this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2023
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Technology

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[–] [email protected] 82 points 1 year ago (15 children)

The loss of the forum like help threads will probably be the most impactful thing. We can build communities elsewhere, but the 8 years old post about a problem only you and the OP is having is super valuable.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'd like to add a comment here just to add some visibility:

If you have an uncapped/unlimited internet connection, you should seriously consider running the Archive Team Warrior

They're heavily involved in scraping and archiving data from all over the internet (and, recently, most/all of Reddit) so that it's preserved, regardless of what happens to the underlying platform.

I run it on my home server in docker, but they have a lot of options for doing so and it basically requires just running it, and then forgetting it exists.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

I feel that. I posted about a Plex problem 2 years ago and the subsequent solution I worked out. Every once in a while I still get someone replying to that and thanking me.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

There was talk of someone populating a Lemmy instance with reddit data.

There is a lot of reddit data on a torrent somewhere aparrently.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not only that. But if Reddit really suffers badly from this it might also have an impact on small communities. It's really simple to set up a community on any topic on there. And it's currently mainstream enough that you can get people on-boarded pretty quickly.

Larger communities may find a new home elsewhere. But for smaller ones that feels much more difficult.

Thanks to last week's fiasco I discovered the fediverse and hopefully others too. I just hope it's intuitive enough that people don't get scared away.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

That's the thing that bothered me the most about deleting my account. I had multiple people say thanks for posting solutions and problems with solutions I had, even years later. Not specific to iphone but in general.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (3 children)

That's a problem with every non-physical storage of data/knowledge - it's ephemeral and can disappear anytime

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I am so happy to see people coming together and moving away from commercial platforms. It feels silly to say it, but it seems like it is a step in the right direction. It is technological and social progress. Decentralization is a really fantastic tool and it seems to be a system that cannot be controlled internally or externally. Mastodon has been great, and I expect Lemmy to be even better.

To anyone reading, if you have any extra cash, look into making a small donation to your instance. The people running it are not just putting in time, they are likely paying hundreds a month to rent server space.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (12 children)

Money is going to be the deciding factor in the long-term health of the entire Fediverse. More users on each instance means more costs -- and to some extent, even users not on that instance will contribute to cost. That money has to come from somewhere, and eventually, if the Fediverse is going to scale up to even a sizable portion of what we're moving away from, we need real, consistent money involved. It doesn't have to be full VC corpo junk, but eventually, some instances are going to need a team.

I want this stuff to work great, but expecting the people running it to pay the cost forever isn't sustainable.

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago (4 children)

It's a shame promoting Lemmy isn't part of the blackout

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (4 children)

It's been attempted in various spots, but either reddit itself removes the mentions or edits them out

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah the fact that they actually banned the kbinmigration subreddit is absolutely WILD to me. I made a comment on a post a couple of weeks ago now about how this wouldn't change anything, and a few people would leave like the last time they did something that made people upset, but most people would stay. After the ama and everything last week though I've completely changed my mind, I was wrong.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

You weren't wrong. Reddit has over 400 million monthly users. A tiny percentage of that will move to Lemmy. Less than 1% this year is my guess.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Is that really something that's been happening?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

True that. Kinda weird actually to go dark but not providing alternative avenue.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is great, many more subreddits should do something like this. But in the end, it’s us, the end users, who should do the actual protesting since it’s us who have the power to change things. I’ve decided not to give them any kind of traffic from now on. Me, by myself, won’t make much impact but if more of us did the same they’d be force to change their strategy.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago

Good. I’m done with reddit forever.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I suppose many there are also affected by the Apollo debacle too. It just makes that pill even more bitter.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I think so. With the end of Apollo, I have no other way to access Reddit except their mobile website or their app. I have the feeling it’s too late now, Apollo is unlikely to come back, regardless of what Reddit does. Now, I just hope kbin / lemmy will grow enough to become a good alternative (still learning how everything works ^^).

