I haven’t gone back since Apollo shut down, and not planning to, but I am curious.
I’m jumping between Reddit and Lemmy. Some subreddits have all of their mods booted out (r/GoCommitDie and r/OpenAI are two I can think of). Some subreddits have decided to flag their subreddit as NSFW but are being threatened by Reddit to reverse that move, and many have returned to business as usual.
Let’s face it. We’ve lost the API protest. All we can do now is make Lemmy popular and make it attractive to other users. Give people an incentive to actually join here. Our job here is not to make Lemmy a copy of Reddit. We need to make Lemmy different (in a good way!).
And here’s an unpopular opinion: we need to make Lemmy easy to use and understand. If normies find Lemmy difficult to use or understand, then we’re fucked.
My personal opinion is that normies might get confused by the fediverse and might be turned away by thinking they need to make an account on every single instance in order to participate in them. I am not proposing that we get rid of federation. What I am proposing is that we somehow make it clearer to everyone that all you really need is one account and you can get access to everywhere. I don’t know how we can do this, but I’m sure there is someone who knows.
For the normies, I just saw someone recommend the wefwef app on reddit and now here I am.
It’s 2023, people don’t need to know how the fediverse works, they just need to know which app to install.
Content is nice. It feels like reddit of old.
This is going to be great.
We didn’t lose. Reddit lost us and will continue to lose.
Reddit offers nothing without its (human) users. They can chatGPT all the posts they want to try and look busy, but people are gonna notice the lack of original thoughts and leave. It will be slow and it won’t be complete, but it is happening.
Fediverse services need to lead with the “all” feed. People don’t want to be pressured to pick a server without knowing what’s on it or where everyone else is. When you go to reddit, the first thing you see is the r/all feed. The posts and content is what gets people to join.
“People are gonna notice the lack of original thoughts”
My gamer in christ we go to reddit and redditlike sites to avoid original thoughts
I mean just having someone that has good real world UX skills (as in, good UX for normies) to redesign join.lemmy would probably already solve 90% of it.
I think account transfers is another thing what would help alleviate the pressure from choosing an instance.
I have good (I hope) UI skills, as in, I am good at designing good looking frontends. How do I apply to design the join.lemmy page?
Probably through the GitHub would be my guess.
I’m not really a normy, but the simple act of making an account is not obvious. With that barrier of entry, most people will simply never be able to join here.
I kinda am, and found it easy enough. Read some stuff and signed up, jumped in and figure it out as I go - am I missing something? There doesn’t seem to be barrier to entry for anyone who can use a phone or computer.
Good. Its an intelligence gate.
Lack of technical expertise does not equate to a lack of intelligence.
It does though. Its not the technology… Its the critical thinking and problem solving. It could be a stone puzzle.
Please help, I can’t for the life of me work out how to Sign Up!!!
GTFO!
Please, anyone that dumb - force them to stay on Reddit. Don’t let them in!!!
Most people start by ending up on the join Lemmy website and are bombarded with info about the fediverse, and the description of each server makes it sound like you can only interact with local commities. If you link someone straight to lemmy.world I imagine they will have no problem signing up.
Oh, ok - I missed something.
I started by looking at BeeHaw from a link - but couldn’t get in.
Then Lemmy.ml, which promptly failed to do much of anything, I actually made 5 accounts with the same username in Bitwarden (just join, then search up my BendyLemmy and ‘auto-fill and save’…).
When Lemmy.world stopped responding (last week I also got tons of errors with Lemmy.ml) I just took a back seat, did something else, then spotted several ‘upgraded!!!’ posts in my feeds.
Making cute little infographics could help. Even Reddit had them way back when people didn’t really “get” what all the voting was about or why people were so into bacon.
This is the oldest one I could find with a quick Google search, but I am sure there were older ones as well.
I’m all for improving the user experience here on Lemmy.
But what I find not so appealing, is targeting mass adoption in a way that dumbs down the community we’re building here.
As long as we just make Lemmy a great place to be, the right kind of people will keep joining.
Meta knows exactly what to do to bring a billion new users to a new social media site, and all you have to do is look at Threads to see the kind of community they are cultivating.
Lemmy does not, and never will, have the moderation power to contend with that many bad actors. I’m perfectly fine with Lemmy having a tiny learning curve to keep out the dregs.
maybe drop the word federated. That word makes little sense here.
