Adam Bumas Reddit Activity Plummeted After The Protests For the last six months, we've been tracking the top Reddit posts every month. When we first started, the subreddit with the most posts in...
Adam Bumas
Reddit Activity Plummeted After The Protests
Last month marked the official end of the Reddit protests. Any subreddit that had changed its rules or gone dark — or forced its users to post exclusively about John Oliver — has now gone back to normal.
On the surface, it seems like a complete victory for Reddit, but things aren’t so simple when a major element of that victory was forcibly removing moderators for dozens of communities.
In fact, according to Reddit users, the protests have caused a major brain drain on the site. The question is: can you prove it? And the answer is: well, sort of, yes.
For the last six months, we've been tracking the top Reddit posts every month. When we first started, the subreddit with the most posts in the top 20 was r/OddlySatisfying, with three posts. As of last month, however, 10 of the top 20 posts all came from r/MadeMeSmile.
The fact that all of the top posts on Reddit are coming from the same subreddit, as far as we're concerned, means either people aren’t browsing as much or there just aren’t as many people on Reddit. But it was hard to tell which was which, since the actual number of upvotes on the most popular posts are pretty identical to where they were six months ago.
But investigating that, I found that Reddit has always had certain caps on how many upvotes a post can get, which suggests that isn’t a good way to measure. Over on Subreddit Stats, however, we found a much better way of working this out.
Most major subreddits show a decrease of between 50 and 90 percent in average daily posts and comments, when compared to a year ago. This suggests the problem is way fewer users, not the same number of users browsing less.
The huge and universal dropoff also suggests that people left, either because of the changes or the protests, and they aren’t coming back.
And that’s how we've now ended up with a Reddit full of r/MadeMeSmile. And, just in case you're curious about what that looks like — four of the top five Reddit posts were reposted TikToks.
Reddit was one of the last major spots online where you could expect to interact with people who aren’t making money off you. Which also why Reddit was able to completely replace its existing moderators since they were virtually all unpaid.
When Reddit announced the API pricing that kicked all this off, they justified it by talking about lucrative AI tools trained on Reddit data, saying, “we don’t need to give all that value to some of the largest companies in the world for free”. Ironically, that’s exactly what you do every time you go online, and it looks like a lot of people have decided to choose the same thing for themselves by staying off Reddit.
A lot of people saw this coming. Reddit had the most concentration of proportion of conscientious users to overall users as compared to any other social platform because of how Reddit operated and...
A lot of people saw this coming. Reddit had the most concentration of proportion of conscientious users to overall users as compared to any other social platform because of how Reddit operated and how communities were built. Awesome personalities flourished in Reddit because it was open, fun, and engaging.
I knew Reddit's gutting had an ulterior design. You can clearly see that it's become more right-winged with certain subreddits like the Canadian pro-fanatical/anti-thought subreddit and how comments and posts started to get more and more like rehashed talking points of right-wing media. The number of progressive posts dwindled down to like 4/20 in the front-page. Nowadays, they're just relationship posts and a bunch of other drama. The brain drain is real.
It's been a long time coming. My Reddit browsing method was the front page, browsed via Apollo with heavy use of blacklists. In hindsight it was a stupid way to browse the platform, but... you...
It's been a long time coming. My Reddit browsing method was the front page, browsed via Apollo with heavy use of blacklists. In hindsight it was a stupid way to browse the platform, but... you would not believe how much hate there is lurking under the surface. Whatever you think, there's a hundred times more. There is a mycelial network of thousands of hateful subreddits and they were undermining the integrity of the site for a long time before the API mess. Probably since user-created subreddits were a thing.
And, of course, Reddit Inc. never really cared beyond the level that the law compelled them to. Tech libertarians really have destroyed our public discourse.
538 did a great meta analysis tool to figure out all the hate filled connections of the former sub The Donald. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/dissecting-trumps-most-rabid-online-following/
538 did a great meta analysis tool to figure out all the hate filled connections of the former sub The Donald.
Now we just have to wonder if reddit got what it wanted. I suppose if traffic continues to rise despite content going down the, uh, drain then they'll be happy.
Now we just have to wonder if reddit got what it wanted. I suppose if traffic continues to rise despite content going down the, uh, drain then they'll be happy.
well, Reddit has always been an aggregator and tended to post a lot from the most popular social media at the time. So that tracks. I'm not sure if this is an unusually high amount of reposted content
four of the top five Reddit posts were reposted TikToks.
well, Reddit has always been an aggregator and tended to post a lot from the most popular social media at the time. So that tracks. I'm not sure if this is an unusually high amount of reposted content
I wonder how much of that is down to the crappy attitude that everything on the internet be inoffensive to everyone for the sake of advertising? Some of this maybe quite ranty... but here we go....
Exemplary
I wonder how much of that is down to the crappy attitude that everything on the internet be inoffensive to everyone for the sake of advertising? Some of this maybe quite ranty... but here we go.
I'm not talking about "I can't say anti-trans stuff here!" I'm talking about Terms and Conditions and Moderation that effectively bans swearing, cursing or taking on challenging topics like grownups.
I always revert to gaming over this. In the beforetimes, we had dedicated servers who had their own moderation rules. Don't play ball with the server owners? Off you fuck somewhere else to be a troll. These days however, it's all P2P... so the rules come from the devs/publisher and by hell if you can't exclaim "You fuck!" in frustration withone some little roach deciding to report you. Or maybe you merc'd someone in game and they decide to report you with all their mates you beat? I don't game online, this is one of the reasons. I've got examples in gaming communities of these very things.
Reddit decided it suddenly wanted to roleplay your parents after the API nonsense. Now all you've got is sickly sweet internet with none of the harder stuff that used to get discussed (Yeah, there are some dark chapters of Reddit, I'm not talking about those.) or even raised to the surface. Antiwork used to be quiet, then got big over Covid when it felt like we all saw the writing on the wall. What of Trans stuff? What of... whatever topic that raises the blood pressure?
Or Tumblr, which banned porn, much to everyone's confusion. I'm fairly sure Only Fans suggested it once aswell?
Or whatever else that decides it wants a nice, thin venner of 'polite, niceness' rather than a website where you can actually interact with human beings? "Now now, you can't be looking at boobs on this platform! That would encourage problematic behaviours!" or "Now now, don't think too hard about the way you get shafted at work... here's a person making cakes for the homeless, d'aww ain't it sweet?"
There was a meme years ago about British Culture and how it's so pre-occupied with its own self-gratification these days. "Politics is shit? Don't worry, here's the dancing program!" or "Work got you down? Don't worry, here's the cakey-wakey program!" It feels like this has really encroached onto the whole internet as advertisers continue to crack down on anyone with anything remotely sorrid / controversial online.
We used to have an internet where you could get all the good (Human interaction) with all the bad (Human interaction). Now we've got an internet of bland skyscrappers that are inoffensive to everyone, serve no pratical purpose and all glare out of windows at each other virtue-signalling about who is best... despite all of us being the same.
It's not a matter of too much moderation. It's incorrectly applied moderation. Old message boards had civility rules. Be civil or a mod will smack you. Simple. Social media has gotten too far up...
It's not a matter of too much moderation. It's incorrectly applied moderation. Old message boards had civility rules. Be civil or a mod will smack you. Simple.
Social media has gotten too far up its own butt. Thinking it's some sort of court of human rights or something. Don't steppy my free zpeech!!!11!2! Surely one day when the mood is just right a reddit comment chain will spark the next Magna Carta. lolk.
Message boards used to shovel social / political threads into dedicated slap fight corners. Other wise that's the main reason for attrition. The few percentage of users who think they're master debaters are thread killers. Most users want to look at specific content. Not read political manifestos all day.
Yup. My favourite message board literally had a bit called "Serious" bit that included Politics, Religion and Controversial topics. Then it'd have Tech / Motorvehicles / Books ... whatever. It...
