I’ve seen many comments and posts regarding the API fiasco on Reddit, with the claim that there will be a huge influx of users when that happens. I’m all for it, but I find it hard to believe that the average or even above average user will make the effort to switch.

  • btmoo@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I dunno, but the fact that I’m browsing a post with 118 comments using a skin that looks a lot like Apollo tells that things are going in a good direction.

    • notExactlyI20@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Posting with Connect for Lemmy rn. I have 4 o 5 apps on my phone, so I’ll be testing waters before I can land somewhere safely.

      • aeharding@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Ugh, I will implement haptics literally the second Apple gives PWAs installed to home screen an api for that.

        • Ggtfmhy@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Are there any plans at all for a traditional app? I understand that there is an appeal to keeping things completely free from any App Store shenanigans, a certain freedom that comes with web apps over native apps.

  • Meldroc@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Not gonna be a sudden exodus.

    More that Reddit’s entered a slow death spiral. Redditors will start seeing an upsurge in toxicity, since mods will have left, been replaced with stooges, had their tools taken away, and most of the good mods will have abandoned ship.

    Some may come here. Some may move on to Discord or other social media. Some will stick it out on Reddit, but notice that bots and trolls are taking over, whatever moderators are left can’t or won’t keep up, and the admins are seemingly asleep at the switch.

    In a few months, discourse there will have assumed Youtube quality, with bots shouting down human discourse, and trolls scaring anyone remotely normal away. They’ll limp along like that for years.

    Like Twitter.

  • sunaurus@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Nobody knows the future, but speaking as an instance admin, the ideal scenario would be a continued steady growth and not a huge sudden influx 😅

    • papajohn@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      I think it is great here on Lemmy but tbh, the content is limited. My enjoyment here is partly watching it develop. Im like 1 week in and I can see it growing day by day. I don’t think that is what most eventual users want to experience. They want it all set up with the party in full swing.

      • klyde@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I love the conversations here. It’s just normal people talking. No amateur comedians at the top of threads with their crappy jokes. It’s so nice.

        • realitista@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Yes this is like Reddit was back 10-16 years ago when I joined. Much better discussions here than Reddit now. I’m honestly pretty happy where everything is already, I’d like to take the growth nice and slow so that we can stay in the good zone longer. Both digg and Reddit were too banal for me towards the end.

        • MiddleWeigh@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I love it here too. I’m finding that im connecting with people, getting into your head reading your words and it’s nice. Watching the whole process is pretty awesome. Definitely not the average users expectations, im sure.

        • blenderwig@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I like that I am talking to real people, not potential comment reposter bots. Feels less like a psyops experiment and more like actual engagement.

      • sunaurus@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Hey! I have had a few questions about themes. At this point, I am asking users to apply non-mainlined themes through userscripts - I am wary of taking on extra responsibilities in maintaining compatibility for additional themes. Sorry about that!

        But all themes that get added to the main lemmy-ui repo will always be available out of the box on lemm.ee as well. The repo is open to contributions, so you could have a look at that option if that’s something you’re interested in.

        • pkrasicki@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I already made a proposal to improve the default theme, but my issue was closed without any response from the developers. The required changes were small on purpose and should be easy to implement for anyone already familiar with the code. So it seems that UI is not a priority to Lemmy developers. That’s why I had to develop my addon, which I then also turned into a theme. I hope that one day Lemmy instances will start using some kind of modern theme (doesn’t have to be mine), so that my addon is no longer needed.

          My theme is just a small amount of styles applied on top of the default litely and darkly themes, which should make maintenance easier. Unlike an addon, a theme doesn’t need to support multiple versions of Lemmy at the same time, so we could simplify it even more. Lemmy 0.18 uses CSS variables now, so that also makes things easier.

          Something needs to be done about Lemmy’s outdated UI and I’m not sure if the current approach of developing multiple userscripts and addons is efficient. I understand if you think this might cause too much work for you though.

          • sunaurus@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            I already made a proposal to improve the default theme, but my issue was closed without any response from the developers.

            You’re misinterpreting what happened there - the issue was not closed to shut it down, it was actually converted into a discussion to make it easier to track: https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy-ui/discussions/1503

            It wasn’t exactly one specific issue that could be fixed, it was a longer discussion with a bunch of branches. For such things, the discussions format is much more usable.

