Been thinking of making a post like this for some time, apologies if some of this is not completely relevant: this community seems more like it's about Reddit the platform/product than Reddit the social "thing", but I'm sure a lot of people have similar experiences to mine. Maybe on some instances more than others.
Here's the one of the last comments I wrote as a regular Reddit user, on the eve of the blackout (almost a year ago to the day), under a post titled "Will your participation in Reddit change":
My comment
I will keep searching Google for Reddit help threads, but as a cultural and news aggregator I think this is the end for me. Maybe I will check it every so often. On desktop. On the old site. Until they sunset that too.
I wouldn’t be against using the first party app if it wasn’t so awful to use.
It’s a massive shame that we’ve all collectively agreed that Reddit is the de facto way to create open communities online. There were so many forums that could fill the void left by Reddit for things like tech and art and they’ve all shut down in the past decade.
I try not to be too negative about the evolution and constant growth of the userbase of the site and of the internet as a whole, but I’ve really felt like things are moving in a direction I can’t even be cautiously optimistic about lately.
I think of all the mod tools that will be defunct. The commonly cited example is that people who comment excessively on adult subs are automatically barred from commenting on the teenagers subreddit. Sure the admins can whip up functionality to do this, but this site was built on custom tools and custom CSS and all that. I think the API was one among the many secret sauces that give Reddit this staying power. These sites and forums I talked about - I used to hop from one to the next year after year. Until I found Reddit a decade ago.
I like that I choose my subs and that I don’t get algorithmically ordered sludge designed to game the algorithm on my homepage. Yes the sensibilities of the lowest common denominator redditors are gamed by people posting, but that’s (in my opinion) acceptable.
Frankly if they kept the old Reddit Gold pricing (4 bucks per month/30 annual) and gated unrestricted API access behind it I would have been inclined to finally give Reddit money. I use it a lot, I don’t mind paying now that I can afford it. But something about how it’s all going down really doesn’t fill me with confidence.
I’ve been trying to write a post about this for a while now, but I haven’t felt like it was relevant. Thanks for asking here
Reading through this is a bit funny, in retrospect, seeing how Reddit-centric my understanding of the internet had become at the time. I am happy to report that I have checked the home page maybe a half dozen times since the blackout, instead of once or twice a week like I expected. I suppose the disgusting state of the heavily astroturfed worldnews sub was a big part of it as well: for me Reddit was the one big online platform where the average visible user didn't seem to be very misinformed about Palestine (at least not by default), and it was frankly very sad to see where it got in the past few months.
I do miss Reddit, I haven't been able to replace it outright. I'm from Lebanon, and Lebanese Twitter is (if you can imagine it) even more of a toxic cesspool than regular Twitter. I'm not on Facebook (also cesspool here), I'm not on Instagram - my point is I don't get anything about my country on ostensibly user-curated social media. /r/Lebanon was very far from perfect, but it was nice to get a trickle of local news with users who were more in line with my own politics. The local news outlets focus on a lot of irrelevant crap, the sub's news feed was a bit more interesting.
One thing I loved about that subreddit was that users with more mainstream views in my country (eg. transphobia-as-default) were allowed to spout their bullshit in the subreddit with little mod pushback (if it's just JAQing off etc, not harrassing people obviously). Then the regulars would dogpile on that user's post - very refreshing! And very validating I would imagine for anyone who is used to hearing this shit everyday.
I was applying to be a mod to help keep the sub moving, at one point, but hey. Maybe that headache was never worth it. Still, I felt like I lost one of my online homes.
More generally, I have enjoyed my first year on Lemmy, although the experience has been lacking in many ways. For one, while Reddit has a reputation as a meme cemetery, the memes here are generally a bit moldier. But that's okay. The fact that there's fewer posts I think isn't necessarily a bad thing either, I think we all preferred Reddit's slightly slower homepage in 2013 than the one we left in 2023, that would regurgitate more and more from the bottom of the barrel if you were willing to keep scrolling.