Message boards used to shovel social / political threads into dedicated slap fight corners. Other wise that's the main reason for attrition. The few percentage of users who think they're master debaters are thread killers. Most users want to look at specific content. Not read political manifestos all day.
Yup. My favourite message board literally had a bit called "Serious" bit that included Politics, Religion and Controversial topics. Then it'd have Tech / Motorvehicles / Books ... whatever. It seperated the slapfights from the constructives.
Social media has gotten too far up its own butt. Thinking it's some sort of court of human rights or something. Don't steppy my free zpeech!!!11!2! Surely one day when the mood is just right a reddit comment chain will spark the next Magna Carta. lolk.
True that. Even infects non-American places where "Freedom of Speech" just doesn't exist. The amount of clowns over here quoting US legislation during Covid restrictions was hilarious.
The old internet didn't get everything right by a long shot. But my God did it learn to live and learn with each other.
I do want to isolate these two pieces here, cus I used to work SoftDev at a company that worked with adult content. There's a large amount of costs to "doing things right" when it comes to adult...
Exemplary
Or Tumblr, which banned porn, much to everyone's confusion. I'm fairly sure Only Fans suggested it once aswell?
Or whatever else that decides it wants a nice, thin venner of 'polite, niceness' rather than a website where you can actually interact with human beings? "Now now, you can't be looking at boobs on this platform! That would encourage problematic behaviours!"
I do want to isolate these two pieces here, cus I used to work SoftDev at a company that worked with adult content. There's a large amount of costs to "doing things right" when it comes to adult content, almost all of which require not only a larger software solution, but also a ton of regulatory compliance and human oversight needed - any amount of PII goes from "Yeah, this is a privacy leak, and we take it seriously" to "Hey, this could potentially lead to someone being stalked and murdered, and regularly does". KYC compliance becomes a thing that you have to take extraordinarily seriously (in our case, we had interviews with customers and the slightest hint of trafficking/fishiness was reported and the users were blocked), You need tools for not just GDPR compliant user data deletes, but for taking down revenge porn and content resharing and so on, in a far more aggressive and timely manner than, say, someone re-uploading a movie. The core reason for all this isn't just common human courtesy - it's almost entirely boilover from Apple and the Pornhub/Mindgeek lawsuits. Even for us having KYC compliance docs stronger than any of the banks we worked with, we were often refused even basic financial services and often got contracts terminated from software companies (for example, we couldn't use Azure, and AWS had already pulled silently twice at random) b/c they didn't want to be even remotely associated with adult content.
Apple won't let you host an app on their app store, if a user could hypothetically see adult content or any form of explicit without being logged in and age verified - and that's a gentler stance than it used to be, which was (and mostly is) blanket no explicit content. If you want to have mobile users, you need to be on the Apple app store, or you're dead - their market share of people who are willing to pay and engage, relative to Android, is enormous. That's why Tumblr made their choice - for them it was an existential threat they'd been presented, and it's better to live a bit longer and pivot than to die in ignominy immediately.
Pornhub got turned into a target by an anti-pornography group that's spun off a church and has been incredibly vocal about their goal to get a full abolition of porn, strip clubs, and any form of sex work. There's a broader discussion to be had on the health of sex work as an industry, the impacts of pornography on our society, and so on, but to be very clear their goal isn't to help sex trafficking victims - it's a Christian group on a name and shame campaign. Pornhub had issues with revenge porn and reuploaded content, but they took action and did iterate and improve things - until Mastercard and Visa threatened to pull their ability to process transactions, which is a death knell for any amount of revenue for any company. It's a massive poison pill therefore - if you have adult content, you run the risk of either complying entirely to a third party's decision which could cripple your business, or you cut it yourself now, and on your terms.
That's why Onlyfans did what they did - they knew their company was an Adult Content company. If investors wanted to see what they could do about it, you show the investors the logical conclusion - the company is going to fold. Build KYC and safety and moderation tools and teams, or we lose CC processing and die.
It often feels like adult entertainment has some similar attitudes like finance does. It's naturally quite exploitative (despite what people say), so I think KYC and such really does speak volumes...
I do want to isolate these two pieces here, cus I used to work SoftDev at a company that worked with adult content. There's a large amount of costs to "doing things right" when it comes to adult content, almost all of which require not only a larger software solution, but also a ton of regulatory compliance and human oversight needed - any amount of PII goes from "Yeah, this is a privacy leak, and we take it seriously" to "Hey, this could potentially lead to someone being stalked and murdered, and regularly does". KYC compliance becomes a thing that you have to take extraordinarily seriously (in our case, we had interviews with customers and the slightest hint of trafficking/fishiness was reported and the users were blocked), You need tools for not just GDPR compliant user data deletes, but for taking down revenge porn and content resharing and so on, in a far more aggressive and timely manner than, say, someone re-uploading a movie. The core reason for all this isn't just common human courtesy - it's almost entirely boilover from Apple and the Pornhub/Mindgeek lawsuits. Even for us having KYC compliance docs stronger than any of the banks we worked with, we were often refused even basic financial services and often got contracts terminated from software companies (for example, we couldn't use Azure, and AWS had already pulled silently twice at random) b/c they didn't want to be even remotely associated with adult content.
It often feels like adult entertainment has some similar attitudes like finance does. It's naturally quite exploitative (despite what people say), so I think KYC and such really does speak volumes for the need.
I think my gripe was more just... it feels sanitised. A lot of KYC can be conducted in really weird ways these days given the prevelance of GAI and such (I've recently worked on a product that does facial ID for known thieves in stores via CCTV...) and that is only likely to get better.
Rather than invest this effort into doing things right, they'd rather just sanitise websites and annihilate communities that aren't there just for that. If that makes any sense?
Apple won't let you host an app on their app store, if a user could hypothetically see adult content or any form of explicit without being logged in and age verified - and that's a gentler stance than it used to be, which was (and mostly is) blanket no explicit content. If you want to have mobile users, you need to be on the Apple app store, or you're dead - their market share of people who are willing to pay and engage, relative to Android, is enormous. That's why Tumblr made their choice - for them it was an existential threat they'd been presented, and it's better to live a bit longer and pivot than to die in ignominy immediately.
Which feels insane to me. And more specifically, it feels very... 'No, you will behave like good little children in our playground', rather than actually treating folks like grownups and putting laws / regs in place to do things right?
I know it's a private enterprise, but when the reach that Android / Apple has... it becomes bigger than that arguement. Do we deserve to be treated like kids re: adult content, or do we get firms to do the right thing? (Naturally the US will go with the former, not the later.)
Pornhub got turned into a target by an anti-pornography group that's spun off a church and has been incredibly vocal about their goal to get a full abolition of porn, strip clubs, and any form of sex work. There's a broader discussion to be had on the health of sex work as an industry, the impacts of pornography on our society, and so on, but to be very clear their goal isn't to help sex trafficking victims - it's a Christian group on a name and shame campaign. Pornhub had issues with revenge porn and reuploaded content, but they took action and did iterate and improve things - until Mastercard and Visa threatened to pull their ability to process transactions, which is a death knell for any amount of revenue for any company. It's a massive poison pill therefore - if you have adult content, you run the risk of either complying entirely to a third party's decision which could cripple your business, or you cut it yourself now, and on your terms.
These people are so painful to see exist. Must be nice to live in a fantasy world where no-one says or does anything offensive... ever.
It's always these Religious groups who think they know what's best and absolutely deserve the book thrown at them for this kind of behaviour. Just leave people to do what they feel is right, if they find exploited content... report it. But banning it all just never works.
Makes me wonder with the amount of financial consolidation that VISA / MC have are they in need of breaking up then? Surely it's a disadvantage for industry to have that much bought in with these two payment providers?
Like I get all of this. But it still feels like we're treated like children to the behest of advertisers who just want to sell us more shit we don't need. I know popups used to be hilarious online, but I'd happily take the "FIND NAUGHTY SINGLES IN YOUR AREA!" anyday in favour of the sanatised hellscape we're slowly edging towards now.
