A video about the effectiveness of the Reddit protest
Powerless to change Reddit. You can always do what I did and use lemmy instead.
This is the way.
It’s been so much nicer tbh, at least on Beehaw. I don’t have any reason to go back with Lemmy and RSS feeds
Same!
i find that the lack of community videos really holds me back from using lemmy as a primary website, but i do understand that video hosting is expensive, just kinda sucks
I’m not big on video content so that doesn’t bother me at all, but I could see how that might hold some people back if they prefer that. Funnily enough, I often won’t click a link if I see it goes to a video instead of an article.
That being said PeerTube is in the works, still a ways to go but it’s comin’
The best use of peertube might actually be integration with the rest of the fediverse - post from peertube buttons might actually make sense
It’s not monetizable so it’s not worth it for big content creators, but it’s absolutely perfect for posting a quick video for sharing via mastodon, kbin or lemmy
I agree! That seems like a great thing to add to the Fediverse road map. There are other more pressing issues that need to be worked on first but I’d love to see that level of integration eventually.
If this reddit change did not occurred, I probably never had tried Lemmy (even if I’m in OSS world for 20+ years now). First thought is that I don’t think communities going black or mods leaving reddit will do anything to reddit, it’s so big and alternative are somehow a niche for geek that they will not loose most of their user base. For mods they’ll find out some way … On the other hand, I don’t care, I’m happy here on the fediverse, I participated more discussion here in 1 month than in years on reddit. I had bad experience on my first posts on reddit (probably not interesting enough for some and then downvoted a lot), and I think that I just always thought if my post will be appreciated or not and so and finally just didn’t post. I don’t have this feeling here.
I haven’t gone back since the blackout, I get my content here and some other bookmarks I’d forgotten about.
Turns out a whole bunch of us were sick of reddit anyway and were eagerly awaiting a new place to go. I’d have never heard of the Fediverse if reddit hadn’t been dicks about API pricing. I knew as soon as I came here and started exploring that this was the way to go; reddit is old news, it’s been around for 18 years, that’s forever in internet time. It’s time to move onto the next thing and the idea of hundreds (thousands!) of federated servers talking and sharing content across platforms is very exciting to me.
this is my experience as well
I’ve been unhappy with the quality at reddit for years but there was no reasonable alternative that I knew about
I had heard about Mastodon but never really researched the wider fediverse until recently
now I will pretty much never use any corporate owned website again and will exclusively use federated software
I also had a terrible first experience posting on Reddit, which turned me off from activity submitting any content and only commenting rarely. I mostly lurked and voted, which I still thought of as participating in the community. But in my short time here (Kbin for me), I see the entire userbase as activity welcoming and generally nicer! Just looking at the voting scores, it seems that downvots are hardly used at all! Maybe it’s a good thing we’re separating from the common audience that was quick to turn toxic and become combative for the fun of it.
Yes! I’m also powerless to change every other social media platform out there. I’m glad to be here
Path of least resistance is usually best in these cases, and frankly, it’s nicer here. I have been waiting for Lemmy to pick up after trying other fediverse applications and there is no way I am going back for any application. Now we just need YT to implode.
Walking away and not looking back is actually very powerful.
Yep, vote with your feet is all that we’ve got, and shouldn’t be underestimated.
Yup, I am happier on the fediverse now.
yeah, the only thing they are powerless is against their addiction
This has the energy of walking away from explosions in slow motion.
Amen.
Powerless to change Reddit, yes, but not powerless to find a new community!
To everyone hanging in the fediverse, I just want to say, I am proud of all of you!
NGL I’ve found the communities on here to be much more genuine. It feels like things are less manipulated, like there are less bots and less advertising companies trying to do guerrilla marketing.
Might just be that these communities are small enough that such things are not worth the time of those who would do such things.
At this point I think I’ll always just migrate to smaller communities as time goes on.
I think so long that the community is on an invite-basis community, it raise the cost of botting the website much higher than other platforms so it can de-incentivize them from gaming the platform.
Leaving Reddit is the only protest that works. The site looks basically the same as it did before that 2 day black out.
At first glance, a lot of subs have gotten a lot more toxic in comments, and I think the mods have mostly greatly reduced moderating work.
The people who see the protest as a failure were many of the users who used the official app, default settings, and seldom if ever contributed to the site. They were never going to leave anyway.
Look how many people came here, and there is a noticeable decrease in the number of bots and trolls. I see this as a huge win for us users.
Edit: Just realized this is ambiguous. There’s noticeably fewer bots and trolls here on Lemmy than there were on reddit.
