Don't be discouraged by people saying these protests don't work, or by subreddits going public

People discredit every type of protest, IRL or not. I think back to every major protest that's happened in response to some major event, and the response every time is "That won't ever work", "You're wasting your time", "Imagine caring about that".

This isn't the death of Reddit, not even close to it. Reddit may even get more popular after this. However, that doesn't mean all of this was pointless.

The Fediverse continues to grow, and that's genuinely a good thing. Every time a platform fucks up, people give X ActivityPub app a new set of eyes and continue to help developers strengthen these platforms and build up the community.

A lot of times the things we want don't happen in 1 big moment, it's a lot of continuous smaller moments that eventually form into something greater.

It's going to take a lot of effort to build out a new platform, especially one built off the concept of decentralization. I think we should continue to build our communities here, and do our best to help this platform thrive.

wesker,
@wesker@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

People in their desire to see Reddit "hurt" lose track of what should be the real goal: carve out a new platform, where those that do care can work towards building something that suits us better. Even if it never rivals Reddit, and there isn't mass adoption.

Zana,

Honestly don't want it to become as big as Reddit. It is quite comfy being much smaller. It feels like more of a friendly community. I see the same faces in a lot of these threads, it gives a nice sense of familiarity. I really like the feeling.

vyvanse,
vyvanse avatar

I've been a lurker on reddit for over 10 years. Here I feel like I can actually post and comment without worrying about negativity :)

EvilMonkeySlayer,

I've been a lurker on reddit for over 10 years. Here I feel like I can actually post and comment without worrying about negativity :)

Here's a bit of negativity; give it time. The larger a community and platform the wider the views. What starts as a tight-knit community eventually expands into something gigantic where things aren't so tight-knit any more.

It's like gravity, the larger something is the more it pulls in.

Ronno,
Ronno avatar

@vyvanse

Boom! downvoted for having an opinion! /s
Oh, apologies, still getting used to not being on reddit ;)

Maeve,

Have one that disagrees with popular opinion du jour and watch what happens.

rammer,
@rammer@sopuli.xyz avatar

The other side of that coin is the lack of content. If it's small it doesn't have as much content.

Ataraxia, (edited )
@Ataraxia@lemmy.world avatar

I haven't had that issue also I'd rather not have a reason to be on my phone all day

Sabata11792,
Sabata11792 avatar

I've not really been bored since new content flows from other groups. With federation, if you're somewhere slow, you can just pop in somewhere else for a bit without dedicating time to set up.

Zelsabriel,

There may be a lack of content, but at the same time more users don't always mean quality content.

I was on reddit for over a decade and as time went on more and more bots showed up, more content was reposted over and over, and more communities were swallowed up until only the same types of posts were ever pushed through to the top every day. I think it's refreshing to go somewhere where that isn't an issue yet.

Zelsabriel,

There may be a lack of content, but at the same time more users don't always mean quality content.

I was on reddit for over a decade and as time went on more and more bots showed up, more content was reposted over and over, and more communities were swallowed up until only the same types of posts were ever pushed through to the top every day. I think it's refreshing to go somewhere where that isn't an issue yet.

Mounticat,
Mounticat avatar

I'd beg to differ, honestly. I'd love to see the fediverse take off. We desperately need an alternative to centralised everything where the actions of one company which almost always is profit-motivated can control everything you see and use your data for their own purposes.

I get what you mean by how a smaller community is nice to have, though. But that's also a benefit of the fediverse - you have a small community of your own with it's own culture, while not losing the connection to what's happening outside. And there's some cross-over that makes it easier to talk to others who aren't in your own community, without needing to adapt to their culture first.

Monola19,
Monola19 avatar

You’re absolutely right. I’d rather spend my time enjoying this community then worrying about Reddit. Whatever happens will happen at this point. I’m just happy I’ve found this community from all of this, it’s been so refreshing here!

Havoc,

I honestly didn't realize how detrimental Reddit was to my mental health. It feels like a breath of fresh air.

Shroo,
Shroo avatar

Every change that has come about has happened because someone believed in it, did it, and perpetuated it. Keep fighting the good fight :)

niktemadur,
niktemadur avatar

Cynical/Pessimistic ≠ Savvy/Sophisticated.
Seems that way too many people are unable to make the distinction and are unwilling see this perception flaw about themselves.

BasicWhiteGirl,
BasicWhiteGirl avatar

I'm not, but that's cause I have no idea what's going on over there anymore. Made an account here and here I shall stay.

god,
@god@sh.itjust.works avatar

summary of what's going on there: ppl say "that's it? 2 days nothing changed, sad" and that's about it.

Album,
@Album@lemmy.ca avatar

Disagree this isn't the death of Reddit. The IPO and focus on profitability is the knell. The mass migration of 10+ year users is it's soul leaving it's body.

