I've seen a few discussions about the "failed" protests and wanted to talk about it

So I've seen a few posts regarding news outlets calling the protests a failure, and I don't really think that's the case. The protests have clearly made an impact, especially if the Reddit CEO is willing to oust MODS to reopen subreddits. I truly believe that something has been jump started here on Lemmy, Kbin, and all of the fediverse. What happened on Reddit has simply pushed those already on the fence, or looking for other social media platforms to jump ship. I truly believe the impact is greater than what the media and Reddit in general want us to believe. Something has started here on the fediverse that simply cannot be stopped, all we can do is inform others and show why it's the future of aggregated news boards and social media.

instamat,

Not to overstate the obvious, but this isn’t over yet, the third party apps are still operating. If news outlets were doing their job they would stick to the facts instead of making a judgment on the situation by declaring it a failure. The story is still developing and it’s only just beginning.

tox_solid,
@tox_solid@lemmy.world avatar

Well said. The news outlets calling the protests a failure are making statements that they aren't qualified to make. Unless you have at least one foot in the fediverse, you really wouldn't have any way of knowing the extent of this paradigm shift.

MiddleWeigh,
@MiddleWeigh@lemmy.world avatar

Yea your very right. I wasn't really super aware of the situation, until I came here on the 11th, and that was on a whim tbh. I've since been educated on the implications of this from privacy to politics.

withersailor,

They could do better than just accepting spez statements.

MentalEdge, (edited )
@MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz avatar

Looking at fedidb, the graph has started looking real exponential in the last 48 hours.

And this is still days before the third party apps actually stop working. The exodus aint even close to peaked yet.

Edit: dear lord the user count has spiked. We broke 200 000 threadiverse users just a few days ago, and we are about hit 400 000.

Teppic,
Teppic avatar

This is true, and for the most part extremely good news... But are also stories circulating about a landslide of bot accounts being created on Lemmy recently so numbers from the last 24h or so may want adjusting down slightly.

MentalEdge,
@MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz avatar

Yeah, its almost at 700 000. Getting suspicious.

MiddleWeigh,
@MiddleWeigh@lemmy.world avatar

Idc what happens tbh. I mean I care, in that I want everyone to feel the joy I have felt here, but most people aren't like that. And tbh, I really like that this space is still community vibing. It's something that I have personally been looking for, without even knowing it.

I'm curious where this goes, and how reddit and it's users perform once the 30th comes and down the line.

I went over and dropped a couple comments about my feelings and left. Maybe someone will follow.

Defaced,

Yeah that's understandable, I've gone scorched earth myself, deleted all of my comments and posts as well as my account and I feel better for it, I just hope others come to those terms and follow suit.

Dick_Justice,
@Dick_Justice@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah, Im pretty happy over here, so for me, the protest was a blazing success.

Rognaut,

Yeah, this community feels pretty lively. I hope this keeps up.

Sabelas,

I agree. Most people probably don't care about the protest. But I'm curious to see whether the group that does care, and then moves to a fediverse service, contains enough of the content creators that people visit reddit for to make those people also move over.

artisanrox,
artisanrox avatar

This is certainly what I think will happen. People that want to shout into the digital void or just people not really into digitalized socialization, bumbling around trying to figure everything out (so no truly original content posted) will be left.

IMHO Reddit's prime base was high knowledge digital media surfers. They'll be all gone.

MiddleWeigh,
@MiddleWeigh@lemmy.world avatar

I really think it'll be noticeable tbh. I've found that almost every post here is interesting. Lots of window dressing over there on reddit.

instamat,

One thing that always bothered me about reddit was if you weren’t in a thread at the exact right time, you missed out on the conversation. Maybe that’s just me though.

Harry,

Same here. I effectively left reddit. I deleted the app, only checking their website once a day. Soon I will delete my account entirely. And that will be that.

razorwiregoatlick,
razorwiregoatlick avatar

Whether or not it’s was a failure depends on what you expected from it. Reddit was not going to change its mind. The investors demand more money and will continue to squeeze Reddit for ever dime the can. It wasn’t going to die overnight either.

