The Reddit Protest Is Finally Over. Reddit Won.::Reddit corporate claims victory over its disgruntled mods as r/aww, r/pics, and r/videos abandon the “John Oliver rule.”

  • Phantom_Engineer@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Bullshit. Nobody, or at least very few people, expected Reddit to revert the changes. A protest can be successful even if it doesn’t lead to immediate change. I was here on Lemmy long before the API nonsense happened over at Reddit, and the difference over here is night and day. Lemmy has been around for awhile, but until these last few months it couldn’t hold a candle to Reddit in terms of content or activity. Maybe it still can’t, but now it has enough users to be viable. Reddit might go on like nothing happened, but in the background a competitor has been born.

    • ItsComplicated@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I migrated from Reddit. Most of the communities I followed would be hours or days between posts (if they were not private). Everything left was just not pleasant.

      I am still fumbling around here but for the most part it is has better discussions and people seem less rude.

      I do not regret leaving at this time. I am sure my infinitesimal presence or lack there of does not bother Reddit, but it made me feel better.

      • zeppo@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, when I have looked at reddit recently I have observed that mostly the conversation is terrible. There is definitely more content than on Lemmy, but I also like talking to people who speak in entire sentences.

        • themarty27@lemmy.sdf.org
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          1 year ago

          “Posts” and “content” are not the same. Most recent Reddit posts are not content. Few people left, but the ones that left were the content creators and moderators. Reddit, the platform, is dead, and Reddit, the social media, wears its skin.

        • ItsComplicated@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          I have enjoyed differing viewpoints with reasons, or examples included. I feel this helps promote continued engagement of the topic especially when presented without hostility.

      • Ab_intra@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I think that’s a good thing. Less is more, maybe? Dose it really have to be at the scale of reddit? I hope not. Tbh I hope Lemmy becomes bigger for sure but it doesn’t need to become the biggest thing. The more alternatives the better!

      • sachamato@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Same here. I think that the only thing that I can do now to add something of value is to participate in good and respectful discussions while sharing content that I genuinely like. A grain of salt ends up adding to a mountain they say.

    • GonzoVeritas@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I deleted 16 years worth of my ‘content’ across 6 handles and moved to Lemmy/kbin. When I do go back to check on Reddit, it’s easy to see that many of the better contributors are gone, the quality of comments and posts, as well as the voting on posts, has greatly diminished. Some subs barely have anything in their ‘new’ queues.

    • Ab_intra@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      For sure. I’m using Lemmy much more than reddit. But it sucks because I really loved Reddit and I still use it to some degree. But when Relay stops working I might just stop altogether. I’m not installing their shitty app.

      • Botree@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Reddit still holds a ton of valuable info in niche topics which will take Lemmy years to build, and that’s only if the niche communities here ever see the light of day. I’ve deleted most of the useless content I have there, but the more helpful ones I’ll leave for the sake of others like me who still visit occasionally for answers you can’t get anywhere else.

        • Ab_intra@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          For sure. I hope that Lemmy becomes one of several reddit-like platforms that can compete against Reddit. It’s going to be hard considering how Lemmy is designed but it’s going to be nice to have a more decentralised social media presence. I would love if something would come and defeat Facebook as well… I only use it to stay in touch with friends.

        • Ab_intra@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Not entirely sure as the dev have yet to comment on why. It seems like he has a deal with Reddit where he is allowed some breathing room to develop and make available a subscription solution. But it’s been awhile now so I dunno. It’s the only app I’ve heard about that is still working.

    • parachaye@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’ve made the switch over and Lemmy feels perfectly viable and improving very quickly especially with the third party app devs working on supporting Lemmy. Reddit won’t die but it looks like it’ll stagnate, whereas Lemmy has got a brighter future.

  • Veedem@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It was to be expected, but I found Lemmy because of everything that happened, uninstalled Reddit, and now use Mastodon and Lemmy as my social media platforms of choice, so it’s a personal win.

