Obviously a few years ago, the API changes caused the reddit community mods to strike, and caused a mass-blackout of most reddit core communities. Eventually Reddit removed a handful of mod teams on some notable subreddits and caused the rest to chicken-out. But it did birth the Fediverse properly.
I suspect Reddit will make another step at some point which causes another comparable exodus. This time, if they do, the Fediverse is far better developed to handle it. What do you imagine it might be?
They have AI automatically banning a lot of long-term users for very odd and flimsy reasons, the appeals process is nonexistent, and the bans are permanent. Meanwhile, the site is being overrun with bots. Obviously, bots have been on the platform for a long time, but there’s been a definite uptick recently.
If they keep throwing out their real users and letting bots generate everything, people are going to exit Reddit, if for no other reason than they’re just kicked out.
I used to think it would be the death of Old Reddit, but sadly they started that recently-ish and I’ve seen almost no pushback against it.
The issue is that they have a brain and are taking the slow approach, where they gradually strip away features and introduce interoperability hurdles to turn Old Reddit into the objectively worse choice so people make the switch to Shreddit of their own free will.
It started when they removed Private Messaging and made Chat, the replacement, exclusive to Shreddit. Notifications were also planned to become exclusive to Shreddit (try staying on top of replies without notifications), but new ones are still showing up in the direct messages archive for me.
Then they removed any indication of a subreddit’s size from Old Reddit (but replaced the subscriber count with an active users count on Shreddit). So if you want to know which of two subreddits on the same topic is bigger, you need Shreddit for that comparison. Then there’s the new wiki system which iirc is not backwards compatible to Old Reddit.Just like this, more and more features are turned into Shreddit exclusives, until there’ll be nothing left to use Old Reddit for. Yet people don’t seem particularly bothered by it.
The single community I’m still visiting (read-only) on old.reddit has recently dried up to tumbleweed territory. I could stop going there overnight, and not miss a thing.
Well, they seem to be shadowbanning legitimate users all the time, and leaving the bots. Every post has dozens or hundreds of incoherent replies.
And now they also added some weird translation feature on new reddit, so if you’re on old reddit you start seeing posts and comments in every language with no way to easily translate it.
My old account got hacked, its history wiped and is now hawking cryptoscams. I’ve reported it long ago, but the admins don’t give a shit.
I don’t think there’s going to be another “mass exodus” again. There are people who said that they were going to leave reddit and actually did. Then there are those who said the same but didn’t. Those people will never leave until the site shuts down or they’re dead. I mean there’s not much more Reddit can do to drive people away unless they go on a massive subreddit ban wave on things that shouldn’t be banned. or they introduce a subscription plan where you have to pay to “unlock” the site and can view as much content as you want. Even then people WILL pay for that.
But even with the plethora of bots, reposts, karma farming, and power tripping mods people still stick around.
I think it will take time , I personally tried to move when the api changed. But now am actively changing after Reddit getting shittier by the day. Last update they introduced games on the official app. Doesn’t make any sense. The feed they keep pushing on you sucks and honestly the content itself is worse nowadays. They have years of users content that is still a huge boost, but with time more and more users will get fed up with these tactics. If Lemmy continues on growing steadily it will eventually replace it
Last update they introduced games on the official app.
Wait, what? What does it even look like?
I expect it to linger, irrelevant and forgotten, much as it is now, as usage stagnates while the admins cook the books and pretend the bots are people to trick the investors and advertising folk.
Like this, not even joking!
What the heck
Porn. It’s going to be when they get rid of porn.
It’ll be when they cave to ID verification to access the porn. Whoever doesn’t jump ship then will then do so once the porn gets banned completely.
Either way, where the porn goes, so goes the traffic. VHS, DVD, the internet/streaming. All major shifts in traffic were porn related.
I don’t think they will anymore. porn has become such a high traffic item that they’ve worked with sex workers on reddit to set up a system that accommodates them as much as possible while taking “non-US friendly” traffic offsite.
I know they’re likely to go full fash but this is a way bigger meal ticket than it used to be the last time they tried to scrub all porn (which they did, don’t let them bullshit you)
That’s basically why I’m there
I have a few fans who really like what I create
Or force something ai related.
Do … do we have porn?
I mean, there are NSFW instances. They’re often defederated, as often there are laws and procedures you have to follow when “distributing” porn - and when federated, “your” instance would mirror their content, which can be a headache for an instance admin. Try e.g. lemmynsfw
yeah. it’s all over the place in the fediverse. I mean hell you can go on almost any peertube instance and instantly find it especially if you view by trending and you know there was like one guy going ham for the night.
