmark to your bookmarks bar, then go to your reddit user page and click the bookmark. You can even tell it what to replace your stuff with if you want to.
I understand why some people would want to do this, but there’s a lot of stuff there that I would hate to be gone forever.
There’s an old game - I always forget which game it is until it happens again - that I play once every few years, but which always gives me problems when installing or starting for the first time. And every time I looked for a solution, I always ended up in the same Reddit thread; one with a solution that always worked. After I landed there a few times, I even left a comment thanking them for it.
I don’t so much want Reddit gone forever, as I just want for there to be more competition and for users to be spread out. Or, maybe even better, for there to be a searchable archive of Reddit.
What about just saving that revisited post/comment to a personal stash, like in Google Drive or something? There is definitely more competition now, at any rate!
That’s a good idea! I also saw someone else mention they save some pages locally when they find explanations for something niche, in case it disappears, and I think I might start doing the same!
I’ve been noticing this with YouTube videos, too, even those that have no overt reason to be removed, and it’s been very disappointing. I’m now downloading my faves.
Great article and summary but man, whatever happened to editorial review? There are three or four major grammatical errors in that short piece. It’s unfortunate because it’s extremely well written otherwise, and does a great job of reporting objectively which is very rare these days.
editorial review
you have to pay for that
Steve Huffman (more like Steve Huffspaint) should resign as CEO of Reddit.
That won’t change anything. The financial incentives from investors driving this will demand similar policies even if they get redressed in different marketing.
