Well that went just as I expected it to. The admins are still the admins. They're the top of the power totem and that's that.
Honestly this protest's only purpose shouldve be to raise awareness of alternatives and tell people "were leaving Reddit, and this is where we're going" while we still can. Because Reddit is private property, and therefore will always be subject to the whims of its admins - regardless of how people believe it should be run of if people think it should tolerate protesting against the platform on the platform.
Everyone should've been aware that this protest could only have been temporary.
Sure we reminded them of the power we possess, but they've essentially reminded us that they possess more, and can remove that power regardless of how the community feels. Admins are and have always been at the top.
No one had any illusions about how this was going to go. The point was making them do it. The point was forcing Reddit into a PR nightmare just before their big IPO. The point was giving this platform traction. The fact that this post exists on this platform is proof that the mods succeeded. Sure, Reddit is still huge.. but with entire mod teams being replaced with Spez bootlickers it remains to be seen whether they can maintain what they have, or if this is Digg all over again.
It's hard to predict what will happen, but I'm here, and you're here, so something is happening.
I don't think reddit will die, but they definitely hurt themselves. The fediverse grew by leaps and bounds over the past week, reddit drove so much traffic to their potential competitors. Then when the 3rd party apps die, they'll lose some more.
Reddit is gambling on gaining enough revenue from pushing people on 3rd party apps to 1st party that it makes up for the loss of users overall.
People on reddit say "Why do we care about 3rd party apps, it's such a small section of the userbase" But apparently reddit cares enough about that small section of the userbase that they need to push them to their own app.
I said this elsewhere, but this isn't the end of reddit. The end of reddit will be when everyone on the site says "God i'm tired of all these fediverse/(some shittier platform) reposts, why am I even here?"
Nobody said it makes sense.
We'll see in a few days what the people end up choosing. I'm not going back unless demands are met, but I do have a tiny glimmer of hope that the people will let it go as apps disappear, and a slightly larger glimmer of hope that it'll just kinda shrivel over the following months and years.
But, in all likelihood, people are dumb, and spineless and ignorant, and will continue to make spez money and the durability of the site will endure. It'll be worse, but not worse enough for the vast majority of normal people to not use it. I have hope, but it's simply hope in the face of my ever growing misanthropy.
Honestly just the fact that the protest gave awareness to viable reddit alternatives is good enough. And the blackout helped in that regard to force users to search for alternatives (like me). Obviously subs will be forced back open, but people have options now with whole communities here that literally did not exist weeks ago.
Well that went just as I expected it to. The admins are still the admins. They're the top of the power totem and that's that.
Honestly this protest's only purpose shouldve be to raise awareness of alternatives and tell people "were leaving Reddit, and this is where we're going" while we still can. Because Reddit is private property, and therefore will always be subject to the whims of its admins - regardless of how people believe it should be run of if people think it should tolerate protesting against the platform on the platform.
Everyone should've been aware that this protest could only have been temporary.
Sure we reminded them of the power we possess, but they've essentially reminded us that they possess more, and can remove that power regardless of how the community feels. Admins are and have always been at the top.
No one had any illusions about how this was going to go. The point was making them do it. The point was forcing Reddit into a PR nightmare just before their big IPO. The point was giving this platform traction. The fact that this post exists on this platform is proof that the mods succeeded. Sure, Reddit is still huge.. but with entire mod teams being replaced with Spez bootlickers it remains to be seen whether they can maintain what they have, or if this is Digg all over again.
It's hard to predict what will happen, but I'm here, and you're here, so something is happening.
I don't think reddit will die, but they definitely hurt themselves. The fediverse grew by leaps and bounds over the past week, reddit drove so much traffic to their potential competitors. Then when the 3rd party apps die, they'll lose some more.
Reddit is gambling on gaining enough revenue from pushing people on 3rd party apps to 1st party that it makes up for the loss of users overall.
People on reddit say "Why do we care about 3rd party apps, it's such a small section of the userbase" But apparently reddit cares enough about that small section of the userbase that they need to push them to their own app.
I said this elsewhere, but this isn't the end of reddit. The end of reddit will be when everyone on the site says "God i'm tired of all these fediverse/(some shittier platform) reposts, why am I even here?"
Nobody said it makes sense.
We'll see in a few days what the people end up choosing. I'm not going back unless demands are met, but I do have a tiny glimmer of hope that the people will let it go as apps disappear, and a slightly larger glimmer of hope that it'll just kinda shrivel over the following months and years.
But, in all likelihood, people are dumb, and spineless and ignorant, and will continue to make spez money and the durability of the site will endure. It'll be worse, but not worse enough for the vast majority of normal people to not use it. I have hope, but it's simply hope in the face of my ever growing misanthropy.
Honestly just the fact that the protest gave awareness to viable reddit alternatives is good enough. And the blackout helped in that regard to force users to search for alternatives (like me). Obviously subs will be forced back open, but people have options now with whole communities here that literally did not exist weeks ago.