How social media’s biggest user protest rocked Reddit
www.theguardian.com
A mass user protest six months ago over technical tweaks had big downstream effects, and now the ‘front page of the internet’ is changed for ever

‘Front page of the internet’: how social media’s biggest user protest rocked Reddit::A mass user protest six months ago over technical tweaks had big downstream effects, and now the ‘front page of the internet’ is changed for ever

  • ristoril_zip@lemmy.zipEnglish
    56·
    10 months ago

    I dunno the front page seems way lower quality than it was before we left. Like not just a little.

    I basically only go there for the two stupid flash games I play on my phone and sometimes a Google search ends up with reddit as the best answer. Otherwise I don’t go. I used to go there dozens of times per day.

    • Xsist@lemmy.worldEnglish
      31·
      10 months ago

      I agree. The change in total Reddit users ended up small, but the drop in quality is huge. A lot of my favorite subs are now just memes, reposts, and astroturfing. There’s very little left of genuine worth. But it’s no great loss. The days of Reddit being the front page of the Internet and a hub of discussion are long gone. C’est la vie.

      Personally I’m glad to see Reddit fading away. I have found so many more artist, makers, and thinkers on Mastodon, Lemmy, and Pixelfed than I ever did on Reddit. The fediverse is hard to navigate and has a higher barrier to entry. But those same qualities keep the influencers, astroturfers, and advertisers at bay. I love the experience of exploring people’s feeds and follow lists as a means of exploring. It feels so much more organic and engaging. It’s not for everyone, and the fediverse will probably never become a giant of social media. But maybe that’s for the best.

      At any rate for now we have our own corner of the internet to explore and enjoy away from the some of the more negative influences wrought by social media. Enjoy it. It may not last. Just like old Reddit.

    • 7u5k3n@lemmy.worldEnglish
      19·
      10 months ago

      I use a work account there on old.reddit on the desktop only.

      The content there is [Picture](dae think that XY or Z should have / have not happened?) Or some variation of a question meant to drive engagement. The Minecraft and marvel studios subs are prime examples.

      That’s all it is now. No higher quality content except in a few niche subs.

      Hopefully folks will continue to move away.

    • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyzEnglish
      11·
      10 months ago

      I’ve been noticing lately that the front page of reddit now only contains some posts from the last few subs I visited, even more posts from subs I barely even read before, and currently two posts from subs I’ve never seen but are now part of my subscribed reddits. And when I take the time to go through the posts that actually look interesting, those read posts stay on my front page for the rest of the day and no new content is brought up. At this point the front page is completely worthless and the only reason I visit is for r/comics and r/facebookscience, all my other content is found on lemmy and mastodon.

        • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyzEnglish
          11·
          10 months ago

          People keep separate accounts for their porn? That just seems to suggest they are embarrassed by their kinks. 😄

            • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyzEnglish
              2·
              10 months ago

              I didn’t subscribe to any of the subs, rather I created a multi with a collection of the ones I was interested in, and gave it a generic-sounding name. Easy to click on but it never pops up on my home page and doesn’t stand out if I’m reading reddit at work. Gives me a nice bit of separation under a single account.

              Honestly I wish lemmy would introduce a feature like multi-reddits. I have a pretty long list of communities here and would love to break them up into groups. That’s the only feature of reddit I actually miss.

              • Peppycito@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                2·
                10 months ago

                My porn account was older than the devolopment of multi-reddits. The blocking, subscribing, and discovery of communities on lemmy is terrible. The average user will flounce before they discover anything they like because they’ll get overrun with creepy anime porn and foreign language communities.

    • solrize@lemmy.worldEnglish
      41·
      10 months ago

      Interesting. It never really occurred to me to look at the front page but I guess it is supposed to be popular. I look mostly at a few specific subreddits and afaict they haven’t changed much.

      • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
        17·
        10 months ago

        Haha. You made a comment about nothing changing on Reddit, yet you haven’t checked the main selling point of the site or anything outside your old sub bubble?

        I’ve checked both, and believe that content and comment quality is much lower … but there was a steady decline in quality the entire time Reddits user base grew … because the majority of the human population are, quite simply, idiots.