Was there even a mass exodus? I largely avoid Reddit now, but I do kind of doubt that they've been hurt in any meaningful way by all the protests and people leaving...

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[–] 13 points 3 years ago (3 children)

Is it important that Reddit suffers? For me the important thing is that lemmy flourishes and has good oc.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    This is what I wish more lemmings would grasp. I've commented before how there's this disillusionment that reddit actually died when a bunch of people left. It didn't. The sooner everyone can stop being in denial about that, the better.

    The situation is really more akin to an abusive ex and the people that left realizing that they're better off without them. You're in a better place. Stop talking about, focusing on the drama that your ex brought and just embrace your newer better environment.

    Millions of people are in that situation and don't leave because they've been manipulated, they're scared, and in this case addicted. My brother in law switched from Apollo to the official app and hates it, complains every day, and says reddit sucks now...but won't leave.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    To use your analogy of the abusive ex... would you want someone to just never talk about the abusive ex? Never process the trauma? That's what a lot of people are doing. Noticing that the abusive ex is imploding into a death spiral is kind of validating of your decision to leave. It's part of the process. There's no need to shame people for it.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    The post is a week old, but regardless, people have had their time to grieve and process. Your friends and family were there for you, they let you vent, they helped you make the transition away from your partner...but they're gone. It's time to move on. Let it go. You're stuck in denial while most people have made it all the way to acceptance. Everyone is ready for you to stfu about your ex.

    You're also reading too much into the analogy. This isn't really an ex, it's a link aggregating website and online forum. Just like nobody cared if you deleted your myspace, your Facebook, digg, Tumblr, TikTok, YouTube, etc...nobody really cares that you deleted your reddit account.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    They've had their time according to you but maybe people can make their own decisions? Also maybe just chill about it? You don't have to listen, you don't have to be here for any of the conversations.

    Also you've created an entire community of family and friends with backstories so you can then tell me all these imaginary people want me to "stfu", but apparently I'm the one "reading too much into the analogy". I think you're the one that just wants me to "stfu" but you don't want to say it directly.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    I think you're the one that just wants me to "stfu" but you don't want to say it directly.

    Yes, that would be great. Stfu. Please. Thank you.

    You don't have to listen, you don't have to be here for any of the conversations.

    You seem to have missed the extreme irony in saying this whole replying to a sub comment a week after it was posted by someone who agreed with me.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 years ago

    No idea, and I don't care. What matters for me is that there are enough people on Lemmy to keep it interesting.

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  • [+] 4 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (2 children)
  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Migration goes beyond sheer numbers. The 3.8k users are probably the one that were the most attached to initial Reddit, hence people who would contribute the more. I would rather be with those 3.8k users than the millions of people okay with staying on Reddit despite Spez's decisions.

    I hope that once Lemmy is a bit more polished (instance blocking, account migration, hot filtering working etc.), we will gradually see a second wave of arrivals.

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  • [+] 1 point 3 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)
  • [–] 0 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    It’s currently impossible to follow a GDPR information delete request for example, because you can’t delete the info from other instances.

    What makes it impossible? Why would any given instance maintainer be responsible for the data on someone else's instance? Would it not fall on the GDPR requester to make that request of each individual instance?

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  • [+] 1 point 3 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)
  • [–] 0 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    So then if someone requests that Gmail delete all their email data, is Google then responsible for making sure any emails sent out from it's server to another is also deleted from those external servers?

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    It would be really cool if all us ex-redditers sued Reddit and Google for "unjust enrichment" which is a cause of action in most states. They're are currently taking OUR comments and selling them, meanwhile paywalling the platform. If each of us went to the county clerk and sued them for whatever is the maximum for small claims court, it could be thousands of petty little lawsuits that would cost them a fortune in lawyers. Or end up being a class action suit that could put them out of business. If they ignore the suit, they lose. When you file the suit, you file a discovery asking reddit and google to provide all your comments properly identified by date, etc,; And also for copies of their contract and to identify and produce any other party and contract that they may have sold your comments to. That alone is a huge pain in the butt for them. You have to prove that you contributed to reddit, that they sold your comments and earned money. I can't do this as a nomad, but it would be cool. Could be a good exercise for a young lawyer here.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    If we're perfectly honest - No.

    Reddit has over 53 some odd million users. Million with an M. Lemmy has gained, at most, upwards of just thousands. To call it a 'mass exodus' is really overselling it.

    It's going to take a fairly long time, for Lemmy to even scratch 100k even. I'm on both Reddit and Lemmy. Lemmy, for a more positive experience. Reddit, because the numbers are just there.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    This crisis has given Lemmy enough users to be a vibrant, viable alternative with the software and apps undergoing rapid development. This means the next time that reddit tries to pull some shit, there will be somewhere for people to go, unlike this time. Lemmy just wasn't really ready for prime time.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Their user numbers are available with a web search. Reddit useage dipped towards end of June but has mostly leveled out.