I never really associated Tumblr with mobile apps, especially not any content creators. Are ads really so lucrative on IOS that it's better to remove half your content (and resulting audience) or...
If you want to have mobile users, you need to be on the Apple app store, or you're dead - their market share of people who are willing to pay and engage, relative to Android, is enormous. That's why Tumblr made their choice - for them it was an existential threat they'd been presented, and it's better to live a bit longer and pivot than to die in ignominy immediately.
I never really associated Tumblr with mobile apps, especially not any content creators. Are ads really so lucrative on IOS that it's better to remove half your content (and resulting audience) or risk fading into obscurity? Even for a site that predates the rise of smartphones?
That aside, I still hate how much two ancient (in relative terms) companies have so much sway over all of new media. I was really hoping Crypto would prop up as a proper competitor but the tragedy of the commons ruined that. And I imagine it would have been hit with so many regulations even if it did survive, too much for what literally popped up one day from a pseudonym.
Honestly? Yes. It's not just ads and traffic, Tumblr was and is free to download and use, and would be accessible via Safari even if it's not on the app store. It's that you're locked off of your...
Are ads really so lucrative on IOS that it's better to remove half your content (and resulting audience) or risk fading into obscurity? Even for a site that predates the rise of smartphones?
Honestly? Yes. It's not just ads and traffic, Tumblr was and is free to download and use, and would be accessible via Safari even if it's not on the app store. It's that you're locked off of your core iOS users, entirely - which, for Tumblr, is a massive chunk of your highest engaged MAU. Secondarily, a factor that often skews the decision is that Adult Content consumers tend to be some of the highest volume for your traffic, as well as complaints and reports/issues, while also being some of the lowest revenue conversions. People want to browse their Adult Content anonymously, for free, in 4k if you so please, and the simple act of even logging in drastically guts your engagement/MAU numbers.
That's the confusing part for me. I know Apps can have more lucrative ads but it's not like not having an app means you're invisible to a mobile user. But so many sites are being hostile to mobile...
and would be accessible via Safari even if it's not on the app store
That's the confusing part for me. I know Apps can have more lucrative ads but it's not like not having an app means you're invisible to a mobile user. But so many sites are being hostile to mobile web that it might be another thing I'm missing.
Secondarily, a factor that often skews the decision is that Adult Content consumers tend to be some of the highest volume for your traffic, as well as complaints and reports/issues, while also being some of the lowest revenue conversions.
More traffic leading to more reports makes sense. The lowest conversion to what most of the site is looking at seems almost anti-capitalisic. But. I guess thinking logically when it comes to the topic of sex in American culture is an exercise in insanity. I wonder if that's a cultural issue that we simply leave to time to sort out, or if the elite spread their mentality to the next generation (despite being one now raised in a world with easy, free, nigh unrestricted access to such content compared to pre-millenials)
People want to browse their Adult Content anonymously, for free, in 4k if you so please, and the simple act of even logging in drastically guts your engagement/MAU numbers.
To be honest I never considered that anonymous mode actually hurt websites. Especially now that Google is being sued about that (among a dozen other issues). Interesting idea for rebellion, but it's probably less effective than ad and tracker blocks.
I feel that conflict leads towards trouble to advertisers. They want to show their ads, not take sides in conflicts. That's why I see these "social networks" as ad bubbles. The social aspect is...
I feel that conflict leads towards trouble to advertisers. They want to show their ads, not take sides in conflicts. That's why I see these "social networks" as ad bubbles. The social aspect is absent.
Reddit lost a lost of niche communities that I used to participate. It became another echo-chamber for advertisers to make money. Smooth sailing, right? In the end, corporations always shoot themselves in the foot to appease "investors" that will take every last dime, wanting always more and leaving at the first sign of loss. Just like we see with minimum wage workers and their employers.
You're pretty much spot on. Can't possibly weigh into anything and make a statement could they? OH WAIT, Every firm loves rainbows and Pride these days now that's fashionable to do so. Now they...
I feel that conflict leads towards trouble to advertisers. They want to show their ads, not take sides in conflicts. That's why I see these "social networks" as ad bubbles. The social aspect is absent.
You're pretty much spot on.
Can't possibly weigh into anything and make a statement could they? OH WAIT, Every firm loves rainbows and Pride these days now that's fashionable to do so. Now they can sell you white Skittles and Rainbow phone cases...
It's frustrating.
Reddit lost a lost of niche communities that I used to participate. It became another echo-chamber for advertisers to make money. Smooth sailing, right? In the end, corporations always shoot themselves in the foot to appease "investors" that will take every last dime, wanting always more and leaving at the first sign of loss. Just like we see with minimum wage workers and their employers.
Yep. Capitalism doesn't know an end to its growth. People / Governments / Organisations are going to have to roll back capitalism in a big way if we don't want a world that just revolves around money and "I want Bladerunner 2049 environment"
But will people do it? Will they heck. Give me the cakey-wakey show!
Same. I frequent one now, but there's probably 5% the traffic since 2006/2007. It's all moved to Discord... which is just an awful platform for conversation beyond trite memes and spaffing...
I miss the old forums I used to frequent. You could have constructive discussions at length about almost any topic and people were generally civil.
Same. I frequent one now, but there's probably 5% the traffic since 2006/2007. It's all moved to Discord... which is just an awful platform for conversation beyond trite memes and spaffing nonsense at strangers.
Nobody was frothing at the mouth about "engagement" and "content", ads weren't even a twinkle in most people's eyes. It was just people interacting and sharing their knowledge and passion for things. I like Tildes because the people are knowledgeable and the kind of shenanigans that dominate places like Reddit aren't welcome, but I still miss the connections I made on those forums.
They were made to communicate with people quickly, cheaper, effectively (And sometimes, colourfully with phpBB). Today's instant message culture could take a page or two from the lovely way you can step away from those forums, come back in six days and pick up where you left off.
You can do that on Tildes. Though at the moment I spend a lot of time here because I'm working my notice and I am bored as sin.
I had this over Covid. Everyone moves to Discord and I just got exhausted of it. Plus it feels like if you miss a conversation, then that's it. It's time has passed and can never be discussed...
I hate the new trend of "Join my Discord!". There's been at least a dozen potential communities I've bounced off of because they all insist you join their server; no thanks, I've got about a dozen already that I don't interact with because it's a chore having to consistently interact with every single one. Most of them don't post anything meaningful outside of memes and random cringe vent posts. I agree with you that it was nice to just not interact with a place and come back and pick up where you left off whenever you felt it was time.
I had this over Covid. Everyone moves to Discord and I just got exhausted of it. Plus it feels like if you miss a conversation, then that's it. It's time has passed and can never be discussed again.
Don't feel bad, I surf Tildes at work all the time. It's more stimulating than reading listicles or trying to find a decent site that hasn't been blocked by the admins yet.
Ha. I'm senior leadership with little to during my notice period mate. I should be doing a lot of work... but I kind of don't give a fuck now.
Happy to accept any websites you've got floating around in tabs ;)
IME most discords have been rather quiet, so it's not too hard to keep up with content. Of course, I tend to use discord in two ways, and one is simply as a news feed for various kinds of media. I...
because it's a chore having to consistently interact with every single one. Most of them don't post anything meaningful outside of memes and random cringe vent posts
IME most discords have been rather quiet, so it's not too hard to keep up with content. Of course, I tend to use discord in two ways, and one is simply as a news feed for various kinds of media. I never felt much a need to keep up with the buzz from #general or whatnot.
And that's just on my regular discord. My personal ones may as well be treated like getting a non-spam text message. Someone posts news or says they are in town once or twice a year and it only gets busy when we're actually meeting up.
Community also seemed less polarizing back then. It lead to a lot of crass jokes and language that isn't accepted today, but it also tended to mean that you could ask almost any question you had...
