The strange thing about reddit refugees on Lemmy is that they have this weird sense that the platform they left actually died when they did so. The trith is that the vast majority did not migrate and are happily eating their spoonfed shit.

When we say it's dead, we mean what is used to be is dead. But let's not pretend the site actually died or is no longer working. We can all (justifiably) think it's a shit filled shell of it's former self without being in denial.

Twitter’s response to a request for comment regarding its Boulder offices was an automatic email with a poop emoji. Twitter CEO Elon Musk tweeted in May that this is the new auto-response for press inquiries.

I can't believe this is real, what an absolute clown show.

I find it interesting that so many subs going private caused issues with the entire site. I'm not a programmer/tech person, but I don't really understand why that would happen. Did it just create a bandwidth bottle neck or something as users flooded non-blacked out subs?

Honestly, it was probably intentional. People shit on spez (rightfully) but he's doing his job perfectly. He's looking like an incompetent man child, and finger pointing at a third party using an obviously and probably intentionally weak narrative. He's put all the focus on himself and how stupid he looks. He's a punching bag, and in the mean time everyone at the corporate level that actually enacted these changes and is forcing this platform shift is remaining a) anonymous and b) out of the crosshairs.

Thanks for grabbing the text, that's very helpful. Good for /r/videos, way to send a strong message.

Praise porn-Jesus, horny be his name.

Honest question - what's a tankie? I feel like I've seen them mentioned a ton on Lemmy but I'd never heard the term prior to a few days ago. From the image it looks like a maga/skinhead combo?

Absolutely not

At that point Digg had a serious power user and astroturfing problem

I do not disagree with anything you said, and I agree that Reddit (as they want it to be) will come out of this just fine. That being said, Reddit does have a lot of the same major problems Digg had at the time, especially astroturfing and spam content, and I don't expect that to go away. Over the past couple years most of the posts on the front pages are often bot generated and/or posted karma farms, and it's becoming more and more common to see bot brigades in the comments of everything, manipulating the dialogue.

I've commented loads on here that I haven't felt a sense of community on Reddit in years, and it's getting more and more cookie cutter and instagrammy by the day. It's become something I just mindlessly scroll through instead of ever really engaging with, and tons of the posts are really just socially engineered ads. I'm really liking Lemmy, it feels like a fresh start. I miss a lot of the content, but I love that it's more engaging. IDC if it doesn't become the most popular thing, if I can come here and actually engage with people/content rather than just amble through it apathetically, I'm 100% down.

I posted this on Kbin too, but I thought people might find it interesting here as well. I feel like maybe younger/shorter term users, and other people really don't fully understand what's going on with Reddit, and how it's been building to a crescendo for a while.

tl;dr: This shift in Reddit has been coming for awhile, and was heralded years ago by fundamental changes they made to how users engage with their platform, most specifically by turning "/r/all" into "/r/onlywhatwewantyoutosee".

I was a Reddit user for 12 years and change. I pre-date the Digg migration, and honestly I thought the years after that were its peak. There were warning signs that it was going downhill at many points in time, but I think the moment that really signaled Reddit was never going to return to what made it popular and successful is when they removed NSFW subs from /r/all...even though they'd rolled out /r/popular a year or two prior, supposedly for that purpose.

It's not because of the restriction of NSFW subs in and of itself, it's the implications/precedents that were set for the service as a whole. At that point, it became crystal clear that Reddit wanted to make sure the vast majority of users would be stuck with reddit recommended content only, and from there out it's felt more like user manipulation for maximum advertising. Think about it - probably 50% of the most popular posts are either thinly veiled ads, or posts LOADED with ads that Reddit is surely getting clickshare revenue for linking to. Then there's the sponsored posts hidden in with the normal posts, and the banner ads inserted between those.

The point of /r/all was to show everything, in real time, as it was growing in popularity. That's how people discover things they like that they didn't know existed - but finding those things, means spending less time in the controlled environment engaging with the content they most want you to engage with, and making them less revenue as a result. When /r/all turns into "/r/onlywhatcorporatewantsyoutosee", there's really no going back or improving. This API bullshit is just the next iteration of that same long term strategy - control what users see and interact with by forcing them to stay in their tightly controlled environment

Hate to by the pessimist, but he's not wrong. Most subs will open back up tomorrow, I doubt most will close again. The users that aren't on board will jump ship, but a greater percentage will likely just grumble and complain while they continue using the service. It's what they're banking on.

They're not getting me back. I doubt that will affect their bottom line much, but it's all I can do.

I pointed this out in another thread, but the sheer amount of comments being posted when 95% of the subs (ballpark?) were dark was like.... impossible. I think the amount of bots on reddit is staggeringly higher than people realize, myself included.

I DO NOT WANT MY TV TO HAVE A FUCKING CAMERA OR A MICROPHONE

I don't speak for everyone obviously, but to piggy-back on your comment a little, I personally have found myself looking inward/smaller more because of some of the things you referenced. "you get less for what you pay for" - 100% agree, so I pay for less, and try to find value more. I used to buy coffee out nearly every day, now I rarely do. We (wife and I) rarely eat out because it's exorbitantly expensive. We used to love going to breweries and just putzing around new places, but now we meet up with friends and visit their homes more. I feel like with everything being both expensive and polarizing in some way, I'd just rather spend more time with my friends and loved ones, and not worry about how much i'm expected to tip on this beer that is $4 more than it used to be!

Great article and summary but man, whatever happened to editorial review? There are three or four major grammatical errors in that short piece. It's unfortunate because it's extremely well written otherwise, and does a great job of reporting objectively which is very rare these days.

Same man. I'm also trying to get out of my shell and contribute as well. I have thousands of reddit comments, but only a few posts in 12 years, mainly because I didn't see the point. But here, where there are 1-2 orders of magnitude fewer users, what I have to say or post may genuinely interest somebody AND be seen by said person. If people don't like it, that's fine, at least it was there for them to see and not like!

But apparently the owners think this guy Spez is a good fit to run their company, somehow

He's exactly what they want. A complete straw man with a hateable face, a genuine Nimrod that thinks he's the smartest guy in any room he's ever been in. Sprinkle in being a privelaged yes man and he's the perfect face for an ownership group that wants to remain anonymous. He's literally Tom from Succession, might even be who that character is based on IRL.

I think that's kind of proof-positive for just how much content on Reddit is now controlled and pushed by Reddit itself in some way. If 75-80% of the subs where content gets hosted are not adding content, but there hasn't been a meaningful dip in content, it's because Reddit is the one controlling the content.

Stick around the cute animals are growing by the day! Seriously on Saturday I could only find one community dedicated to animals. Today while browsing I found like EIGHT!

Hey I'm new to Federverse, and trying to get my bearings. How can I bring value/help this alternative thrive? Any tips?