If you go by Spez (Hoffman) literally saying recently “We’re 18 years old. It’s time we grow up” and “It’s time we grow up and behave like an adult company”, it can give you insight into how he thinks of Reddit (and age, as he was a former /r/jailbait mod). The idea of ‘age’ in a company is such a man-childish way to think about it. The idea that after 18 years you, as a co-founder of a company, apparently have just such little thought into this is mind boggling and shows he’s basically just coasted the entire time. He apparently hasn’t:
Determined the vision of the company (therefore the guidelines, rules, etc)
Have a roadmap about where this is going (short of the sudden push for IPO)
Figured out how to turn a profit without alienating the user/mod base
This should evoke no confidence from any current or potential investor and while I initially hoped for this guy to be forced out, so I could come back. I don’t think it will get rid of the issues of platform and community stagnation, toxicity, bots, or the push to make a profit. At this point with this whole Kbin/Lemmy/Threadiverse-era on the horizon, I’m actually excited. This is a great time to reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and where we want to collectively go with these platforms and how make it work for us. I’m looking forward to the future and to shake off the malaise that clicking on Reddit basically everyday for the past 18 years has done to us.
At this point with this whole Kbin/Lemmy/Threadiverse-era on the horizon, I’m actually excited.
Same. People always opine about how reddit was better X years ago, but it really was. Over the past dozen years, I’ve gradually unsubscribed from every default sub and most larger ones. They always turn into meme-factory shitholes full of puns, recycled one-liners, and totally irrational explanations why you’re wrong (many of these seem to come from intentional contrarian accounts/bots). There’s a demand for that stuff, sure, but it’s gotten harder and harder to find sincere, thoughtful comments.
I’m planning to delete my reddit account next week, but already finding myself coming here more frequently because the quality of the interactions is better. I can’t recall the last time I received a comment there with as much time/effort as the one I’m replying to right now.
I always found Reddit to be more enjoyable in the niche subculture stuff anyways, hopefully some of those communities move over here. You would think that the admins for Reddit would understand the “innovate or die” mentality, but that unfortunately does not seem to be the case. I too am looking forward to what Lemmy/KBin brings as a replacement.
Not gonna lie. I’ve gotten in a few arguments here and people are surprisingly polite. Like, for real. People respect and talk to you like you are a person with different opinions, and not the enemy. It’s been great.
you are a person with different opinions, and not the enemy
This is the mindset that’s bothered me the most, seems to be growing over time, and is what I meant when I mentioned contrarian accounts/bots. Seems like it stemmed from political subreddits, but it’s everywhere and about everything now. Even related to the api changes, I’ve had people reply to me with totally asinine things like defending forcing ads on users (even paid users) and how blind people don’t need special consideration because their screen readers should be able to scrape the website, and it’s their problem not reddit’s if they can’t.
So much ridiculous hostility and dehumanizing over such dumb shit.
If you go by Spez (Hoffman) literally saying recently “We’re 18 years old. It’s time we grow up” and “It’s time we grow up and behave like an adult company”, it can give you insight into how he thinks of Reddit (and age, as he was a former /r/jailbait mod). The idea of ‘age’ in a company is such a man-childish way to think about it. The idea that after 18 years you, as a co-founder of a company, apparently have just such little thought into this is mind boggling and shows he’s basically just coasted the entire time. He apparently hasn’t:
This should evoke no confidence from any current or potential investor and while I initially hoped for this guy to be forced out, so I could come back. I don’t think it will get rid of the issues of platform and community stagnation, toxicity, bots, or the push to make a profit. At this point with this whole Kbin/Lemmy/Threadiverse-era on the horizon, I’m actually excited. This is a great time to reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and where we want to collectively go with these platforms and how make it work for us. I’m looking forward to the future and to shake off the malaise that clicking on Reddit basically everyday for the past 18 years has done to us.
Same. People always opine about how reddit was better X years ago, but it really was. Over the past dozen years, I’ve gradually unsubscribed from every default sub and most larger ones. They always turn into meme-factory shitholes full of puns, recycled one-liners, and totally irrational explanations why you’re wrong (many of these seem to come from intentional contrarian accounts/bots). There’s a demand for that stuff, sure, but it’s gotten harder and harder to find sincere, thoughtful comments.
I’m planning to delete my reddit account next week, but already finding myself coming here more frequently because the quality of the interactions is better. I can’t recall the last time I received a comment there with as much time/effort as the one I’m replying to right now.
I always found Reddit to be more enjoyable in the niche subculture stuff anyways, hopefully some of those communities move over here. You would think that the admins for Reddit would understand the “innovate or die” mentality, but that unfortunately does not seem to be the case. I too am looking forward to what Lemmy/KBin brings as a replacement.
Not gonna lie. I’ve gotten in a few arguments here and people are surprisingly polite. Like, for real. People respect and talk to you like you are a person with different opinions, and not the enemy. It’s been great.
This is the mindset that’s bothered me the most, seems to be growing over time, and is what I meant when I mentioned contrarian accounts/bots. Seems like it stemmed from political subreddits, but it’s everywhere and about everything now. Even related to the api changes, I’ve had people reply to me with totally asinine things like defending forcing ads on users (even paid users) and how blind people don’t need special consideration because their screen readers should be able to scrape the website, and it’s their problem not reddit’s if they can’t.
So much ridiculous hostility and dehumanizing over such dumb shit.