You could have constructive discussions at length about almost any topic and people were generally civil. Nobody was frothing at the mouth about "engagement" and "content"
Community also seemed less polarizing back then. It lead to a lot of crass jokes and language that isn't accepted today, but it also tended to mean that you could ask almost any question you had on your mind and it wouldn't cause an entire flame war/ratio. No, we saved that for important things like console wars or the most attractive video game character.
as a tame example: It feels very hard to talk about business these days. I can analyze the financial angle of what some corporation is doing and also not approve of it, but it seems inevitable in many circles to be called a scab or bootlicker over thinking below the surface.
advertisers aside: Reddit is still composed of teenagers, and even in modern media (despite the needle moving slightly) they don't want PG-13 esque content to have too much swearing. The internet...
that effectively bans swearing, cursing or taking on challenging topics like grownups.
advertisers aside: Reddit is still composed of teenagers, and even in modern media (despite the needle moving slightly) they don't want PG-13 esque content to have too much swearing.
The internet is in a very weird place right now with regards to how we tailor content to children, both for casual moderators and large corporations alike. And because the stigma of requiring 17/18+ age ratings is one to avoid, and simply because money, the corporations won't want to block off the 13-17 demographic anyway (for the 12 and under they might, since that's a much thornier market to monetize).
For private servers, one of the WORST things you can do these days is have someone yell out "I'm 17!" in a server tailored to adults (which again, doesn't have to be sexual in nature). That's just way too dangerous even as a joke. No one wants to get cancelled over minors invading their adult space. The time where we could disregard such identity is indeed in the past with today's culture.
We used to have an internet where you could get all the good (Human interaction) with all the bad (Human interaction).
I mean, we still do depending on the site. I know Reddit has been "santized" over the years, but most subs don't care about language, nor any sort of civility for that matter (which is part of why I left months before the great API schism). I argue there's still plenty of bad out there in the major sites if you spend more than a few minutes browsing comments. But sure, the 4chan limelight days are long over, and the biggest hit when adverts come in will of course be nudity/pornography, for historical reasons going back decades before the internet existed.
Even in the old internet, a classic troll before forums preserved edit logs was to start a thread for comparing shoe sizes, edit the title to “How old are you?”, and watch lazy mods unaware of the...
Even in the old internet, a classic troll before forums preserved edit logs was to start a thread for comparing shoe sizes, edit the title to “How old are you?”, and watch lazy mods unaware of the technique indiscriminately hand out underage bans to pillars of the community. At least in the circles I’m in, the only consequence for someone saying, “I’m 17!” in Horse Lover’s Clop Sanctuary is handing out a ban for “dumbass kid forgot to lie about his age.” Things get massively nastier if IRL photos, even non-sexual, are posted by the banned kid.
EDIT: I forgot to add that it was a tradition (or at least a trope) for the head admin charged with keeping minors out for the past six years to invite everyone to a livestream to celebrate his 22nd birthday. It's how I developed the adage that the more strident and inane the age verification process, the greater certainty the admins are underage.
Oh wow did that dredge up some memories. Guilty as charged. I used to be a moderator on a reasonably active IRC server back in the day and would need to remind people to take certain stuff into...
It's how I developed the adage that the more strident and inane the age verification process, the greater certainty the admins are underage.
Oh wow did that dredge up some memories. Guilty as charged. I used to be a moderator on a reasonably active IRC server back in the day and would need to remind people to take certain stuff into the adult channels, of which there were more than a few. I was still in middle school lol.
You should come play GW2 WvW! I'm occasionally astonished at what you can say in chat there without being banned. I think the devs abandoned us long ago, and maybe they were right. Now if you're...
You should come play GW2 WvW!
I'm occasionally astonished at what you can say in chat there without being banned. I think the devs abandoned us long ago, and maybe they were right. Now if you're the slurs type of hateful troll, I retract my invitation, but if you just want to say "You fuck!" or maybe engage in a bit of the old dangle some bait and see who gets angry, this is a good place to do it. Bonus points if you get someone with the old Alt+F4. Gen Z doesn't know about this, it's back.
I only visit reddit for old use reviews and suggestions on things, or advice on niche subjects now. It's still a useful repository of knowledge, though not much new content will be added in the...
I only visit reddit for old use reviews and suggestions on things, or advice on niche subjects now. It's still a useful repository of knowledge, though not much new content will be added in the future.
Likewise. The vast majority of my time these days on reddit is on my local subreddit. Nowhere else that I've found has a community anywhere near as large and active. The rest of my time on reddit...
Likewise. The vast majority of my time these days on reddit is on my local subreddit. Nowhere else that I've found has a community anywhere near as large and active. The rest of my time on reddit is looking at r/sysadmin and maybe a bit of Formula1 stuff. Even then, these are always brief visits.
I'm not spending all day on reddit anymore. I don't even visit daily anymore. And these were things I did for over a decade. Get what I want/need, then get out. I've refused to use the official app for years, so without Apollo, no more mindless scrolling while in a check-out line or in bed.
Honestly, I thought it'd be tougher to break my reddit habit. But it was easier than I expected.
I'm mostly the same I'll only go there if it comes up as a result to a Google search. I'm sure when their profits inevitably go down they'll start deleting old content to save on storage space.
I'm mostly the same
I'll only go there if it comes up as a result to a Google search.
I'm sure when their profits inevitably go down they'll start deleting old content to save on storage space.
The website used in that analysis (Subreddit Stats) is wrong. I'm guessing the API changes severely impacted their ability to monitor new content on Reddit. Here are daily r/science comments since...
The website used in that analysis (Subreddit Stats) is wrong. I'm guessing the API changes severely impacted their ability to monitor new content on Reddit. Here are daily r/science comments since January 2020 from Subreddit Stats versus our internal numbers. They're off by over 10x since mid July. I've seen moderators from several other prominent subreddits report similar discrepancies.
Using Pushshift, here's the total number of comments on Reddit since January 2020. The API protests caused a significant drop (~30%) in June but it basically fully recovered in August. I truncated the incomplete count for September from the chart, but it's easily on track to equal or surpass August.
I think the really interesting part was that comments have declined on reddit for some 9-10 months before the spike that was (assumedly) the protest. It's a similar trend from both sources, and...
I think the really interesting part was that comments have declined on reddit for some 9-10 months before the spike that was (assumedly) the protest. It's a similar trend from both sources, and It's a much longer fall than anything else in the last few years. Wonder if that's universal, and what happened around that time at the beginning of 2023.
But yes, while it seemed like Pushift worked a few months post being nuked in May, the Rate limiting in July seems to severely impact how it can poll.
I don't believe the drop-off that r/science saw beginning early this year is representative of other large subreddits' experiences or the platform activity as a whole. We assume it's the Reddit...
I think the really interesting part was that comments have declined on reddit for some 9-10 months before the spike that was (assumedly) the protest.
I don't believe the drop-off that r/science saw beginning early this year is representative of other large subreddits' experiences or the platform activity as a whole. We assume it's the Reddit algorithm being optimized for increasingly low quality engagement that ultimately drives traffic away from more serious subreddits.
But yes, while it seemed like Pushift worked a few months post being nuked in May, the Rate limiting in July seems to severely impact how it can poll.
Pushshift is working fine now and with Reddit's blessing. They technically were never exceeding the rate limits even before the API changes went into effect. They just (briefly) got into trouble for redistributing bulk Reddit data.
(If you meant Subreddit Stats, I don't know how their website tracks the activity but they are clearly struggling with the new API restrictions.)
I mean, a "Best of TikTok" that I could browse without the algorithm is a useful thing to me. Right now that's just a few friends, but IMO it works well enough.
I mean, a "Best of TikTok" that I could browse without the algorithm is a useful thing to me.
Right now that's just a few friends, but IMO it works well enough.
I didn't need to get tiktok before because reddit would provide the best of them for me. Now I'm off reddit, and now I just get an occasional link from friends or learn about tiktok trends via...
I didn't need to get tiktok before because reddit would provide the best of them for me. Now I'm off reddit, and now I just get an occasional link from friends or learn about tiktok trends via conversation and online chatter, and I guess that's been enough for me.