    Hopefully, as Lemmy continues to thrive, instances hold up to the pressure of growth and we see an influx of content that made Reddit so valuable to users and Reddit corporate alike.

    • KeraKali@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I also found Lemmy because of Reddit’s fiasco, and I think its much better. Being able to have so many instances to get stuff from and forge communities offers a lot more freedom.

      • aquarisces@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        +1, I wouldn’t have even considered moving off of Reddit until all the drama that had happened but once it did - and I found out about Lemmy - I’ve been happily more active on here in my communities of interest. Only reason I go back to Reddit these days is to encourage others to give Lemmy a go.

        • mycoxadril@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I am struggling with finding a space for the majority of my communities of interest over here. I curated such a niche homepage over my decade on Reddit that it does not compare being here. But the apps I have found that simulate my experience on my now defunct third party Reddit apps have kept me here, in the hopes that enough folks will migrate over so that communities will grow in the same way they did on Reddit.

          I know Rome wasn’t built in a day, and I’m stubborn enough in my refusal to use the official Reddit app, and annoyed enough with old Reddit on mobile, that I will sit here and wait for the same experience I used to get over there.

          • pablonaj@feddit.de
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            1 year ago

            Same here, and I also hope communities will grow as more and more people move to the Fediverse. Basically it’s the niche parts of reddit that I’m missing but I’ve managed to stay away from it for the most part. I think we need to make sure to generate some content in the communities we are interested, being lurkers won’t help Lemmy grow.

      • Eezyville@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        I wouldn’t say Lemmy is better but it has great potential. The mobile apps aren’t as good as Reddit’s third party apps but that’s changing. The content we are getting here isn’t as good and reddit has its history of content to search through. Lemmy will have its own issues we will have to sort out but it can be done if we work together.

        I think a big issue on Lemmy that I’m seeing is people making it to be Reddit-no-corporate when I believe it should be is own unique thing. Since it isn’t corporate and thus no ads I think it would be hard to monetize high “karma” accounts so maybe we can get higher quality discussions. But if also seen people trying to create their echo chambers here by demanding defederation when one instance has a problem with a few trolls.

        • Valmond@lemmy.mindoki.com
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          1 year ago

          You compare Lemmy and Reddit but I see it like this : Lemmy is the code, so if you want to compare, compare say lemmy.world with Reddit, it makes more sense.

          And lemmy.this and lemmy.that, that’s the cool thing, everyone can have a go at making a “subreddit”, with their own rules.

          And I’m not holding my breath for ads, “people have to eat” etc will bring them to popular instances I guess, but then you can just migrate if you want to!

          Interesting times!

      • Kikkertje@aussie.zone
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        1 year ago

        A toxic relationship where I kept begging for just one more hit. So glad I’ve found Lemmy.

    • JJROKCZ@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You’re not alone, the growth stats of several instances show that thousands of us did the same move. I now only use Reddit when I search error codes at work and an old reddit post has the answer. It’s gone from my phone and I’ve been on lemmy since the day Apollo was murdered

  • Squirrel@thelemmy.club
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    1 year ago

    They didn’t win, they just didn’t fail as badly some had hoped. What was accomplished was spreading out a fair portion of their user base. Maybe not a huge percentage of it, but enough that they don’t have the same level of monopoly. People are more aware of other options (and Reddit’s flaws), and more will depart in time.

      • Tangent5280@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Doubled? I see posts with user engagement and it’s a wall. Low, low, low, and then boom, astronomical.

      • tigull@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It’s still a drop in the ocean for reddit and the people who left (or just spend less time on it) were never the target audience of this “new course”. Reddit will be just fine.

        • Rakonat@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I’m not sure I’d call it a drop, Reddit has a large number of users yes, but most of those are not active users (post or participate daily.)

          And that is not touching the massive number of bots that just recycle old content and mass upvote or downvote when they see keywords to drive a narrative.