What did happen is a non-trivial amount of users left and found the Fediverse. Apps are currently being developed to make it more accessible to your average user. The Fediverse will no longer be some obscure thing for a niche group. I think it was a huge success and will have long term repercussions for Reddit.

spicy_biscuits,
spicy_biscuits avatar

Precisely how I feel on it. Would it have been magical if the protest resulted in every last user leaving reddit behind for better alternatives? Of course. But that was never something I thought was likely. However, it's caused a lot of us who were already unhappy to leave and come over to the Fediverse, and I do think that's a success.

CoderKat,
CoderKat avatar

It's not like Reddit was even likely to die. I think we all knew the best case outcome that was still grounded in reality was something like Reddit falling into a slow but certain nose dive.

I mean, even Twitter is still kicking despite all the horrible stuff that's gone on there. Reddit isn't Twitter levels of bad. A slow decline was the best we could have hoped for.

Honestly, we wouldn't have been able to scale to a massive migration, anyway. A slow migration is ideal for scaling and community building.

wheresyourshoe,

We're already pushing the limits with our current numbers moving in. A mass migration would have been way too much.

spicy_biscuits,
spicy_biscuits avatar

All very good points! So yeah, I'm taking what victories I can, in this case my victories are having found the Fediverse and no longer being on reddit ☺️

Casmael,

Yeah what the fuck is going on with twitter? Anybody know what current traffic is like compared with before it was musked?

Kichae,

Whether Reddit dies or not also depends on what you consider "Reddit" to be.

Will reddit.com go down? No. Likely not for a generation, at least. Will Reddit be totally unrecognizable in the future? Probably not.

Will it be a souless zombie, kept operational by nothing more than its brand name and advertising?

Yes. Yes it will.

Draconic_NEO,
@Draconic_NEO@lemmy.world avatar

Just like Digg, digg is still technically around since the website is still up. Though it's not really Digg anymore. It's just some random news site now, you would never guess that it was once one of the most active forms on the internet.

That's where Reddit is headed, any arguments trying to push otherwise are pure cope by Reddit addicts, who just want to keep scrolling forever and don't want to have to start over from the beginning on a different platform that might be alien to them. They're going to have to though, even the people who were loyal enough to stay with Digg until the end had to move on at some point.

Aeonx,
Aeonx avatar

IDK I guess I kinda hoped that people would realize how stupid and exploitative the whole system of reddit is and the site would get overrun with spam and turned into an archive site. Was very disappointed in that pipe dream.

Valdair,
Valdair avatar

It's going to be a long, slow process. The people who quit and deleted their accounts are part of it. The people who are just using it a lot less are part of it. The communities continuing to protest in their own unique ways to continue to raise awareness are part of it. The 3rd party app devs telling their sides of the story are part of it. People who get bored or curious when their communities slow down and go looking elsewhere will be part of it. The flurry of negative news is a big part of it. And the more all the other stuff continues, the more the negative press continues, and Huffman is doing himself 0 favors in any of his interviews.

spicy_biscuits,
spicy_biscuits avatar

I know. Me too. It fucking sucks that we don't see larger, more consistent examples of unity over issues like this. Part of me is grateful for the amount of people that did port over, and part of me is mad at that grateful part, thinking that I should--we should--be able to expect more. And part of me wants to take the victories that I can. It's not a simple issue, so I'm trying to hold on to the faith that I have left that we'll figure all of this shit out and do what I can in the meantime.

tobor,

It's a difficult thing to measure, since it won't necessarily be a leap from just one platform to another.

I saw a meme on Tumblr about redditors remembering they had "dual Tumblr citizenship" all along. A lot of people are exploring a bunch of different options simultaneously (me included) and that's pretty great.

But yeah, we'll figure it out I hope!

Cannacheques,

I can imagine both will coexist but Reddit and Facebook will slowly be sidelined for many as communities become more focused or specialised

Granite,

I 100% never would have joined the thrediverse if not for 90% of reddit protesting!

camelbeard,

Yes, I jumped ship to mastodont after Elon took over and Twitter is still a thing. It's slowly getting worse and worse but some users just don't want to leave.

instamat,

A non trivial amount of users. That makes me happy.

Alto,
Alto avatar

Be ready for another wave on the 30th/1st. Probably won't be quite as big, but that's when the 3rd party apps die.

instamat,

Exactly. That will be a big milestone.

Egavans,

The bigger waves are likely to come with the inevitable old.reddit shutdown and porn bans.

