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?”
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.
Um. Strong disagree. Yeah it went about as badly as we all expected, but that doesn’t mean it’s good or okay.
In all honesty, reddittors should take down the servers as a form of protest. That’s always been a proper format of protest that’s the equivalent to picketing workers - disrupt production, bring it to a halt, and don’t go back to work until you get what you want. It doesn’t hurt anybody or any thing, and you show your power and value at the same time. It’s an inconvenient time for reddit’s pockets? Well maybe they should pull their heads out of their asses. Anything less is just a complaint, and in this day and age, when they have dollar signs for eyes, that don’t mean shit to this type of people.
If you wanna use might makes right as a founding logic for apathy and apologism, then cowards prepare assholes.
Reddit doing what they’re doing is the equivalent of forcefully removing picketers and you’re like, “it’s their business, they’ve always had the right.”
Because they always have had the legal right to do as they please with their platform.
This protest isn’t by the workers - it’s by unpaid volunteers and there is no law saying they have to listen to unpaid volunteers - and while we can organise there’s no - “unionization” persay - they aren’t paying us. So yes, they can and will bust through up the picket line, holding as many people hostage to their platform despite the moral standing of doing so.
Sure people don’t like that, and therefore they have no moral right. But business when they get greedy generally don’t care about moral rights, and will do everything on the correct side of the law to keep their power and userbase, and considering how eroded the antitrust and anticonsumer laws are right now, reddit has a lot of ability to do shit they shouldn’t really be allowed to do.
Even if legal suits do happen as a result of this, it will be a long drawn out process where Reddit will either Win, or declare bankruptcy. Then you can bet a large multinational tech company will buy it out. Google and Microsoft have been wanting to get into social media for some time now, and meta is still looking for a hot new thing it can hedge it’s bets and get more userbase - to the eyes of these companies the data and software Reddit possesses has inherent value even as the dwindling userbase, especially because Reddit aren’t really deleting data from old accounts. Hell current data would be a great data set to train AIs on and therefore big AI companies would love the opportunity to own said data. I could totally see a company buy it up, shut it down and then use the data to their own ends.
Also taking down the servers, while I completely agree with that in this case - and if 4chan were on board it probably would’ve happened - though I doubt it could be sustained long term, maybe a few months at absolute best, a few hours at worst. Doing so via the means we have available does present a legal concern not many are willing to cross, especially considering the implications of getting caught, most people are into peaceful protests, for this sort of thing not ouright trying to wreck shit - going to prison over a gripe with a social media site seems like a really dumb thing to ruin your life for.
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.
Um. Strong disagree. Yeah it went about as badly as we all expected, but that doesn’t mean it’s good or okay.
In all honesty, reddittors should take down the servers as a form of protest. That’s always been a proper format of protest that’s the equivalent to picketing workers - disrupt production, bring it to a halt, and don’t go back to work until you get what you want. It doesn’t hurt anybody or any thing, and you show your power and value at the same time. It’s an inconvenient time for reddit’s pockets? Well maybe they should pull their heads out of their asses. Anything less is just a complaint, and in this day and age, when they have dollar signs for eyes, that don’t mean shit to this type of people.
If you wanna use might makes right as a founding logic for apathy and apologism, then cowards prepare assholes.
Reddit doing what they’re doing is the equivalent of forcefully removing picketers and you’re like, “it’s their business, they’ve always had the right.”
Because they always have had the legal right to do as they please with their platform.
This protest isn’t by the workers - it’s by unpaid volunteers and there is no law saying they have to listen to unpaid volunteers - and while we can organise there’s no - “unionization” persay - they aren’t paying us. So yes, they can and will bust through up the picket line, holding as many people hostage to their platform despite the moral standing of doing so.
Sure people don’t like that, and therefore they have no moral right. But business when they get greedy generally don’t care about moral rights, and will do everything on the correct side of the law to keep their power and userbase, and considering how eroded the antitrust and anticonsumer laws are right now, reddit has a lot of ability to do shit they shouldn’t really be allowed to do.
Even if legal suits do happen as a result of this, it will be a long drawn out process where Reddit will either Win, or declare bankruptcy. Then you can bet a large multinational tech company will buy it out. Google and Microsoft have been wanting to get into social media for some time now, and meta is still looking for a hot new thing it can hedge it’s bets and get more userbase - to the eyes of these companies the data and software Reddit possesses has inherent value even as the dwindling userbase, especially because Reddit aren’t really deleting data from old accounts. Hell current data would be a great data set to train AIs on and therefore big AI companies would love the opportunity to own said data. I could totally see a company buy it up, shut it down and then use the data to their own ends.
Also taking down the servers, while I completely agree with that in this case - and if 4chan were on board it probably would’ve happened - though I doubt it could be sustained long term, maybe a few months at absolute best, a few hours at worst. Doing so via the means we have available does present a legal concern not many are willing to cross, especially considering the implications of getting caught, most people are into peaceful protests, for this sort of thing not ouright trying to wreck shit - going to prison over a gripe with a social media site seems like a really dumb thing to ruin your life for.