I've toyed with opening a Lebanon community here on dbzer0, having opened one on FMHY that nobody used. But it wouldn't be the same, and I wouldn't know how to populate it. I posted maybe 2 non-question posts on Reddit in my decade+ of being a regular user, but I wrote tons of comments. It also helped keep my English sharper, I think.
I've reactivated my old Instagram account and it's pretty ass out there. The ad/post ratio is just egregious, and they'll just serve you random posts from random pages. I want to see my friends goddamn it, isn't this what your platform is supposed to be for? For those of you who don't know, the app will also send you a notification once or twice a day suggesting you look at "today's top reels". I have never watched a reel of my own will, fuck off.
Point being, the main platforms people use online haven't been up my alley. I can only hope the zoomer dumbphone pushback keeps expanding, and that social media starts being seen as something for older generations. Wishful thinking?
This is just a post about enshittification, everyone's favorite word, but every time I think about it for more than 2 minutes I can't help but miss a simpler internet. Some part of me was hoping it would kickstart me "growing out" of spending this much time online per day (not everyone spends a ton of time online), but it hasn't.
Also every time I ask something longer than 20 words on Discord some middle schooler will reply "yap", even in the channels designated for questions. Discord has had its uses (yes I know there's privacy concerns), but it's hardly a replacement for Reddit, or forums. Both of which are/were searchable. But enough yapping from me.
Thoughts? How has the exodus been for you? Is this how Digg users felt?
you can if they are spouting cliched nonsense... but also who has the time to waste listening to partisan nutbags whinge and circlejerk?
I'd rather spend my time actively learning about shit in the world by going to the source material rather than listen to idiotic hearsay from some internet nutbags comments. but sadly, I'm in the minority there. most folks get their info from social media now.
Are comprehension and disagreement mutually exclusive to you?
No part of understanding what someone is saying prevents you from then dismissing them if they are full of shit.
But it kind of has to happen in that order. People are not full of shit, because they disagree with you. You disagree with them, when and if they are full of shit.
You can't be sure someone is wrong, until you can explain why. And yeah, sometimes that's as easy as going, "well this person is completely insane".
At the same time, the sane ones, are only going to disagree and engage with you, if they've determined that you are full of shit.
Do you have to listen to every nutcase that walks up to pick a fight? Of course not.
But if you do regularly get accosted for holding some view or other, it doesn't hurt to take a closer look. Even if the people bringing it up with you are being dicks about it.
i could give every homeless person I meet 10 bucks.
doesn't mean it won't solve homelessness. and it would leave me with about $250 less each week.
Wait.
Are you suggesting that listening to every person that disagrees with you is like charity? And that while charity works, it still isn't worth it?
Holy shit. Are you just a horrible person?
i'm saying i have limited resources and that i'm not going to waste my time listening to shitty arguements from idiots. that's what i'm saying.
i'm not going to listen to some lemmy leftist spout how UBI will solve all problems in the world. I am going to listen to a professional economist who has studied the issue and done studies on it talk about it's benefits, limits, and possible negatives, however.
let's not even touch the irony of some leftist idiot demanding i listen to their nonsense, while they 100% refuse to listen to a MAGA person. because to both varieties of idiot 'horrible person' is anyone who disagrees with them and their respective delusional ideologies.
You can't possibly be reading and comprehending what I'm saying, exactly what I'm saying you need to do in order to have a healthy relationship with reality and not make a fool of yourself.
Because I already mostly agree with what you think are "comebacks" to an argument I'm not even making.
...
So then which part of what I've said do you disagree with?
You keep making up scenarios as if I'm asking that every nutcase and their claims receive several peer-reviews, when I've literally suggested no such thing.
Uuh. Ok?
Generally, if you believe something untrue, and someone tells you otherwise, they're the one trying to do you a favour, not the other way around.
And did you not even read what I had to say? Because it's like you're retorting an argument I didn't make.