I've seen that some subreddits went dark and said they'd come back in 2 days (June 14th), and others said they'd go dark indefinitely, until the API changes are rolled back. I'd like to make an appeal for the admins who're willing to go back: please don't.
I think Reddit wouldn't withstand 2 weeks to a month without their largest subreddits, and maybe they'd change their minds about API changes. Some may say they'd just make the subreddits public again and promote someone to mod (which I totally agree, they'll probably do that if the blackout endures for too much time), but I think most people don't realise the PITA it is to be a good mod, and just want to be one because of the status (I'm not an ex-mod btw, I just heard it is very complicated to moderate and I believe it really is).
Secondly, there's no guarantee that Reddit won't pull the rug again. Even if they roll back the changes and everyone goes back, they'll probably come up with this strategy again some time in the future. So instead of going back, stay in the Fediverse: all applications are open source AFAIK; you can run your own instance if you wish; you can defederate other instances if you wish; you can contribute with new features you miss or create a fork aplication of your own if you want to; heck, you could create your own Fediverse application if you want. And there won't be a scumbag to come and try stop you.
It's looking promising between Lemmy & Mastodon, things seem smoother than when I last checked them back when Elon started snapping Twitter.
It still doesn't seem to be anywhere near mainstream, it's mainly tech people and bots by the looks of things and I'm not sure how this is fixed without advertising and maybe not having to copy and paste links between servers.
Reddit had variety. Some of the neckbeards there didn't even use linux which, whilst being wrong, added a little color.
Reddit was moaning about the cost of maintaining a public API that is being heavily farmed by AI learning, could this be an issue for the hosting of Lemmy?
On the plus side, copy & paste in a browser works here!
I agree. Front page of reddit has been trash for the past 5 or so years. But it's smaller subreddits are where I spent my time. It became mainstream enough that there were communities for literally every topic or hobby imaginable. And they'd been around long enough for extensive wikis and info, and every question you can imagine has probably been asked and answered at some point. That's the part that I'm going to miss, something that took a decade to build.
But it's worth rebuilding that somewhere with the infrastructure like Lemmy. Not tied to a company.
I'm not really fussed about the wiki's and historic data but the fractured communities are a sore one.
I suspect after the blackout has eased it may be time for some evangelism about the fediverse on Reddit. But before evangelizing to anyone I need some experience of the platform and how it relates to the other areas of the fediverse to see if this is a realistic option for the majority of people who want something that 'just works'.
I heard quite a few subs mentioning backup Discord & Telegram groups and it would be nice if we could sell the fediverse to these groups as I'd really rather not deal with Discord, Telegram & Reddit regularly. I will tolerate it, like I do Whatsapp, as a tool to communicate with worthwhile people who don't really care about my views on software, if the alternative is a social media stream that's 95% free software enthusiasts.
Since Lemmy is based on federated servers like Mastadon the worst that happens is the admins of an instance see the excessive traffic and block the IP.
Agreed, I think it's a good time to be here: Mastodon has been gaining a lot of ground these days, thanks to Elon; other apps like Peertube, Pixelfed, Lemmy and Kbin are growing as well. Now I actually enjoy the experience of the Fediverse, and I hope it keeps growing and maybe dethrone current mainstream media.
Reddit was moaning about the cost of maintaining a public API that is being heavily farmed by AI learning
TL;DR: Spez is a scumbag and don't care if people use Reddit content to train AI models, he wants to kill 3rd party apps.
I don't think they're actually worried about people using their data to train AI models, since Sam Altman (OpenAI's CEO) is a Reddit investor and was a former chairman until 2022. I mean, either spez knew Sam was using it (my theory is that they're "friends" and spez knew it all along) OR spez didn't see Reddit content as valuable until now. Either way, Reddit started to limit access from mobile browsers, forcing users to use their official app. I don't know, but it seems to me spez is trying to kill 3rd party apps instead of just creating a better protection against scraping.
I was more meaning large scale pressure AI could be an issue fom small community and self hosted servers like the fediverse.
Reddit's change of mood on API is not a surprise, glad they kept it up for so long. What did seem shitty was the notice period and scale of the price hike.
So yeah.. Even if they revert shit I'm probably not going back there as much as I possibly can.
I say "as much as I possibly can" because Reddit has a stupid large archive of problem troubleshooting and solutions, which would make it difficult to completely abandon it in my opinion
I am actually done with Reddit at this moment. This blackout showed me what Reddit is without the communities and the people. It felt really empty and unusable and it won't get any better. CEO of Reddit is a certified idiot. Right now trying to figure out how to delete my posts/comments and stuff (with a script) before deleting my Reddit account.
Before you do... consider copying the text of your top posts into a doc, then reposting them here. It's OUR content, so we can take it with us when we leave.
I thought from the beginning that planning a blackout for just 2 days was self defeating. All they need to do is ride it out. And they got enough disinterested users and subs still active these two days that it's not really hurting them long term. The only way it hurst them is if it's a longer strike against engagement with Reddit
I'm sad thinking about all the valuable info out there that'll be deleted while people leave reddit, but I also don't think the company deserves the value the users have put into it.
Agreed. I have given a fair amount of my time and energy to creating a sense of community in several subreddits and have been a member for over a decade. But the fact that they suddenly see dollar signs and want to burn that social capital for a quick buck does not speak well for the future of the site. One way or another, they are going to sell out and fuck over the user to make money.
