Well, user traffic has returned to normal, but we also have to consider that it’s just traffic. Some of that traffic is also a bunch of people talking about Reddit, protesting, etc.
That being said, I don’t think Reddit will die from this, but it doesn’t need to in order for the Fediverse to succeed. All it needs is to push enough people onto federated services and kickstart it, just like Twitter did with Mastodon. We aren’t going to all switch overnight, it will be a gradual process.
My own reddit traffic has dropped right off since I discovered Lemmy. For now this place has the feel of the early internet: democratic, distributed and friendly. It really makes clear how repugnant Reddit has become.
Same for me. Lemmy still has some rough edges but even the apps that are available now are really good as they are. Improvements are happening at amazing speed. What we currently have is quite good in my opinion and this is the worst it will ever be, as we’ll have improvements on top of improvements, most apps and lemmy itself are open source, I believe that soon, instead of us feature pairing with reddit, it will be them trying to chase us up.
It really does have that feel!
As someone who was around back then, being in the fediverse actually makes me feel young and lighthearted again.
I hadn’t fully realised quite how soul-sucking the corporate web 2.0 was until now I’m completely off it.
This is a good point. Because even websites which replaced others, oftentimes the older one is still there. Like even Digg still alive after Reddit got more popular. Some people say Tumblr’s dead but its really not especially for specific interests like games. The success of you isnt based on the failure of someone else, and its important to remember and not become cross because reddit still has users. Especially its been only like 10 days and a lot have already gone onto other sites.
The success of you isnt based on the failure of someone else
Totally agree. Also, that’s just a great wholesome motto for life in general tbh hahah.
We should focus on building the community we want and people will come.
Reddit has given us an incredible head start with the way they handled the API changes.
The people who understood what that meant and decided not to stand for it are the people who came here first. Should be an excellent foundation.
Beautifully said.
If some of the 3rd party app devs convert their reddit apps to fediverse apps, that will really get the ball rolling
Sync is coming!
Honestly, I haven’t seen as big of a push for redditors to move elsewhere.
It feels like Plan A was to protest the changes and when that plan didn’t work, there was no Plan B in sight. I saw someone suggesting that perhaps, at this point, it would be best to consider moving to another platform but the reality is that outside ModCoord I didn’t really see a coordinated effort to do that.
While everyone is likely to suffer in the long-run in terms of the quality of content, outside of losing access to some very cool apps the biggest victims of the whole ordeal have been the mods actually standing up to Reddit’s tyrannical behavior.
Reddit is beyond redemption, but for many people reddit is home and the plan now seems to be to comply with the orders and try to keep what semblance of normalcy and power each mod has rather than realizing that the point at which their votes, voices and free labor matter is over.
Exactly. People also forget that reddit didn’t spring up overnight, and the great digg migration wasn’t a one-time en masse thing either. It was a slow bleed for 2~3 years even after digg’s v4 redesign. Those that stayed on digg turned it into one huge circlejerk about how reddit sucked and it would never take off, and people would end up back on digg eventually … EXACTLY like what is happening on reddit now. It will take time for Feddi to grow, but it will as long as dedicated users stick around and create interesting content
I hate that I’m still adding to Reddit traffic but every once and a while I still do (search item) + Reddit because it’s still better than just googling something and getting 100 terrible SEO articles about a topic.
For example. I wanted to look for DIY dog toys. I got hundreds of results with crappy clickbait, and ridden websites. Did +Reddit and got some great results.
Once I can do +Lemmy and get decent results my traffic will fall hard… I guess I gotta be part of that change, offering threads of my own with information I know. But it just seems homeless some days.
I think that it’s important to note the 1% rule.
Most of the traffic of any given platform will be created by people who interact with it only passively; they mostly lurk and, for good or bad, they don’t care about it. Admins this, mods that, who the fuck cares, my cat pics sprout spontaneously from the internet.