I see a lot of videos on TikTok that are just people commenting on current events and news. Whether I agree with their opinions or not, it feels genuine and diverse, a much-needed break after...
I see a lot of videos on TikTok that are just people commenting on current events and news. Whether I agree with their opinions or not, it feels genuine and diverse, a much-needed break after years of watching Reddit slowly diverge into having a singular viewpoint/ideology.
I used to think TikTok was all about funny videos and pranks, but it actually has a lot of interesting content, and the comment section on videos is actually usable, unlike Meta products, so you get to hear some discussions on those viewpoints.
I'm not sure I buy that reddit has a "singular" ideology. I mean, it's clear that many subreddits do, but reddit as a whole in my experience has a collection of viewpoints from all across the...
after years of watching Reddit slowly diverge into having a singular viewpoint/ideology.
I'm not sure I buy that reddit has a "singular" ideology. I mean, it's clear that many subreddits do, but reddit as a whole in my experience has a collection of viewpoints from all across the spectrum-- you just often won't see all these viewpoints within a single subreddit.
I came across a post on reddit yesterday about the Israel/Palestine conflict and it was... not as bad as I expected it to be. There were a number of high-voted posts whose ideology clearly opposed the others but were nevertheless historically accurate.
I'm not saying it was great either, but it was an adequately respectful and informed discussion.
Tildes likes to shit on reddit (for obvious reasons) and I agree with most people here that reddit isn't what it used to be. At the same time, I very much tailor my subreddits to be ones I'm interested in and I use RedReader and not the shitty official app and my experience really hasn't been all that bad. Have I had to unsubscribe to some subreddits that were getting annoying? Yes. But overall I feel that good discussion is there if you look for it and just ignore all the shit.
I will say that Tildes is of a much higher quality and that I'd choose Tildes over reddit any day. Maybe I just don't mind filtering through shit as much as other people do?
Before all this, they got rid of i.reddit.com which was useful on mobile. Very old. Then just before the change (iirc), they made all mobile browser clicks open up the topic instead of simply...
Before all this, they got rid of i.reddit.com which was useful on mobile. Very old.
Then just before the change (iirc), they made all mobile browser clicks open up the topic instead of simply expanding the picture/text.
As somebody who largely quit Reddit in disgust after more than a dozen years of highly engaged usage, this definitely caters to my biases. But I wonder how accurate these numbers are. For example,...
As somebody who largely quit Reddit in disgust after more than a dozen years of highly engaged usage, this definitely caters to my biases. But I wonder how accurate these numbers are. For example, that SubredditStats page they cite claims that the popular sub /r/NonCredibleDefense dropped overnight from ~3000 comments per day to the mid-hundreds. But sum the comments from the sub's current front page posts (all made in the last 24 hours) and the total is well over 2,500, with likely hundreds more on later pages. I suspect the API change is interfering with that site's ability to gather accurate stats.
That said, what I do still see from Reddit (/r/all and a handful of sub-specific RSS feeds, passed through a Wayback Machine redirect) are significantly lower quality in the signal-to-noise department -- lots of self-deleting repost bots, outrage bait, and rehosted TikToks. And anecdotally, many of the highest-quality contributors I've run into over the years have walked away.
Incidentally, I attended a Zoom listening session with a couple other mods and some high-level admins the other day -- they're very nice people and apologetic about how the API thing was handled, but one gets the sense that their entire team is disconnected from the actual corporate decisionmakers, making their promises hollow and any feedback they gather pointless. I and others stated clearly that the biggest morale blow was not the technical changes (which were frustrating), but the absolute refusal by site leadership to reconsider, compromise, or even acknowledge people's valid criticisms, further inflamed by the CEO's dismissive, contemptuous comments and the bullying treatment of longtime mods. The admins on the call were sympathetic but didn't give me any confidence that the recent damage will be undone or similar train wrecks avoided in the future.
Lastly, I love this:
When Reddit announced the API pricing that kicked all this off, they justified it by talking about lucrative AI tools trained on Reddit data, saying, “we don’t need to give all that value to some of the largest companies in the world for free”. Ironically, that’s exactly what you do every time you go online, and it looks like a lot of people have decided to choose the same thing for themselves by staying off Reddit.
I still spend a lot of time on old.reddit.com. I just stopped engaging. I don't vote on anything any more, I don't make comments. If a post really pisses me off I'll hide it. If I really need to...
I still spend a lot of time on old.reddit.com. I just stopped engaging. I don't vote on anything any more, I don't make comments. If a post really pisses me off I'll hide it. If I really need to discuss something with someone, I'll DM them.
I wonder how many others have done the same. There isn't really any replacement yet that caters to my tastes, although I have high hopes for tildes. But reddit broke the implied social contract we all had that we were all in this digital wild west together and we were building something unique and wonderful. Now that's gone and my relationship with them is purely transactional. No more community. Just services and repositories of knowledge, for which I will pay them NOTHING lol.
This sums up my position to a T. My last post was over 3 months ago. I used to browse for hours on a daily basis, and I would comment constantly. I've visited Reddit maybe a handful of times...
This sums up my position to a T.
My last post was over 3 months ago. I used to browse for hours on a daily basis, and I would comment constantly. I've visited Reddit maybe a handful of times since, mostly out of morbid curiosity.
I'm similar I deleted my account when they announced the purge but still like to look occasionally at the home page and specific game subs for infomation, I've switched back to forums mostly
I'm similar I deleted my account when they announced the purge but still like to look occasionally at the home page and specific game subs for infomation, I've switched back to forums mostly
I just woke up so I'm not going to be as articulate as I want to, but I'm curious as to how the protest affected nicher subreddits. Because while there's a lack of activity on most of these...
I just woke up so I'm not going to be as articulate as I want to, but I'm curious as to how the protest affected nicher subreddits. Because while there's a lack of activity on most of these subreddits, quality-wise they either seem to be operating the same or the subreddit oddly got better (slightly though, and usually subreddits catered to a younger audience). To me at least, it's only really the mainstream subreddits where it looks more like brain drain than anything.
Judging from most of the comments, I seem to have a different experience to everyone else. Though to be honest, I was always on niche mental health and LGBT+ subreddits that would blow up during the pandemic and then became a broken record of the same 4 posts and opinions. Maybe it's because the bar was set lower, so any change seems like good change to me? I find a lot of subreddits I had left are now talking about new topics after the protest. Especially subreddits that have never or rarely appeared on google and blew up via redditor migrations. I'm wondering if that sort of change is only seen within my own bubble of subreddits
Good news, you can simply filter the tag "reddit" using the instructions near the bottom of this page, and then you won't have to see any more posts about reddit (which certainly will continue to...
Good news, you can simply filter the tag "reddit" using the instructions near the bottom of this page, and then you won't have to see any more posts about reddit (which certainly will continue to be posted on Tildes!)
Adam Bumas
Reddit Activity Plummeted After The Protests
For the last six months, we've been tracking the top Reddit posts every month. When we first started, the subreddit with the most posts in the top 20 was r/OddlySatisfying, with three posts. As of last month, however, 10 of the top 20 posts all came from r/MadeMeSmile.
And that’s how we've now ended up with a Reddit full of r/MadeMeSmile. And, just in case you're curious about what that looks like — four of the top five Reddit posts were reposted TikToks.
A lot of people saw this coming. Reddit had the most concentration of proportion of conscientious users to overall users as compared to any other social platform because of how Reddit operated and how communities were built. Awesome personalities flourished in Reddit because it was open, fun, and engaging.
I knew Reddit's gutting had an ulterior design. You can clearly see that it's become more right-winged with certain subreddits like the Canadian pro-fanatical/anti-thought subreddit and how comments and posts started to get more and more like rehashed talking points of right-wing media. The number of progressive posts dwindled down to like 4/20 in the front-page. Nowadays, they're just relationship posts and a bunch of other drama. The brain drain is real.