All that's left is for people to come to terms with the inevitability of it all.

Grimpen,

The soul of old Reddit for sure, but Reddit isn't Digg yet.

New Reddit can sell lots of influencer engagement to new users. It's tough to say if they can pull it off though. The old Reddit as the successor of obscure and in depth forum discussions seems to be fading though. Spez's "Landed Gentry" is the unpaid labour that was making the site popular.

I think that Reddit will survive this, and just grow in another direction, competing with TikTok, Instagram, et al. Meanwhile, the Fediverse grows.

Quentinp,
@Quentinp@lemmy.ca avatar

Doesn't really matter TBH. Got me to discover lemmy & kbin and stop using Reddit. So they can black out or not, I'm no longer there (same with Facebook, Twitter etc). Just happy to have a new good replacement.

Voodoo,

Agreed, this protest is what led me to discovery beehaw and Lemmy in general, and learn about the fediverse. So it certainly changed my life. I've enjoyed my time already and I feel the difference. I forgot how much I missed the feelings of smaller forums from my youth.

lvxferre,
@lvxferre@lemmy.ml avatar

This reminds me an old quote, often attributed to Gandhi: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. We shouldn't take it too seriously and assume victory out of that quote, but even then it gives me some optimism:

It means that the protests had enough of an effect that some people are actually talking about them, even to discredit them.

I don't think that Reddit will die now either. (Not even Digg died yet. It's still there.) However my hopes is that people can damage Reddit Inc.'s value assessment enough to make the IPO a fiasco, and punish the company for giving its own users a middle finger. And then Reddit spiral down into obsolescence.

Rentlar,

Well, whether it "works" or not I don't care. Just happy to see everyone that made it to the Fediverse in response to these events!

desantoos,

I supported the blackout not just because of the sudden changes to third party API usage (I only use Old Reddit so it does impact me less) but because this was clearly a change that severely negatively impacted the moderators on Reddit. The moderators on Reddit are unpaid and the work they do is mostly deleting spam. It's not fun stuff and we are fortunate to have so many volunteers (even if some abuse whatever little power they have). They were the ones who organized this blackout. Reading some of their complaints, I empathize greatly. So even if the API changes don't get reverted maybe the blackout gave Reddit's corporate heads a moment's pause to actually do something to help the people who do all of the work for them.

So even if things don't get reverted, perhaps there was something positive to this whole event.

Also, being off Reddit for days has been really nice. I feel better, not being there. I might stay longer here.

Nougat,

Reddit has been on a steady decline for a while now, like years. But the mass and inertia made it still useful to find things out. More and more filtering was required to narrow down to content that wasn't annoying or irrelevant. This recent conflict will tip the balance in such a way that you'll have to spend much more time filtering unwanted content than enjoying wanted content. Mods will be less effective in the moderation tasks, and the overall quality of content will decline even more quickly.

A couple months ago, there was an announcement about RES, that it was not going to see any more development. It would continue to work (still is as of now) until Reddit changed something to make it not work, but at that point it would be over. I decided then that if RES stopped working, I was done.

For me personally, I was already a bit older than the target demographic when I signed up fifteen years ago. I am (obviously) fifteen years older now, and it feels like the demographic has gotten much younger. Slap that on top of everything else, and it's just not for me anymore.

It's already mostly memes and inside jokes and shitposting (oh my!), and it won't be long until it's 4chan with ads.

Helium,
Helium avatar

I really don't see the protests as a failure. You give Reddit, inc. an opportunity to compromise with the community and they show that they won't budge an inch (or, more accurately, they CAN'T due to VC pressure)

We learned what Reddit has become, and now we work towards building a future proofed community somewhere else. As long as the Fediverse has activity I will be prioritizing my time here. These little things have big ramifcations for years in the future, where we will see more enshittification and more draconian privacy laws in various countries and states.

I see what's happening here as a success.

Helldiver_M,
Helldiver_M avatar

Really well put, I like this framing a lot.

Deliverator,
Deliverator avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    InLikeClint,
    InLikeClint avatar

    I got 54.4k for a sticker on a gas pump.

    FLOSSeveryday,
    FLOSSeveryday avatar

    Well, as long as enshitification continues to be a thing driven by profit hungry corps, people will be pushed to projects like the fediverse

    hitechlowlife,

    Even if it doesn't happen now, or even the next couple of months, reddit has proven that they're committed to pushing out their core userbase - the people who actually make good content, and who maintain the systems that allow that content to rise to the top.

    Once even more of reddit is ads and bot spam, it'll start to die. We're just leaving early to avoid the rush.

    god,
    @god@sh.itjust.works avatar

    protest everything, protest always 💯💯

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