          Reddit isn’t gonna collapse any day now, but what remains now is a lot of rot. What actual users are left are likely going to notice and start to migrate away towards alternatives with actual user interaction and not just a series of bots and trolls spewing the same predictable results.

        • Rediphile@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          I’d argue a lot of the people who actually add value and produce content (for fun, rather than for profit) have left or want to. And those people are what grew reddit in the first place by making it somewhere worth going.

          Perhaps reddit will end up just like all those sites that just repost shit from reddit… Except it won’t be reddit anymore.

        • Naz@lemmy.one
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          1 year ago

          Haha dude, I was a MAJOR contributor on Reddit. I spent HOURS each day posting fresh new content for people to read on various subreddits.

          Drop in an ocean or not, if all the content creators stop doing it, the content stops.

          Imagine YouTube without LinusTechTips, or Hollywood without any actors. They are, as you say “a drop in the bucket”, a tiny percentage of overall YouTube users.

          But that doesn’t matter because most people on Reddit and TV viewers, are passive consumers. The statistics showed that less than one half of users were actually logged in, and a third or less ever posted anything (non-comments).

          Trust me, Reddit is hurting. They haven’t won. They think they’ve won but that’s just shock and adrenaline before it wears off.

          The users are the content, and if they all leave, there’s nothing left. Digg and MySpace know this.

          • dublet@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Imagine YouTube without LinusTechTips

            Most of my YT usage is watching music videos or random clips. I don’t think I ever watched LinusTechTips, or any other vlogger, on purpose for that matter so it would remain the same for me. People use platforms in different ways for them.

          • MyNameIsIgglePiggle@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            Yeah I was a big contributor too. Doesn’t matter if they cease to exist, as long as I get enough joy out of Lemmy and contribute back in return

    • Octavio@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      And let’s face it. Even if they only lost 3% or whatever of their user base to Lemmy, it was definitely the coolest, smartest, best-looking 3%.

      • Morcyphr@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        “the coolest, smartest, best-looking”

        Crap, I didn’t realize there were prereqs…

    • Chingzilla@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Well put. I think there was permanent damage done to user’s trust, but don’t see many of the smaller subreddit communities migrating away yet.

      I worry that Lemmy is even more an echo chamber with a handful of default communities, I hope it grows to the point where I don’t feel obligated to join the popular communities so there is actual content to scroll through.

  • DilipaEli@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    In my eyes Gizmodo is not seeing the big picture. The protest didn’t kill reddit, but that was not a realistic outcome to begin with. However it significantly hurt reddit and helped push lemmy as an alternative. Reddit will be around for a long time, until lemmy has more widespread adaptation. It’s the beginning of the end for reddit and they’ll experience that with a disaster ipo

    • sfgifz@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Lemmy actually feels like a viable alternative now with apps like Sync upping the experience. Seems like Reddit literally shot itself in the foot by kicking 3rd party apps to competition.

      • Buttermilk@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        The number of folks interacting too is such a night and day difference. I dabbled in some lemmy instances before all this but never stuck around being there just wasn’t much going on.

    • APassenger@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Lemmy appears to be financially stable due to user donations. Reddit relies on investors and monetizing users.

      I bet, if we keep donating like we need, and the code iterates and works… this place can be hopping. I’d like quality to not suffer, but there will be more options as population increases.

      • Boinketh@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Technology is just going to keep getting better, too. Running servers and storing lots of media will get cheaper and cheaper in the long run, even if there are ups and downs short-term. That means that more hobbyists will be able to run these types of services on a lower budget and less donations.

        • APassenger@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I’d love to learn there’s a LemmyPi version…

          I’d still want to support the larger project, but the idea of having my own, stable, federated how I want… that would be cool.

          Not sure a RPi4 has what’s needed, however.

          • Boinketh@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Lemmy instances appear to need a lot of RAM. Sorry about the evil site link, it was the first result on Google.

            • APassenger@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              A good RPi 4 could swing it as a local instance, based on that description. I’d want things locked down for security, and I’m sure the priority isn’t fragmentation. Even so, were it to happen, it would be cool.

