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My favorite subreddit essentially killed itself, locking all new posts, with a stickied thread linking to alternatives. I tried one of the alternatives (a Lemmy

by Panino 3y ago

My favorite subreddit essentially killed itself, locking all new posts, with a stickied thread linking to alternatives. I tried one of the alternatives (a Lemmy instance) and like it significantly more. There are a couple subs keeping me on reddit, but for less time, and I'm less engaged. They could be replaced with a modicum of effort. Financially it seems like Reddit is between a rock and a hard place, and has opted to pick up the rock and bash itself in the head.

lurknot 3y ago
Love to see it, but it reminds me of the videogame industry with their trashy practices and they're still loaded. Pre-orders, microtransactions, selling literally the same game 10 times over with minor changes...
- ethanbond 3y ago
  Could it be that your perception of the evils of the industry are not shared broadly? People in general like playing games and don’t mind paying for them. See: Video game industry is loaded.
  - JamesLeonis 3y ago
    The whole market is tilted towards "Whale" purchasers who outspend everybody else by a longshot. That's why its all gamepasses, lootboxes, and micro-transactions. "Whales" present the same problem to video game companies as a single large customer has on a small business or a lucrative vertical in large businesses (see Google, Facebook). That outsized revenue stream dictates where the rest of the product goes because nothing brings in close to the same revenue.
    - throwaway5959 3y ago
      And yet we have games like Assassins Creed Odyssey/Valhalla and Horizon Forbidden West that are loved and don’t require any extra cost after purchase. Games are the cheapest entertainment out there outside of borrowing books from the library.
      - KptMarchewa 3y ago
        Are you really talking about asscreed as a game with no microtransactions?
mustacheemperor 3y ago
I was at a cool hifi listening party in the bay yesterday and was going to post a picture on /r/audiophile, then I saw it’s still closed, and I realized that subtracts nothing from my life. Instead I just enjoyed the event more. This whole debacle is the best thing Reddit ever could have done for me.
- steve_adams_86 3y ago
  The only social media I haven’t removed from my life is right here, on hacker news. Everything else gave me the same impression as you had. When it’s gone, nothing’s missing and if anything, something is gained. That was a very uncomfortable realization after using it for over a decade, but it was totally welcome once it clicked. With hacker news, I don’t know… It doesn’t have the same vibe as something like Facebook. We all seem to be interested in the general themes here, conversation leans towards constructive, and there isn’t much noise to filter from signals. I wouldn’t mind finding that elsewhere, but no amount of feed configuring on Reddit or Twitter ever got me where I wanted to be. Whenever I click a link over to Reddit I get the sense that I really haven’t missed anything since the last time, however many months before.
  - JoeyJoJoJr 3y ago
    The hive mindedness of Reddit only gives the perception that it is actually useful or contains a trove of valuable information. In actuality it is foolish to follow just about any advice from Reddit, as the most visible comments are merely the ones that best fit with the hive mind and aren’t necessarily indicative of reality. Prime examples of this are relationship, legal, and health advice, but I’ve also found it extends to more niche areas as well. I don’t just regret walking around for a few months stinking of Old Spice - I regret drinking Apple Cider vinegar, recommending my sister look into nootropic drugs, and arguing with family members based on flimsy political talking points.
    - cromka 3y ago
      So apple vinegar is a hoax? BTW was it a reflex that you capitalized it? ;)
EA-3167 3y ago
If they didn't spend money on a stupid number of employees, endlessly developing "features" people don't want or use, self-hosting images and all of the rest... they wouldn't be in a financial bind. Their desperation to go public has driven their behavior for many years now, and the failure to understand that they don't have a 'trillion dollar product' has led them here.
- kitsunesoba 3y ago
  It really is frustrating when companies decide to do anything except focus on and improve their proven core product, chasing dreams of wholly unrealistic valuations.
  - polski-g 3y ago
    Improving their core product? That's entirely the problem. The product was finished 10 years ago. Nothing needed to be changed.
    - smt88 3y ago
      Improving the UX for moderators and fighting spam are two things they could never spend too much money on.
      - kedean 3y ago
        The search feature could also famously use an upgrade.
        pkulak 3y ago
        They could have nearly replaced Google if they wanted to.
    - kitsunesoba 3y ago
      True, though there’s always room for polish but nobody ever seems to bother with that.
aldanor 3y ago
And some subreddits reopened but in an interesting way... https://old.reddit.com/r/pics https://old.reddit.com/r/pics
- realusername 3y ago
  That's because they are aggressively removing moderators to force reopening subs so a few of them decided to reopen in a unusable way
uejfiweun 3y ago
Can I ask you something? I grew up in the 2000s. I've constantly seen people on the internet complaining about its modern state, saying the internet of the 90s was so much better, less spam, filled with smart people, etc. Basically saying that the mass influx of people is what turned the internet into the cesspool it is today. I of course never got to experience this, so all my life I've only been able to dream about what this is like. But this Lemmy / Fediverse stuff seems promising. A discussion platform that requires technical expertise to engage in (for now) while also being completely decentralized... seems analogous to the early internet for sure. Am I correct in this assumption? Are these platforms home to high quality discussion and little spam? If so, then I think I'd bite the bullet and try to figure out how to actually set this stuff up on my PC.
- ncr100 3y ago
  I don't know if holds for everyone, but I would say that it was more innocent, more intellectual, less comprehensive, and therefore less apathetic because everything hadn't "already been done". There also was no pyramid scheme vibe because advertisement hadn't taken hold as kind of an important part of all things. Paying for hosting and thinking about like becoming viral were not concerns that I recognized then.
- nunez 3y ago
  It was "better" like how the town you probably live in was "better" (I.e. cheaper and kinder, because it was smaller and emptier)
- shaunxcode 3y ago
  Getting on mastodon, specifically functional.cafe absolutely reminds me of “the old internet”/bbs era. That is to say it has been delightfully nerdy! (activity pub needs to figure out support for door games though)
- JoeyJoJoJr 3y ago
  In the 90s there was a phrase called “surf the web”. You would find a website, then click though links to different websites (usually through an affiliate/partner section on the sites menu bar) and end up in all sorts of places. You might start out looking at Dragon Ball Z gifs and end up discovering emulators and roms. You might find something cool, amazing, personal, illegal, scary, or pornographic. It was the Wild West and there was a massive sense of unguided, uncontrolled discovery.
infini8 3y ago
What was the subreddit?