!deleted162668,

deleted_by_author

    •
    ciclamino,

    Yep, especially considering the clear improvements that are constantly being implemented and the higher activity levels than before, what makes Lemmy/kbin feel more like a good alternative where people should migrate to

    AineLasagna,

    Upvotes on posts on the front page of /r/all are now like 15k where they used to be in the 100k range. Very promising. I keep checking in every other day or so but that’s going to stop once Apollo goes dark. Things are going to get quite bad for reddit in July and I absolutely can’t wait to see it

    Cannacheques,

    I think that what's happened in the last hundred or so years, for China, during the Cultural Revolution, and for the USA, since Vietnam, the ideology of social anarchism, along with the whole piracy movement has had a far reaching impact on people throughout society.

    The modern concepts of freedom of information, direct action and skill sharing has effectively crushed and displaced both fascism and economic opportunism/gatekeeping that plagued the cold war generations, as it gives everyone, thle tools and opportunities for another renaissance, opening the door for further innovation and creativity, etc

    SpermKiller,

    Yeah, I first took a look at lemmy and others a few weeks ago, when everyone was asking "what's an alternative?" and at the time, despite so many people talking about the fediverse, there weren't that many people or threads. And now look how active some communities are becoming!

    Horik,
    Horik avatar

    I still lurk. I expected the slow decline and change in character that others here have predicted.
    What I have seen in the last 8 days floored me. Continues to floor me. Reddit is already a zombie platform. Front page is week-old posts. Bot generated reposts from 2 weeks ago.
    And astroturf posts trying to spin the whole thing as a "what was that blip?" Or "glad those whiners are gone"

    It happened so much faster than I expected.

    qprimed,

    as someone that refuses to hit the site in any way, shape or form - thank you for the eyes-on-the-page update.

    letsroll,
    letsroll avatar

    Oh, I think it's hurt Reddit more than it seems on the surface. Of course they will say "it's not working" but reading between the lines of this Engadget article [1], the number of ad impressions would be down rather significantly. Note the difference between time spent on site (seeing ads) and "visits" -- many of which were likely people checking on the site rather than participating in the site. I think this is taking a toll, and am hopeful this situation will serve as an example of poor leadership for the next generation (Digg being a previous example).

    1. https://www.engadget.com/reddits-average-daily-traffic-fell-during-blackout-according-to-third-party-data-194721801.html
    StaggersAndJags,

    Reddit was not going to change its mind.

    Honestly, I thought they might. Not to cancel the API fees entirely like some wanted, but to reach a compromise with developers that would increase Reddit's revenue and let the apps stay in business.

    But it's become clear since then that killing the third party apps isn't an accident or side effect, but the explicit intention of the API changes. Now I can't see Reddit compromising as long as spez is in charge.

    I still have a dim hope it could happen. The protests aren't over and Reddit is feeling it.

    Xanvial,

    I really thought it was part of the plan, introducing expensive plan, and later reducing it to more acceptable level. Which should achieve the income they need and maintain public image.

    Casmael,

    Have you seen Huffman's comments regarding Musk's handling of twitter?

    I was rather surprised and not a little scandalised to find that Huffman found this inspiring.

    I kinda hope I'm wrong but I think the chances of any kind of concessions here are slim to none.

    Givesomefucks,

    I get Huffman idolizing Musk...

    I don't understand the owners seeing what happened to Twitter, and keeping Huffman after he says Musk is an inspiration.

    It's owned by a giant media conglomerate, it's surprising they're letting Huffman trash it right before IPO

    Maxcoffee,
    Maxcoffee avatar

    Personally, I'd never even heard of Lemmy, Kbin etc until recent events and thought it was limited to only Mastodon which never really interested me.

    The amount of software development recent events have inspired around the Fediverse seems to be just the kick it needed to have a bright future too.

    WalrusDragonOnABike,

    Same. Was aware of mastadon, but I never liked twitter and didn't want a twitter alternative.

    Kichae,

    I mean, kbin's been in development for a bit, but we only really started hearing about it generally in the Fediverse like a month ago? Maybe 6 weeks ago? Kbin.social is only a few weeks old.

    The developer set up a testing environment, and then Reddit jumped aboard basically immediately.

    Maxcoffee,
    Maxcoffee avatar

    The timing must have sent ernest's head spinning I think.