In the meantime the people who actually contribute with the platform will be a tiny fraction of it. They don’t add traffic, but they add value - because they’re the ones responsible for creating the content (posting), aggregating value to the content (commenting), sorting the content (voting and moderating). The admins’ decisions and the mod revolts affected specially bad this group. And… well, not even the stupid like to be called stupid, and that’s basically what the admins did.
Now consider the link. The lurkers are back to Reddit because there’s still content to be consumed there, but eventually it’ll run dry - because the contributors are leaving the site. As such, you don’t expect the mod revolts to have a short-term impact on the site, but rather a long-term one: the site will become less and less popular over time, as the lurkers are looking for content there and… well, nobody is providing them jack shit. Eventually the site will be forgotten by the masses, just like Digg was.
So Reddit will die, mind you. But it won’t be a sudden death; it’ll be a slow bleeding.
I just wish that this process was slightly faster, specially before the IPO.
This lurker won’t (trying to not lurk here). I am happy to get away from there, enough content (and better quality) is here.
Thank you! (We need more content. Specially about other stuff than Reddit.)
That reminds me a caveat of the reasoning above: the “lurker” and “contributor” aren’t different people, but different interactions with a platform. Someone might be a lurker in one platform but a contributor, for example. The conclusion is still the same though, people avoid contributing to platforms that they feel to be hostile towards them.
The content will stay, at least in terms of posts. If the value-adders go to other sites, someone will just repost that value back to reddit.
It’ll devolve into something like instagram, where it’s literally impossible to discuss anything in the comments. Unfortunately that doesn’t mean they stop making money.
The content will stay, at least in terms of posts.
Content loses relevance over time, and becomes increasingly harder to retrieve as noise piles up: pointless threads, re-re-re-reposts, “marketing opportunities” (i.e. spam), so goes on. Reddit Inc.'s actions pissed off specially bad the people who were removing that noise - moderators.
someone will just repost that value back to reddit.
Usually you’d have the contributors doing this; the lurkers don’t care about sharing. But even if someone/something (AI) consistently keeps posting stuff from other platforms back into Reddit, those newer posts will be further removed from the original source, and they’ll arrive later. Reddit stops being the “front face of the internet” to become “yet another bottom feeder of the internet”.
where it’s literally impossible to discuss anything in the comments. Unfortunately that doesn’t mean they stop making money.
In Reddit’s case, I think that it does. Reddit might’ve started as a link aggregator, but its main value was as a forum platform. Without the ability to discuss anything deeper than “two plus two equals GOOD! EDIT WOW THANKS FOR THE GOLD, KIND STRANGER!@!11ONE”, it’s just yet another link aggregator again.
Lots of people are probably just waiting for better apps for lemmy + the drop dead date for Reddit 3rd party apps. I am, anyway. I’d expect a shift in activity in July.
Any lemmy apps coming out? Found one but it doesn’t stay open.
Jerboa for android and Mlem for iOS are already out and getting better everyday!
I cant seem to get jerboa to work - keeps closing just after opening
I read there are some issues with pre 0.18 versions of Lemmy with the latest versions of Jerboa. It should be fixed soon though, and an update as big as 0.18 for Lemmy should be rare in the future
Thank you - ill keep it installed
I am not sure I believe that, it might be that bots can be active again now that the subreddits are reopened, but I know that I am not back. And I won’t be back, and I think a lot of people are staying away as well. That the traffic is now normal seems a bit sketchy.
I know that I am not back. And I won’t be back, and I think a lot of people are staying away as well. That the traffic is now normal seems a bit sketchy.
I’m afraid that’s just bubble bias. Most people just don’t care or haven’t found a viable alternative yet. These +43k active users on Lemmy are huge for Lemmy, but not even a scratch for the other site.
After the initial exodus at the start of this month, you could see more and more comments demanding returning to business as usual.
[I’m afraid that’s just bubble bias.] Huh, hadn’t heard of that one before. But yeah 43.000 is not a lot next to 52.000.000. I am still staying here tho
If Reddit experience a drop a 5% of its user base I doubt they would immediately notice. And even if they did sites like this (pcmag) would not consider that a major drop and so wouldn’t even report it as such.
