All it takes is people going elsewhere and they are worth nothing. Reddit isn’t like Twitter, where it’s all about you. I came here, have the same conversations, and haven’t even noticed I’m not on Reddit any longer.
I used to be pretty big into Reddit. I haven't been back in almost a year except a couple of google search results. I do notice a difference though. There is less diversity in expressed thoughts here. I don't miss the doomscrolling though, I can run out of new content here and I like that.
Totally in the same boat. Less diversity and less content, but I don't mind that. I like that I can can run out of content and it's a nice reminder I've probably been on my phone too much and should do something else with my time. Using Lemmy feels healthier than using Reddit.
I have, I've noticed. I've noticed that I'm no longer screaming out in a sea of people and being ignored or ridiculed. We're in a smaller pond here and the waters are much clearer
I used a great apk on reddit before reddit fucked it over with the api call fiasco. That's when I moved to lemmy and found an apk called Thunder that is extremely similar. So right now the only real difference for me is the much lower user base, so there's less "niche" subs/instances. Of course, that will also go away so long as people keep migrating over.
That's it, it's just the userbase size. I still unfortunately have to type 'Reddit' after any question I throw at a search engine but that is on the useless search engines and not indicative of Reddit being a great platform.
I first used Reddit over ten years ago. It was SO much better before the Digg implosion, and Lemmy reminds me of Reddit pre-digg days. Quality over quantity.
Yeah I don't think mods and "power users" that stayed after last year are necessarily against reddit succeeding, just not willing to buy in at a 6.5bil valuation for a company that can't turn a profit and lost 90+ mil last year and 700+ cumulative. The CEO got 193 mil last year it's clear where their priorities are. And after the bad will they gained last year burning mods and third party apps it's not a big surprise many are watching with a big ol' bucket of popcorn.
They kicked myself and my entire mod team from r/Canning because we held a vote and our users asked us to shut the community down in protest of their 3rd party app policies.
Then recently they emailed and messaged me telling me I could get in on the ground floor of buying shares.
That’s going to be a big resounding “no” from me there u/spez.
I don't think that they looked at activity in the past year. They just sent them out in waves based on total karma. I've barely been active and not eligible to participate and still got the emails.
Yeah I don't think mods and "power users" that stayed after last year are necessarily against reddit succeeding, just not willing to buy in at a 6.5bil valuation for a company that can't turn a profit and lost 90+ mil last year and 700+ cumulative.
I got the invite but didn't do anything about it because:
I assumed the invite had been sent to just about everyone;
I like going there, but not enough to give them money.... Or disable my adblock.... Or switch to the accursed "modern layout"...
Come to think of it, I don't like reddit at all, Just the communities that exist there.
Not sure I would call myself a power user. While I did have a few posts over 50k, I was not exactly creating a ton of content. Still got an email though and decided against investing.
My few posts were almost exclusively in my local sub and plant identification, I never had a post crack 1000. Almost all my karma came from comments. Since I also got the offer, I'm guessing the bar was set very low
Similar story, though I had over 100,000 karma, I never made any posts. It was all comment karma. I got invitations on both my accounts, even though ones been retired for years and the other I stopped using after the bullshit last year.
Rather take your money to the casino kids. I think the reddit IPO will crash and burn. Not only because spez is a total fucking tool destroying the platform. But the reddit model will be tough to be a booming profitable business. All they really have is add revenue and users will start seeing through the smoke and mirrors no matter how hard they try to disguise them as normal posts. We have already seen this type of manoeuvre is not easy with Twitter.
Yes ads revenue itself but also Data. Lots and lots of data to sell to advertisers to build profiles on what people are into and how they interact with following their hobbies and interests across subreddits.
But i agree that theres not too far to go after that.
I initially thought I might participate in the IPO. I’m still not over what /u/spez did last year but I justified it the same way I ever bet AGAINST my favorite sports teams. That way if they lose there would is still an upside. I don’t think Reddit will be a great investment. But if they are, hey, at least there’s some money in my pocket.
This would have been my first IPO. And what made me finally decide against participating was the recognition that buying into an IPO, unlike regular stock trading, is actually putting money directly into the company’s pockets.
Fuck that; fuck them; and especially fuck /u/spez.
I read a pretty brutal analysis by a financial expert on some business magazine site. My biggest takeaways were:
new shares get 1 vote per share, existing shareholders 10 per share
under the rules they are doing the ipo they can skip providing solid numbers for the last years, and are unbound by board opinion on how much money can go into executive compensation and golden parachute packages.