The murder of “old”
It’s coming
I found the fediverse through the API fiasco. I fully migrated over here when they started mass banning. I got caught up in the ban wave; though I’m fairly certain they had their eye on me for a while since I was a very prolific bot flagger and I told everyone exactly why the bots are so bad on that platform (hint: Reddit is complicit and so are the admins).
From what I’m hearing, likely one of the next big exoduses might be when Reddit decides to kill old.reddit. Everyone and their grandma goes on about it being the last good thing that remains and if they kill it they’re gonna leave forever etc etc.
I suppose we’ll see if they have the chops to actually leave that shithole.
I’d say they will, I know three others that use it regularly enough and none of them use the app.
Yah, I agree with this one. I only now visit old.Reddit.com. If it’s gone, I can’t imagine scrolling through the shitty UI that’s left.
I think most of the people who are going to leave have left. Its no longer a matter of an exodus because the people who are there now aren’t the kind of people who can build a place like Reddit. Those people, we, the people, have left.
So the “next big exodus” is really about there being a newer/ better place to go for the same experience.
Killing old reddit will probably purge most of the last remaining people even slightly worth a damn from the site.
There have been mass bannings recently
Some AI or something that banned anyone it thought may have had an account in the past
One sub I’m active in lost almost 60% of its members overnight
Got perma’d from Reddit by their AI bot on a Rule 1, I’ve appealed it but it hasn’t been reviewed and we’re steadily approaching 2 months since my appeal submission.
It’s either a deliberate attempt to silence certain people and opinions, or a rogue AI bot that they don’t want to rollback in order to save face. Either or, fuck Reddit and fuck Spez
My suspicion is that they’re gearing up down-the-line to convert to an AI moderating system entirely, and they’ll start taking away specific large subreddits from moderators to be managed by AI.
Man fuck the mods and the “super”mods, but tbh, fuck AI more.
My appeal was rejected within 24 hours
It’s easy to make new accounts though if you just use a different browser
I waited a month before making an alt so as to “not break any further rules”. When I did, I used a different browser at a different IP of account creation than the ones that got banned, and it literally got banned in 24 hours.
I’ve had them banned after a few hours, and after a few weeks (I think someone who didn’t like me snitched)
Current one’s a few days old and going strong
Godspeed to ya then lol, maybe I’ll do a cache clear and redownload the apps if I get the itch to participate again.
Download a new browser that you haven’t used before onto a pc, don’t import any bookmarks or anything
Set up an account and let it sit for a while, participate in subs that you normally wouldn’t, things like knitting subs etc. for me,
Be patient
Eventually uninstall and reinstall the app on your phone if so inclined
Don’t link anything to the profile like a social media platform
Appreciate the tips! I’ll give that a shot.
Might be a tactic to get people to lose old historic accounts and start new ones. A good way to bump up the numbers is to ban an account but don’t delete the account, and just let it just sit there. Then the banned person is forced to create a new account if they want back in again.
A common theme I read from banned accounts is that they can’t get in again yet no one said the account was deleted … and the assumption is that the user just gave up the account and restarted a new one.
My account was 15 years old, even had a reply from the famed Keanu Reeves on one of my comments! However, I can sign in to my account, I just can’t comment, upvote, downvote, or post.
I attempted to make a new account but that one got banned as well because they attached the ban to my IP and electronic signatures - which… seems excessive to me hut okay.
I got a fifteen year old account permabanned for reporting someone that kept calling me slurs. Appeal got tossed out. I’ve since moved to an entirely different country and got all new devices, but my attempt at making a new account was still permabanned for ban evasion before I even made a comment or joined any subs. Lasted about two hours.
It’s very excessive. And now I’m genuinely curious what all they use to determine which accounts belong to former users. It’s quite odd that they were able to figure it out when I’m not in the same part of the world anymore, was on a brand new device, was using a new email address to sign up, and hadn’t even joined any of my former subreddits or said anything. Or is there just an over-sensitive AI that autobans a lot of new accounts just in case now?
Was planning to use it to just help with settling in where I’m living now, but I guess not lol
unforced? I’m sure it will be unique and hilarious as usual.
forced? governments around the world want social media platforms to be able to identify users and anonymity is a core aspect of reddit. the second they require a way to link your account with your person they will see a similar exodus, unfortunately it will have about the same impact as the API drama because the majority of people don’t fucking care.
