OC Any other former redditors feeling grief?

I have been joking to a couple of friends today who were also redditors that I've been feeling withdrawals from reddit throughout the day. Like I knew I was addicted, I just never thought I was going to have to face the consequences of withdrawals!

But there's also a major part of me that's feeling a sense of loss. I had two reddit accounts that were 11+ years old. I used an app called Redact last night to totally expunge my comment and submission history, and I just was hit by so many emotions watching my old content turn to ashes.

Reddit is where I always spent my depression spirals, but it was also where I found hobbyist communities and group help support. I found sexual partners through reddit, and used to even moderate in my early days. It's where I used to keep up with a TON of current events but also read from so many diverse perspectives with expertise on topics.

As much as I am tentatively excited for the culture and community we can build on kbin, I truly am feeling the inconsequential reality of all that karma and browsing. Reddit felt like it was going to be immortal, but even the mighty fall.

Anyone else bummed??

!deleted121404,

deleted_by_author

    •
    HandsHurtLoL,

    There's a part of me that I think would have continued to still use reddit if like, Spez had pulled out of the nose dive by the 10th or whatever. But now I feel like he and reddit have crossed the Rubicon, and it's just the principle of the matter and solidarity at this point.

    Also, is annoyance a stage of grief? haha

    vaiium,

    Not grief specifically, the annoyance is probably more related to withdrawal symptoms.

    letsroll,
    letsroll avatar

    You nailed it. If it was just about "the IPO" or "profits", well, that's part of life sometimes. But to do what he did to Christian, who made the Appollo app, well that was just nasty and unnecessary. And it feels like the community is responding by saying "fine. you did this." and burning the whole thing to the ground. Reddit will keep going but I bet enough CORE people will leave that it will be a shell of its former self, and it's not like public markets will miss that.

    parrot-party,
    parrot-party avatar

    I don't view social media as inherently bad. I actually think it's on average good. But it's easily taken over by corporate greed and propaganda. There's no incentive for that on smaller communities though, so it's probably good to reset the community back to a more manageable size.

    bored_pistachio,
    bored_pistachio avatar

    I used Reddit (and still do, I guess?), not as much as you. I am part od Reddit migration, so all this stuff is very new to me. I was not looking for Reddit alternative, but I was more inerested in what else is out there after Reddit API fiasco.

    So far I really like kbin and whole fediverse thing in general. I think I will geek out to coworkers about all that stuff. Reddit is not dead, and that was not a goal, at least from my perspective.

    I am glad it "pushed" me toward fediverse though. My account there remains, but I guess I will engage less from now onwards.

    HandsHurtLoL,

    I am resisting the temptation to log in at all during the original 48 hour blackout, but I am seriously considering deleting my accounts by June 30 just so reddit, the corporation, can't point to my account as a data point. I deleted my Twitter after Musk purchased it, but that was an easy platform to get rid of for me since I wasn't as engaged there.

    Vlyn,
    Vlyn avatar

    I haven't deleted my Reddit account yet, but I overwrote every single comment and text post I made in the last 11 years.

    Also unsubbed from any sub that didn't join the blackout.

    Not like it will help much (:

    eatmoregreenfood,
    eatmoregreenfood avatar

    Meh. I used reddit since about a year after its launch. I noticed the last two days my thumb reaching for the reddit app on my home screen. But then I pause, remember I deleted rif, and just log into kbin and try to be active. Right now sorting by new has been amazing. Lots of new magazines (shout out to the one I made tvsuggestions).

    I think you can get the reddit dopamine hit by being active on kbin. Investigate! Explore the site! Make a zine!

    The plus side is I'm using it way less than reddit while simultaneously being way more active on the medium. Win win

    HandsHurtLoL,

    I'm certainly already venturing out into more engagement here, but I am using it less than reddit only because there isn't a convenient 3rd party app for kbin Q_Q

    eatmoregreenfood,
    eatmoregreenfood avatar

    There will be. For now the mobile version is usable. I just threw a link to it where RiF used to be. But yeah stay at it. The more engaged we are the more need for a polished mobile app there will be. Donate, use the medium, etc. Mobile app can't possibly be too far out.

    HandsHurtLoL,

    For anyone who wants the donate link, it's here!