Right now, you DO need multiple accounts. Instances are down all the time, federation either breaks or is intentionally broken through defederation even between relatively large instances, … it gets tedious.
I usually hate this response… But I haven’t had any issues, this is bizarre to hear for me.
This isn’t my experience.
That’s just growing pains from a sudden mass migration, the hug of death if you would.
User base growing organically over time will make this happen less and less.
Lemmy as a software will get more sophisticated, the people running the software will get more used to how things operate and be able to buy more/better hardware, etc…
Right now things are just a bit chaotic from thousands of people jumping ship at the same time.
People don’t care about it being growing pains or what will happen, they’re trying it now.
And people will try it in the future when it is a better experience, too. Both things can happen, I promise you.
I feel like I haven’t seen enough of that happening in the past though. Can you share some examples of where you’d seen it? Maybe Steam? No Man’s Sky?
What other apps debuted early to a poor public reception that got people to come back and try it again and successfully change their minds?
Lemmy now has over an average of a million posts a day up from 300k a month ago. It’s experiencing massive massive growth NOW despite no venture capital being thrown at it. I don’t know why you are asking about sleeper hits when you are literally posting on one. EDIT: I’m an idiot. Misinterpreted the “1 million posts” post from yesterday as a daily total not a cumulative lifetime total.
What is the confusing part?
Honestly I feel like the barrier of entry for normies is a good thing. What’s the confusing part about Lemmy and the fediverse? Maybe I’m missing something
You’re just being obtuse if you think that there’s no confusion for the majority.
The absolute vast majority aren’t techies, they aren’t open to learning and they have been used to centralised simplicity.
Just trying to explain home instances, federation and defederation is more than enough to lose the interest and understanding of a vast majority.
Now the barriers do lend themselves to an entirely different feeling and community base. Whether that’s good or bad is down to personal taste. But Lemmy isn’t going to compete with reddit until the process is streamlined and the thinking required is mostly removed.
While it’s true that the majority of people may not be tech-savvy or open to learning complex new software, it doesn’t necessarily mean that normal people don’t adopt new software at all. Throughout history, we have seen numerous instances where new technologies and software have gained widespread adoption, even among non-technical users.
Consider the rise of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. These platforms started with relatively niche user bases but eventually expanded to reach millions, if not billions, of users worldwide. The key to their success was not only their technical features but also their ability to simplify the user experience and cater to the needs and preferences of a wide range of individuals.
In the case of home instances, federation, and defederation, while they may sound complicated and unfamiliar to the average user, it’s important to note that successful software platforms often find ways to abstract complex concepts and provide intuitive interfaces. If the process is streamlined and the thinking required is minimized, it becomes more accessible to a larger audience.
Moreover, it’s worth considering that as technology becomes more pervasive in our daily lives, people are becoming increasingly comfortable with exploring new software and digital experiences. The rise of smartphones, mobile apps, and the increasing reliance on digital tools for various tasks indicate a growing acceptance and adoption of new software by the general population.
Therefore, while it’s true that there may be initial barriers and confusion, it is possible for new software like Lemmy to compete with established platforms like Reddit by focusing on simplifying the user experience, addressing the needs of non-technical users, and gradually building a community base that fosters familiarity and engagement. It’s important not to underestimate the potential for normal people to embrace new software when it offers compelling features and a user-friendly interface.
People outside the sphere of knowledge about the fediverse who I’ve tried to introduce to Lemmy have been quite confused for sure. They’re used to centralized platforms like reddit, so even the concept of having to choose which instance they sign up on and comprehending that they can interact with content on other instances from their instance is super foreign to them. It also isn’t very clear how to subscribe to communities that aren’t on their instance (once they’ve got their head around the fact they can), although sites like Lemmyverse help a ton with discovery. But even visiting a 3rd party site to find communities is confusing.
People who don’t think Lemmy is confusing are only seeing it from their position of knowledge and assuming concepts they already understand are “easy” or “common sense” when to most they’re anything but.
I tried to explain Lemmy to my gf since she was on reddit a lot, but quit for other reasons. Her eyes glazed over, and she gave me a “wow that sounds cool” , like i was our toddler, excitedly telling her about a leaf i saw.
The best analogy I’ve found so far is “it’s like having an email address; having a different server after the @ is not an impediment to your participation. Just know that you can only login to the server where your account is set up.”
I am using this example! That’s a great way of explaining it.
