this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2023
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Technology
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I agree. A few more people will learn about Lemmy and come over, but to call it an exodus is probably nowhere near accurate. I just don't think most people care enough. Yes Reddit will suffer. I'm just not convinced Lemmy will benefit that much.
That said, I think we will benefit in the sense that there will now be enough people to sustain some nice communities.
Disclaimer: I'm new here, so obviously talking somewhat out of my lower bode parts here.
I think the Lemmy userbase stands to gain much, while Reddit Inc probably won’t feel a gut stabbing loss.
I commented similarly elsewhere, but the “power user” content creator types on Reddit actively avoid r/all for being a dumpster fire. This disconnects them from the fact that there is an absolutely massive userbase on Reddit who scroll the frontpage and keep coming back to that low quality content.
When power users threaten with “if we leave who will create content?” they are not understanding that their content isn’t relevant. R/all is full of low quality reposts, and political ragebait. My own original content probably cracked about 4K upvotes at highest. It was never going to go to the frontpage. When I deleted it, frontpage users never noticed.
That kind of content is more fit for smaller spaces that have not become the self perpetuating juggernaut that the Reddit front page is.
Lemmy and other sites will gain the quality from exiting power users, and Reddit Inc won’t feel it in the way they care about.
I guess the question is: Do you care more about having a good online experience and not thinking about Reddit, or about burning Reddit to the ground? Because the later I don’t think happens from an exodus.
Oh, I'm not saying it's not good for us (or maybe I did. Badly worded in that case). I just don't think Reddit cares or will notice to be honest.
I think we are agreeing in high view concept, just expressing it differently.
Reddit may not even suffer if it primarily loses users that browse with third party apps or on desktop with adblock. That would be a net benefit for reddit based on average revenue per user.
That's fair to point out, but it implies the only utility users provide to the site is ad impressions. I see a couple of reasons this is not the case.
Mods make up a tiny portion of users but are disproportionately 3rd party app users and rely on 3rd party tools. But if any meaningful portion of the mod community leaves? The remainder were going to have a much bigger job without the tools. To attempt the bigger job with a smaller workforce is a double-whammy. Their only option will be to focus on their favorite subs and elevate more members to mods. The inevitable result will be experienced mods being far outnumbered by new mods, all of whom will have to stick to tedious tasks for subs to not be overrun by spam and hate speech. It's hard not to predict the same result as what's happened to Twitter's content.
Now consider nsfw content, which has always made up a huge chunk of reddit's traffic. Moderation is even more difficult there to begin with and could easily melt down for the same reasons, even setting aside reddit's growing distaste for it. Reddit is largely young and male and while many users may have no interest in it, the combination of nsfw imgur links going dead, moderation challenges, and the likelihood of reddit cracking down on nsfw is a combination that may cause reddit to be less attractive for many of the young, male userbase to visit.
I think your point still has merit - reddit won't miss many of the users seeking alternatives. I would say reddit's casual "I didn't even know there were 3rd party apps / old.reddit.com" users are also likely to be turned off by the ultimate results of their changes.
Oh, that's a point. Do third party apps not show those sponsored posts that look like a discussion, but are actually an ad?
I can't comment on if they do or not as I exclusively use(d) Syncpro, but there are still loads of "real" posts that are blatant marketing attempts that get posted.