    Quite a few mods left, which has had a larger impact than an equal number of general users leaving would. The niche topic sub I was involved in went from four mods to one half-hearted mod. The quality of posts has dropped. Almost every comment thread contains complaints. Reports are piled up.

    Most surprising to me when I peeked at the sub this weekend was the amount of borderline-incel desperation and negativity. The sub is for a hobby that while slightly male majority, we had plenty of women contributing with minimal problems. Not anymore. If I were a woman looking at that sub for the first time, I would probably block it. It is so depressing and angry now, I barely recognize it.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (2 children)

    I have to wonder how much of Reddit's traffic is bots and lurkers though.

    Post quality is a bigger indicator, and that does seem to be dropping. This is why Reddit banning 3rd party apps was such a big deal. It doesn't matter if 99% of your users use the official app if 99% of the content posted to the side is posted by the 1% that don't.

    As someone who was around for the digg migration, it didn't drop off overnight (hell digg.com is still around), but they gradually bled content until everyone was on Reddit. Lemmy right now is very reminiscent of early Reddit.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago

    I feel all those posts about reddit looking for mods for various communities is a good indicator. They might not have lost quantity all that much, but a very small portion of quality kept a lot of reddit interesting and running smoothly. A lot of that has either just dropped entirely engaging or migrated.

    I doubt everyone would move. Some people simply take it as a sign to move on and do other things with their limited time on this little planet.

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  • [+] 2 points 3 years ago* (last edited 6 months ago)
    [–] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Anyone that expected Lemmy to instantly get as big as reddit overnight were naive. Overall I think only a small fraction went away but reddit is clearly using tactics like mass inviting to group chats and reopening places to boost activity.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago

    But as they do it quality of posts is dropping i've found. Personely i think it will take a long time but reddit is really digging its own grave as competition will appear.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    The timing of /r/place nullified any possibility evidence of an effect, as a ton of streamer featured this event, creating traffic. I wouldn't be surprised if they got a huge net profit this month.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago* (3 children)

    Personally I came over bc the app I used stopped working (boost). Lemmy seems to have the same content I used reddit for:

    • US politics headlines
    • Memes
    • Niche communities

    I don't plan on going back to reddit unless it's via Boost. Fediverse is better anyway

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    [–] 1 point 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 child)

    This didn't happen quickly with Digg either. This won't be as substantially decimating to the platform as the Digg exodus was, because reddit is WAY bigger than Digg was.

    I'd say it took me about 3-4 years to fully migrate away from Digg to reddit, and that process was very similar to today, where there were a ton of platforms gaining steam (even while it was pretty clear that reddit was where the party went).

    I think reddit's quality of content will deteriorate over time, and the moderation will suffer. It is going to die a death of 1000 paper cuts. The API change was just reddit saying "Hey, come stab us with your paper knives!"

    idk. Reddit in 15 years will probably look a lot like newspapers do today. Kind of a joke, but somehow still standing.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    I think you are 100% right. This is a slow burn not something that will happen overnight.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago

    And on top of that, it's good that it takes time. The fediverse is still maturing. The slow changeover gives the new people time to contribute and make the place beter, and build capability for when serious numbers start to migrate.

    People can contribute ideas, feedback, code, money for server costs and obviously content so when there is a bigger exodus there's something here for new people to absorb.

    This seems to me similar to what building dual power looks like, it's just this is the digital version. A single cataclysmic moment of rupture isn't a good thing unless there are structures in place strong enough to pick up the pieces.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    I think the damage done to Reddit is not from protests but the bad management decisions -- enshittification as Corey Doctorow put it -- in order to hasten Reddit's IPO. The attitude by upper management, taking user content for granted, is going to continue to serve to chase users away, or drive them to deprioritize engagement with Reddit.

    I'm missing only a couple of communities here on Lemmy but otherwise it serves me as a daily feed. And reddit still can be searched for troubleshooting.

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    [–] 1 point 3 years ago

    Fuck Reddit. I’m here now and it’s great.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    Idk, I deleted my account when the protests happened and got a little curious when Brodie posted a video on lemmy.

    Towards the end it felt like there were a lot more smart asses, dead jokes, and gate keepers ruining the fun anyway. It may just be me but it felt really unique/full of originality at first and then it really became full of the same thing over and over again.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago

    I think karma whoring is a real problem for that site. Any post that reaches a popular critical mass gets slammed with people trying to make a quick joke or pun for upvotes, and so even commentary on popular news stories was filled with fluff, memes, or basic circlejerking. The karma system also incentivizes this really shitty dunking culture that is so bad for discourse.

    It might come here eventually if lemmy gets popular enough. But even if it does the platform as a whole is just more righteous and worthwhile. It doesn't exist as a commercial entity to drive engagement in order to satisfy advertisers, and that's something really unique and different in our day & age.

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