I’m still slightly confused about aggregating or if that is even possible. I guess I just need to have a separate account for NSFW stuff lol
Tbh the lemmy home page that’s supposed to walk you though joining needs to be cleaned up. The page kinda assumes you are somewhat tech literate, and doesn’t really do a good job at explaining how to navigate the fediverse.
Be the change you wish to see in the world…
Because you’re right and I don’t know how I would clean it up lol
/r/all has top posts from very obscure subreddits now
My Frontpage has much much less churn.
As long as we keep making this place good and active, it will be attractive. With the increased spam bots and degraded moderation, people will start looking elsewhere
I’ve noticed this too. Posts from obscure subs with few dozens of comments on /r/all, with not that really interesting content.
That’s what I’ve experienced as well. My home feed is stagnant and r/all has lots of subs I’ve never seen. I spend much less time there and I’ve stopped upvoting anything. I dropped Premium in June since it’s clear /u/spez doesn’t need the money anymore now that 3rd party apps aren’t sucking him dry.
What infuriates me are subs that act like nothing is happening. I can understand not wanting to get involved with drama but actively supporting the devs by pretending everything is fine is vile to me.
My fav sub r/labrats is also not acting as if nothing is happening. Deleted my account but I miss labrats a bit.
Why? There are a lot of redditors who have never used third party apps and who don’t have any horse in this race. Now I don’t think Reddit’s behavior bodes well for the future of the site but I can fully understand why some users and mods would choose to ignore all this drama. This is also very far from a high stakes “life or death” situation so I don’t think there’s anything akin to a moral obligation to join the protest. At the end of the day, if lemmy offers a better community people will come here.
My point rests with your last sentence. I don’t care about funny vids or weird facts, what made reddit precious was the interaction within communities and “being part of it” rather than just a visitor. That for me makes this situation life or death for reddit and from what I’ve seen, the “core” and most invested folk who made reddit what it is think so too. Without these, reddit is just another website with pictures and text.
The inaction of some communities not so deep into the internet lore is absolutely fine however bigger subs or corrupt mods yielding to the bullying from admins/supporting them will result in dissolving of these communities and this is why I absolutely think that anyone and everyone should take some action whether it be migrating to lemmy like us or any other solution they see fit whether it be a discord server or an independent forum.
It is unavoidable that there will be losses but a fresh start is the best we have and to maintain what was created over years with blood sweat and tears, reddit is no longer a viable option. It seems a spring cleaning was in order anyhow…
Third party apps were only the tip of the iceberg. The bigger issue is the increasing monetization of data and recommendations across the site. This whole thing is ultimately about who will shape the internet: users or corporations. That’s why it’s silly for people to pretend there’s a neutral opinion
What can I say? I obviously agree or else I wouldn’t be here but vilifying or antagonizing people for not caring enough about this seems silly. The reddit protest is definitely not of such upmost moral importance that there’s any kind of moral obligation for every redditor to join it. I’m sure that there are thousands of relevant issues out there where I have chosen to stay ignorant and neutral because I just can’t fight every struggle at once.
I read a post somewhere that really vibed with me. It said that they use Apollo and Reddit was just a backend. When Apollo died, Reddit did too for them.
Ah, yes, typical reddit addict having withdrawal syndrome.
Don’t look back…
Is it withdrawal symptoms if I’m only curious out of spite?
Lemmy is my new Reddit addiction. With Lemmy becoming more vibrant I’m missing Reddit less and less, though Lemmy still has a ways to go.
Getting better daily though.
Tbh this is filling that void. Think I checked reddit once since Apollo died
It almost seems like business as usual, but there are definitely fewer posts, and people don’t seem to be posting as often. And you can tell in some of the subs that the mods have taken a step back to some degree.
My app only really stopped working yesterday.
I wouldn’t say massively different, but I do find it pretty stale content wise recently. Only started using Lemmy today and worry that it’s just a bit empty content wise for the moment…
Since so many decent folks have left Reddit, proportionally, there are more bigots now. I never log in anymore and when I am there it’s to find something specific.
I love the sound and view of a good trashfire, so I sometimes go look and see how hard it’s burning.
So /r/madlads Mods did what madlads do: They made everyone a moderator just like /r/politicalhumor did from the beginning of the protest. I brought the idea up to the /r/pics mod just to let them know. Would be funny as hell.
Postwise, Bots started reposting content from 2-3 years ago, ChatGPT was spotted multiple times as a replying user and smaller subs returned to normal, but are slowly drowning in spambot posts or switched to approval-only due to the failing tools.
