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Ask HN: What was the outcome of Reddit blackout?

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Re: Ask HN: What was the outcome of Reddit blackout?

#241

Post by echelon »

kmlevitt wrote: post #154
arp242 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That data seems wrong. I don't use Reddit much, but I checked the data aginast some smaller subs I sometimes check, and according to those charts they have just a few comments per day, but I know for a fact that's wrong. It's wrong for all subs I checked. For example: https://subredditstats.com/r/thethickofit Just 3 comments for Nov 22, 8 for Nov 23. But how does that square with the existence of this thread from Nob…

I still have mod status on a large-ish (70k+) subreddit so I can view reddit's internal traffic statistics for it, and these estimates are definitely wrong. These stats claim the sub has had 10-20 comments per day in just the past month, so maybe 300-600 tops. In reality it's had 1200+ comments just in the past week alone and probably closer to 5000 for the month. And you can see the activity with your own eyes in ev…

Did you participate in the blackout? What was your impression of it? Were any of the tools you used impacted by the API ban?

I think a much more effective strategy would be a user-led LLM "spamming" campaign.

Package up a lightweight, easy to use LLM for Windows users and let them turn their accounts into noise. Purposely generate overly-argumentative, blatantly wrong prose on every subject and in every subreddit.

Reddit would hate that. Just a hundred users engaging in it could probably tank the quality of the whole site.

Re: Ask HN: What was the outcome of Reddit blackout?

#242

Post by denimnerd42 »

xyst wrote: post #230
cxx wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apollo's shutdown was a blessing in disguise, I was addicted to Reddit and wasted hours on it before going to sleep. Thanks to that event I no longer browse or even feel the need to see what's going on, it's like quitting smoking, I literally feel better and relieved that I quit. I don't think I would've been able to stop on my own either, Apollo made it too easy.

Now I’m addicted to TT :dead:

tiktok made tv shows and movies unwatchable for me haha. that kind of media is just too slow. only sports at this point. I would say I watch 45m/day of tiktok. 5m here and there.

Re: Ask HN: What was the outcome of Reddit blackout?

#243

Post by nerdponx »

kmlevitt wrote: post #199
kmeisthax wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While this is absurdly conspiratorial, there is a grain of truth to it: early on in Reddit's history, the admins created fake accounts and posted on them to boost engagement[0]. More recently, after the blackout and user exodus, /r/de noticed a bunch of new German-language copies of popular English-language subs being created with a bunch of autotranslated comments[1]. So Reddit's administration is not above creating…

It's one thing to add stories to a startup website and created the illusion of a couple dozen users instead of just zero. But all these years later Reddit has millions and millions of unique users per month and is still one of the top ten most visited websites in the US and has been for many years, beat out only by google/meta properties and wikipedia etc. You can fake "activity" internally but it's harder to fake st…

It's not that Reddit is faking their own stats. The conspiracy theory is that these fake users are created by various non-Reddit organizations to promote an agenda, sell stuff, gather intelligence, etc. Reddit's level of awareness and complicity is secondary.

Re: Ask HN: What was the outcome of Reddit blackout?

#244

Post by Dylan16807 »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #202

Reddit has a right and a need to figure out monetization. This was part of that effort and it was likely painful but Reddit is dead anyway if it never figures out monetization. I didn't participate in the blackout. I felt the mods were wrong to take that approach. I did go to bat for blind mods. They need better mod tools than they have. That comment is here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36232441 Hopefully Re…

They did figure out monetization. Their revenue was skyrocketing over the last couple years before they decided to ruin the API.

Re: Ask HN: What was the outcome of Reddit blackout?

#245

Post by jimmytucson »

thaumaturgy wrote: post #48

The end result was a stalemate. Reddit did not change any of its policies. Enough of the people responsible for posting and managing content left the platform to cause a noticeable impact on it. Here's a fun thing to look at, https://subredditstats.com/ for any major subreddit, e.g.: https://subredditstats.com/r/worldnews https://subredditstats.com/r/explainlikeimfive https://subredditstats.com/r/videos All of the mo…

> sharp drop in July 2023

They shut off API access to their data around the very same time. Is that a coincidence?

