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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?

#351

Post by johnnyanmac »

mschuster91 wrote: post #246
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…

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 thr…

I imagine that will be the upcoming drama after the looming "payout reddit karma" drama passes over. Reddit's been hostile to NSFW posts and I think at some point soon-ish (1-2 years) they are going to pull a tumblr as well. That will be when the site really starts to die.

I just hope the fediverse or any other alternative is preparing itself for that next big drama. Because I feel it's a matter of when at this point, not if.

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

#352

Post by manojlds »

screye wrote: post #112
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…

The exodus was worse than the numbers indicate. Platforms are heavily Pareto skewed.[1]. The top 5% of reddit users are the primary (posters, mods) and secondary (commenters) content creators who are responsible for 95% of the life on reddit. The protest was led by this top 5%, and I presume they're also the main group that atrophied. The scale of damage is therefore underreported in simple usage statistics. [1] I ju…

Pareto screwed

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

#353

Post by Obscurity4340 »

Agingcoder wrote: post #133
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.

Agreed it means I no longer read Reddit at all because Apollo’s gone. I tried last week ( after a few months off Reddit) to install the Reddit app, and it’s appallingly bad. It’s so confusing that I’m not quite sure what sub I’m reading, what’s user generated, and what’s an ad ( I was never a prolific poster, commenter, mod or anything - just reading is difficult now ) So independently of the politics, I’ve tried to…

> Reddit app, and its Apollongly bad

Fixed that for you ;)

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

#354

Post by Obscurity4340 »

jalapenos wrote: post #258
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.

Same, Reddit saved me from it by cutting my 3rd-party app cord. It's just bizarre to me that they didn't try to buy one of these apps to replace their own. That would've been a net win. It seems instead, as throughout their history, that their leadership is constantly trying to destroy it. If they had external investors they'd be being hit with shareholder lawsuits constantly.

They already did that it was AlienBlue and thry wrecked it if my understanding is correct

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

#355

Post by midasz »

candiddevmike wrote: post #82
Pathogen-David wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took the protest as an opportunity to quit my 12 year Reddit addiction cold turkey and never came back, seems like I'm not the only one. Sometimes I miss /r/houseplants but I'm better off overall.

What did you switch to?

Lemmy is pretty great and I still use it now and again, but I've mainly just stopped consuming content in that way. I subscribed to a quality newspaper for news / analysis / opinion; I stay on HN for the technical news & discussions.

Honestly once you break the (to me addictive) loop of opening reddit/lemmy you're not missing out on much. Whenever I get a reddit search result it redirects to my selfhosted libreddit instance (connect through tailscale). Public libreddit instances are basically always broken, but a single user one which is just used for the occasional search result works perfectly fine.

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

#356

Post by Uptrenda »

intended wrote: post #261
Uptrenda wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit mods have some of the worst reputations for power abuse on the entire internet. People in the comments are saying that many of these people quit with the implication that this is bad. But what if it's not? There are quite a few stories of these people being horrible gate keepers that pushed certain pet agendas. It's possible with these people out that new ideas can flourish and more people will be able to part…

My constant answer to this is to volunteer oneself. Please. There are many subs, which lack mods and need to throw bodies at mod queues. If it helps, I’ve seen Reddit outreach programs to mods, and they used to respect the opinions of certain mods and subs. Spez recently joined a mod team. It’s enlightening, one of those “everyone should do this” kind of experiences. Reddit modding in particular is not just modding,…

You can't just sign up as a mod though. The people who are mods are there because they were members of a select clique and when recruiting they're only going to choose similar people. The closest you can get to having an open process is starting your own sub but then: you've always been free to yell where no one can hear you.

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

#357

Post by seanhunter »

Pathogen-David wrote: post #80
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…

I took the protest as an opportunity to quit my 12 year Reddit addiction cold turkey and never came back, seems like I'm not the only one. Sometimes I miss /r/houseplants but I'm better off overall.

Yup, exact same situation here. There are some subreddits I miss but overall it has been a massive net positive.

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

#358

Post by midasz »

replwoacause wrote: post #42
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.

Same thing here. I stopped browsing Reddit mindlessly and only end up there now if a Kagi search takes me there. Otherwise I am almost completely off the platform, which is saying a lot because I used to spend 1-2 hours a day there.

> if a Kagi search takes me there

Same and mainly because Kagi let's me rewrite the url to a private libreddit instance. Otherwise I'd have downranked it.

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

#359

Post by timwaagh »

rglullis wrote: post #294
lawgimenez wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

If you're obsessed with ensuring others can't make money running something like Reddit then sure

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

#360

Post by kmlevitt »

littlestymaar wrote: post #349
srcreigh wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

is your sub growing?

In practice subs are always growing while there's activity on it, because barely anyone ever leaves a subreddit.

This is true. But we are also up in terms of page views per month, unique visitors, etc., etc. reddit has probably been getting gradually bigger each year for as long as I can remember, and it doesn’t look like that trend has peaked off yet. At least not the subs I have access to.
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