But we all know that 5% of the users produce 90% to the content.
It’s interesting to see how the traffic is after 1st of July. I hate to speculate but I wouldn’t be surprised when an article will comes out, stating traffic has not changed after 1st of July.
NGL, I’m only there for the porn now
Yeah, didn’t find any equivalent on lemmy so far…
There are NSFW instances, saw them in the join Lemmy list.
On June 12, 2023, nothing happened on Reddit
SquareForum. The so called “Moderator Purge” is a hoax invented by communist/fascist Lemmy propagandists. Reddit is a great platform, the best on the entire world wide web. Lemmy is a backward spam-filled/virus-infested/ad-ridden website filled with communists and fascists. Long liveChairmanCEO Spaz.I didn’t know Winnie the Poo had a son named Spaz. Long live chairman Poo Spaz. May he forever ride hard on the magical head of a nuclear north Korean unicorn.
When Reddit protests were at its height, posts to the site dropped by only 20%. Who is doing the majority of the posting?
I am sure some of it is spam bots. But also - a big value of Reddit is indeed in the long tail of niche communities. Many did not join the protest.
Using bots to replace users-lost-to-protest has always been the goal. All that matters is that the numbers go up.
This is good for the sale (IPO).
Twitter had the same plan–keep counting bots. Elon (or some advisor on his team), rightfully argued this point and eventually it lead to a lawsuit, that was then settled out of court.
Google and facebook have been selling “ad impressions” of questionable human-ness for decades. None of these sites have any real incentive to find out how many bots are on their platform.
Bots mostly. Take a look at the site, you’ll notice many usernames consisting of a random adjective or noun in front of a random noun and a random number at the back. Sometimes they are in camel case, sometimes they are separated by dashes or underscores.
Go to the profiles of those. Bot accounts display that they are 6-12 months old and have no activity for the first few months. The activity starts with out-of-place comments on reposts made by other users (they never comment on OC), so they are likely copied from other users that commented below the original post.
After the initial commenting phase, they start posting. It’s never OC, just reposts and they never reply to questions in the comments.
At this point I’m convinced those bots are deployed by reddit themselves because they are so easy to spot and no action is taken against them.
Then there’s also the porn bots which collect properly tagged material from other sites and post it to the corresponding subreddits. You can spot them by looking at their profiles, they post 20-30 images an hour without pause. I’m pretty sure those are made by users, we’ll see once the API changes go live.
Edit: Typos
Take a look at the site, you’ll notice many usernames consisting of a random adjective or noun in front of a random noun and a random number at the back. Sometimes they are in camel case, sometimes they are separated by dashes or underscores.
That’s the format of the usernames that Reddit suggests. That doesn’t really mean much.
camel case
TIL this has a name. love it
There are all kinds of useful named things to learn about.
Oh, wow. It’s so cool when you been using these patterns for years and suddenly realize they have a name! Thanks a bunch.
Thanks, so cool. TIL I habitually use snake case for filenames and kebab case for screen names and urls. Never even thought about it.
A lot of people simply don’t give a shit. Look at the amount of people still on Facebook.
I’m only on Facebook for local town news 😭
Events for me. Can’t get away from it.
I left and haven’t logged in for a few weeks now, so I know at least my traffic is gone.
same. I’ve 100% switched to Lemmy for browsing; keep subscribing to more communities. it feels perfectly complete.
however… my google searches still take me to reddit… ugh sucks that all that ‘user knowledge’ is stuck there.
I left but logged in to see if my deleted post and comments were restored. Some of them were restored so I edited them to nonsense
I never said anything of value, ao I left all my comments.
I’m not surprised, but you can’t forget that a lot of people on reddit don’t really post or comment a lot. I myself was one of them, I’m way more active here than I ever was on reddit though.
Same.
I feel like the people here are way more open for discourse, which makes it a lot less scary to voice your thoughts.
