this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2023
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The amount of projecting going on in some subreddits the past days is telling.
People are quite afraid that in fact the "leavers" won't come back.
Tbf, there are a ton of comments that I think are genuine, not projection, about the API changes and blackouts, along the lines of "who cares" and "neckbeards!". And those are the people who haven't moderated a subreddit, weren't there when old. was the default, and that I'm fine with leaving behind- the commenters who might as well be spambots.
The reality is that a LOT of reddit users are casuals who probably visit a couple of subs regularly using the official app or a web browser and are perfectly content with that. The issue, I think/hope, is that they aren’t the ones generating a lot of the content and discussion and they will lose interest in reddit when the big contributors have moved on.
I could be completely wrong and this may be a blip in the history of reddit, but I hope that it impacts them in a meaningful way. Reddit is 100% dependent on third parties generating content for them, so the leg they’re standing on is pretty fucking wobbly.
Basically, public perception of Reddit was already warped by these people, with the current exodus it's seriously just going to become memes and conspiracy theory nutjobs.
I agree. I never moderated a subreddit because I have seen what vitrol people spew at moderators.
I actually thought that moderators were getting compensated and I was extremely baffled when I heard they weren't. I cannot understand why someone would take that role to just get piled on day by day.
The projection part is more focused on the people who scream (1 of my favorites); "What is gonna happen is that after 48 hours people come back, suck it up and install the new app"
I can understand the sentiment and alot of people will probably do that, that is a choice one makes.
I do think that the power users and/or people who contribute to the community are looking elsewhere at some point.
I also don't have an illusion that Reddit implodes overnight and I will be suprised if people will leave en masse after 48 hours.
But I do know and that is a sentiment that I keep saying; Reddit will rail it's userbase one way or the other. They already made it clear that they keep monetizing until they are profitable but companies always want more and more. So you are effectively getting railed eventually and continuously.
I originally intended to uninstall RIF and only use (old) Reddit (with RES) on my browser at the end of June, but these additional changes make it look like they're desperate for money, and old.reddit won't stay alive for much longer, anyway.
So I bit the bullet, got settled on Lemmy and Mastodon and really like it.
The very idea behind the fediverse is the "old school internet" I experienced back in the late 90's, when people were still idealistic and thought the net would bring us freedom. What happened instead was the commercialisation of everything, algorithms to optimise engagement and attention, data collection and sales, the global spread of outrage peddling and fake news, and ultimately, the total sellout of twitter and Reddit. Late stage capitalism.
I'm here to stay.
I get the same vibe from them that I get from people who insist everyone needs to stop wfh because they need a captives audience to force their presence on. I haven't looked at reddit since I moved to Lemmy.
Many leavers indeed won't come back. And it sounds like a lot of the leavers are mods and actives who were really relying on the better UX and functionality of outside apps and old Reddit etc. They won't take being forced to a paid app or Reddits 's vision of UX and they probably will remember how the service treated them after all their essentially volunteer effort.