Re: Ask HN: What was the outcome of Reddit blackout?

#246

Post by mschuster91 »

arp242 wrote: post #120
thaumaturgy wrote: post #48

The end result was a stalemate. Reddit did not change any of its policies. Enough of the people responsible for posting and managing content left the platform to cause a noticeable impact on it. Here's a fun thing to look at, https://subredditstats.com/ for any major subreddit, e.g.: https://subredditstats.com/r/worldnews https://subredditstats.com/r/explainlikeimfive https://subredditstats.com/r/videos All of the mo…

That data seems wrong. I don't use Reddit much, but I checked the data aginast some smaller subs I sometimes check, and according to those charts they have just a few comments per day, but I know for a fact that's wrong. It's wrong for all subs I checked. For example: https://subredditstats.com/r/thethickofit Just 3 comments for Nov 22, 8 for Nov 23. But how does that square with the existence of this thread from Nob…

For what it's worth: many of the NSFW subreddits are dead. Even r/gonewild, one of the OGs - either they've gotten closed due to being unmoderated or they've been overrun by onlyfxns spam, or they've been hit by some weird downranking like GW.

Particularly the nsfw loss hits hard for those interested in niche communities. We've lost tumblr, never had any of the Meta (FB, Instagram) views, Reddit is holding on on threads, Pornhub went down in flames following their outright incompetence, and Twitter has gotten a hellscape from EM's hopeless attempts to keep the spammers away (and his other antics).

Re: Ask HN: What was the outcome of Reddit blackout?

#247

Post by opportune »

I honestly think this was a finishing blow to reddit, which had already started declining in ~2019 due to TikTok and (anecdotally) an aggressive user acquisition strategy that had led to a big decline in content/discussion quality. Or even earlier, as mobile users replaced desktop and so things like long-form replies with links died off.

The biggest problem from the blackout and API drama isn't that some clients had to shut down. It's that, as a new user or a user that only uses the platform a little, it's much harder to discover good content organically now that most subreddits are NSFW or not on the /r/all feed. Even as someone who used reddit way more than any human ever should, I find the site a lot harder to use because I have to expend a lot more effort manually curating my subreddits when previously I could exhaust my personal feed and then just switch to /r/all - and I don't think I could ever discover some niche or zany community I didn't know about beforehand since I'd have to know to look for it to find it.

Since I doubt I'm alone in this, I think it's the beginning of the end for Reddit. It'll be a lot harder for new communities to form, existing small/medium/focused communities will struggle to gain members, and new users will probably think the site is empty and leave.

Re: Ask HN: What was the outcome of Reddit blackout?

#248

Post by jrflowers »

breckenedge wrote: post #237
jrflowers wrote: post #226

If you hated the mods, the mods lost. If you hated the admins, the admins lost. If you were a longtime user that is familiar with Reddit wholeheartedly supporting r/jailbait to bootstrap growth, you won because nothing about the website could bother you.

Was r/jailbait as bad as the name implies? I was a user for about 11 years and have never heard of it.

Yep.

Re: Ask HN: What was the outcome of Reddit blackout?

#249

Post by DoreenMichele »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #244
DoreenMichele wrote: post #202

Reddit has a right and a need to figure out monetization. This was part of that effort and it was likely painful but Reddit is dead anyway if it never figures out monetization. I didn't participate in the blackout. I felt the mods were wrong to take that approach. I did go to bat for blind mods. They need better mod tools than they have. That comment is here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36232441 Hopefully Re…

They did figure out monetization. Their revenue was skyrocketing over the last couple years before they decided to ruin the API.

Wikipedia indicates it's still a private company. My recollection is they are failing to hit figures that would make for an attractive buy out or IPO.

Re: Ask HN: What was the outcome of Reddit blackout?

#250

Post by Dylan16807 »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #249
Dylan16807 wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They did figure out monetization. Their revenue was skyrocketing over the last couple years before they decided to ruin the API.

Wikipedia indicates it's still a private company. My recollection is they are failing to hit figures that would make for an attractive buy out or IPO.

If profitability isn't enough for them, I have no sympathy.

And beyond that, how fast do they expect to grow after this many years? Be happy with a good thing! Their growth rate was very impressive!

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