    RedditExodus,
    RedditExodus avatar

    Thanks for sharing the link, I just donated. It seems like this Ernest guy is working his ass off!

    exohuman,
    exohuman avatar

    You can use the web app feature. In safari, hit the share button then scroll down and hit “Add to Home Screen”. It will now appear as a standalone app separate from your browser.

    discodoubloon,
    discodoubloon avatar

    I’ve been doing this. The password thing won’t set so just have to commit it to memory for now.

    experbia,
    experbia avatar

    I removed Relay from my home screen when I realized at some point while just zoning out I had just unlocked my phone and tapped it open without really thinking about it consciously. It was that much of an idle habit. I looked down and saw the pics pinned message about going dark and was like, uhh??

    rastla,

    Huh, Hadn't actually thought about sorting theads by new.
    Since this community is somewhat small for now, that's actually a great idea.

    BeatNik,

    I've found myself doing the same. I've instinctively opened Apollo about 6 times yesterday and each time I've force quit the app immediately.

    I can't bring myself to delete it just yet. @christianselig made one of the best R*ddit apps and in a way this whole protest has been a great way to break away from my addiction.

    scabrous-leper,
    scabrous-leper avatar

    @BeatNik
    I wound up deleting Apollo, just because I was too dumb to see where one logs out! But, having it be gone, completely, makes it easy to not go back.

    @HandsHurtLoL @christianselig @eatmoregreenfood

    Otome-chan,
    Otome-chan avatar

    I'm getting my reddit fix from kbin lol. it's been cozy here, albeit a bit slow (not many users yet it seems).

    Brock,

    Not as many bots.

    klabok,

    yeah, same here. I like the community aspect of Reddit and want a slow trickle of news/media pop up. It sorta does the trick. I can work around the slowness.

    Otome-chan,
    Otome-chan avatar

    The problem with slow/low content is that you really only get the most popular topics, and niche communities are basically non-existent. whereas on reddit the niche communities are slow but exist. but yes, it's the community aspect I'm after I think, and just the reddit-style ui. and kbin has been doing the trick. though I also check fedia since this ain't enough content for me lol.

    HandsHurtLoL,

    I'm in the same boat about the volume of content is low, especially since I was most active on hobbyist subreddits.

    But at least here it feels 100% that I'm interacting with live people on the other side of the screen. I don't have second guesses about whether a Russian troll farm has infiltrated the discussion to sew discord or whether comment bots are reproducing verbatim comments from human users, but getting all the karma.

    Otome-chan,
    Otome-chan avatar

    Yeah that's definitely true. On reddit (and also twitter) it sometimes starts feeling like "are these even real people?" whereas here it definitely feels a lot more human. Like how the internet used to be maybe...

    Alter_Id,
    Alter_Id avatar

    Nuked and deleted my 10 year old account last night, and glad to be rid of it tbh. I'd been wanting a paradigm shift for a while already under whatever circumstance. Quite happy to see the momentum growing for an exodus really.

    There are things that I'll remember positively about reddit for sure, but I still look back most fondly to the MySpace days for it's sense of tighter community which is something I never felt through the sea of randoms that flooded reddit. I don't participate on any other major social media sites, though I do have accounts on some individual forums for stuff I'm into. I definitely still have to learn my way around this place a bit. I can't pretend to know how this federated concept will flesh itself out and evolve, but I really think I see some promise for more familiar communities with the way it's structured. We'll see; I'm optimistic.

    At any rate, something about how every end is a new beginning or something. If I'm allowed to welcome you though I'm a newborn myself, welcome. Glad we're here.

    HandsHurtLoL,

    I used to have some success in a couple of hookup subreddits back in 2019 for a specific city, then after I moved away and then back to the city, it just felt like that hookup community just got so overrun with pushy people. Nothing but aggressive men (which didn't fit the niche of that particular kink community) and women pushing OnlyFans accounts.

    It really felt so disappointing how many nom-starters I had to wade through just to meet one person in 2022 to the point I just gave up in 2023.

    So this major reboot ultimately does feel like it was necessary. Reddit was a critical mass assholes and influencers, even for SFW subs.

