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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?

#291

Post by wkat4242 »

akaij wrote: post #161
sorahn wrote: post #7

My outcome was the shutdown of Apollo, rather than the blackout. I no longer read Reddit on my phone. (Except for a link or two clicked from something else, but even then I go to `old.reddit` instead to read the comments). That was really where I wasted the most time on it. It’s kind of a relief. I think I was too “lazy” to stop on my own because Apollo was so comfortable to use.

Apollo still works perfectly if you sideload it: https://old.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/14nzii3/how_to_c... https://github.com/ichitaso/ApolloPatcher/releases/latest https://github.com/EthanArbuckle/Apollo-CustomApiCredentials

What's so great about Apollo I wonder? I've never tried it before :) what does it do differently?

Edit: oh never mind, I've been digging into the links but it looks like it's iOS - only. So that explains why I've never come across it before.

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

#292

Post by kmlevitt »

nerdponx wrote: post #243
kmlevitt wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Wouldn’t those same people just do the same thing everywhere on social media across the Internet though? Because if so it’s still doing well in the relative rankings.

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

#293

Post by kmlevitt »

srcreigh wrote: post #210
kmlevitt wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

is your sub growing?

Yes, still. I’m a mod on a few other decent sized subs (30k-ish) actually and most of them are still growing, unless the topic at hand is clearly outdated.

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

#294

Post by rglullis »

lawgimenez wrote: post #287
rglullis wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you there, though? Can't you grow your community in any platform that is less user hostile?

I am from a Facebook obsessed country, I think Reddit is a good alternative. The discussions are healthy though I’m surprised.

I don't think there is a fundamental problem with reddit's userbase for smaller communities. But I think that we should avoid centralized platforms at all costs. Sooner or later, you will realize that "your" sub is not really yours and that you just gave a lot of your time and work for someone to exploit the data mine.

Put aside peer pressure for a moment, couldn't you create your community on Lemmy to make sure that you are always in control of your social media presence?

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

#296

Post by llbeansandrice »

jiggawatts wrote: post #92
_kulang wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just have a a look through /r/all and compare to what it was before. Good moderation essentially led to well curated content. At the moment more subreddits contribute in my opinion worse content

/r/all has turned into a cesspit that makes 4chan look like the Library of Alexandria in comparison.

Yeah anyone trying to determine the outcome just by active users is missing the reality of what the platform has become.

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

#297

Post by intended »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #277
intended wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In that case Reddit should die. Reddit’s decision changed it previous equation with mods, and redefined the limits of power. Reddit, since inception, had never made specific hire fire decisions for mods, especially for purely monetary reasons. This makes it less volunteer moderation, and purely unpaid labor. NB: I would add return on investment to your cabinet of villains.

Reddit allows me to establish a community for free. I've established a number of them. If people don't want to be unpaid mods, they don't have to be. No one forced them into that. Do we need to address some things? Sure. But I have long advocated for the right of people to engage in unpaid labor or low paid labor if they choose to. It's exactly how Founders of startups create the company that makes them millionaires.…

> I've spent years saying that programmers make good money, then expect slave labor from writers and content developers.

> If people don't want to be unpaid XXX, they don't have to be. No one forced them into that

Insert blogger/writer/mod for xxx.

Maybe it would help, if this contradiction is clarified.

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

#298

Post by kmlevitt »

echelon wrote: post #241
kmlevitt wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. Re…

I don’t go on Reddit that much anymore and I haven’t been active as a mod on that sub for a very long time. But based on my experience doing it, users are quite good at identifying stupid bullshit and reporting it to mods, which makes it easy to spot. Plus they downvote low quality comments like crazy so it gets buried and people don’t even see it.

Because of those things Prank spammers usually don’t last long. Usually a small gang of people will try something like that and you can quickly ban them. They might try to come back on new accounts but eventually tire of it and find another way to keep themselves busy. The mod queue feature is quite efficient so we can ban reported junk much faster than they can post.

I’m not saying it couldn’t happen, but it would be more difficult than you might think. If you try to automated completely it would cost you an awful lot in fees (Open AI’s server bills are “eye-watering“ and if you go past the free limit they start passing that cost onto you), and the admin’s would probably be able to identify the accounts doing it and ban them site wide.

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

#299

Post by albert_e »

I have stopped visiting the site myself -- taking the opportunity to try and de-addict myself and recover some mental space and time. Working very well so far. Can't say I am missing anything in life.

There were only one or two occasions since then where I clicked on a reddit link when the context/topic was very compelling. Happy to report I did not feel the urge to browse away and bury myself in other reddit links and subreddits.

On desktop I have a uMatrix/uBO rule that blocks the domain completely. So inadvertent clicks before seeing the domain also get trapped.

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

#300

Post by kmlevitt »

weeblewobble wrote: post #289
kmlevitt wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 also facially absurd to anyone uses Reddit beyond scrolling the front page. Some malicious actor is fabricating 100 comments a day about the nitty gritty of the New York Times crossword?

Yeah if their AI commenting is all that good/convincing they should get out of social media and start the next trillion dollar company.
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