I've seen that some subreddits went dark and said they'd come back in 2 days (June 14th), and others said they'd go dark indefinitely, until the API changes are rolled back. I'd like to make an appeal for the admins who're willing to go back: please don't.
I think Reddit wouldn't withstand 2 weeks to a month without their largest subreddits, and maybe they'd change their minds about API changes. Some may say they'd just make the subreddits public again and promote someone to mod (which I totally agree, they'll probably do that if the blackout endures for too much time), but I think most people don't realise the PITA it is to be a good mod, and just want to be one because of the status (I'm not an ex-mod btw, I just heard it is very complicated to moderate and I believe it really is).
Secondly, there's no guarantee that Reddit won't pull the rug again. Even if they roll back the changes and everyone goes back, they'll probably come up with this strategy again some time in the future. So instead of going back, stay in the Fediverse: all applications are open source AFAIK; you can run your own instance if you wish; you can defederate other instances if you wish; you can contribute with new features you miss or create a fork aplication of your own if you want to; heck, you could create your own Fediverse application if you want. And there won't be a scumbag to come and try stop you.
It's probably something niche and made up of people that just see it as a place to gather and share stuff, not into ideology, politics, etc.
That's my issue. Loads of very niche subreddits that are the opposite of technical (gardening and plants and stuff). So the users will never switch... It took 5+ years to build those communities up in the first place.
But I popped back in to check today, and they're all back open and the users are terrible, just ranting against the blackout and licking reddits boot like crazy. So it makes me sad to lose those communities and all that information, but if thats the quality of the userbase... I can't bring myself to go back.
You'd think there'd be overlap between organic gardening, or NoLawns, or homesteading that would click with the federated, less capitalistic Lemmy... But nope.
Oof just had a look at the comments on NoLawns. That's definitely disappointing how much negativity was on there
The official lemmy community is over at https://slrpnk.net/c/nolawns, spawned by the same mod who ran NoLawns btw
Yeah, not part of that sub, but read a bit of the comments... well, what can I say 🤷. I'm part of this local sub, it was asked whether they'll join the protest or not, the comments were mostly "no one uses 3rd party apps here, plus what good whould it do". I mentioned Lemmy in 2 comments, hoping someone will actually write me a PM or reply to my comment asking me more about the platform... nothing.
That's the mentality of most people. If it works, leave it be. If it doesn't bother us, why change. Very few people can see the bigger picture, or even care about it... this is also one of my biggest standpoints when I argue that we are doomed as a species. Everyone cares only about hi's/her's wellbeing and not about the community's wellbeing. But, things are what they are I guess 🤷.