Is it okay to lurk reddit without engaging?

Moshimitsu@kbin.social to Reddit Migration@kbin.social – 75 points –

Hello there everyone!

I am one of people who decided to migrate from Reddit, but I wasn't a content creator or mod, just an average user who read some posts, liked one here and there, very rarely commented anything. But as someone with some IT knowledge that also read many posts regarding protest, I dropped the site like a hot potato once it started to show my support for mods.

The kbin experience for now is fine, obviously the site needs to get accustomed to recent user influx one step at a time. I wish the devs the best! Thank for your hard work <3

But the only issue I have is that not every community I have followed transfered here or not every sub found its magazine substitute. While some of them are already growing or I can deal without them, there're few niche ones that still hold valuable information. I don't want to help create an illusion that users don't care at all, but there were times when I found solutions for work related problems there or resources and answers for questions I couldn't find elsewhere. Not to mention the niche communities. Thus forcing me to go there lurking in these cases.

And here's my question - how do you feel about it, mods and ex-redditers? In a few months that probably won't be an issue, but I'm now troubled with that as I want to make moraly right decision.

80

Every time people migrate between platforms there's going to be a period of adaptation, where the massive backlog of knowledge left behind is still useful and necessary.
The best solution to this truly is to use it as needed as you migrate over, but you should also bring in any new questions and subjects that you may have, because that's the only way to start rebuilding that information network somewhere else, y'know?

Why not? Consume without contributing.

Run ad blockers.

Edit: Here's the GOAT—https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock
Not well-versed with mobile solutions. Maybe use something like Brave with built-in blockers. Or run reddit through something like Hermit App which also has blockers.

imho the important thing is to not give Reddit any money, so I'll also continue using it, but only with an adblocker

By far the most precious resource Reddit gets from you is your insight; Reddit needs posts, especially posts with good insights on specific topics. This is the treasure trove they are sitting on and the value proposition for shareholders: a gigantic collection of long-form discussions on all kinds of niche topics that can be used for targeted and generic AI training.

So by continuing to use reddit, you are providing them with the most precious resource they seek anyway. This is why I am anxious to see a genuine alternative to reddit.

Yes, I get what you mean. I'll stop posting content and comments, but I'll keep looking at posts of interesting communities. Since I have quite a few posts made there so far, I'm also considering deleting them, but I'm not sure about that yet.

Know any good ones for firefox?

Ublock origin is considered the best afaik. It even supports Android Firefox

I don't think there's anything wrong with continuing to use reddit if you want to (I am, for now), but just be aware that part of the reason they want to block free API access is likely so they can sell all of the content they've collected for use in training large language models. If you post there, you're contributing.

I don't remember ever seeing an ad on Reddit and i've been on it since 2012, lol.

Wow I’ve been lurking on Reddit with ublock for years, I was born for this boycott

Wow I’ve been lurking on Reddit with ublock for years, I was born for this boycott

My man.

I use AdNauseum which not only blocks ads but clicks every single one in the background completely messing up their data and making it useless. It runs on top of uBlock.

Perhaps you might get some benefits out of teddit.net

ReVanced is working on patches for several third party reddit clients to allow you to use your own API key to get around the API limits. There is currently one for Sync, hoping they come out for one for RIF.

I will be deleting my content from reddit and only posting content here, but I may continue to lurk if I can waste reddit's money with my API calls with no ads on a third party app. Their user count is heavily padded with bots and they are excluding bots from the API call changes for that reason. Even if they lose a bunch of active users we will be easily replaced by bots regardless

Well they still get view counts / active-user counts. Not being logged in (or not having an account) helps.

You should stay away entirely, otherwise you are detected as an active user, but my plan is to migrate away from Reddit regardless of the API outcome. They have made their company ethos clear and it is different from the community.

same. I didn't initially delete my account, because I was hopeful that they were going to change their mind about the API, but I have since deleted my account. Even if they do change, I'm not going back. Fuckin money over community. Fuck them.

I'm not using it because I don't want to contribute to their Daily Active User count, a metric that will absolutely be used leading up to their IPO. If that goes down due to their bad decisions, it will be worse for them.

but you do you.

Create the subs you need and CREATE CONTENT FOR IT. People will come as long as you have useful information or interesting content. Ask to be given the control of a sub if needed.

Too many people around here create a sub without content just so they can run the place. This need to stop.