    S_204,

    @Alter_Id The part that's making me feel some feelings isnt that deleting my account will impact me, but over the decade I used the site, I grew to learn how to find answers that I might otherwise not be able to track down online and deleting everything will cause that to be lost. I've got a handful of threads that still get thank yous and comments 4-6 years after they were posted because of the troubleshooting that happened in them. When we all turn to r/dust I genuinely think we'll be taking a step back collectively. Fuck Spez and Conde Nast for putting us in this position but it's something i've been considering.

    @HandsHurtLoL

    Alter_Id,
    Alter_Id avatar

    I hear you on that. If we're taking a step back so as to not continue walking in the wrong direction though it's better in the long run.

    Important to note that the benevolence of those working within an otherwise uncaring system isn't lost through abandoning that system. Reddit only helped to facilitate the support that people within your community were willing to give. It wasn't responsible for generating that support itself. There will be plenty of people looking to fill the gap. It probably won't look the same, but hopefully the structure undergirding that support can be more robust and less subject to exploitation for the temporary disruption that's happening now. If this idea of federated social networks takes hold I think that's one thing it's offering.

    @S_204

    iNeedScissors67,
    iNeedScissors67 avatar

    I just miss my city's subreddit (r/stlouis). It was by far where I was most active, and there's basically no fediverse activity for it

    HandsHurtLoL,

    I feel this way about the knitting community. Post I submitted on reddit on Saturday got like 1500 karma. Posted the same thing here last night, it got 6 upvotes.

    Not quite as validating! P_P

    im_ace,

    I guess that’s how Reddit must have been when it was new. It will just take time. Some good decisions from the dev team and a little bit of luck and kbin will also be able to have posts reaching thousands of upvotes very soon.

    BabySteps,

    Another STL resident here! I hung out in a lot of smaller subreddits, and got a huge amount of news from lurking the big popular subs. I burned my account down, total scorched earth. We'll see how this goes.

    _galactose,
    _galactose avatar

    I feel sort of lost, because one of my sources of information is cut off. Besides being able to be a part of that highly-specific community you were looking for, reddit also was very good for finding answers to any random question and avoiding bad google-search articles that are quite often unhelpful.

    daredevil,
    daredevil avatar

    I'm wondering how kbin will play with search engines down the line. I often used ddg to search through Reddit, but trying it with kbin didn't seem as helpful. I wouldn't know how long it would take for posts to show up in Google's searches, but I'll be patient until I learn more. If anyone has any advice for searches, that would be really helpful. Doing so was a large part of my time when I really wanted to browse past discussions regarding key topics and keywords.

    Ashyr,

    I'm curious about this as well. I basically never Google anything anymore without appending Reddit to it.

    mookman288,
    mookman288 avatar

    Instead of using the keyword "reddit" consider using the keyword "forum" or "discussion." Make use of double-quotation marks, plus sign, and minus sign in your search queries to be more granular with your searches.

    It may take a considerably long time for kbin posts to start showing up in Google. Part of the reason is that kbin is new to being popular, so the backlinking and general popularity traffic isn't there yet (but it will be, I'm sure.) It also takes more time for Google to crawl and index the content of sites which have lower priority.

    I have various personal hobby sites on Neocities, and even some WordPress sites, and it's rare for them to appear in Google searches even after many years. They just aren't popular enough and do not have the right backlinks for Google to organically find them and prioritize them in results.

    Timwi,
    Timwi avatar

    Do your sites have XML sitemaps? I run this niche community website that was not easy to find on search engines and its content was slow to update, but then I learned about XML sitemaps and it changed everything. Check out the robots.txt file where I added a line for the sitemap. Follow the link to see what the file looks like. As soon as I added that, suddenly my site is top result if you search for ktane + the name of a module (e.g. “switches ktane”), and it gets crawled and indexed a lot more often. This applies to both Google and DuckDuckGo.

    ninjakitty7,

    The thing that saddens me the most deeply is that Reddit was the last place on the internet that was a source of real, human-generated information. The drive for profit has destroyed every single search engine through SEO, meaning that you can't get answers to questions anymore. Reddit was where I went when I wanted to find passionate people and niche topics and answers to obscure problems that Google would tell me nobody has ever had before.