EDIT: A major antispambot on reddit closes down today by unbanning EVERY SINGLE SPAMBOT on reddit. Did I mention that I love watching things burn down?
To me it feels like the whole ordeal shook reddit quite a bit and made maybe the top 10% of the users drop out of the bucket this way, going to the Fediverse (flavors: lemmy, kbin, mastodon) as far as I can tell right now. Tildes and squabbles got some users, too, but IMHO those seem to be not doing well so far.
Jesus that’s hilarious! Make everyone a mod, I’d love to see that spread.
They didn’t unban all spam bots, they just aren’t adding any more to the ban list.
Turning everyone into mods is a horrible idea, because reddit will hand over ownership of any sub doing any kind of protests to the first mod that contacts them and asks for it. At least one sub was taken over because of that by a person who had basically no clue about what they were doing.
It’s dangerous and just asking for Reddit to take over.
You’re not wrong, but that’s also the point. Let Spaz try to run the site with sycophants and no real content creators.
I suspect that mod teams who were serious about protests from the beginning knew that they would eventually be replaced. They’re just doing as much damage as possible and dragging it out now. Spaz will win, but they can make it a Pyrrhic victory.
I was wondering if what reddit did was on purpose to lower their pre-IPO valuation so insiders could get a better price before it goes public. After the IPO they entice people back with reasonable API policy and then they can demonstrate huge user growth to boost stock price… Nobody working with investors on preparing for an IPO is going to do something this stupid without major pushback from the investor advisors.
Watch this space…
If that’s the strategy, is the loss of trust really worth it? How would they entice users back when all the 3rd party apps has shut down?
They destroyed trust. It will take a lot of work and time to get that trust back. If that’s their strategy, their investors need to be in it for quite a long haul!
You’re making the mistake of thinking that people who care about what the admins did are the majority of reddit users.
I’d give it a month, maybe 6 weeks, until everything is back to normal.
Hmm, i checked out the FP and a few of the subs I used to frequent. Front page seems to have more TikTok style crap than ever, like “guy gets punched!” or “someone makes annoying food!”. Relationship advice: “get divorced!!”.
City subs seem about the same as before. Medical subs I used to read seem about the same and holy shit, am I glad I’m not reading those every day. Same questions and memes that have been rotating through for like 5 years, and the confounding pattern where the community consensus on issues changes from week to week or post to post. One week it’s “this term is offensive and I hate it” and 50 people are “YEAH! That’s right!” and then the next, “don’t you know about this term, it’s perfectly valid” and 30 people are “YEAH! Use your brain if you have one broo!!”. And the questions like “does anyone else with this condition suffer from these extremely common effects that are listed in every medical article about it?” So anyway whether reddit has gotten worse or not, seems like I was ready for something different.IMO the protests are having an effect. I haven’t been on there for 2 days (full disclosure: was given 1 week suspension under dubious pretense while I was mass editing + deleting all my comments), but, before then there was a huge undercurrent support for the protests but a lot of outright hostile naive complaints regarding them. At this point it feels like the majority of those that are willing to leave have left, and the rest is a dumpster fire of increased hostility. Everyone is angry for seemingly ridiculous reasons. You can’t post anything without somebody saying something absurdly contrarian within a day or 2. TBH I really think there’s a ‘instill anger’ bot program (and its replicants) running amok now and the moderators can’t (or are unwilling to) keep up with it.
I just went back to check something- I was given a permanent suspension last week with no explanation. Suddenly it’s been reversed. Something weird as fuck is going on. Oh well, fuck them. They’ve lost a power user.
Why not just delete?
I probably will eventually, but I don’t even feel like it’s worth my giving them the satisfaction of seeing my ass leave.
Anyway, I made a pinned post at the top of my profile saying that Reddit sucks and if you want me, you can find me here, which might get some more people to leave Reddit for Lemmy with any luck.
The porn is still decent, but it does feel like a lower quality overall than I’m used to.
Removed by mod
No joke there are chatgpt bots going around, even in smaller subreddits.
And there’s lots of effort to “educate” people on how to identify those bots. Like, if you have to vet every message just to figure out if a human wrote it, why even bother?
Yep seen several screenshots of these being caught. I remember one was blabbering about how reddit is much better off since the changes and then someone asked it an opinion question and he got the ‘as a AI language model i cant blah blah blah’
