If Reddit phased out 3rd party apps gradually and tactfully, do you think this would have gone the way it has? The Reddit app is terrible, but is it any worse than navigating and learning the fediverse so far? Be honest.

Niello, 10 months ago

The hostile response to the users and mods are what did it for me, since while I'm against reducing users choice I don't use mobile apps to browse Reddit I'd probably stayed a bit longer. The need for companies to make money is also understandable, but when they fail to deliver good experience to users that's when their monetary gain should be stripped away.

Computerchairgeneral, 10 months ago

Honestly? Yeah, I probably would have stuck around. I think if they had given more notice then the protest would have been a lot more muted and you wouldn't have seen as many people jump ship for the fediverse. Although, it's not really anger or spite that's been keeping me on the fediverse and away from Reddit. When I learned RIF was shutting down I was more annoyed than anything else. But every action Reddit has taken since then has convinced me that it's just going to become a worse platform as time goes on. Yes, the fediverse is hard to navigate at first and a lot of sites are struggling under a user base that was never expected to grow so rapidly. Still, I appreciate the smaller communities here and I've been more active here in a week than I was during how many years I've been on Reddit. There's a novelty to figuring things out that I never really had with Reddit.

can, 10 months ago

Exactly, this is hardly about API pricing anymore.

keeb420, 10 months ago

it feels like watching a friend unexpectedly emotionally abuse their spouse in front of you. like what do you do. in this case all you can really do is walk away.

Glaive0, 10 months ago

I’m here because Reddit told me they view me as a wallet, not a participant, contributor, or anything else.

The fediverse isn’t and may never be strictly “better”, but neither will Reddit. Reddit has a singular vision of worse quality and worse management going forward. They may claw BACK some of what they’ve chucked out the window, but they’ve shown they’re not going to make the product better. Ever. Just different versions of bad.

Had they taken a boiled frog approach, I’d be there a lot longer. I wasn’t excited to pay, but it would become a decision of “pay for a better experience or get something worse for freeTM”. That’s a different choice than “use my worsening app or screw off.” They made the choice relatively easy where they could have made it a lot more nuanced.

Haunting_Tale_5150, 10 months ago

I was a bit sad about the API changes, but I kept official app around for uploading video/image posts since those hosted on reddit started to get more views than imgur/other host website ones. So I wouldn't have minded switching apps full time. What got me angry was Spez's mistreatment of the Apollo dev. I am absolutely not a fan of the Apollo app, but no one should be treated that way. Plus the realization that many websites that use reddit API that I use frequently will go away as well (such as saving videos, pushshift reddit search, and spotlistr). That's what got me initially away from reddit.

jubilationtcornpone, 10 months ago

Same here. I didn't really care that much about the API changes. I can understand the rationale behind them. Spez being a huge dick to basically everyone was what sealed the deal for me. I ditched Facebook 8 years ago when I realized that I was having to hide more posts than not because it had completely devolved into a digital landfill. Reddit has been slowly moving that way but Steve Huffman has clearly stated, in so many words (and actions), that his and Reddit's goal is to emulate the larger social media conglomerates and to move that direction as quickly as possible and at all costs. Including the cost of eliminating what made Reddit unique.

I'm not interested in that. There are are a handful of communities that I enjoy being part of (here's looking at you r/daddit) but I'm not willing to support a corporation that is hell bent on doing bad business just to be part of that community.

Reddit/Steve is just now publicizing things that have most likely been talked about in the boardroom for a while. They're gambling that this will blow over. I'm inclined to agree with them. But I didn't go back when I quit Facebook and I'm not going back now. Regardless of how this whole deal with the protests pans out, the future of Reddit is pretty bleak, at least in my opinion.

Seasoned_Greetings, 10 months ago

Well..

1. Are you going to ask me if I want to go from a platform with no ads (3rd party reddit) to a platform where every 3rd post is an unavoidable ad (reddit official) or a slightly more complex but similar community with no ads anywhere (fediverse)? I don't want heinz ketchup telling me that their color is manufactured to be perfect a dozen times a day in my community. I paid a 3rd party app to remove that and I'm not going back.