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Yes, Kbin/lemmy needs enough good and original content to flourish. What I currently miss is the niche subreddits on lemmy. For specific brands or particular products or hobbies it's easy to find a community on reddit, but there are only a few already available on lemmy.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (5 children)

You are absolutely right. Reddit was so big that it was possible find a community for everything. I don't expect kbin/lemmy to get there anytime soon unfortunately.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

Even if they reversed the API changes, sacked Spez, reinstated i.reddit.com, ate an entire bucket of humble pie, and personally paid me £100 I'd still prefer the vibe here to be honest. It's way less angry and more authentic here.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I like the "indefinite" part. Let it stay dark forever and have people make iphone subs in the lemmyverse. The Reddit is dead, long live the Lemmy!

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (9 children)

I hope there's enough information there for refugees to arrive here safely

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I own a subreddit that I'll admit that it isn't the largest but I'm going to be putting a link to the new corresponding Kbin magazine in the private message. I'm hoping other subreddits will as well

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

the only thing that's worrying me about the subreddits closing indefinitely (even though I wholeheartedly support it), is that people are going to use even more closed off, unsearchable platforms as alternatives. /r/unixporn mods say their only "official" alternative is currently their Discord "server".

edit: the message on /r/iPhone also directs people to their Discord. sigh.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I second this. For a while, adding "reddit" to every google search gives generally better results. Now all this information will become hidden in unsearchable places.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Which is a good case against the centralization of information.

I have been way to comfortable just using Reddit as my source of information with the usage of 3rd party applications.

What if Reddit puts the subreddits behind a paywall?

What if Reddit is gonna demand that every subreddit generates an x percentage revenue just to exist?

What Reddit has shown with their actions is that they are gonna put monetization of their userbase first and user experience somewhere in 10th.

The possibilities to screw the users in regards of the information they consume is...worrying.

It will end up the same as 9gag did. Some weird facebook/instagram/tik tok clone used for people who have an attention span of 60 seconds.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

no it's not, because now you just can't really find this kind of information unless you know which discord server you have to join. STOP USING DISCORD AS A WIKI

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I hope that this protest does something

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It will. It will make the mods and the power-users realise that Reddit don’t care and won’t change course. Then it’s up to them.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

I completely agree. Reddit has shown no indication of backing down. They will just wait for it to finish if the lockdown is as short as ~48 hours. If a major/big sub goes on lockdown indefinitely, they'll open it and replace the mods. I'm pretty sure there are tons of people out there willing to mod a big subreddit like r/videos for one reason or another. The reddit of the digg migration era is gone. It's just corporate reddit now.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I don't give it much time until they start replacing the mods if the blackout drags on for long.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yes, I agree. It would be logical to assume they're confidentially seeking out new prospective moderators behind the scenes at this moment ready to take over.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It will be like having anti popes. if I were have to gone on a long vacation - like 5 or 6 weeks, I am guessing when I returned I might not even notice anything different for a while if I didnt use an app to access. I'm sure they will ban anyone who mentions the great schism.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’m sceptical. If most subs only protest for 2 days, then all Reddit has to do is weather the storm and then continue on. The only way I see it having any further impact is if many large subs black out indefinitely.

Reddit would either be forced to make concessions or escalate even further by removing the mods of the protesting subs and forcing it open again. That would be a further sign of bad faith and really piss off all these mods that spent up to a decade doing moderation for free.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

You make it sound like Reddit does not have the option to turn the subreddit on and replace the mods. However, the users who actually really do care about reddit will leave and will have to take their content with them.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (13 children)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’m worried that all the new large communities are hosted at a single instance, lemmy.ml

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Really 3 big players right now.

https://browse.feddit.de/

Lemmy.ml Lemmy.world Beehaw

Those 3 servers are like currently 70% of Lemmy traffic.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

I'm glad some subreddits are going dark for good, not only will this actually hurt reddit as a company but also it will lead to some people switching to alternatives like lemmy which is always a good thing.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Good. Only way users and communities can be heard is to actively shutdown until further notice

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The Reddit community from which [email protected] is an offshoot from does this.

They went dark indefinitely (until (or if) the API changes are cancelled/undone.

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