For the reddit thing I started browsing reddit without login a long time ago and I don't regret it. Just don't give them any content.

Question: is this place crawled by search engines? If we make a thread here with useful information will other people be able to stumble on it on the internet at large by searching terms?

Because if not, it should be, and if it is, we should maybe work on our SEO. Reddit is a huge repository of information and gets new users frequently specifically because of that fact. If Google queries can't lead people here then we're never going to achieve wide adoption like that. It's cool to have the info here for people who already know they can find it here but we need the library doors open to the public as well.

It's the same story as with Mastodon as both are based on ActivityPub. Here is a thread where to people from Google discuss how Google is able to index federated content. I would be curious about what a good solution to the duplicated content would look like. Google would probably want to direct you to a lemmy instance that has good performance but you would really like to see the same content in your personal Lemmy instance's web ui. Maybe there could be a browser extension that redirects you from other instances back to your home one?

I created a few "magazines" for the subs I frequently visited and am going to reach out to the mods on reddit to see if they want to takeover. I want the content but have zero interest in being a mod lol

I agree with a lot that's been said that it's a personal decision. I will say that any time you have a question you would usually go to reddit to answer, try making your own post on kbin instead! Building that backlog of useful conversations somewhere outside of reddit I think will be super useful, so it's at least worth a shot.

I don't plan on visiting Reddit, even if I am not signed in. They could still use visitor metrics to sell ads.

Yeah that was going to be my thing too. You're still contributing to their metrics, but hey even if they become a light user from a heavy user, it's still a net negative for Reddit

Where you draw the line is ultimately up to you. Some people are using both Reddit and fediverse platforms, some are dropping Reddit entirely, some like yourself are lurking only. There’s not a community on the fediverse for everything yet, and the ones that are may not be as active as they are on Reddit or may not be federated into your home instance. The way I see it, if there’s some information that you need that happens to be on Reddit, you shouldn’t deprive yourself of it. The unfortunate reality is that Reddit has come to replace a lot of forums and discussion boards over the years and now has a monopoly (I’d personally call it a stranglehold) on community-sourced information. We can change that, but it’s going to take a while. Do what you need to do.

Completely agree, that backlog of community-sourced information is truly enormous and has helped me so many times. Hopefully we can now start rebuilding it elsewhere.

I’m taking this period of time up until 6/30 as my adjustment period. The truth is, I made my account and immediately logged into Apollo when it was created. When Apollo dies, so does my account. Reddit had been going downhill for years though, and I had tried to find an alternative a while ago; but it wasn’t much more than a half-hearted attempt.

I was actually good on Monday. I think I only accidentally tried to browse Apollo 4-5 times. Tuesday was about the same. Ultimately, I’m trying to re-train my brain so that anytime I catch myself open Apollo, I come over here instead. I don’t have any other social media accounts that are used for something other than comic books. Unfortunately, kbin wasn’t working for me this past week up until Thursday morning.

Now I’m here, and if it sticks around, I’ll be here more.

As far as answering the question of what is morally right? I don’t know that morals are the appropriate consideration. I’m openly spiteful towards Reddit for the API changes and refusing to work with third party developers. They really should be working together; come to a solution where Reddit can start to be profitable, and 3rd party devs can continue making their enhancements without going broke. Instead of bringing them in, Reddit has pushed away.

As a result, I see no reason to create any content at all there at this point. I feel like it’s still a resource for now in terms of solving work related problems. Read those if you need to, but little reason to go there looking at cats, sandwiches or anything else. Eventually, the work resources you were finding over there will be eclipsed by other locations.

Move the icon for your kbin app (I think there is one??) to the place where Apollo used to be. You'll transition immediately.

Honestly, there will be a lot of lurking reddit in the coming days. Even if we had a million users jump ship to the fediverse, there is still going to be a HUGE content draught for a long time.

I am frankly baffled by this mentality. It's a (federated) website, not a spouse, you will not be run out of town for lurking on R*ddit, but I hope you contribute here as well.

I'm planning that I would only go there for pragmatic reasons - i.e. if I had a specific question that could only be answered by a specific sub. I'm not going to go there for fun any more (because it isn't).

You basically have to decide for yourself what you want to use or not. In my opinion, there is no objective right or wrong.

