I made this post the day before the blackout from a small sub
I wanted to see how many redditors decided to quit or not. But the result shows a lot of them are not quitting reddit. Some of them did not know about the blackout situation.
Ignore the discord stuff because someone answered my problem (I'm going to miss reddit for this). It hurts looking at it because I really like the rune factory community there. π’π
The thought that people would unitedly leave Reddit was delusional.
I expected that only a small portion of people would really leave. I think there will be another small wave of leaving people when the 3rd party apps stop working.
But reality is: most humans don't like change, most humans like convenience. Forums like this are made by a minority, who share knowledge and time and take time to help others out. The vast rest of members is lurking and meme posting.
But I expect the majority to stay, at least now. Probably this blackout helped developing new forums though and maybe Reddit's popularity will slowly fade, we will see.
Majority of reddit user are lurkers and don't want to be involve with tough decision like this. Everyone including me wants to talk about their hobbies, interests, problems and etc.
The same thing happened with Digg. There was an initial wave of folks that left, and then there was the massive surge about a year later when it imploded.
I agree with this. Not only are most redditors and internet goers just lurking for entertainment - the fediverse is also currently a clunker of a project being held together with duct tape and WD40. Until it matures (which I believe it will) it just won't be attractive to most casual users.
Currently, we (people in the fediverse) are probably mostly people driven by curiosity or passion. We really shouldn't expect the masses to follow quite yet
If it's any consolation, I went through something similar. There's a subreddit community that I was a part of for a long time that I loved deeply, it was a very warm and inviting place. When the sub went on blackout and took a poll to extend indefinitely, I made a passionate plea to the sub to really consider what's at stake, even though so many of them felt like it was pointless. I wasn't rude, I wasn't callous or pessimistic, I just wanted people to know that whether something seems hopeless or not isn't the point at all, but rather taking a stand for something you believe in should be the point.
I was promptly met with a barrage of downvotes and someone replying to me spewing vitriol and telling me to 'touch grass', with another person just shrugging and saying they just want things to go back to the way they were (by ending the blackout). It's weird but I was honestly pretty hurt by that response. This community that I came to know and love turned on me the moment I suggested we take a stand.
Apathy is, unfortunately, a real problem in our world today. Too many people aren't willing to do even the bare minimum to protest or protect their rights. They would sooner just fall back into what is comfortable (or worse, they just give up before even trying because they have already lost hope) and have decisions and actions be made for them rather than risk losing that "certainty."
but rather taking a stand for something you believe in should be the point
I'm sorry that they hurt your feelings and your beliefs of doing what is right. Keep up with your belief you're not the only one. It sucks that reddit or other social media that you enjoy are destroying themselves for the sake of greed.
Sometimes it helps me to remember that many people are working toward different goals. You were likely looking for community. They were likely looking for content to consume. They are incapable of understanding your passion because they never saw reddit as something important - a community. Instead, to them it was a place for cheap and easy entertainment.
Thus, in their minds they're justified - why would anyone be so passionate about their source of entertainment being cut off? But of course they didn't see what you saw. Of course you would be passionate - your community was being monetized.
I think a lot of people here on the fediverse are a little more like-minded to you. We see the internet as a service and opportunity to connect. It's not television or radio. It's a network of voices, and hopefully democratic.
I don't think it's the right question. Quitting entirely is tough for certain niche areas. Personally I think I'm going to cut everything but the one community that's hard to replace. That's going to cut like 90% but I'm not quiting, so I'd have to answer "not quiting".
Also most lurkers will follow content, and some will be driven out by excessive ads which I'm sure are coming. This takes time and they won't have "plans" to quit.
I'm gonna quit for entertainment, but Reddit has the last 15 years of the best tech advice. I physically can't quit using it at work. The black out has made me noticably worse at my job. I support it, but fuck I wish it was just for new posts, that guy from three years ago that had my exact problem might have had an answer!
I just plain quit using Reddit. But I am an old guy. I have walked a picket line. When negotiations fail then for the average person to have any leverage against a massive system then the cost to return with no spelled out terms must be infinitely high.