    Casmael,

    wow fucking spectacular timing holy shit

    rocketpoweredredneck,

    I hit up kbin first but was having some issues with it, which makes sense as I was probably in the middle of the swarm. I jumped to shitjustworks, because it did what it said on the tin. I do think kbin would be a better fit, has it smoothed out any?

    Kichae,

    Considerably, though it's still having some hiccups.

    TheGreenGolem,
    @TheGreenGolem@lemmy.world avatar

    He will try to purge the "-test" strings from every fucking infra and code he has for years because of this.

    Casmael,

    Yeah same. I've actually been using Mastodon a bit and so far enjoyed it a surprising amount. Had some casual but nice exchanges with folks over there. I think leaving reddit is helping me diversify my media consumption habits which is a really good thing imo, if only for the sake of my sanity. Like many others, I don't think I was quite aware of how reliant I'd become on reddit as a source of new, entertainment etc etc.

    Dick_Justice,
    @Dick_Justice@lemmy.world avatar

    Theres been plenty of "articles" with biased view points, jumping in on the false narrative that this is a protest driven by a small number of mods. Meanwhile Reddit is bleeding users

    LinkOpensChest_wav,

    It obviously had an impact because reddit wouldn't have taken such draconian action in response. Reddit admins have been forced to show their ass to the public, and many people who previously had positive or neutral opinions of Steve Huffman & co. have now seen what a manipulative, dishonest group they are. They are looking to harvest more user data at a point when no reasonable person would entrust them with this data. They are looking to expand advertising at a point when a significant number of users have either jumped ship or are remaining behind only to actively sabotage the site. More and more people have come to understand that migrating to the fediverse is no big hurdle.

    Of course reddit will pay certain outlets to report that the protest has been a failure, but to me it looks like it has been a great success. We knew reddit wouldn't reverse its decision, and we knew it wouldn't just disappear (Digg is still around ffs), but a lot of people have seen that ... reddit the web site never really meant that much to us.

    nieceandtows,

    Yeah the blackout resulted in a sustainable alternative to Reddit, which tbf didn’t exist before the blackout. I call that a huge win.

    Tashlan,
    Tashlan avatar

    Reddit admins have been forced to show their ass to the public, and many people who previously had positive or neutral opinions of Steve Huffman & co. have now seen what a manipulative, dishonest group they are

    There's a long tail here that will get spez in the ass later, and that's been the Verge, NYT, Forbes, and so many mainstream outlets that were previous incurious about spez having to talk to him and report on his AMA. He could very quickly end up characterized as a Musk-like buffoon if that's how people who need to make their money from ink start to see him, especially if he doesn't manage to find a new personality before he opens his mouth again. Like the average Redditor, spez doesn't think he's transparent when he's being smug or snarky, and that is particularly visible to journalists who have degrees in snark.

    megane_kun,
    @megane_kun@lemmy.world avatar

    Excellent point, but I just want to comment on this:

    He could very quickly end up characterized as a Musk-like buffoon…

    Steve Huffman idolizes Elon Musk. Being characterized as any flavor of Musk-like would be taken in as praise rather than the condemnation that is intended.

    Mewithband,

    I’m a normal user and just want a place to browse comments and read comments I don’t care if it’s Reddit or something else.

    TinyPizza,
    TinyPizza avatar

    The news, despite our perception, has largely never been about speaking truth to the injustices around us. Both historically and now, its used largely as a veiled mouthpiece of the powerful around us who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. The examples that we think of when groundbreaking journalism comes to mind are almost always the exception and often end poorly for the brave who bring them to light.

    Over the past 5 years this has become even more salient to me. I've been to protests and the coverage will produce an entirely different picture that gets presented to those not in attendance. There were protests in my city during the party primary debates and the footage was edited to make crowds look smaller and in the case of our DSA chapter, they cut to a different camera anytime they were about to be in frame.

    Trying not be be tin foil hatty there, but was at the marches and then watched all the different feeds. Calling something so obviously curated "news" feels like the information dystopia has been here much longer than we give it credit.

    aquarisces,

    Turning mods and power users off Reddit, even casual users who are getting tired of the disarray in their subscribed subreddits are unsubscribing - I definitely think it's having an impact.

    xc2215x,

    Reddit will be less popular than Discord and Twitch but will not die. Use KBin and Lemmy.

    artisanrox,
    artisanrox avatar

    Well, Gab is still kinda around and so is """TrUtH Social....it'll be a garbage bin that collects nationalists and pr0n soon enough.

