In the last half of 2023, the platform banned 452 subreddits, down 20% compared to the six months prior.
Perhaps (or so I hope) because at least 20% of their user base was lost to the API scandal.
Unfortunately closer to 0.5-1%
It’s who left that matters. We lost a TON of tech people. People with experience and knowledge in the field. I visit there and the tech subs I’m in are just kids who either a) just post edgy jokes or b) have no clue and reply with factually incorrect material. The veracity of Reddit plummeted after the API change.
And that matters. That’s the heart of Reddit. The nerds. The geeks. The tech enthusiasts.
If there aim is to turn it into Twitter or Fb, they can do that, but those two already exist and their platform is much more conducive to socializing.
They fucked up with the API and will never bounce back. Not like they care because all they’re chasing is quick money, but still. It won’t end well for them.
And if you don’t think 1% matters, it most certainly does when the 1% attracts 60% of your visitors.
It’s who left that matters. We lost a TON of tech people. People with experience and knowledge in the field.
You aren’t kidding. The tech knowledge of the average redditor has been dropping for years as the site became increasingly mainstream but it cratered after the API change. It’s very amusing to read through a thread about lemmy in r/technology though. According to the average redditor picking an instance and then clicking the “communities” section to subscribe to comms you’re interested in is the most complicated thing they’ve ever encountered in their lives. It’s silly. Lemmy took about as much time for me to get the hang of as reddit did when I first joined in 2011. A few days, maybe a week tops… And that includes the time I spent test-driving different front ends and apps before settling on a desktop/mobile combo of Alexandrite and Voyager.
Sure, understanding how federation works may take awhile but you really don’t need to know much about any of that to get setup and start participating as a user.
I like that there’s a (small) barrier to entry here. Keeps out the riff raff.
Dear Lord, I thought you were exaggerating
Look at us, we are the 1% now.
Sadly I find myself opening up Stealth (open source reddit client without any login) more than I’d like. There’s just more content for some topics. No longer supporting reddit by commenting is largely good enough for me, but it makes me understand how most people never left reddit.
At the same time I spent more time on social media than I should, like typing this comment.
I use stealth for a single game sub that doesn’t have any alternative worth a damn elsewhere. That’s it, but I know damn good and well there’s a lot of similar cases out there.
I use lib-redirect for everything if I really need to get to a reddit link. It’s rare, but there are certain types of communities where I’d like to get a “average laymans” perspective and unfortunately just due to the size here on the fediverse there is rarely wide-spread availability. As you mentioned, specific games. Lots of hobbies. Even the opportunity for consumer tech talk, if I’m interested in replacing something that’s 8+ years old there’s just not a lot of existing content to search through here and that leaves blog posts and… Reddit.
I’ve had plenty of time recognizing what astroturfing looks like, so I rarely feel like I’m left out of options to search. All that said, I’ve been doing this a lot less since the whole shift happened. Maybe an endeavor every few months, rather than few days/weeks.
Yea. 20% is fucking delusional, lol.
One day. But until then, Lemmy is already great.
I was a lurker on Lemmy before the api scandal and tbh it was completely dead. What arose from the scandal was not Reddits downfall, as many of us mightve hoped for at the time, but rather an equally glorious revival of Lemmy.
I don’t miss reddit at all, Lemmy is great
I’ve been hearing a few complaints lately. Tha lemmy isn’t good enough and that people are going back to the dark side. But I dont see it.
The thing for me is even if there are some communities I miss from there I am not going back just because it’s impossible for me to use any of reddits official stuff on mobile.
That’s a really good way of reframing things, I like it.
