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r/ProgrammerHumor will be shutting down to protest Reddit's API changes

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Re: r/ProgrammerHumor will be shutting down to protest Reddit's API changes

#191

Post by jonathankoren »

willcipriano wrote: post #42
jonathankoren wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Twitter is dead.

> Posted: 6:00 PM Jun 6, 2023 > 107.7M Views You sure about that? https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1666203439146172419

Putting aside the dubious methodology behind that metric, I’d like to point out that’s precisely the wrong metric to be paying attention to. You need to look at the traffic and retention numbers of the power users, and better yet the critical users in the social graph. Power user traffic has declined 25% since Elon.

The reason why this number is more important than overall user growth, is because social networks don’t decline, they chug along, until the collapse all at once, like a bridge with a key support knocked out. By studying the collapse look of Friendster, MySpace, Snap (which technically still exists), this predictor of collapse has been identified.

So yeah Twitter is dead. The rest of the network just doesn’t know it yet.

See:

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/17/twitters-top-users-are-posti... https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29196654/

https://arxiv.org/abs/1302.6109

Re: r/ProgrammerHumor will be shutting down to protest Reddit's API changes

#192

Post by breput »

willcipriano wrote: post #42
jonathankoren wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Twitter is dead.

> Posted: 6:00 PM Jun 6, 2023 > 107.7M Views You sure about that? https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1666203439146172419

Do you really trust those numbers?

Twitter has all the inventive in the world to artificially inflate view counts and have done similar, sketchy things recently[0].

[0] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/02/report-musk-had-...

Re: r/ProgrammerHumor will be shutting down to protest Reddit's API changes

#193

Post by gnoop »

liotier wrote: post #134
taspeotis wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Users in a browser can see ads; the cost is subsidised.

Users in a browser, with no ad blocking - the five remaining ones...

Sadly, there's plenty of them. Probably using MS Edge because that's what their computer came with. No adblocker installed.

Re: r/ProgrammerHumor will be shutting down to protest Reddit's API changes

#194

Post by Solvency »

tredre3 wrote: post #160
Solvency wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does everyone forget Discourse? It's quietly enabling all of the best topic/product/niche-specific commmunities out there. https://discourse.mcneel.com as an example is a thriving treasure trove for CAD/Nurbs/product modelers/architects/etc.

I'm trying to forget it. Honestly Discourse is truly awful. Navigation is terrible, finding stuff is terrible, the UX in general is just so bad compared to what it tries to replace (BB forums).

How it is any different from a streamlined BB forum?

* Topics are sorted the exact same way as a BB, by default. * Posts have all the usual multimedia features. * The search actually works. * It's super fast and minimal.

I'm generally curious what your UX frustrations are here...

Re: r/ProgrammerHumor will be shutting down to protest Reddit's API changes

#195

Post by test098 »

hn_thrwn wrote: post #171
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All the major subs are either temporarily or permanently shutting down in protest. But I'd just add there is a pretty major difference between "temporarily" and "permanently". Major kudos to r/ProgrammerHumor and other subs that are doing it right - saying they will be shutting down indefinitely unless Reddit changes their stance. Just saying you're only going to shut down for a couple days is essentially theater -…

[flagged]

reddit the company doesn't produce any content. they rely on people creating communities, cultivating them, and actively moderating them (for free!). i'd say that gives those creators more of a claim to ownership than the platform hosting that content. reddit doesn't exist without them - what value does the site have if they kick out everyone who "occupies" reddit.com?

would you participate in an online forum only populated with chatbots?

Re: r/ProgrammerHumor will be shutting down to protest Reddit's API changes

#196

Post by afavour »

nostromo wrote: post #183
afavour wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that Twitter is far from dead but you’re choosing a bad example. > The main Twitter video view metric is triggered when a user watches a video for at least 2 seconds and sees at least 50% of the video player in-view. So anyone that had the (auto playing) video in view for two seconds as they scrolled through their feed. Multiplied by the number of times it’s in their feed. It’s a pretty meaningless number.

If you think that’s bad, wait until you hear how they measure broadcast and cable television viewership.

What does that have to do with Twitter’s popularity, though?

Re: r/ProgrammerHumor will be shutting down to protest Reddit's API changes

#197

Post by Firmwarrior »

jacobsenscott wrote: post #56
bawolff wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes it happens, but often it doesn't. E.g. fandom is doing as good as ever despite many leaving in protest events. Time will tell which this is.

"good as ever" means what for fandom. I've never heard of it.

try to google any TV show or video game, it's the completely worthless spam blog that pollutes most of the results

Re: r/ProgrammerHumor will be shutting down to protest Reddit's API changes

#198

Post by KennyBlanken »

valine wrote: post #22

There’s a small but real chance that this movement turns into a mass exodus from reddit. Mismanagement can absolutely kill social media companies, and when it happens it happens fast. Take the mass exodus from FreeNode as an example. The thing to watch for is if the admins take control of any major subreddits. That’s what killed FreeNode.

I think this conflict has been long brewing and has little to do with Apollo, and more to do with powermods running many subreddits not liking that the bots they use will get charged for API usage.

I think powermods don't want to draw the slightest attention to themselves (because users and press would start looking at them a bit too closely) or how/why they use bots.

The overwhelming majority of popular or even "popular niche" subreddits are moderated by a small handful of people, some of whom have moderation powers in hundreds of subreddits. A lot of mods have gone to the trouble of trying to hide it by using alts, but a lot of them just don't care / are proud of how many subs they mod. I'd be shocked if a number of them aren't getting paid or otherwise compensated by groups like PR firms.

Speaking of which, you know who else doesn't want to pay for API calls? Said PR firms, who are known to scan reddit posts for mention of client names so they can do damage control and manipulation.

These people run their subreddits like fiefdoms and they'll do petty nonsense like shadowban you from every subreddit they moderate because you accidentally piss them off in one.

At one point it was common to post in any of a number of subreddits powermods didn't like and discover you'd been preemptively shadowbanned because their bot was scanning for posts in those subreddits.

Re: r/ProgrammerHumor will be shutting down to protest Reddit's API changes

#199

Post by Macha »

neilv wrote: post #144

I don't practically see how a popular subreddit can shut down. Corporate can just install different mods. The user base mainstreamed a long time ago, and I would be surprised if there was much on-principle meaningful collective action. OTOH, taking away someone's beloved app, hitting them with big usability downgrade... that's not just principle, and they could lose those users.

There are some subreddits which are more seperate from the mod team (How much does it really matter who runs r/aww? It can run on inertia for a very long time, for sure), and where a very small contributing group can provide content to a much wider and more casual reading group.

But then there's some where the mods and other highly active users are a more active part in making it what it is. Think subs with weekly book clubs, or game challenges, or what not organised by the mods. Is Reddit going to get staff for all these niches to deliver the same level of experience? Probably not.

Re: r/ProgrammerHumor will be shutting down to protest Reddit's API changes

#200

Post by websap »

sp332 wrote: post #90
dargscisyhp wrote: post #32

Why are API calls less cost-efficient than getting the same information on a browser?

A lot of third-party apps don't show Reddit's ads.

Why not update the API contract that if you use the Reddit API you need to render the ads? If you don't render the Ads they can come up with some pricing model. Seems like Reddit's pricing is designed by an MBA intern who just joined silicon valley.
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