Same. One thing that I've noticed is that this seems to be a rebellion of power users and not the average Joe, which is why this has gotten so much traction on HN. To the Average Joe, if Apollo shuts down, they'll just download the Reddit app. However, HN users look at the Apollo dev and see themselves, so they're jumping on this out of solidarity.
I personally think this will last a few days and then all the default subs will either open by mod decisions or be forced open by Reddit admins. If it's the latter, I expect all existing mods to get the boot and replaced with people who are friendlier with Reddit admins. I also expect that usage of the official app will jump and there won't be any major disruptions to Reddit usage.
I don't think I agree with you. Every sub I'm on that has asked people if they should go dark (either temporarily or permanently) have seen overwhelming support for the protest. This includes subreddits such as woodworking, our local city sub, and arduino. These subs are NOT made out of power users and they all supported it.
The site linked in this very post sorta disagrees with you, though. The subs not taking part in the strike vastly outnumber those who are.
Outside of a few (relatively speaking) small circles, the Reddit strike boils down to "Reddit is striking?" The revolt goes unnoticed. Lurkers are happily scrolling the front page right now.
To be clear, the strike isn't supposed to start until June 12th, which hasn't happened in North America yet. This headline seems to be jumping the gun a little as only a few subreddits went dark immediately.
A lot of subreddits have begun in the past hour because it's already the 12th in Europe. Formula1 and FormulaE just went dark in the past hour for example.
The people that engage with polls on a subreddit are the power users of that subreddit and are probably not representative of the broader group. Remember: most people lurk.
It depends on what "representative" means here. Most people lurk, but they definitionally don't contribute to the labor that makes the site valuable. I'd be interested in their opinion here, but honoring a strike isn't about what pure consumers want. It's about what the workers want.
No subreddit is going to survive or have any activity if all the "power users" leave, and everyone that's left just lurks. The lurkers are there to see the posts by the power users, and to enjoy the moderation by the power users (assuming the moderation is good...). No web forum can survive without active users.
The decisions that reddit has taken were not affecting me for now. The new ui was horrible for my use case (text subreddits and focusing on the debate) so I was a old.reddit user.
But the way the direction is going, and some experiences in some subs have made me take a decision, and my 12+ year account is no more.
It won't matter, and probably reddit will survive, be it as strong as it is now or in a diminished state. But I'm tired of this kind of directives in these kinds of companies.
I hope that leaving that, and not having Instagram or Facebook on the phone, might give me a little push on being more productive. Wish me luck.
I don't get it. If it's meeting new people then offline is probably better and if it's reinforcing connections and activities with those new people, if the interest is there, you can definitely accomplish it with my previous points.
Nice strawman. In any case, I'd say that the old adage of confidence and being attractive (personality, presentation, etc) is more important than many of the things you're insecure about.
At most this comes down to Reddit’s inability to provide a quality mobile app that satisfies the 3rd party app users. The niche ones like disability friendly UIs is likely a different issue that may simply require a different app entirely given the typical product dev demands of most big companies.
The real problem is Reddit mostly sucks at design and UX. https://new.Reddit.com shows it’s not getting better besides search.
The users don’t really give a shit about API pricing or understand/care about Reddits steep financial demands. IRL Reddit probably have bankers down their throats for the IPO and Sam Altman/PG/Steve’s VC friends are pushing the AI data goldmine angle. Only the execs know what is really happening behind the scenes but there’s some very clear motivations here they aren’t doing a good job of communicating (possibly out of fear of the super niche r/antiwork type audiences who in reality will whine regardless).
Reddit could do plenty to fix the mobile (and web) issues and buy good will by openly confronting them. Plenty of product and transparency failures here well beyond spez’s Apollo dev conflict taking up the bulk of discourse that mostly only powerusers care about.
Otherwise Reddit is known for having powerusers, mods, and a general anti-authority “we’re making a difference by shitposting on the internet” culture. Especially after their net neutrality protests. It’s only natural for such a thing to turn into a big deal when the poweruser minority gets upset and for the rest there’s a prime opportunity for outrage against [faceless big corporation]. Reddit’s favourite target.
Reddit could much, much more easily placate the regular non-hardcore users by simply being transparent about their very real business demands to make money (esp with LLM) and by very publicly doubling down on making a better mobile app - since clearly they view 3rd party apps as not feasible for their current business plans. So why not fix why people love the 3rd party ones?
But as always big business PR is awful, transparency is downplayed and intentions are obscure as if users are idiots. Etc. Typical big co mediocrity.
Reddit becomes harder and harder to actually post on. Subs are now ruled by mods and strict automods with ridiculous rules and posting requirements. You post something and it gets automatically removed and then you have to post a dozen more times changing this word or that word to try and figure out how to actually get something through.
In reality there are a few DOZEN mods that basically control all of reddit. Yes, dozens. It's the same mods over and over again.
Have created two accounts in the past year and successfully posted once, despite trying dozens of times (ironically the one that made it was a rant about how impossible it is for new users)
Reddit is trash. Nearly every community is designed to build resonance chambers for self-serving 20-something idiots. It is rare you find a sub that isn't helmed by some immature activist type with an inferiority complex, drug or mental problem, and no real-world prospects for dating or gainful employment.
> If it's the latter, I expect all existing mods to get the boot and replaced with people who are friendlier with Reddit admins.
I'm not crossing the picket line, but I think that's a likely outcome, too. That's why I'm preparing to archive what little content I'm personally interested in and am leaving the platform permanently.
> HN users look at the Apollo dev and see themselves, so they're jumping on this out of solidarity.
Your strawman is just that.
You can't comprehend that not everyone is as casual like you and will happily take whatever they get like a good boy because, "you don't really care".
Some people do contribute and care and are a significant part, on aggregate, of what makes reddit special.
Your expectations about "reddit will win because it holds all the cards" are pretty obvious to make. You're not some Nostradamus, when there's no clear reddit alternative like last time around but it's still too early to tell if the users who are intended to be driven to the main app will actually go there instead of empowering other places and causing a slow but eventual migration.
Internet is, many times, about power users and "what's cool" driving others there. Reddit is not Google or fb in that they can simply buy the competition when it appears.
But hey, there's always someone with an "the authorities are always right and will win" mindset.
I personally think this will last a few days and then all the default subs will either open by mod decisions or be forced open by Reddit admins. If it's the latter, I expect all existing mods to get the boot and replaced with people who are friendlier with Reddit admins. I also expect that usage of the official app will jump and there won't be any major disruptions to Reddit usage.