9 mo. ago • 91%

How social media's biggest user protest rocked Reddit: The Guardian

www.theguardian.com How social media’s biggest user protest rocked Reddit

A mass user protest six months ago over technical tweaks had big downstream effects, and now the ‘front page of the internet’ is changed for ever

29 comments

Not a single mention of lemmy or kbin or any other alternative for that matter. While Reddit might not have lost a lot of traffic, Lemmy has seen incredible growth during all of this. I can still remember how empty this place was before Reddit went through with the api changes. Just thinking about how many great mobile apps we have now makes me really confident in Lemmy’s future.

95
- There used to be no viable alternative to Reddit. Now there is. That seems like quite an impact to me.
  
  40
- I honestly question if it even still has the same amount of traffic. Like it was no secret that site had bots. It's been a thing for awhile. But it's only gotten worse. I get on once in awhile for one particular niche sub. But I had to stop browsing the rest.
  
  For awhile, subs about pop culture and celebrities started getting to /all, but it's posts like "What's you favorite sitcom moment?!" AITA became even more popular, but the stories feel even more fake and formulaic. Before there were times when the top comments were bots commenting on the repost bots post. Now it's not uncommon for people to point it out. The repost bot posts, the other bot steals the top comments and post those.
  
  It's also become even more right wing in a lot of places. So depending on your political leanings, that can be a turn off for some.
  
  Either way, the site really has gone downhill.
  
  25
  
  I honestly question if it even still has the same amount of traffic.
  
  They used to have traffic stats for each subreddit. Now they don't. Could be cost saving by dumping a feature that didn't see massive use, or maybe theres some facts they don't want getting out...
  
  7
- They might not have lost traffic but they sure lost quality. Discussions are 20% dumber and more aggravating now.
  
  17
  
  The quality of posts was already pretty poor before the 'protest'. Now it's just reposted garbage, unless it's a very niche subreddit.
  
  1
- I didn't know the fediverse existed and now I'm in several places in it. The Catodon.social is the most excellent microblogging design ever. It's great here.
  
  14
  
  I knew about Friendica, Mastodon since a couple years ago but Twitter/Facebook style posting wasn't for me. I found Lemmy maybe 3 months earlier than the main push in June and that really was what I was looking for.
  
  5
- Lemmy would only get mentioned if it was a serious competitor to Reddit, which it isn't.
  
  A lot would need to change for that to happen.
  
  11
  
  I don't want it to compete with reddit, but why is that the only reason it could be mentioned? Seems arbitrary
  
  4
- Honest question: Would we gain anything by bot placing questions into discussions with certain topics in it? Like foreign governments astroturf for their interests, we could instead ask questions under specific comments:
  
  „The mods are gonna delete this.“ sick of getting your stuff deleted? Have you tried lemmy?
  
  „Imagine shilling for corpos“ have you tried leaving corpo land? Have you tried lemmy?
  
  Etc
  
  3
  
  Honestly, posting anti-Reddit stuff on Reddit, and even reposting articles about the impressive, yet ineffective stuff we did last summer, just feels like fishing for approval from strangers.
  
  It's like breaking up with your ex and talking about them constantly for the next 6 months. You don't need to show off your new girlfriend to them. You don't need your friends to tell you how great it is that you broke up. Just move on.
  
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25
The "protest" was a fucking joke. Mods folded like a fucking wet paper towel. Reddit didn't change at all. Lemmy got marginally more popular. This article is useless.

16
- Lemmy got more than just "marginally" popular. It saw the biggest boom within its entire lifetime and became a viable alternative for anyone seekong an alternative to Reddit. We both still use it.
  
  The article proves that enough noise was made to catch the attention of the biggest news publications, which remember the protest to this day. In other words, people still remember what Reddit did.
  
  As far as online protests go, that was more successful than any other coordinated online protest in recent memory. Gotta start somewhere.
  
  7
  
  Fair enough. I think both can be true. Lemmy got a pick me up AND the Reddit protest was a fucking joke in the sense that:
  
  It was only planned to last like a week
  
  Like 99% of mods folded like a wet paper towel at the first threat from Reddit
  
  Many subs took polls on wherher to re open and the fucking plebs of Reddit overwhelmingly said to re open
  
  Just talk to people who aren't in our little Lemmy corner. Most people still use Reddit and act like nothing changed.
  
  Reddit wasn't really harmed. Most people don't care. Lemmy got more popular but active users have already leveled off and even declined. Still a boost to Lemmy at the end of the day. But overall this whole protest was a fucking meme.
  
  5
I've only just joined Lemmy but have barely been on Reddit since the blackouts. I used to be a daily user and now only go on maybe once a month or so, basically when a search result leads me to Reddit as a possible answer. It's a little disappointing that the traffic hasn't significantly changed; I figured the only way they would really take notice would be if there was a noticeable drop in traffic, affecting ad revenue and I'd have to do my part.

6
- I haven't been on Reddit since save for a couple of unavoidable search results as well, but people on Lemmy say the quality of posts and comments has gone down significantly. I'm glad to be done.
  
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