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I've been using Reddit since around mid-2009 (pre-Digg exodus). In my honest opinion, the signs of decline on Reddit have been bubbling for a while, and that's forgoing any consideration of operational/executive decisions that have been made along the way.

Don't get me wrong, Reddit even in 2009 wasn't a consistent bastion of quality, productive, insightful discussion, and a good amount of posts on the frontpage on a given day were memes (not to say those are inherently "bad" posts; peak f7u12 anyone?). But the discussions that were had were, for the most part, friendly and/or constructive in some meaningful way. Over the years though, as the userbase grew and the site became increasingly "mainstream," I noticed there was an uptick of either one or both of two things: 1) low effort posts/comments and 2) sheer vitriol in discussions.

When you combine those two things, you get what -- in my opinion -- is a social media platform with high levels of "engagement" that VCs/execs love to tout and leverage (see Reddit's recent IPO ambitions), but ultimately, a platform that's merely a shell of what it once used to be.

As that happened, I found myself using Reddit less as a "fun" social media platform and more as a tool -- using it for discussions and/or information about niche hobbies, interests, news topics, etc. While the dominance of forums in that area may have been overtaken by subreddits over the years, I don't think there was anything particularly unique about what Reddit as a platform was doing to help these sort of communities exist, and I really doubt that Reddit will be the last place these communities can thrive.

Personally, I've moved past that stage to the urinating on its grave stage.

Reddit was a part of my life for almost 11 years. I am 22 and some of my first posts on Reddit were short stories I had written and posted to r/movies for opinions on whether they would be good as full length films… lol Back then it felt so tight knit and close, like a community. It felt like you had to have some savviness for tech and computers to use it, and really it was like a home to me. A place where I could talk about the weird niche things that i found interesting, and find people like me. What Reddit has become is so far from that, it might as well be twitter or something. Just a billion people all throwing shit around, no community, no friendships, just posts with comments. The magic died and it is sad. This site seems like it might recapture some of what I loved about early Reddit, though. I hope

Mourn the site that allowed toxic subs like the_donald or worse to recruit and prosper? Hell no. I will mourn small communities if they leave, but I don't believe they will. Lemmy is a good idea, but judging from the twitter / mastodon migration (or lack thererof) I am not holding my breath. The fact Lemmy's main devs are tankies makes mass adoption even less likely

Remember that legendary times when reddit was new?

That's what's happening now in the fediverse with Lemmy and kbin, I am to excited being a part of it as to mourn about reedit.

Yes i'm very sentimental. I know the biggest subreddits were now toxic and/or repost so i'm not sad about them, but I was in a lot of smaller subreddits where I know a lot of people very fun to interact with and if they don't go on Lemmy, I will be sad

I am so excited for it to die and be replaced by an ecosystem that isn't controlled by individuals. To that end I think it's really important that we get account moving functionality; no admin should be fully trusted.

It's a bittersweet kind of reaction for me. I've been aware of how shit reddit's been for a while, and how shit it's been habit-wose for myself. So maybe it's the push i needed to get away. That's the sweet part I guess.

The bitter part is, I moderate a relatively small community (181k) that's been a passion of mine for literal years. Still is. If i have to moderate that with the official app, I'm out, I can't do it, I tried. I know reddit doesn't care about me or my community. It's all a rounding error. But this situation applies to bigger communities as well. And it's just a big slap in the face after being exploited. Reddit absolutely needs moderstors, needs this free labor. And they just said fuck you to those people.

This morning, I was mourning it. However, I made a post asking a really simple question earlier but was instead attacked. It was truly such a simple question about something related to my house. So, not anymore.

I was introduced to Reddit thanks to CGPgrey and have been using it since high school, It's definitely sad to see it dying but I'll just treat it as the end of yet another phase of the internet. Such is the will of the sands of time.

the huge user base allowed for niche communities to form. if lemmy (or any alt) ever makes it to that size, i fear it'll be a while

I'm really fucking pissed because reddit is the only forum for a lot of topics. Realistically, I can't say I'm going to stop using it totally. Like, you can clearly see it is at risk of a tumblr-esque descent. The CEO has repeatedly said they are "fighting" for nsfw content to remain, but I trust 0% of what that guy says considering he's repeatedly lied, slandered people and freely admits to just trying to get profitable as soon as possible (see latest ama, for the IPO so he can cash out, presumably). If this really is a Tumblr level decline which it remains to be seen if it is, they'll be in desperate need of more VC cash so porn is as good as gone.

Anyways, I hope some communities start coming over. The blackout is a good protest, but meaningless if there's no actual action apart from that. Regarding the blackout, I don't even really give a shit about "saving" Reddit anymore, as they've made it very clear they are beyond saving. I just want the same experience with the same level of community somewhere else (fuck capitalism and centralization though)

If by 'mourn reddit' you mean 'process the idea that reddit is as good as dead' then yes.

I'm not missing it much, though. I like the social engagement part, and I like the getting news part. I used the time-killing part. Lemmy is social engagement and so far it feels much more engaged, more concentrated, less fluff. And the news in Reddit is 1) mostly America-centric anyway and 2) linked from other sources of questionable repute. And time-killing is something I should do less of.

It's a nice place to find answers and guides, enough so that I use 'reddit' as an additional search term if I want relevant, accessible answers that are willing to call out a product's design for being at fault (if relevant) and suggestion unaffiliated alternatives.

But the communities, the content? I'd barely been engaged there for a year. I loaded it a lot, almost every day; I read it plenty. But I didn't actually enjoy it very much.

Leaving it behind completely will be difficult when it's still the best aggregate of user-generated content, at least for now. But actually commenting or posting in it... I'll be fine.

its sucks to see a site you used to like slowy becoming worst and worst, but its always better to look for alternatives over sinking with the ship

I don't mourn it, but I do already miss it. Because as terrible of a place as it can be, it has the huge advantage of being, well, huge.

So even more niche stuff has some level of engagement enabling you (together with the format) to find things you enjoy or are interested in.

Yeah, I definitely miss the idea of what Reddit used to be. But it's just the platform that's dying, the people are still around and it looks like more and more are jumping ship. Perhaps the niche communities will migrate, as well.

It almost doesn't even feel real. Like, in a few weeks I won't be using reddit almost at all anymore since RiF will be gone. And yet, I'm still browsing Reddit just as much right now as ever and seeing almost no difference other than salty posts about the API changes on a few subs.

I am absolutely going to miss RIF. That app provided such a clean filtered experience to the content I was interested in on Reddit for years.

Not really, lemmy feels very similar to reddit, it only needs a little more content.

No. It’s a website run by dumb cunts.

Eh, i've been on it for probably around 15 years. Not going to miss it, but still will append site:reddit.com to all of my search queries as its impossible to get a good answer anywhere else on the internet

I just hate the fact that 4chan will survive reddit...

I'll probably miss some of the smaller communitys i was active in... :/

I have pre-grieved