It's been a long time coming. My Reddit browsing method was the front page, browsed via Apollo with heavy use of blacklists. In hindsight it was a stupid way to browse the platform, but... you would not believe how much hate there is lurking under the surface. Whatever you think, there's a hundred times more. There is a mycelial network of thousands of hateful subreddits and they were undermining the integrity of the site for a long time before the API mess. Probably since user-created subreddits were a thing.
And, of course, Reddit Inc. never really cared beyond the level that the law compelled them to. Tech libertarians really have destroyed our public discourse.
538 did a great meta analysis tool to figure out all the hate filled connections of the former sub The Donald.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/dissecting-trumps-most-rabid-online-following/
Now we just have to wonder if reddit got what it wanted. I suppose if traffic continues to rise despite content going down the, uh, drain then they'll be happy.
well, Reddit has always been an aggregator and tended to post a lot from the most popular social media at the time. So that tracks. I'm not sure if this is an unusually high amount of reposted content
I wonder how much of that is down to the crappy attitude that everything on the internet be inoffensive to everyone for the sake of advertising? Some of this maybe quite ranty... but here we go.
I'm not talking about "I can't say anti-trans stuff here!" I'm talking about Terms and Conditions and Moderation that effectively bans swearing, cursing or taking on challenging topics like grownups.
I always revert to gaming over this. In the beforetimes, we had dedicated servers who had their own moderation rules. Don't play ball with the server owners? Off you fuck somewhere else to be a troll. These days however, it's all P2P... so the rules come from the devs/publisher and by hell if you can't exclaim "You fuck!" in frustration withone some little roach deciding to report you. Or maybe you merc'd someone in game and they decide to report you with all their mates you beat? I don't game online, this is one of the reasons. I've got examples in gaming communities of these very things.
Reddit decided it suddenly wanted to roleplay your parents after the API nonsense. Now all you've got is sickly sweet internet with none of the harder stuff that used to get discussed (Yeah, there are some dark chapters of Reddit, I'm not talking about those.) or even raised to the surface. Antiwork used to be quiet, then got big over Covid when it felt like we all saw the writing on the wall. What of Trans stuff? What of... whatever topic that raises the blood pressure?
Or Tumblr, which banned porn, much to everyone's confusion. I'm fairly sure Only Fans suggested it once aswell?
Or whatever else that decides it wants a nice, thin venner of 'polite, niceness' rather than a website where you can actually interact with human beings? "Now now, you can't be looking at boobs on this platform! That would encourage problematic behaviours!" or "Now now, don't think too hard about the way you get shafted at work... here's a person making cakes for the homeless, d'aww ain't it sweet?"
There was a meme years ago about British Culture and how it's so pre-occupied with its own self-gratification these days. "Politics is shit? Don't worry, here's the dancing program!" or "Work got you down? Don't worry, here's the cakey-wakey program!" It feels like this has really encroached onto the whole internet as advertisers continue to crack down on anyone with anything remotely sorrid / controversial online.
We used to have an internet where you could get all the good (Human interaction) with all the bad (Human interaction). Now we've got an internet of bland skyscrappers that are inoffensive to everyone, serve no pratical purpose and all glare out of windows at each other virtue-signalling about who is best... despite all of us being the same.
It's not a matter of too much moderation. It's incorrectly applied moderation. Old message boards had civility rules. Be civil or a mod will smack you. Simple.
Social media has gotten too far up its own butt. Thinking it's some sort of court of human rights or something. Don't steppy my free zpeech!!!11!2! Surely one day when the mood is just right a reddit comment chain will spark the next Magna Carta. lolk.
Message boards used to shovel social / political threads into dedicated slap fight corners. Other wise that's the main reason for attrition. The few percentage of users who think they're master debaters are thread killers. Most users want to look at specific content. Not read political manifestos all day.
Yup. My favourite message board literally had a bit called "Serious" bit that included Politics, Religion and Controversial topics. Then it'd have Tech / Motorvehicles / Books ... whatever. It seperated the slapfights from the constructives.
True that. Even infects non-American places where "Freedom of Speech" just doesn't exist. The amount of clowns over here quoting US legislation during Covid restrictions was hilarious.
The old internet didn't get everything right by a long shot. But my God did it learn to live and learn with each other.
MAGNA CARTA! MAGNA CARTA!
I do want to isolate these two pieces here, cus I used to work SoftDev at a company that worked with adult content. There's a large amount of costs to "doing things right" when it comes to adult content, almost all of which require not only a larger software solution, but also a ton of regulatory compliance and human oversight needed - any amount of PII goes from "Yeah, this is a privacy leak, and we take it seriously" to "Hey, this could potentially lead to someone being stalked and murdered, and regularly does". KYC compliance becomes a thing that you have to take extraordinarily seriously (in our case, we had interviews with customers and the slightest hint of trafficking/fishiness was reported and the users were blocked), You need tools for not just GDPR compliant user data deletes, but for taking down revenge porn and content resharing and so on, in a far more aggressive and timely manner than, say, someone re-uploading a movie. The core reason for all this isn't just common human courtesy - it's almost entirely boilover from Apple and the Pornhub/Mindgeek lawsuits. Even for us having KYC compliance docs stronger than any of the banks we worked with, we were often refused even basic financial services and often got contracts terminated from software companies (for example, we couldn't use Azure, and AWS had already pulled silently twice at random) b/c they didn't want to be even remotely associated with adult content.
Apple won't let you host an app on their app store, if a user could hypothetically see adult content or any form of explicit without being logged in and age verified - and that's a gentler stance than it used to be, which was (and mostly is) blanket no explicit content. If you want to have mobile users, you need to be on the Apple app store, or you're dead - their market share of people who are willing to pay and engage, relative to Android, is enormous. That's why Tumblr made their choice - for them it was an existential threat they'd been presented, and it's better to live a bit longer and pivot than to die in ignominy immediately.
Pornhub got turned into a target by an anti-pornography group that's spun off a church and has been incredibly vocal about their goal to get a full abolition of porn, strip clubs, and any form of sex work. There's a broader discussion to be had on the health of sex work as an industry, the impacts of pornography on our society, and so on, but to be very clear their goal isn't to help sex trafficking victims - it's a Christian group on a name and shame campaign. Pornhub had issues with revenge porn and reuploaded content, but they took action and did iterate and improve things - until Mastercard and Visa threatened to pull their ability to process transactions, which is a death knell for any amount of revenue for any company. It's a massive poison pill therefore - if you have adult content, you run the risk of either complying entirely to a third party's decision which could cripple your business, or you cut it yourself now, and on your terms.
That's why Onlyfans did what they did - they knew their company was an Adult Content company. If investors wanted to see what they could do about it, you show the investors the logical conclusion - the company is going to fold. Build KYC and safety and moderation tools and teams, or we lose CC processing and die.
It often feels like adult entertainment has some similar attitudes like finance does. It's naturally quite exploitative (despite what people say), so I think KYC and such really does speak volumes for the need.
I think my gripe was more just... it feels sanitised. A lot of KYC can be conducted in really weird ways these days given the prevelance of GAI and such (I've recently worked on a product that does facial ID for known thieves in stores via CCTV...) and that is only likely to get better.
Rather than invest this effort into doing things right, they'd rather just sanitise websites and annihilate communities that aren't there just for that. If that makes any sense?
Which feels insane to me. And more specifically, it feels very... 'No, you will behave like good little children in our playground', rather than actually treating folks like grownups and putting laws / regs in place to do things right?
I know it's a private enterprise, but when the reach that Android / Apple has... it becomes bigger than that arguement. Do we deserve to be treated like kids re: adult content, or do we get firms to do the right thing? (Naturally the US will go with the former, not the later.)
These people are so painful to see exist. Must be nice to live in a fantasy world where no-one says or does anything offensive... ever.
It's always these Religious groups who think they know what's best and absolutely deserve the book thrown at them for this kind of behaviour. Just leave people to do what they feel is right, if they find exploited content... report it. But banning it all just never works.