For my part, I cannot and will not rule out that I will continue to use Reddit in some form. Just like I can't rule out that I might not use Reddit anymore. And no matter what I decide, it's my decision to make and I don't have to justify it.

Yup, use adblock.

And crosspost content to your favourite fediverse instance.

Some communities only exist on Reddit. There's nothing wrong with using it as long as you have an ad blocker and don't pay for premium or awards. I'd even say it's the right thing because you cost them money.

I don't think using Reddit is morally bad. It's entirely up to you to decide whether or how you use it.

I personally won't be using it much anymore. Edit all my comments and use a lurkers account. Try not to give them ad revenue.

I stopped using Reddit a few days before the blackout. I miss a few subreddits I was following, but using Reddit again though their app is such a bad experience, I don’t think it’s worth it. I hope some communities can grow again here :).

I've blocked Reddit at the router level to prevent myself from accidentally visiting the site. For now I'm trying to send a clear message - they are seeing a 100% drop in traffic from my IP Address - it ain't much, but it's act of solidarity for all the poor mods who have been using Automod systems to help moderate larger subs, and on July 1st, reddit will be become a sh!t show when all those automods fail to work

Its hard when that's unfortunately where the 'good' information is. Regular google results on something you don't 'know' are all trash if you exclude reddit results.

I've used the Google cache a couple of times so Reddit doesn't get the impression, but I certainly don't think it's morally wrong to just hit the site directly if it has something you need.

I still use reddit, for content and entertainment. Why would it be bad? I am not doing a boycott, I am trying to grow the lemmy/kbin and the fediverse.

There's some niche subreddits that I'd still want to periodically check for information as well, but as others have said try to bring the conversation to the fediverse. Hopefully the communities you follow will reach critical mass.

I think that is a decision everyone has to make for them self.

I challenged myself to stay of Reddit at least as long as my countrys main sub, and to be much more aktive in the Fediverse.

I while i really miss some niche subreddits i think that just out of spite towards Reddit i will stay strong.

The vast majority of Redditors are lurkers who barely post or comment, let alone upvote. If you lurk, that's just status quo, even if there are millions who vow to do the same. But as others have mentioned, you're boosting their active daily users which is a good look for their investors, and it costs them practically nothing to do.

If you want to be defiant and you must use Reddit, I think you can still mess up another of their metrics. Click every single ad you see so their ad-click conversion rate goes down.

You can but you'll need a permission note from your mom. Seriously it's not a big deal, you can use both at the same time, nothing says you have to quit cold turkey. It would be more beneficial though i think to link discussions to the Fediverse rather than just to Reddit.

Instead of just tweeting, toot to the Fediverse as well. Try not to be annoying about it demanding people use the Fediverse, just do it the quiet sneaky way. Get people clicking Fediverse links with topics they would be interested in, and with their own volition they will learn about the Fediverse and come to look at it as a viable choice, hopefully.

There's a few permanently private subs I'm a part of and those people are wonderful. It's nothing like the typical mixed bag Reddit experience. The communities are relatively small so it's very easy to get to know most people there, certainly the regular posters. They've been so kind to me over the years that just abandoning them flat out isn't something I'm going to do.

As for the rest of Reddit I may resort to looking something up there if I can't find it elsewhere first but I don't see myself contributing to public subs going forward.

Now that kbin.social is federated, you can also participate in lemmy communities, which may have a few more options for a few niche hobbies.

I'm sort of regretting not scraping some of the more important tech subs on there before the blackout...some really valuable info could be lost. Hopefully someone else already has that covered.

A lot of good options above. I have only viewed r/modcoord to give my 2 cents and do my sub's blackout polls. I did it via Apollo instead of desktop, didn't know any other way to show support.

I still do, many communities are hard to move.

Yea totally okay! I still use it for some occasional tech info.

Do what you want, the world won't change because of your individual behaviour.

it absolutely does. That's a very defeatist attitude.

I don't believe in that. We are way more deterministic than we tend to think.

Sure, and while I think it’s important to remember that (lest any of us assume too heavy a burden of responsibility for any of this), it’s also worthwhile to be mindful of our personal habits and how we engage with and consume content on Reddit etc.

I guess it’s analogous to environmentalism in that I know my personal consumer habits and household decisions aren’t going to reverse climate change, but there’s no harm in examining those habits and decisions and doing my best to, like, reduce the amount of single-use plastic in my life.