            So it seems that UI is not a priority to Lemmy developers.

            I just want to point out that there has been a massive amount of UI improvements in 0.18 and 0.18.1 (just take a look at all the changes by @jsit for example: https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy-ui/pulls?q=is%3Apr+author%3Ajsit+). In addition, new themes are being created directly for the lemmy-ui repo as well, for example: https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy-ui/pull/1682

            • pkrasicki@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I don’t know the developer’s exact intentions, but my issue was a specific, easy to implement proposal. It wasn’t meant to be a discussion.

              There have been UI improvements, but the design is still outdated. The theme you linked to is also not a modern design. What we need the most is an improved default theme, so that everyone could enjoy an easy to read website.

  • Candelestine@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I think the influx will be on the 1st. People are gonna try to fire up reddit on their fav app, it won’t work, and a good number of them will do something else.

    A portion of those will look for alternatives. Most of those people will probably end up here. I don’t think it’s going to be a gigantic number or anything, due to how many “gates” there are to go through, but I’m expecting the biggest single-day increase so far.

    • impulse@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      And at least the dev of Sync will or has already rolled out an update to explain why the app isn’t working anymore and that Sync for Lemmy is on development.

      There’s no better advertisement, really.

    • yukichigai@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I agree. Reddit has been trying to sweep all this under the rug, and as pathetically transparent as their efforts are they have worked well enough that a lot of “casual” users probably have no idea what’s coming. When the 1st rolls around and they suddenly can’t use Reddit (as far as they know it) then quite a few will be looking for somewhere else to go.

      I mean a lot of them will probably just grab the official Reddit app, but 30 minutes using that ad-infested garbage pile may dissuade them from sticking with it.

      • Candelestine@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        They can sweep whatever they want wherever they want to sweep it to. That doesn’t cure early-stage internet cancer.

        • DebatableRaccoon@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Unfortunately, filthy casuals tend to grin and bare early-stage cancer on the internet. I dare say most of us who cared have already made the switch with the minority choosing to hang on as long as possible with the more tech-savvy casuals coming over in the first few days of third-party apps getting killed.

  • MusketeerX@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Some will.

    Not sure how big a number that some will be though.

    For people that use 3rd party apps, suddenly they won’t work. They’ll try the Reddit app, some won’t be happy when they see how it looks and some of those will look at alternatives.

    Quite possibly some users have already heard about something called Lemmy, but haven’t been bothered to leave Reddit. If their app stops working, that might be enough to make them take a look.

    There will be a bit of a surge. It won’t suddenly be millions.

  • rm_dash_r_star@lemmyonline.com
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    1 year ago

    I think many are simply not doing anything until they have to. Once their app quits working, they’ll make a change at that time. Of course not everyone uses Mobile. Personally I don’t use mobile much for internet access, mainly desktop browser. In that case I could keep using Reddit same as before, but I don’t want to.

    So the question is what portion of Reddit users are on mobile, how many will relent to the Reddit app, how many will quit using Reddit altogether, how many will look for an alternative, and finally how many will land on Lemmy or Kbin. Could be a lot, could be not many. We’ll find out pretty soon here.

    For those that do come this way they’ll have a transition phase. There’s a lot that’s different here and takes some getting used to. Also the lack of certain features may result in some angst. There’s bugs too. They fixed some stuff with 0.18.0, but searching for and subscribing to communities is giving me fits now.

    • Mistymtn421@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Using on Android mobile has been a pleasant experience for me. Just added a shortcut to my home screen. But, I tend to not download an app unless I have to. Years ago when I was on Facebook and Twitter, I always did it that way. I never used their apps.

      I am old-ish so I am not sure if that is why when I joined, it was very easy for me to find my way around. I say this because I’ve been on the internet since the '90s and have familiarity with hunting down what I need versus it just being there in an app.

      Ironically, when I started on Reddit back in 2012, I quickly found bacon reader and have been using it ever since. It is one of the few apps I do use. And I will not be using Reddit any other way so I am here for the long run.

  • Fandangalo@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It depends. From what I understood, moderation on Reddit will become really hard after this. So the site will go down in user experience on content, worse than it is now. That’s outside of the 3rd party apps like Apollo no longer working but will have a negative impact. It sounded like some mods would just walk away than deal with not having robot spam bots to help, which it is volunteer. That could spur on further churn, again, because quality suffers.