Still haven’t posted anything though, I’m not a conversation starter, but rather a participant. XD
The reddit hivemind would do that to you
On Reddit if you post anything opposite the hive mind it goes off the rails. If they are talking turkey for thanksgiving and you post ham, the reaction was that as if you murdered their only child.
Here people just ask questions and converse like they normally would in the real world.
I credit my 12 years on reddit with my ability to create airtight defenses towards anything in my daily life.
The boar’s head in hand bring I,
Bedeck’d with bays and rosemary.
I pray you, my masters, be merry
Quot estis in convivio
Caput apri defero
Reddens laudes Domino
Yeah but you’re also also not contributing to the horde of data that they can sell to the AI companies. So your account isn’t useful to them.
They are boasting now but they know they’re done for.
I can’t imagine this stock price is going to be anyway near what they wanted to be when the IPO comes in. Assuming it now happens at all.
I know that is bs because I haven’t been there in days and I probably added 100 visits a day to their stats. So they’re at least a couple hundred shy. Suck my balls spez.
I know that is bs because I haven’t been there in days and I probably added 100 visits a day to their stats. So they’re at least a couple hundred shy.
The article mentions 55.31 million daily visits (average). You decreased their stats by 0.00018%. Even if all new active lemmy users had your level of activity, the other site would still return to normal. There are just so many other users.
Reddit bots and AI have returned Reddit traffic to Normal. They don’t need no stinkin’ human users causing problems.
The reddit bots have returned. Nature is healing.
I’m not really surprised, I’d actually assume that sexy John Oliver and the other protests created a lot of additional traffic. People post like crazy and a lot of people want to see that, especially since it got some coverage on news sites. Add to that the big majority of people who do not care (remember that 80% of traffic was still reached) plus some who may have been sympathetic enough to join the two day protest but don’t care enough to continue to stay away. It’s really not surprising that we’re back to normal numbers.
Thankfully this isn’t the only impact people currently still make, so this isn’t over. The real question now will be how else it might change Reddit.
I’m pretty sure i’m gone
I think it’s par for the course for user traffic to normalize since the platform gets visitors just by simply existing.
But if they actually matched that against old users of the site, then it actually means something. Most of the users that left are usually power users and have used Reddit long enough to use third-party apps and can’t stand the bullshit changes.
Well I’m just loading up Lemmy for the first time today and this seems like a fine replacement — even more so than mastodon was for Twitter.
Now that i read it: i saw some ppl here wonder about bots posting comments or maybe downvoting, bc of apparently a lot of comments being against the protest suddenly more than before? And more downvotes on comments about it? If really bots are being used for this, will that also contribute to the traffic metric like a normal user would?
But that said im not sure if theyre bots, but i did see some people mentioned that they thought there’s some false accounts speaking on Reddit’s side.
You take away power users and people fed up with Reddit and the casual user who doesn’t care is left over.
If you look at blackout votes it was usually around 4 to 1 in favor.
During and shortly after the blackouts there were a ton of upset casual users calling the mods cunts, the blackouts don’t help, stop holding other users hostage, give me back my content!!!
Those users don’t care about third party apps, mod tooling and so on, they just want to browse the site. These angry users got the loudest while protestors took a break or left for the Fediverse.
There’s a curious sameness to many of the anti-protest comments. If it’s not a bot, it’s a group of people working off the same script.
The .world instance has a lot of people with issues that have been kicked off of other instances and they are here
If really bots are being used for this, will that also contribute to the traffic metric like a normal user would?
no: bots generally use the API and, even if they went through the web ui, bot traffic doesn’t generally trigger tracking (you could write a bot that does that, but it would be extra work)
“Returns to normal”… minus one user.
Make that 2…
Make that 3…
make that n+1
deleted by creator
I’m Spartacus!
And my axe!
And my axe.
Yep that’s a reddit throwback but I deleted my 14yo account 2 weeks ago and have actively avoided them since.
Make that 2…