    • atempuser23@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This is not a zero sum game. I benefitted by finding Lenny and Lenny benefited from an influx of users.

      Reddit hurt its self by damming the social contract with mods. That doesn’t help Lenny.

      That isn’t a win, but reddit aren’t going away either.

  • db2@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    Nobody cares though. The reddit administration has dethroned their own site, it will never gain that back. They’re done, even if the site hangs around like a bad smell for a few more years.

        • meco03211@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I would desperately love to know what they estimated the IPO at before and after this whole mess.

          • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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            1 year ago

            Is also worth remembering that the person doing the estimate was insane. Even before all of the process the site was never worth the four billion dollars or whatever the hell that stupid number was.

            The site was massively valued because of the user data not for the site itself now that a lot of the user data is gone and not a lot of new user data is being generated the site is less valuable. The websites still exists of course but that was never the valuable bit of it.

  • fulano@lemmy.eco.br
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    1 year ago

    The incredible thing about these articles is that they don’t make the slight mention of lemmy.

    That one linked is a well written summary of what happened, but it’s partial if they don’t include the migration that happened, even if it wasn’t that big.

  • danielton@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Did they win, though? Everybody who actually cared left. It was clear in June that they were going to do whatever the hell they wanted to regardless of what anyone did or said.

  • Dr. Moose@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Honestly I feel that this protest just showed me how uninteresting Reddit has become. Outside from small niche communities it’s basically equivalent to any other news feed out there be it google news, Twitter or whatever.

    Maybe it’s not as good as we thought it was.

    • margaritox@lemmy.world
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      Me too! I thought it’s be hard to be without reddit, but it turned out to be easier than I thought. And I’ve noticed that lemmy is growing faster than I expected.

  • TORFdot0@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’m here and I have an ad-free, troll-free, wholesome community to engage with on mostly the same topics I followed on Reddit. I declare myself the winner

    • Oneobi@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I read that as toll free and was wondering if I was missing something.

      Yah, too early in the morning for me!

  • moobythegoldensock@geddit.social
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    Reddit won against its own users, the very people it relies on to stay relevant. In doing so, it showed a large number of users they don’t need reddit.

    As the Lemmy apps get better, more and more people will check out the ad-free reddit. We can get their content without needing their platform, which is huge.

    Reddit won the battle, but will it win the war?

    • cantstopthesignal@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I have never seen so many fight videos and politics on the front page. Reddit has completely lost its sense of humor and is basically a Facebook feed.

  • realitista@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Reddit won at building its own viable competitors like Kbin, Lemmy, and Squabbles and all the users of those platforms also won big from Reddit’s hubris. The one thing I know for sure is that they have grown Lemmy by 7000%, and that’s nothing to sneeze at.

    Time will tell what happens to Reddit.

  • Xavier@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Really‽ I just checked and many of the small subreddits I used to follow became much less interesting/active if not dead.

    Meanwhile, some of the bigger subs became a repost dumping ground of years old posts/images/videos/memes by fairly new accounts (i’m guessing those are bots karma farming).

    The fediverse is the much better way IMHO.

    In any case, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit have become too toxic to use I will keep away (though, I never had a Facebook nor a Twitter account)

    • derpysmilingcat@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      First I want to say hurray at the interrobang I love seeing them in the wild!

      Secondly, I recently started doing research about Electric Vehicles and made another account for reddit to ask questions. I…forgot how much of a difference it was between Reddit and Lemmy when it came to discussion. There’s so much aggression on Reddit it’s crazy.

      I joined a few EV groups on Facebook for the first time in years and it was nasty there too, not to mention my feed was full of shit I didn’t even ask for.

      I think I’m good here.

    • Shihali@sh.itjust.works
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      Interesting. The small subreddits I follow either moved or are just as active. Most are just as active.

      I’d like to spend more time here, but Lemmy is still not attracting enough people to support a lot of the small subreddits I follow.