rimlogger

The issue with revolutions is that while they tend to get rid of old elites, they create a new class of elites out of the top revolutionaries and the cycle just starts over again. Many communist revolutions were supposed to create these theoretically “equal” societies, but they just insert in a new ruling class.

Hello. While what Reddit is doing isn’t great, it’s the reality of running a site that’s now owned by venture capital to make some kind of economic return for its owners. Running a site like that isn’t free, and advertising dollars alone are probably not enough to generate the sort of return that its owners are looking for (or even pay for the its costs).

The core issue is twofold: Big Tech has devalued online services to the point where users are inured to not paying for them, and because of this inurement, most users are unwilling to pay for most online services if they don’t seem to be offering a value add. Gaming services like Steam have managed to get their users to pay but that’s because they are offering a service that’s generally superior to piracy, such as immediate downloads, achievements, and other online services. But no one is ever going to pay to use a message board, and I doubt gimmicks like Reddit Gold bring in much money.

Perhaps the future is found in the past - people migrating back to self-hosted message boards - there used to be thousands of these back in the 1990s and 2000s. Some of them were run as small businesses, others were run as hobbyist projects by their owners. But I doubt there’s going to be a mass exodus, and unfortunately, centralization has increasingly become the norm for the Internet.

I don’t plan to stop using it. I’m annoyed by the changes but it is what it is. I doubt Lemmy will be the same level of resource that Reddit is. Lemmy is still great, don’t get me wrong, but to think that entire communities might migrate over is a bit farfetched. Most people are still very confused about how federation exactly works.

Agree. I don’t plan to leave Reddit but it’s good to look at the alternatives that are available out there.

I think the real issue is that the protest coordinators were not able to succinctly explain why they had to protest to begin with. Charging third party app developers for API access is an esoteric topic. Most people don’t even know what an API is. Most people don’t use third party apps. Most people also don’t care.

I mean upvotes are related to how old a post is.

Anyways I don’t expect places like Lemmy to fix the ills of social media - eventually running something like this will cost their owners too much money and something will have to give. Also moderation has always been an issue, even with the message boards of old.

Yeah exactly. I think what we need is decentralization and a move back to smaller hobbyist message boards - the costs of running such communities is more sustainable for individual owners and they are not so big that their owners would look to sell them out.

People are mourning the loss of a platform. I think it’s okay that a majority of Reddit alternatives are talking about its death (at least for them).

I still use Reddit but have been exploring alternatives.

On many subreddits that have polls, it seems like a majority favor keeping their subs open. It seems like the userbase is generally ambivalent or even hostile towards the protest at large.

An indefinite shutdown would not work - the moderators of the subs who perform them will be kicked out and be replaced by people who want to keep the subs in operation. Plus, it’s a disservice to people who do use Reddit as a resource for work or otherwise. I think a 48 hour protest is reasonable, but beyond that, there’s not a whole lot you can do.