    I removed my Reddit apps and don’t plan to go back. Having said that, the tech here is still in its infancy. I see bugs daily, the native app version of this experience is not super adoptable by a mass market yet, but it can all improve with time and more bodies interested here.

    Long term, this broad concept of decentralization seems to be populous. I think people don’t understand it yet, when they show up it’s rough, and there’s alternatives. But that will all continue to change in the coming months.

    • T156@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      NSFW content (posts, profiles, and subs) will also not be available via the app, so moderators and users won’t be able to see any, which will also make moderation more difficult.

      It’s unclear whether the official app will be affected, or whether Reddit has a secret API that will exempt it from those restrictions, similar to how they implement the other functions.

      It’s likely that users will also begin moving over in that case, although it’s probably a good idea for Lemmy to have its NSFW tagging done up before then, so there’s not just a massive influx of pornographic material.

  • Essartsnhabnie@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I think it depends in part on whether there are some good, short (!) tutorials on how to use Lemmy on Reddit.

    People who just want to continue to browse content will be deterred from walls of text with technical details about the Fediverse and how Lemmy works. It should really be a step-by-step instruction… ideally offering a few instances to choose from at the start. So that the few biggest instances don’t break down from the influx and people leave again.

    From my experience with unexperienced users, they will drop Lemmy like hot potatoes when they run into the first problem or broken down server.

  • rodneylives@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Reddit is gigantic, and while Fediversal alternatives are gaining users rapidly there’s a long ways to go.

    A useful way to look at it is, we don’t have to defeat Reddit. We’re creating a community as an alternative. Reddit hasn’t lost a large number users when judged as a percentage of their base, but many of the people who are leaving are the ones who see where it’s going, and are the power users, the knowledgeable people, the cool people. The ones who make Reddit a place worth being.

    It’s the same with Twitter. A lot of Twitter and Reddit users just keep their heads down and use the service, as it goes to hell around them. A lot of people join social media sites because it’s where other people are, or it’s where their friends are. People who joined when social media finally broke the internet away from being mostly the domain of the technically inclined. Even now, a lot of people mostly use it for streaming. These people may not leave Twitter or Reddit ever, because they really don’t care about it. But the people who were big internet users, or would have been were old enough in the late 90s or early 2000s, those are the kinds of people that Reddit, and Twitter, are losing.

    Now, there are a lot of people on Twitter who I’d have thought have jumped ship by now, but to many people admin decisions feel like they have only a theoretical impact unless it affects their experience, or themselves, directly. The best thing that can be done is just keep on being awesome, and make cool posts that can’t be found elsewhere. Once a community gets a reputation for that, people will come naturally.

    • Piers@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      undefined> many of the people who are leaving are the ones who see where it’s going, and are the power users, the knowledgeable people, the cool people. The ones who make Reddit a place worth being.

      From the little of this community I’ve seen thus far, it seems like the average comment quality is higher than recent Reddit. Though that is usually the case in the early days of social networks as they tend to start with more motivated, passionate and informed users who have actually heard of them and are willing to put time and effort into them before they are proven.

  • vfsh@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 year ago

    For what it’s worth I deleted my Reddit accounts and Apollo the day that Christian Selig announced Apollo would shut down on the 30th. No clue how many people will follow suit but it stands to reason that if I did others will as well. I think it’ll probably be fewer refugees than some are expecting. I don’t think it’ll be like the Digg migration

  • fxiletjj@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I already switched over. But I guess majority of 3rd party app users are still waiting for the last moment.

  • pfannkuchen@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I might be alone, but I don’t want or need a huge amount of users. I’d rather discuss the subjects I want to talk about with a smaller group of users. It would be nice to have some familiarity in the comments as well. On the big subreddits, your comment was practically guaranteed to be lost in the sea of thousands of comments unless you were the first to comment, or had bots upvoting you. If I want my comments to be lost, I’ll comment on a Tiktok video.

    • Sparky678348@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      It’ll be just like Reddit, if you want to avoid the huge mega popular communities you absolutely can. And the smaller more specific communities that you want to interact with won’t have the annoying traffic you’re talking about.