Not only are there fewer trolls here but there are but more well thought out replies and less attention seeking in general. The entirety of Reddit is going to turn into r/teenagers
🌎 👨🚀 🔫 👩🚀
I should have seen this coming
I couldn’t resist :P
It’s a matter of education and how they understand the situation I suppose. I was a Reddit refugee moving over from the official app because the news really showed how anti consumer the company was being. It’s not much of a protest, but I only go on Reddit now if I really need certain information, so I don’t think it’s a total failure.
Bots and trolls will probably follow as Lemmy grows and gains traction, but I hope by that time moderation will have improved and will be able to scale to handle that.
Just don’t use it lol
How is Reddit real? You can just walk away from the screen. Close your eyes!
okay eyes clised, now whar?
I don’t know, my brother has been a Redditor for as long as I was (15 years) and he became angry and hostile when I told him about Lemmy. We’re both in our 50s.
He’s been using the official Reddit app for years and claims it “works perfectly for him”. He seems utterly blind to Reddit’s enshittificaton. He’s always been kind of an asshole- he behaved the same when I quit Facebook, though he eventually did the same- and he also fears new tech (he didn’t have a smartphone until 2020). I wonder if people like him- of which I’m sure there are plenty- will ever wake up.
Sounds like Morpheus was right about not freeing minds once they reach a certain age.
He’s two years older than I am, and I’m here on Lemmy with a deleted 15 year old Reddit account. He’s always been like this, age has nothing to do with it.
I actually think being older in general makes you more willing to move around on the internet, I’ve seen so many changes and joined and left so many things as they rose and fell that it’s just a fact of life that some things on the internet are very cyclical, I’m actually astonished that reddit got as far as it did while remaining relatively user friendly.
The more sure you are of something being perpetual the more ephemeral it seems to actually be.
Absolutely, I already was over “sticking to a platform no matter what” when LIveJournal was bought by Russians in 2007. At one time LJ was practically my life, but I took a “scorched earth policy” with my blog there just as I did with all my Reddit content.
People who wanted to leave would have already left by now. Those who remain cannot be convinced or coerced to jump ship. Because it is their choice to remain there. It’s like convincing a missionary that their god is not real.
I think that’s a portion but I know a few people that just take the path of least resistance. Right now, that is absolutely not the fediverse. In a few months with all the apps already in development, it might be a better experience with better content.
Yeah, that’s exactly how I felt when I left Facebook, too. When my brother eventually also left it was so hard not to say “I told you so”- but I didn’t, and of course he never admitted that I was right all along. It’s good that I’ve matured enough that simply knowing it is enough.
Your first sentence I agree with. Your second sentence I don’t agree with. It’s still early with the reddit exodus - things have been escalating incredibly fast and most people don’t even know much about it yet, or are still processing what’s happening.
Reddit was a big part of our lives for many people and it’s not easy to let go. I was so deeply offended by what happened that I let go quickly even though it hurt me. But people who already used the official app? For them, it’s a difficult conversation at best. But I’d say it is still early days.
Most of the comments on the r/Piracy “sexy pirate John Oliver” posts are just Reddit bootlickers complaining about the protests (idk about other subs)
We’ll see how it plays out. I have a feeling reddit may currently be putting in artificial upvotes and comments to save things. They’ve done it when reddit got their start, and as someone who works in tech, I know nothing’s stopping them to create a fake 10 year old account with thousands of karma and fake old replies to do some social engineering to make it appear that nothing has changed. This might work out especially for your brother who is afraid of change, or it might not.
I know nothing’s stopping them to create a fake 10 year old account with thousands of karma and fake old replies to do some social engineering to make it appear that nothing has changed
No need to create them, they’ve got lots of old ‘deleted’ accounts they can resurrect for this purpose.
I used Shreddit to delete all my posts at Reddit, cancelled my premium sub there, and deleted my account. I was there for over 8 years - paying the entire time, as I believed in trying to support the space.
Walking away did not make me feel “powerless” but rather glad to take my time, support, and interests somewhere else that is (hopefully…) healthier. I know of at least 15 people who have done the same, so if you multiply my story by many others I am pretty sure that such walkouts will be felt eventually - especially from those of us who were paying monthly.
When I left, I landed on Kbin first, something I now am kind of not too sure I will continue for reasons I won’t get into…
but thankfully, I discovered Beehaw here is just more my speed, which makes me happy 🐝☺️
Sorry for the question, maybe it’s not appropriate so don’t answer if you don’t want to but, what was the problem with Kbin? I saw many people telling it’s really good so I would like to hear about the opposite.
