I’ve seen many comments and posts regarding the API fiasco on Reddit, with the claim that there will be a huge influx of users when that happens. I’m all for it, but I find it hard to believe that the average or even above average user will make the effort to switch.
As much as I’m enjoying Lemmy, I don’t see the vast majority of Reddit users making the switch to anything. Mastodon, Lemmy, and kbin are far too obscure, and most people use Reddit for pino and memes. People just aren’t very technologically inclined and Reddit satisfies the dopamine fix for most regular visitors.
If these means we’ll be able to have intelligent conversations like the old days of Reddit. I’m all for it. I posted more here than in my 9 years in Reddit. Karma destroyed conversations.
Idk, there are a few avenues that require shockingly little work. Setting up an account on lemmy.world took all of 2 minutes, and then another 2 to find and install Connect. The final result, about 5 minutes after I started, is a home page mostly indistinguishable from the home page of my 3rd party Reddit app.
For those wondering, search “Connect for Lemmy” on Google play store (idk if it’s on iOS yet).
What is Connect? I’d search and try to figure out myself, but the word is a bit generic.
The only thing we can do is wait and see. It’s only three days from now. My personal belief is that there is definitely going to be an influx of new users, but that number won’t be too big or unmanageable.
I would imagine most people planning to head here already have accounts, activity will no doubt go up though.
As the weeks go on though more will find this place and I’m sure there will be more surges to come.
I’m guessing a good chunk of people will be split between creating an account on Lemmy/kbin, raddle, squabbles and possibly tildes. One of the alternatives will most likely win out for users switching from Reddit, I hope it is Lemmy but who knows.
The 30th? No. The 2nd? Maybe.