    _Hyperion,

    I am not going back after june30, Reddit ceo behaviour is something people should go against, even if it’s Apple i would dump them all and make the switch
    Especially since Reddit is user generated content there’s no point to stick to it regardless

    Those mods who are helping in needs should make extra effort to help user transition out of Reddit too, those who could help should also

    It’s user generated content for Christ sake!

    Wisely,

    Yes that is my concern as well. There seems to be an Elon effect for CEOs where they are thinking they can say and do whatever and it will barely affect them.

    I am just one person but I don't want to contribute to their egos and harmful behavior.

    Maxcoffee,
    Maxcoffee avatar

    About 95% of the time I spent on Reddit was via a third party app on my phone, so come June 30 I physically can't do that at all.

    Thanks good guy Spez for helping me beat this addiction.

    someguy3,

    User generated, user sorted, user moderated. Volunteers don't like being used so the CEO can get rich.

    !deleted162668,

    deleted_by_author

    •
    burgersc12,

    The second the replies from the AMA stopped I realized i was gonna have to find an alternative to Reddit. I was 50/50 before that, since Joey was disappearing. Once i saw the replies from not only spez, but the three other accounts representing Reddit, I knew I had to leave. It was clear they didn't give a shit about anything but telling blatant lies and forcing people on their app.

    Maxcoffee,
    Maxcoffee avatar

    I think it was a success no matter how mainstream news outlets or Reddit want to spin it.

    The mods of subreddits very cleverly pointed out that the direction Reddit is heading in stinks and even all the masses who don't care about it still got the message though being inconvenienced by not having access to their favorite echo chamber for a few days. Just look at all the comments on "should we open up" posts from pissed off mouth breathers basically demanding they return things to normal.

    At the end of the day, of cause Reddit was going to force mods to open up their subs or remove them. The mods never really had any power in the situation anyway and the precedent of Reddit just taking over subs was already well established. If Lemmy or Kbin was another 5+ years in development with a couple of much larger communities already well established then the exodus might have approached Digg levels again, but the lack of easy mainstream alternatives means that Reddit was always going to get its way eventually.

    baggachipz,
    baggachipz avatar

    I would like to point out that the Digg migration didn't happen overnight. It happened over the course of weeks and months, even though ten years later it feels like it happened overnight. There were plenty of people saying "fuck off, Digg is fine" after v4 launched.

    Nougat,

    It happened over the course of years, if you count the HD-DVD key thing as an early starting point.

    abff08f4813c,
    abff08f4813c avatar

    You know, I used to be that guy. spez looks cool. He's great. Reddit is one of the good guys, defenders of free speech. They do things better than other big tech - like if you get permabanned you can still log in and see your history, you can still download and save your content, not like when FB or Google kicks you out, etc etc.

    But what the protests taught me is that, even this isn't good enough. Reddit's not one of the good guys. It was a hard lesson to learn, but one that I needed to learn.

    Rather than being the exception, I'd guess that there are a lot more like me who have had their eyes open. And now open and looking for alternatives.

    doophy,

    Maybe it’s the news outlets I frequent, but I haven’t read anything describing the protests as a failure. Anyone want to provide a source or two?

    moon_matter,
    moon_matter avatar

    I have seen it called a failure on Reddit because some mods were either forcefully removed or gave in once they were threatened with removal. At which point, as some people here have been saying, they switched tactics to flooding the subs with funny images instead. There are also videos from people like Louis Rossmann who is disappointed with how easily some mods gave in.

    For those who don't know, he put in monumental effort trying to get a right to repair bill passed in his state, only to get back doored at the last minute by weasel words in the bill, effectively neutering it at the 11th hour. Meanwhile, people with realistically nothing on the line are caving to pressure over the ability to moderate a social media website. It's understandably disheartening for him.

    1chemistdown,
    1chemistdown avatar

    It didn't fail, r/all is a shit show right now. Or, it's a porn show. Porn is all over r/all, r/popular is getting hit by it. F-u/spez made front page porn popular again. A lot of the porn pages have switched to other things; only fans being only fans, literally. Etc. you get the idea. I cannot imagine the board is happy.

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