Hi. No worries, it’s nice to be asked. 🙂
I mean, I have only been singed up there a week so I am not an expert on what is happening; I don’t have anything against Kbin per say? but I just get this sense that maybe the real goal of the space is a little too much leaning towards a recreation of Reddit practices and features. I also noticed some threads encouraging people to move on to other instances already, which seemed sort of odd to me since again, they are just getting going.
Meanwhile here, things feel more relaxed. I really appreciate the transparency with the vision for Beehaw, and feel that it is well reflected in practice by the mods/admins posts and their interactions, not just posted on the sidebar. The posts from community members also seem way more friendly and positive, so it just seems a much better fit for my comfort zone.
Agreed on all points, but re: Lemmy.world, not Kbin.
I just installed the Liftoff app which defaults to showing Lemmy.world and posts there are just like /r/popular from the last few years, with lots of shitposting, low effort comments, and mean-spirited memes. That side of Reddit is why I was only subbed to niche communities.
Here feels like Reddit circa 2010, where people use upvotes to highlight thoughtful/insightful content.
It was particularly jarring on Lemmy.world seeing thoughtful posts supporting a different view being downvoted.
Anyway, fully agreed. Beehaw is my Reddit replacement. I just need to start posting more links again, which I mostly stopped doing on Reddit like a decade ago.
I get it. Many thanks for sharing your opinion :D
“powerless” just use Lemmy it’s not like there’s really anything meaningful to hold you on Reddit, afaik people don’t really make friends on Reddit or anything
This is what made the decision for me. All the enshittification aside- in 15 years on Reddit, I did not make one lasting relationship with another human being there, even though I tried very hard at times (via everything ranging from Secret Santa to local meetup subs, to niche interest subs, and more). I have friends online that I have only known online since the 1990s, so it’s not that I’m “un-befriendable”. Reddit allows people to form mobs, not true communities, which almost always have many subsets of friends and acquaintances, rather than a bunch of strangers who actually don’t care at all if one of their members disappears.
If your username is a Pink Floyd reference I’ll be your friend
Of course it is, and also in memoriam of…lots of people, I suppose. If you like “Wish You Were Here” you probably get it.
It depends very much on how you use reddit. E.g. there are no mental health communities here that really helped me through difficult times. There are so many specialized communities on reddit that helped me a lot, that won’t just move over here on Lemmy. I get that if you only looked at the general feed, you don’t miss out on much on lemmy. But I never used reddit like this and now I really feel like lemmy is (still) missing the best parts of reddit :/
Keep in mind you’re comparing a very mature platform with one that’s literally still in alpha.
True, but that doesn’t change the fact that if you need that kind of support right now, you’re dependent on Reddit.
And I think it’ll take a while for Lemmy to build the size of user base that makes those kinds of specialised communities viable, unfortunately. Although I very much hope it happens.
Granted – I think it’s the “(still)” remark that prompted mine.
Certainly a tough pill to swallow that to continue participating in those communities you either need to keep feeding the beast, or go wherever the majority of that community goes (which simply may not end up being Lemmy).
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If you are a member of such a small community, be sure to create it here. Users will usually take a look at Lemmy and first search for their favorite topics. If they don’t find anything, they will go back to Reddit…
Yeah, it’s a really easy transition. Without watching the video, no users (and even moreso mods) are not powerless, and the fat lady absolutely has not sung yet.
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Did anyone else actually watch the video? It’s inaccurate in places and is biased towards Reddit (e.g. claims that Apollo had no backend costs). Also, it misspelled the CEO’s name as “Steve Hoffman.”
Overall, this is the first post I’ve seen that makes me wish Beehaw had a downvote button.
As of this moment, the post has:
- 87 points on beehaw.org
- 55/38 on kbin.social
- 61 points on midwest.social
- 62 points on programming.dev
The real question is if downvotes on other instances federate back to Beehaw (i.e. did they only hide the button, or did they truly block them?)
As far as I am aware, downvotes do not federate to us. Don’t quote me on this tho
They don’t, I tried it with a beehaw user. Downvoting has no effect on you guys. :)
I gotchu fam
Its kind of a crap video.
The discussion is more interesting than the video
It is VERY biased. The protest just “died down” and reddit just “had to wait”. Apparently, threatening the mods of popular subreddits, like r/pics mods, never happened. Very normal.
To be fair, if i didn’t learn about lemmy, i would be back on reddit at this point. It just kills the boredom in a way nothing else does.
I would have probably landed somewhere besides reddit. I considered and tried 3 different options, (Lemmy being the third) and stayed here because I was very pleased by the beehaw community. And it’s very similar to reddit, which made the transition easier.