by Panino 3y ago

lurknot 3y ago

Love to see it, but it reminds me of the videogame industry with their trashy practices and they're still loaded. Pre-orders, microtransactions, selling literally the same game 10 times over with minor changes...

ethanbond 3y ago
Could it be that your perception of the evils of the industry are not shared broadly? People in general like playing games and don’t mind paying for them. See: Video game industry is loaded.
- JamesLeonis 3y ago
  The whole market is tilted towards "Whale" purchasers who outspend everybody else by a longshot. That's why its all gamepasses, lootboxes, and micro-transactions. "Whales" present the same problem to video game companies as a single large customer has on a small business or a lucrative vertical in large businesses (see Google, Facebook). That outsized revenue stream dictates where the rest of the product goes because nothing brings in close to the same revenue.
  - throwaway5959 3y ago
    And yet we have games like Assassins Creed Odyssey/Valhalla and Horizon Forbidden West that are loved and don’t require any extra cost after purchase. Games are the cheapest entertainment out there outside of borrowing books from the library.
    - KptMarchewa 3y ago
      Are you really talking about asscreed as a game with no microtransactions?

mustacheemperor 3y ago

I was at a cool hifi listening party in the bay yesterday and was going to post a picture on /r/audiophile, then I saw it’s still closed, and I realized that subtracts nothing from my life. Instead I just enjoyed the event more. This whole debacle is the best thing Reddit ever could have done for me.

