Why are we copying over so much Reddit content?

I think it's great that so many people want to build and grow Lemmy, but why are we doing it by copying over Reddit content? It didn't seem as bad when it was funny pics or memes or whatever, but now I'm seeing discussion threads, which doesn't make sense to me.

I can kind of see it if a Reddit mod decides to move their forum from there to here, and wants to start with their existing content, but otherwise I'm not sure this is a good thing.

What do you guys think?

Egavans,

I mean a good portion of us aren't leaving reddit because we dislike reddit's content or userbase. We left to get away from the abusive admins. If we can smuggle the community and content in our coat pockets on our way out the door, that's just stealing back what is rightfully ours to begin with.

Gimletson,
Gimletson avatar

Absolutely, best answer so far

smokinjoe,
smokinjoe avatar

It's basically how reddit got its start - as an aggregator of content that originated elsewhere.

darthmac,
darthmac avatar

and Reddit copied Digg.

AFKBRBChocolate,

I wasn't on Reddit then; did they do the same kind of mass thread copying, even with discussion threads?

DaleGribble88,

Copying threads from Tumblr, 4chan, and Twitter is still a pastime at Reddit

n3m4c,

Reddit was started as a link aggregator so there is nothing wrong with copying stuff from Reddit that was copied there from somewhere else anyway

Turkey_Titty_city,

reddit was best when it merely was a link aggregator with discussion/comments

CoderKat,
CoderKat avatar

I don't agree. So many fantastic subs are based on discussions with no links. HobbyDrama, BestOfRedditorUpdates, AskHistorians, ExplainItLikeImFive, TIFU, AmITheAsshole, etc.

AFKBRBChocolate,

As I said elsewhere, I wasn't making an argument that it's unethical, I just think it makes things worse, not better.

PixelatedSaturn,

You have to jump-start communities. Copying is a simple way to do it.

Eeyore_Syndrome,
@Eeyore_Syndrome@sh.itjust.works avatar

Although when I see such communities not having any replies to reddit share/RSS/bot on Lemmy communities`, work days or a week it starts to feel like that fire 🔥 isn't starting.

lozunn,

Don't forget that the real migration has not even started, assuming there is going to be one - one week to go for that to begin.

CoderKat,
CoderKat avatar

The importance of jump starting can't be understated. Most people will go to the community that has content. If a community is empty, a lot of people won't even start participating in it. Plenty of people who make posts want them to be discussed, so they're only looking for active communities.

AFKBRBChocolate,

I think I have a bit of a bias against trying to make Lemmy a copy of Reddit, but I also feel like it doesn't make sense to copy old discussion threads. Someone asked a question on Reddit and got an answer. We don't need that duplicated here, in my opinion.

Again, i think a mod relocating their community is a different situation.

crowsby,
crowsby avatar

I'm overly pedantic I know, I know, but something about calling it Reddit content rubs me the wrong way, like it implies ownership. Reddit Inc. the Profit-Driven Company doesn't have a copyright on threads like "What's the best live band you've ever seen?", and if folks want to have that discussion, but not on Reddit, I think it's great to offer options.

MrComradeTaco,

I don't give a flying fuck.

nxlemmy,
@nxlemmy@lemmy.ml avatar

When googling information i usually end the search with “reddit” as Reddit makes it harder to view without signing in to the app i want to be able to google with the word lemmy instead so having the information here is helpful

Kwik,

@nxlemmy
Only difference here is maybe some posts don't originate on an instance with the word Lemmy in it. It could be kbin or feddit or beehaw, etc.

We gotta find out whatever the best search term would be for the Fediverse.

zekiz,

But there probably is a instance with Lemmy in its name that has it indexed

tugg,

There could be a few reasons.

  • They want to copy over their favorite content.
  • They want to try to attract more people to a community by bootstrapping content.
  • They are trying to artificially inflate their instance for nefarious reasons.

Personally, I think adding some of your favorite Reddit posts is fine as long as you don't blindly copy over everything from a subreddit. I have a couple communities that I brought over that I like, but without content, they mean nothing.

inasaba,

I’m personally archiving some of the great content from my community on Reddit because it meant so much to me, and to lose it would be a shame. I think it’s important for us to preserve the foundational content of our communities.

lps2,

Curious what tooling you’re using. I think they all have the 1000 post limit but I at least found BDFRX easy to use to back up my sub’s 1000 most recent posts and am just looking to host that and link to it in a future community here on lemmy

inasaba,

I am PMing users on Reddit to ask permission to reshare their OC, and then manually posting here once I obtain it. It gives me the chance to give the posts a pass for typos and such, which is nice.

eleitl,

I used to mod quite a few subreddits I created and some others. There are a few worth dumping and reimporting to preserve work of others which is valuable.

_haha_oh_wow_,
@_haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works avatar

I think most of the content on reddit was copied to begin with.

fruitywelsh,

Same reason I want more forums like Fedora Discussion, Ask Ubuntu, and Stack Overflow on the Fediverse. I like the Fediverse as a way to see information and have discussion on it. More good content, the better. Without good content, I would never have used Reddit in the first place.

Steve,

Lots of people like to collect things. When they move, they want to take their collections with them.

assa123,
@assa123@lemmy.world avatar

And there is so much knowledge deposited in reddit that it would be unwise to let its future on the hands of gold seekers. I wish we had more time for the backups, and that those that overwrote their posts and comments can share that lost info here.

onionbaggage,

Everything is recycled nothing is new.

linearchaos,
@linearchaos@lemmy.world avatar

This was even true before they even copied it out from Reddit.

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