Reddit usage metrics fall thanks to CEO's plan to boost revenue
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9to5mac.com
While CEO Steve Huffman may be dismissive of the thousands of subreddits going dark to protest his planned API changes,...
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The article says that page views dropped by 6.6% from the day before the blackout to the second day of the blackout. Those numbers seem quite small to me and sobering about the impact of the blackout. At the peak of the blackout, views were only down 7%? I would imagine that views are recovering as more and more subreddits are being forced back open. That doesn't seem like it will have a big impact on reddit long-term!
To be clear, I'm not happy about it or saying this to defend reddit! It's just my takeaway from the article. Maybe someone more familiar with these metrics can explain that 7% is actually a really big and significant impact?
Remember the 1% rule; that 6-7% can include a very large number of that 1%, so lots of people that remain are just lurkers. Communities don't die in a few days, it's a continual process.
I hadn't heard of that rule before, that's an interesting idea! It would be cool to find out if the generation of new posts and comments has declined at a greater rate than the number of views.
I agree that it is a sobering number. I don't expect Reddit to die by losing 7%, but that number probably represents a very large absolute number, some of which is directed at alternatives like Lemmy and Kbin. If a threshold has now been passed (which I think it has) and the alternatives are/will offer a better solution, then in time Reddit may be in trouble.
For me the "win" since the start of the black out has been whether alternatives can be legitimized.
And it does seem that Lemmy/Kbin are growing by leaps and bounds even day over day. I don't need to go back as this place is viable.
I definitely agree with you! It's neat to have alternatives available. So far I feel that comments are higher quality here. So even if reddit goes on, I can enjoy the interaction here.
It's the classic catch-22 of internet communities, though: as a community grows, there's a gradual trade of quality of the average individual post in exchange for a higher population and the increased overall activity that it brings.
The former attracts the latter and the latter provides the critical mass of buzz and activity that tends to foster longevity.
Well although i would have liked a bigger hit for reddit and a lot of people leaving and joining alternatives, for me the win has been me switching to Lemmy as well as other people that are the types of people that made me enjoy reddit.
Tbh i didn't use reddit much in the last 3-4 years because of stipid SJW and woke dumb fucks that crowded the space bringing up useless conversations in the frontpage.
But also in niche communities there was a lot of duplicated threads of the same questions/threads because nobody wanted to google first before posting.
I had time to post comments on lemmy like 3 times, and all the times I got to interact with people that seemed really engaged and friendly, that reminded me of my first introduction to Reddit 8 years ago.
I just need more time to contribute and enjoy it here, and kinda like that assholes are stuck on reddit.
I also need to find some good places for torrents around here xD
The people who stay behind are the people we don't want here anyway