steve_adams_86 3y ago
The only social media I haven’t removed from my life is right here, on hacker news. Everything else gave me the same impression as you had. When it’s gone, nothing’s missing and if anything, something is gained. That was a very uncomfortable realization after using it for over a decade, but it was totally welcome once it clicked. With hacker news, I don’t know… It doesn’t have the same vibe as something like Facebook. We all seem to be interested in the general themes here, conversation leans towards constructive, and there isn’t much noise to filter from signals. I wouldn’t mind finding that elsewhere, but no amount of feed configuring on Reddit or Twitter ever got me where I wanted to be. Whenever I click a link over to Reddit I get the sense that I really haven’t missed anything since the last time, however many months before.
- JoeyJoJoJr 3y ago
  The hive mindedness of Reddit only gives the perception that it is actually useful or contains a trove of valuable information. In actuality it is foolish to follow just about any advice from Reddit, as the most visible comments are merely the ones that best fit with the hive mind and aren’t necessarily indicative of reality. Prime examples of this are relationship, legal, and health advice, but I’ve also found it extends to more niche areas as well. I don’t just regret walking around for a few months stinking of Old Spice - I regret drinking Apple Cider vinegar, recommending my sister look into nootropic drugs, and arguing with family members based on flimsy political talking points.
  - cromka 3y ago
    So apple vinegar is a hoax? BTW was it a reflex that you capitalized it? ;)

EA-3167 3y ago

If they didn't spend money on a stupid number of employees, endlessly developing "features" people don't want or use, self-hosting images and all of the rest... they wouldn't be in a financial bind. Their desperation to go public has driven their behavior for many years now, and the failure to understand that they don't have a 'trillion dollar product' has led them here.

kitsunesoba 3y ago
It really is frustrating when companies decide to do anything except focus on and improve their proven core product, chasing dreams of wholly unrealistic valuations.
- polski-g 3y ago
  Improving their core product? That's entirely the problem. The product was finished 10 years ago. Nothing needed to be changed.
  - smt88 3y ago
    Improving the UX for moderators and fighting spam are two things they could never spend too much money on.
    - kedean 3y ago
      The search feature could also famously use an upgrade.
      - pkulak 3y ago
        They could have nearly replaced Google if they wanted to.
  - kitsunesoba 3y ago
    True, though there’s always room for polish but nobody ever seems to bother with that.

aldanor 3y ago

And some subreddits reopened but in an interesting way... https://old.reddit.com/r/pics https://old.reddit.com/r/pics

realusername 3y ago
That's because they are aggressively removing moderators to force reopening subs so a few of them decided to reopen in a unusable way

uejfiweun 3y ago

Can I ask you something? I grew up in the 2000s. I've constantly seen people on the internet complaining about its modern state, saying the internet of the 90s was so much better, less spam, filled with smart people, etc. Basically saying that the mass influx of people is what turned the internet into the cesspool it is today. I of course never got to experience this, so all my life I've only been able to dream about what this is like. But this Lemmy / Fediverse stuff seems promising. A discussion platform that requires technical expertise to engage in (for now) while also being completely decentralized... seems analogous to the early internet for sure. Am I correct in this assumption? Are these platforms home to high quality discussion and little spam? If so, then I think I'd bite the bullet and try to figure out how to actually set this stuff up on my PC.

ncr100 3y ago
I don't know if holds for everyone, but I would say that it was more innocent, more intellectual, less comprehensive, and therefore less apathetic because everything hadn't "already been done". There also was no pyramid scheme vibe because advertisement hadn't taken hold as kind of an important part of all things. Paying for hosting and thinking about like becoming viral were not concerns that I recognized then.
nunez 3y ago
It was "better" like how the town you probably live in was "better" (I.e. cheaper and kinder, because it was smaller and emptier)
shaunxcode 3y ago
Getting on mastodon, specifically functional.cafe absolutely reminds me of “the old internet”/bbs era. That is to say it has been delightfully nerdy! (activity pub needs to figure out support for door games though)
JoeyJoJoJr 3y ago
In the 90s there was a phrase called “surf the web”. You would find a website, then click though links to different websites (usually through an affiliate/partner section on the sites menu bar) and end up in all sorts of places. You might start out looking at Dragon Ball Z gifs and end up discovering emulators and roms. You might find something cool, amazing, personal, illegal, scary, or pornographic. It was the Wild West and there was a massive sense of unguided, uncontrolled discovery.

infini8 3y ago

What was the subreddit?