I haven't been this excited about the internet in a long time. It feels good to be a part of something that belongs to us, the people. Watching this grow gives me hope that one day we actually will be able to break free from capitalism.
I highly doubt they will budge. They're making a very loud statement by changing what they did. Because of that I will never look at reddit the same again. But on the other hand I'm glad it's came to what it has, I would have never sought out and found lemmy. I'm glad to be a part of something new.
I'm prob gonna get downvoted but I wanted to share exactly why FMHY is only doing 2 days.
I do not like Reddit or their actions, I know there's a lot of other people who do too, but it's a necessary evil for resources (like FMHY.) Even after having multiple backups and linking them in the private subreddit's message, lots of people were still relying on the Reddit version. (Apparently some people can't see the message - possibly a bug on Reddit's end.) There are also tons of people who are unable to get answers and whatnot from private subreddits.
Also, FMHY is going to fade to obscurity if and when it gets off of Reddit. It's where nearly everyone came from, and outside of that, there's not a lot of places people can find out about it. Same for r/piracy and other similar subreddits.
We're probably going to do a poll on whether or not to do a one/two day/s per week blackout, but doing it indefinitely is off the table.
I'm one of those who found FMHY and piracy related things through Reddit, and I understand you, like a lot of other communities there. But if everyone thinks the same, then Reddit will have almost every big community up and running, thus making this protest pointless.
A subreddit I moderate is shut down. When the other moderator started it, he checked the message showed up for both old and new reddit, and it did. Later, I got a flurry of notifications about join requests, and checked again. The message still showed up in old reddit, but not new. They might have intentionally hidden such messages either to keep people unaware of the reasons for the shutdown or to annoy moderators into reopening, or it might have been that they were A B testing something that accidentally broke it.
I honestly don't plan to. I've been way less into it in recent years, I used to doomscroll for hours at a time but now I have TikTok and Discord servers that I am more occupied with. I like Lemmy a lot better already, we just need more people to use it.
Agreed. As much as I'd like to think they won't, they will. They'll find a way to monetize the OF promotion subs, plus make the site more microblogging like... cuz apparently, that is what works regarding social networks. That and the fact that the crowd that they now dislike (us) has left, leaves them a clean slate to do whatever they want. And they will, just not with us.
I agree but I think also most of the quality posters will begin leaving as the platform becomes more shittified, beyond those of us that are quitting in protest. I have been noticing a significant decline in the quality of conversations in the last couple of years in a few of my subs, as some people obsessed with karma started inserting themselves in every possible conversation and steering the subs in the direction they wanted. Which is not Reddit's fault, but it seems to happen every time a social media platform reaches critical mass, and the karma system encouraged that. Some people almost literally live for the karma - how many times have you seen redditors complain about being downvoted? That sort of thing ends up attracting people desperate for attention.
I don't know about Digg, but the blackout kinda crashed their website/app. I think if we keep the protests going, they'll either have to roll back the changes, or open the subreddits by force and deal with low quality moderation.
Also, I think they did some irreparable damage to their image by not listening to their users, and this hopefully will kill their platform on the long term.
Same here. I've been commenting on any story I come across there mentioning the protests and crackdowns encouraging ppl to move. Word will get out, if we keep at it.
Reddit is being shelled with astroturfers right now, they're really desperate. That's why I just made my account and a new subcommunity for tulpamancers. If they start forcing subs online, it's all over for them.
Who am I kidding? I'm typing this on another site that isn't reddit, they're proper fucked.
Just as I expected and actually hoped for. Now they had to tip their hand and show themselves to everyone what kind of totalitarian assholes they really are. Meanwhile the fediverse is likely to hit one million users by the end of the week. So yeah, the second the media starts reporting on this in detail and it floods everyone's newsfeeds, it's game over for Reddit.
I'm going to try to take some time away from the internet. Might return to make content (mostly tabletop gaming stuff) sometime in the future. But for now I'm over it.
I am hoping that a community without advertising can be created. It would be a community where users PAY a monthly fee... as content creators should be rewarded for their contributions and MUST receive a fair share for their contributions. It would also have an open API so that tinkerers (and most of all, disabled people) can interact with the site in an accessible way.
I think its the perfect community, but how can we create it???
Heavily disagree. The internet was better when content was shared for no reason other than desiring to share content. Turning every opportunity to post content into a money generating system is what ruins social media over and over again. Literally every other social media can be monetized; content creators looking to make a buck should stay there.
I posted a lot on Reddit and in fact i never wanted to see any money for it. I don't post because of the money. Instead, I post for fun and for discussion.
Nothing of value was added by the megausers that were all over the front page.
The value was added in community discussion and the aggregation of knowledge from random people who had value information and knowledge to share on certain subjects.
That's what social media with paid ad-free option does already. So called "content creators" will be where the coin is, competing for monetization, making clickbaits, unnecessary filler and putting stupid faces on thumbnails. All that already exists.
The point of reddit was being free and community sourced, wich means there is no separation between users and content creators. Absence of economic interest was what lead to relevant and reliable content, to the point people started adding "reddit" to any google query.
do you really think that they kind of stuff that you would see on reddit deserves payment? Most of it is just typical forum style community posting, I feel like charging for that would kinda defeat the purpose tbh