I’m doing my best to ditch reddit, and haven’t used it since they announced the API pricing
Same! I have no problem with the smaller lemmy community. It will grow over time. Each person who comments or posts here is helping it to become a better place.
Yep, best thing you can do it post and comment. The 90:10 rule of lurkers to content creators likely applies. But critical mass requires the lurkers to stick around – because some percentage of them will eventually turn into content creators. When someone from Reddit checks out Lemmy for the first time, they’re going to evaluate based on volume of content and discussion. If the equivalents of their favourite subs are all ghost towns, they’ll just leave back for reddit. So the ratio needs to be higher to get the ball rolling.
I’m taking my own advice. On Reddit, I was fairly active. 11 year account, moderated one largish sub, 17k post karma, 200k comment karma. I still moderate that sub, because the community is important. But I’ve got a stickied post pointing to the equivalent on Lemmy.
But it’s super quiet in there, by comparison, and I cannot be the sole source of content in a community, or it just becomes me shouting down the void. This same pattern is likely repeating across the fediverse.
But there’s hope. Yesterday, two of the communities I’ve been trying to seed got their first external posts. !geology@lemmy.ca and !spacemusic@lemmy.ca.
Right, I am powerless to stop Reddit. I’m not so powerless that I won’t say bye to Reddit. Now I’m here and I’m liking it more.
Same bro (or broette). I still have my account, and I have logged in twice this month, and no times since the blackouts. I will go back occasionally, probably more when football/hockey seasons start. But what I learned in all this was there are other communities where friendlier discussion happens. Where disagreements don’t come with insults, and I can feel less like a number. I’m cool with that.
It feels like realizing that WhatsApp is a terrible Meta privacy nightmare, but you can’t wake up because you can’t convince your whole family to use Signal.
Yeah, Facebook just started out as a social media company. Amazon just did book deliveries. Google was just a search engine. Then kept expanding into services that people couldn’t really quit, but are privacy nightmares.
This focus on the social media aspect of reddit has felt kind of short sided, since it’s not really considering the threat of what they could become. People think it’s just about online clubs right now, but might be wishing later more people had made an effort to quit.
Many people advise to just quit it anyways and if your family actually cares about you, they’ll switch. Works as a great relatives filter too.
I’ve tried, but Signal is just too cumbersome to use. I sorely miss a web client and my family members sorely miss an Android tablet client. This makes it hard to recommend.
No user of Reddit is powerless. Every single user of Reddit has the power to fuck with Reddit in whatever legal way they want, and they also they have the power to quit using Reddit.
Telling people they need to quit Reddit is not realistic. People are more likely to respond if we give them easy and realistic advice.
The most realistic course for most people is to join a few alternative communities that match your values. Join a Lemmy instance, join a Mastodon instance, etc.
- Sign up for a new community; a Lemmy instance for example.
- Take a few minutes to sign into the new community on all your device, you want it to be as easy as possible to start using the new community.
- Prefer to use the new community whenever possible. When you’re bored and going through the usual websites (you know what they are), visit the new community first, move Reddit to the bottom of the list. Avoid using Reddit, but don’t stress too much if you end up there occasionally, just give preference to everything else.
This advice is not too intimidating, anyone can act on it, and even if only a few people act on it, it’s still effective for those few people. This plan has everything it needs to be effective and spread.
You’re right that telling people to quit Reddit could come off as hostile.
Beehaw seems to be easy on sign up from my experience, so it’s here when July 1st rolls around when Reddit terminates API for third party apps. I think significant amount of users of Reddit use the app regularly, so they might leave Reddit once the app no longer works and I imagine that some of them would be unaware of the ‘old’ reddit UI so they would likely get a really negative impression of the current ‘new’ Reddit Ui that they would likely be deterred from using Reddit going forward.
+1 on your advice!
I think one of the most effective is answering posts people need help on while sourcing something that a user from the fediverse contributed. It’s not aggressive. It’s not a pitch. It’s just there so people might visit it and get curious.
Like nobody likes door to door sales people. Or cold calls. And that’s what the current approach is coming off to for people who don’t want and aren’t asking for alternatives. People who’ve felt strongly enough about leaving reddit already have. Those left don’t care.
If fediverse is too intimidating there is also squabbles which people there are those who made an effort to quit too. Destined for the same end as most for profit companies, but at least it’s not feeding into the current corporate juggernaut of community based companies. People do want to move and some aren’t ready for fediverse and that’s fine as long as they show flexibility to at least leave.