    Jyrdano,
    Jyrdano avatar

    I second the google searching. Reddit was great to finding answers to really specific questions, and there isnt really a replacement for that AFAIK

    WeaponizedPoultry,
    WeaponizedPoultry avatar

    This is part of what's been troubling me with the whole situation. With so many long-time users nuking their entire post histories there's a lot of link rot happening. How much good info is just gone already? I understand not wanting to contribute to reddit's bottom line any more, but the loss of public information is concerning.

    HandsHurtLoL,

    I am not an archivist, but I have know people in information sciences who have experience with archival work, and I am also struck by how many times we would joke on reddit about how sociologists hundreds of years in the future would absolutely misinterpret some of the jokes in our threads for being so out of context.

    I hadn't thought about how much the world today stood to lose by reddit going dark, not being indexed on Google searches. I don't think Spez thought of that, or if that's even a prevailing concern at this point compared to profit and going public.

    Not sure I have any solutions, but just acknowledging this adds another bittersweet note to my sense of loss. It wasn't that just I lost my place in that highly constructed world, but also the world lost its greatest crowdsource.

    CynAq,
    CynAq avatar

    I agree with the loss of information point. It's getting much harder every day to find quality information on the web.

    Hopefully most users who had good content and information in their history archived their content before nuking it on reddit with the plan to post it on wherever they end up next.

    It will take time for that information to spread out and be discoverable again, but I can't blame people for taking it away, especially with the very open demand for AI training data, as a lot of people agree that it's unethical to use people's content for machine learning without explicit consent.

    Col3814444,

    Reddit absolutely changed my life for the better in the past 15 years or so I have been using it. People love to complain about how awful it apparently is, but I didn’t find that - for every awful thing there are a thousand great things.

    I’m going to miss it for a bit, but this site seems to have promise, it reminds me greatly of Reddit when we all moved over from Digg. Will be interesting to see how this all pans out.

    20k,

    Reddit got me into a C++ committee meeting and allowed me to present a paper which was super cool, and let me meet my first and second girlfriend. Its wild that its just kind of gone

    teacosts,

    It's sad that they got greedy. I do realize how addicted I was to the site and realized that's what I mostly did on my phone. Trying to train myself to use kbin.

    isdfoa,

    same, reddit also basically became my search engine for anything that isn't just straight up facts i can get from google (ex: recommendations, opinions, advice, troubleshooting, etc). it feels like the rest of the internet's content is just regurgitated buzzwords aimed at getting clicks for ads rather than anything actually useful.

    scabrous-leper,
    scabrous-leper avatar

    Yes, this! I used it like people do youtube, for repair/fix it questions, as well as niche communities for interests, news, entertainment.

    WeaponizedPoultry,
    WeaponizedPoultry avatar

    Content from niche communities seems to be most in danger. Just yesterday I found myself with questions regarding some Star Wars miniatures games and what would have been the best results on google were stuck behind the reddit blackout.

    I'm not sure how well the fediverse can replace a small subreddit yet. The fractured nature of the platform seems like it could mean communities that were <50k users just never become as active as they were on a more centralized platform. And how long will it take for content here to have similar reach on search engines?

    HandsHurtLoL,

    Yes! For me, it was extremely effective at its primary goal of being a content aggregator. I kept up with sooooo much news that was thematicly linked (national news, world news, politics, specific country's news/politics) that I could be the smartest person in most rooms I occupied in irl.

    I think though that the corresponding magazines will be the first massly populated here on kbin.

    Haus,
    Haus avatar

    This is the thing for me. I think I'm experiencing a bit of news FOMO. Reddit has been reliable for years at supplying news, cat antics, and pretty girls. I also agree that google+reddit has been really useful in solving very specific problems.

    Flabbergash,
    Flabbergash avatar

    Put it this way, the first I heard of Berlusconi's death was on the radio. The radio!!

    TimberHearth,

    I think people are jumping the gun a bit on what Kbin is and are expecting it to be as huge as Reddit which it might never be. Most of my news I’m getting via the free version of Feedly which is an RSS reader and I’m only really using Kbin to scratch that itch for a bit of commenting.