2. Asking if it's harder to learn the reddit official app than beta testing various fediverse apps is missing the point. Reddit's app exists to extract money from you and has no reason to improve your experience by its nature. Beta fediverse apps exist to eventually polish the fediverse experience.

burgersc12, 10 months ago

I think i would have switched to RedReader or whatever ad-free app was still available, and continued using Reddit like always.

terath, 10 months ago

I'm not sure I would have ultimately left even due to the current API drama. But the subsequent comments by their CEO caused me to not only leave but delete all my content from their site. What an arrogant self important stupid jackass.

Xperr7, 10 months ago

Kbin has been so much better than what I've seen of the official app. I see what I want to see, not recommendations, and, more importantly, I can see a lot more posts at once compared to new reddit and the reddit app. That's why I don't use Squabbles, and it's why I used Baconreader and old reddit.

Friend, 10 months ago

Yep kbin feels like a forum/discussion/community from the outset. Official reddit app feels like a poor man's Instagram.

Mintyytea, 10 months ago

If this stuff hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t even known how theyve been treating the mods badly since forever xD I definitely would have kept using the app, I was starting to do a lot of doomscrolling on there. I just didn’t know there was anything wrong with the company.

However, them messing up like this opened me to the idea of a social media that isn’t for profit. Even if this stuff hadn’t happened, it would happen later. It happens to all the social medias, and it happened to twitter. Because of this event this time, I learned the term “enshittification”, and I think it’s eventually not possible for the social media companies to continue to be profitable without hurting the user experience more and more.

It’s great to me that this stuff with reddit happened because more is gonna happen anyway. If they get to ipo, they’ll probably give more ads, they’ll probably try to push it even more as a tik tok/youtube shorts experience, which I still think those platforms overtake reddit on this field anyway.

I never thought a social media that isn’t for profit was possible and it’s exciting to me that it might be the direction we go in. I’m excited for both fediverse stuff and also the wikipedia non profit app “trust cafe” wt___something.

livus, 10 months ago

Honestly? If Reddit had phased out third part apps gradually and tactfully I would have phased out my redditing gradually and tactfully.

I only browsed reddit on old or rif because otherwise it's just too slow, not info-dense, and has a facebook feel.

Being part of a mass migration instead of having to gradually move accross has been a steeper learning curve, sure, but it was always going to happen to me once reddit ditched old.reddit, and this way at least I have fellow noobs.

Raji_Lev, 10 months ago

Honestly, being one of the dozen or so people who still prefers to do his internetting with a computer rather than a smartphone, the whole app drama doesn't really bother me one way or another. What DOES bother me is Reddit deciding that they need to force a miserable ad-ridden experience on the people viewing and contributing to their site, plus knowing that if and when this goes through, old.reddit is almost certain to be next on the chopping block. Everything that's happened after that announcement has only reassured me that getting off of Reddit now is the right choice

meggied90, 10 months ago

For me it's not about the immediate abilities to use Reddit/Lemmy, is about my projected ability.

Yeah the Reddit app sucks and it's slightly better than the iOS apps for Lemmy... for now.

Reddit has had years to improve their app and has not made much, if any effort to do so.

Meanwhile I've had two updates today to my beta iOS app for Lemmy, fixing bugs before I've even had a chance to find them and enabling new features literally every day.

The future only looks promising for one of these platforms, and that's why I'd rather weather Lemmy's growing pains instead of endure Reddit's stagnant state.

words_number, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago)

I much rather use a platform that tries to offer the best possible user experience but isn't fully there yet than one that had a decent user experience in the past but decided to make it much worse because they can. Especially if platform A is based on free (as in freedom) software and doesn't run on servers controlled by a single entitiy.

I would have switched earlier but there wasn't much content on lemmy, so this was just a great opportunity to do it. Apart from that I have to say I don't really miss much functionality after the switch (using jeroba).

HobbitFoot, 10 months ago

They would have lost users, but it would have been a fraction of what is happening now.

They first could have decided to restrict the API to certain licensed uses, which by itself would have forced a lot of apps to change how they do things. Reddit could also use the AI scrapers as a good reason. Then, they could have continued to do what they've been doing, make new features that don't work in third party apps to push people off.

INHALE_VEGETABLES, 10 months ago

For me anyway, the first nail in the coffin was removing the downvote/upvote counter, second nail was old.reddit... They were on their way to being shit long ago.

can, 10 months ago

Reddit has never been the same to me since the algorithm changed and the front page was the same all day.