Makes me wonder with the amount of financial consolidation that VISA / MC have are they in need of breaking up then? Surely it's a disadvantage for industry to have that much bought in with these two payment providers?
Like I get all of this. But it still feels like we're treated like children to the behest of advertisers who just want to sell us more shit we don't need. I know popups used to be hilarious online, but I'd happily take the "FIND NAUGHTY SINGLES IN YOUR AREA!" anyday in favour of the sanatised hellscape we're slowly edging towards now.
I never really associated Tumblr with mobile apps, especially not any content creators. Are ads really so lucrative on IOS that it's better to remove half your content (and resulting audience) or risk fading into obscurity? Even for a site that predates the rise of smartphones?
That aside, I still hate how much two ancient (in relative terms) companies have so much sway over all of new media. I was really hoping Crypto would prop up as a proper competitor but the tragedy of the commons ruined that. And I imagine it would have been hit with so many regulations even if it did survive, too much for what literally popped up one day from a pseudonym.
Honestly? Yes. It's not just ads and traffic, Tumblr was and is free to download and use, and would be accessible via Safari even if it's not on the app store. It's that you're locked off of your core iOS users, entirely - which, for Tumblr, is a massive chunk of your highest engaged MAU. Secondarily, a factor that often skews the decision is that Adult Content consumers tend to be some of the highest volume for your traffic, as well as complaints and reports/issues, while also being some of the lowest revenue conversions. People want to browse their Adult Content anonymously, for free, in 4k if you so please, and the simple act of even logging in drastically guts your engagement/MAU numbers.
That's the confusing part for me. I know Apps can have more lucrative ads but it's not like not having an app means you're invisible to a mobile user. But so many sites are being hostile to mobile web that it might be another thing I'm missing.
More traffic leading to more reports makes sense. The lowest conversion to what most of the site is looking at seems almost anti-capitalisic. But. I guess thinking logically when it comes to the topic of sex in American culture is an exercise in insanity. I wonder if that's a cultural issue that we simply leave to time to sort out, or if the elite spread their mentality to the next generation (despite being one now raised in a world with easy, free, nigh unrestricted access to such content compared to pre-millenials)
To be honest I never considered that anonymous mode actually hurt websites. Especially now that Google is being sued about that (among a dozen other issues). Interesting idea for rebellion, but it's probably less effective than ad and tracker blocks.
I feel that conflict leads towards trouble to advertisers. They want to show their ads, not take sides in conflicts. That's why I see these "social networks" as ad bubbles. The social aspect is absent.
Reddit lost a lost of niche communities that I used to participate. It became another echo-chamber for advertisers to make money. Smooth sailing, right? In the end, corporations always shoot themselves in the foot to appease "investors" that will take every last dime, wanting always more and leaving at the first sign of loss. Just like we see with minimum wage workers and their employers.
You're pretty much spot on.
Can't possibly weigh into anything and make a statement could they? OH WAIT, Every firm loves rainbows and Pride these days now that's fashionable to do so. Now they can sell you white Skittles and Rainbow phone cases...
It's frustrating.
Yep. Capitalism doesn't know an end to its growth. People / Governments / Organisations are going to have to roll back capitalism in a big way if we don't want a world that just revolves around money and "I want Bladerunner 2049 environment"
But will people do it? Will they heck. Give me the cakey-wakey show!
This is why I think nonprofits are the way to go.
Same. I frequent one now, but there's probably 5% the traffic since 2006/2007. It's all moved to Discord... which is just an awful platform for conversation beyond trite memes and spaffing nonsense at strangers.
They were made to communicate with people quickly, cheaper, effectively (And sometimes, colourfully with phpBB). Today's instant message culture could take a page or two from the lovely way you can step away from those forums, come back in six days and pick up where you left off.
You can do that on Tildes. Though at the moment I spend a lot of time here because I'm working my notice and I am bored as sin.
I had this over Covid. Everyone moves to Discord and I just got exhausted of it. Plus it feels like if you miss a conversation, then that's it. It's time has passed and can never be discussed again.
Ha. I'm senior leadership with little to during my notice period mate. I should be doing a lot of work... but I kind of don't give a fuck now.
Happy to accept any websites you've got floating around in tabs ;)
Not who you asked but I have feedly rss reader on my phone. When I spot an interesting article without a paywall I tend to add the website to the app.
Ha. I'm a Fan of Ars as well. TheRegister gets special mention as it frequently cracks me up.
IME most discords have been rather quiet, so it's not too hard to keep up with content. Of course, I tend to use discord in two ways, and one is simply as a news feed for various kinds of media. I never felt much a need to keep up with the buzz from #general or whatnot.
And that's just on my regular discord. My personal ones may as well be treated like getting a non-spam text message. Someone posts news or says they are in town once or twice a year and it only gets busy when we're actually meeting up.
Community also seemed less polarizing back then. It lead to a lot of crass jokes and language that isn't accepted today, but it also tended to mean that you could ask almost any question you had on your mind and it wouldn't cause an entire flame war/ratio. No, we saved that for important things like console wars or the most attractive video game character.
as a tame example: It feels very hard to talk about business these days. I can analyze the financial angle of what some corporation is doing and also not approve of it, but it seems inevitable in many circles to be called a scab or bootlicker over thinking below the surface.
advertisers aside: Reddit is still composed of teenagers, and even in modern media (despite the needle moving slightly) they don't want PG-13 esque content to have too much swearing.
The internet is in a very weird place right now with regards to how we tailor content to children, both for casual moderators and large corporations alike. And because the stigma of requiring 17/18+ age ratings is one to avoid, and simply because money, the corporations won't want to block off the 13-17 demographic anyway (for the 12 and under they might, since that's a much thornier market to monetize).
For private servers, one of the WORST things you can do these days is have someone yell out "I'm 17!" in a server tailored to adults (which again, doesn't have to be sexual in nature). That's just way too dangerous even as a joke. No one wants to get cancelled over minors invading their adult space. The time where we could disregard such identity is indeed in the past with today's culture.
I mean, we still do depending on the site. I know Reddit has been "santized" over the years, but most subs don't care about language, nor any sort of civility for that matter (which is part of why I left months before the great API schism). I argue there's still plenty of bad out there in the major sites if you spend more than a few minutes browsing comments. But sure, the 4chan limelight days are long over, and the biggest hit when adverts come in will of course be nudity/pornography, for historical reasons going back decades before the internet existed.
Even in the old internet, a classic troll before forums preserved edit logs was to start a thread for comparing shoe sizes, edit the title to “How old are you?”, and watch lazy mods unaware of the technique indiscriminately hand out underage bans to pillars of the community. At least in the circles I’m in, the only consequence for someone saying, “I’m 17!” in Horse Lover’s Clop Sanctuary is handing out a ban for “dumbass kid forgot to lie about his age.” Things get massively nastier if IRL photos, even non-sexual, are posted by the banned kid.
EDIT: I forgot to add that it was a tradition (or at least a trope) for the head admin charged with keeping minors out for the past six years to invite everyone to a livestream to celebrate his 22nd birthday. It's how I developed the adage that the more strident and inane the age verification process, the greater certainty the admins are underage.
Oh wow did that dredge up some memories. Guilty as charged. I used to be a moderator on a reasonably active IRC server back in the day and would need to remind people to take certain stuff into the adult channels, of which there were more than a few. I was still in middle school lol.
You should come play GW2 WvW!
I'm occasionally astonished at what you can say in chat there without being banned. I think the devs abandoned us long ago, and maybe they were right. Now if you're the slurs type of hateful troll, I retract my invitation, but if you just want to say "You fuck!" or maybe engage in a bit of the old dangle some bait and see who gets angry, this is a good place to do it. Bonus points if you get someone with the old Alt+F4. Gen Z doesn't know about this, it's back.
I only visit reddit for old use reviews and suggestions on things, or advice on niche subjects now. It's still a useful repository of knowledge, though not much new content will be added in the future.
Otherwise, I've completely abandoned it.