    I hope people are exploring their options with being able to interact with Lemmy and Beehaw boards via Federation too. If this setup ever gets as big as Reddit it’ll be through the federated whole not one individual site. Considering how much data costs to host I think pushing one site towards a monopoly will always force increased advertIsing and with popularity comes financial predators. This is of course what Reddit is going through now.

    gluuhm,
    gluuhm avatar

    Thanks, I'll check out Feedly! I don't know why I stopped using RSS feeds, but the idea of using one again sounds really appealing. I'm not sure why.

    cowvin,

    I gotta be honest: I accidentally logged into Reddit today. But the content there is pretty limited since so many subs went private. So I started looking around at the alternatives.

    PepsiMax,

    Nuked my 7yo old account and I hope reddit is fucked for life and we get something new from this.

    HandsHurtLoL,

    Welp, @pepsimax has hit full-on acceptance 😂😂

    prhymus,

    100% i was experiencing this as well. Kind of insane how much it was a part of my daily routine.

    HeartyBeast,
    HeartyBeast avatar

    Yes. I’m not only sad for the communities I’ve lost. I’m also mourning the loss of my idea of what Reddit was. Naively, I always thought that Reddit management - though imperfect- had its heart in the right place. I liked Reddit as an organisation. So now I’m feeling a bit bereft.

    acupofcoffee,

    This is pretty much how I feel. Reddit was a huge part of my life since I was 18 and now I'm in my 30s. There's so many niche communities that basically are either dying or being abandoned (by others, and also me) because of this.

    All of it just has me saddened. Saddened for the past, but also for the lost future of what could have been.

    I guess it shouldn't surprise me too much... They changed the UI and I hated it. Then RES went maintenance mode and I was concerned but it kept working. I guess, slowly, Reddit or just the universe has been pushing me towards the moment where I leave for good.

    End of an era, I suppose.

    HiddenRetro,
    HiddenRetro avatar

    This sums it up for me as well.

    HandsHurtLoL,

    This really puts into words something I hadn't fully realized. It was imperfect, but it felt like we were at least all nerds together. Then I realized a while ago that the nerds had been outnumbered by the profiteers.

    I think since having made the OP, I also am feeling a moment of reckoning for the (surely) thousands of hours of my life I've wasted on reddit that I can't take with me and will never get back...

    hitechlowlife,

    I actually really appreciate the fact that I'm not constantly on my phone doomscrolling reddit for the next dopamine hit. I've gotten so much done today. I even started reading a new book that I'd been putting off for the past 6 months.

    HandsHurtLoL,

    Maybe it's because I have ADHD and have a compulsion to do something with my hands periodically, but it felt like reaching out to pet a dog who died yesterday the whole day for me.

    I'd pick up my phone, then immediately realize that was a pointless gesture and emptily set it down again...

    Ronno,
    Ronno avatar

    I don't mind switching it up and going new places. The only thing that I find sad is that I created a Reddit account linked to all my preferences, it took years to craft that account in a way that it gives me value and join, while at the same time filtering out the BS that I didn't want to see. Now I have to go through that process again.

    However, this can also be an opportunity to get more focused and qualitative content again, and steer away from becoming a TikTok publisher. Because let's be honest, the homepage of Reddit was simply becoming a repost of TikTok.

    HandsHurtLoL,

    Once you start subscribing to magazines that are relevant to you here, you can customize your account settings to open up only your subscription list instead of the inchoate home page. 🙃

    eatmoregreenfood,
    eatmoregreenfood avatar

    Yeah hopefully the content here is better. I imagine it will be

    vektor,
    vektor avatar

    The only thing that I find sad is that I created a Reddit account linked to all my preferences, it took years to craft that account in a way that it gives me value and join, while at the same time filtering out the BS that I didn't want to see. Now I have to go through that process again.

    That's exactly what I'm going to miss as well. I built up multiple multireddits for my interests (cars, audio, biking, tools, etc) and I'm kinda sad I have to start over again. But I can't get behind what reddit is doing right now so I'm learning all I can about this fediverse stuff and forging ahead!

    AnakinSandlover,
    AnakinSandlover avatar

    Reddit was my main source of updates for the One Piece manga as well as for memes and Star Wars content. Not to mention the NSFW stuff, so, yeah I feel ya.

    bill_1992,

    Honestly felt like I lost a friend. I think it's a sign that I'm too dependent on social media, and I hope I never reach the same level, even on the Fediverse. I'm gonna go touch grass, wish me luck.

    HandsHurtLoL,

    Come back with a report of how it was lol

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