Likewise. The vast majority of my time these days on reddit is on my local subreddit. Nowhere else that I've found has a community anywhere near as large and active. The rest of my time on reddit is looking at r/sysadmin and maybe a bit of Formula1 stuff. Even then, these are always brief visits.
I'm not spending all day on reddit anymore. I don't even visit daily anymore. And these were things I did for over a decade. Get what I want/need, then get out. I've refused to use the official app for years, so without Apollo, no more mindless scrolling while in a check-out line or in bed.
Honestly, I thought it'd be tougher to break my reddit habit. But it was easier than I expected.
I'm mostly the same
I'll only go there if it comes up as a result to a Google search.
I'm sure when their profits inevitably go down they'll start deleting old content to save on storage space.
The website used in that analysis (Subreddit Stats) is wrong. I'm guessing the API changes severely impacted their ability to monitor new content on Reddit. Here are daily r/science comments since January 2020 from Subreddit Stats versus our internal numbers. They're off by over 10x since mid July. I've seen moderators from several other prominent subreddits report similar discrepancies.
Using Pushshift, here's the total number of comments on Reddit since January 2020. The API protests caused a significant drop (~30%) in June but it basically fully recovered in August. I truncated the incomplete count for September from the chart, but it's easily on track to equal or surpass August.
I think the really interesting part was that comments have declined on reddit for some 9-10 months before the spike that was (assumedly) the protest. It's a similar trend from both sources, and It's a much longer fall than anything else in the last few years. Wonder if that's universal, and what happened around that time at the beginning of 2023.
But yes, while it seemed like Pushift worked a few months post being nuked in May, the Rate limiting in July seems to severely impact how it can poll.
I don't believe the drop-off that r/science saw beginning early this year is representative of other large subreddits' experiences or the platform activity as a whole. We assume it's the Reddit algorithm being optimized for increasingly low quality engagement that ultimately drives traffic away from more serious subreddits.
Pushshift is working fine now and with Reddit's blessing. They technically were never exceeding the rate limits even before the API changes went into effect. They just (briefly) got into trouble for redistributing bulk Reddit data.
(If you meant Subreddit Stats, I don't know how their website tracks the activity but they are clearly struggling with the new API restrictions.)
Reddit wanted to become TikTok, it has. Mission successful.
I mean, a "Best of TikTok" that I could browse without the algorithm is a useful thing to me.
Right now that's just a few friends, but IMO it works well enough.
I didn't need to get tiktok before because reddit would provide the best of them for me. Now I'm off reddit, and now I just get an occasional link from friends or learn about tiktok trends via conversation and online chatter, and I guess that's been enough for me.
You say that, but from what I can see, TikTok is currently the only social media platform where it seems one can hear genuine thoughts and opinions.
Expand on that.
I see a lot of videos on TikTok that are just people commenting on current events and news. Whether I agree with their opinions or not, it feels genuine and diverse, a much-needed break after years of watching Reddit slowly diverge into having a singular viewpoint/ideology.
I used to think TikTok was all about funny videos and pranks, but it actually has a lot of interesting content, and the comment section on videos is actually usable, unlike Meta products, so you get to hear some discussions on those viewpoints.
What makes you say you can't get that on other platforms? We'll assume you mean major platforms specifically (not Tildes, for example).
I'm not sure I buy that reddit has a "singular" ideology. I mean, it's clear that many subreddits do, but reddit as a whole in my experience has a collection of viewpoints from all across the spectrum-- you just often won't see all these viewpoints within a single subreddit.
I came across a post on reddit yesterday about the Israel/Palestine conflict and it was... not as bad as I expected it to be. There were a number of high-voted posts whose ideology clearly opposed the others but were nevertheless historically accurate.
I'm not saying it was great either, but it was an adequately respectful and informed discussion.
Tildes likes to shit on reddit (for obvious reasons) and I agree with most people here that reddit isn't what it used to be. At the same time, I very much tailor my subreddits to be ones I'm interested in and I use RedReader and not the shitty official app and my experience really hasn't been all that bad. Have I had to unsubscribe to some subreddits that were getting annoying? Yes. But overall I feel that good discussion is there if you look for it and just ignore all the shit.
I will say that Tildes is of a much higher quality and that I'd choose Tildes over reddit any day. Maybe I just don't mind filtering through shit as much as other people do?
As long as the algorithm deems tyem worthy
Before all this, they got rid of i.reddit.com which was useful on mobile. Very old.
Then just before the change (iirc), they made all mobile browser clicks open up the topic instead of simply expanding the picture/text.
They are artificially increasing page views.
As somebody who largely quit Reddit in disgust after more than a dozen years of highly engaged usage, this definitely caters to my biases. But I wonder how accurate these numbers are. For example, that SubredditStats page they cite claims that the popular sub /r/NonCredibleDefense dropped overnight from ~3000 comments per day to the mid-hundreds. But sum the comments from the sub's current front page posts (all made in the last 24 hours) and the total is well over 2,500, with likely hundreds more on later pages. I suspect the API change is interfering with that site's ability to gather accurate stats.
That said, what I do still see from Reddit (/r/all and a handful of sub-specific RSS feeds, passed through a Wayback Machine redirect) are significantly lower quality in the signal-to-noise department -- lots of self-deleting repost bots, outrage bait, and rehosted TikToks. And anecdotally, many of the highest-quality contributors I've run into over the years have walked away.
Incidentally, I attended a Zoom listening session with a couple other mods and some high-level admins the other day -- they're very nice people and apologetic about how the API thing was handled, but one gets the sense that their entire team is disconnected from the actual corporate decisionmakers, making their promises hollow and any feedback they gather pointless. I and others stated clearly that the biggest morale blow was not the technical changes (which were frustrating), but the absolute refusal by site leadership to reconsider, compromise, or even acknowledge people's valid criticisms, further inflamed by the CEO's dismissive, contemptuous comments and the bullying treatment of longtime mods. The admins on the call were sympathetic but didn't give me any confidence that the recent damage will be undone or similar train wrecks avoided in the future.
Lastly, I love this:
I still spend a lot of time on old.reddit.com. I just stopped engaging. I don't vote on anything any more, I don't make comments. If a post really pisses me off I'll hide it. If I really need to discuss something with someone, I'll DM them.
I wonder how many others have done the same. There isn't really any replacement yet that caters to my tastes, although I have high hopes for tildes. But reddit broke the implied social contract we all had that we were all in this digital wild west together and we were building something unique and wonderful. Now that's gone and my relationship with them is purely transactional. No more community. Just services and repositories of knowledge, for which I will pay them NOTHING lol.
This sums up my position to a T.
My last post was over 3 months ago. I used to browse for hours on a daily basis, and I would comment constantly. I've visited Reddit maybe a handful of times since, mostly out of morbid curiosity.
The magic is just gone.
I'm similar I deleted my account when they announced the purge but still like to look occasionally at the home page and specific game subs for infomation, I've switched back to forums mostly
I just woke up so I'm not going to be as articulate as I want to, but I'm curious as to how the protest affected nicher subreddits. Because while there's a lack of activity on most of these subreddits, quality-wise they either seem to be operating the same or the subreddit oddly got better (slightly though, and usually subreddits catered to a younger audience). To me at least, it's only really the mainstream subreddits where it looks more like brain drain than anything.
Judging from most of the comments, I seem to have a different experience to everyone else. Though to be honest, I was always on niche mental health and LGBT+ subreddits that would blow up during the pandemic and then became a broken record of the same 4 posts and opinions. Maybe it's because the bar was set lower, so any change seems like good change to me? I find a lot of subreddits I had left are now talking about new topics after the protest. Especially subreddits that have never or rarely appeared on google and blew up via redditor migrations. I'm wondering if that sort of change is only seen within my own bubble of subreddits
Please! No mention of that horrid place.
Good news, you can simply filter the tag "reddit" using the instructions near the bottom of this page, and then you won't have to see any more posts about reddit (which certainly will continue to be posted on Tildes!)