Now I’m not an investor at all but this rings so many grift alarm bells I don’t understand why anyone would buy that shit. Seems like a completely dubious investment set up to pay out spez and then collapse.
I like dabbling in IPOs (read: gambling). IPOs are almost always a bad call for regular investors. The value almost never goes up immediately after sale unless the company somehow all of a sudden has demand from a ton of investors of all sizes. And a company that can't turn a profit isn't likely to be that.
So, if you do want to buy in because you see them doing good in the long run, maybe wait a month for the price to settle, then get in.
Unsurprisingly the people who have had to deal with Reddit's leadership for years don't trust them. Shocking. That said I could see a lot of Redditors still buying in, just out of fear that they might miss out on the next big "get-rich-quick" opportunity.
I deleted every comment and post I had made and then deleted my account when they locked out Apollo. But it sounds like I missed out on getting the secret email and making the investment of a lifetime! /s 
Don't worry, they got to keep them anyways. There is zero reason to believe that comments and posts that were "deleted" by their creator actually vanished from reddits database and didn't just have a little "show public" set to "false" instead.
Reddit doesn't function like a real business (i.e. most of the work is unpaid volunteers, users and especially mods). There's no genuine site-wide code of ethics beyond what will actually get them criminal charges. The written rules don't matter - many moderators are unpaid bullies who permaban if their feelings are hurt and ignore questionable content they agree with. That system of banning users based on opinion kills discussion of "unapproved" views and sorts people into forums where their favorite opinions (and often outright hatreds) are popular. Loathe a particular race/gender/political ideology etc? Just find a subreddit where the mods agree and you'll be fine saying some truly terrible stuff. Read the bloodthirsty posts on r/worldnews and tell me if the site-wide rules on not promoting violence or racism apply. For these reasons and more I don't think anyone should be buying into their IPO because they aren't a reliable business.
I don't know if Lemmy is different because I've been here for less than a month, but at least here it feels like you can have different opinions and the worst that happens is you eat downvotes. Plus a lot of the really unethical takes are usually checked pretty hard in my (limited) experience by the users, which doesn't happen when the only other voices are basically guaranteed to agree with you (a la most of Reddit).
The rest of this is just my Reddit survivor tale so if you don't care stop here. I got invited to the IPO on the same week I got a 3-day site-wide ban after appealing a subreddit permaban for a fairly popular comment that the US should stop funding Israel and give the money to Ukraine (on a post about how the US is having trouble finding money for Ukraine). In those words, no hate speech or racism etc. When I asked why I was banned I got a 4-word insult as the only communication back. I'm not usually a conspiracy theorist, but it sure felt like I was being deliberately censored/punished for high-ish profile "dangerous" anti-Israeli opinion. May not be the case, but it was my first site-wide ban ever for a comment that broke no written rules.
My Reddit account is 13 years old and in 2023 I think I made about 100k karma, primarily with comments about history, education, and in one case a post about how awesome sperm whales are. My experience mirrors what I've read happens to others enough that Reddit has lost my participation (I've only posted 2x in the last 3 months, down from a few times daily) and my faith. I only go back to check on specialist communities (video game tips etc) and almost never participate anymore. Frankly I hope it either changes to allow for discussion or dies.
I was targeted by someone pathetic whose feelings were hurt (knowing me, it was a remark about how MAGA folks are idiotic hypocrites). They dug through my post history, and reported a comment I’d made months before about how someone needed a slap in the head. They reported it, and I was banned for “promoting violence”.
It wasn’t a permaban, but as far as I was concerned, it may as well have been. My account had been active for years, and I’d never been banned before. I felt let down that the mods had been fooled by such a stupid, obvious trick. Fortunately, a few weeks later, spez pissed everyone off and a lot of people left anyway.
Plus, I have the knowledge that I annoyed some troll SO MUCH that they read through months of my comments looking for something to report. Heh heh heh.
I got a similar report about "promoting violence" over a comment I made suggesting someone take a long nap. Meanwhile there were comments literally calling for violence that just get straight up ignored.
I got the email. No way in hell I'm throwing my money into that hole. I left with the API changes and haven't looked back. Part of what made Reddit successful is it was user-centered. Chasing profit has only made Reddit worse. Going public will accelerate that exponentially. I give it 6 months tops before they start deleting subs, particularly porn ones, because advertisers complain.
Of course they did. It’s why I’m here. They’ve entirely enshittened Reddit. Good riddance, and enjoy watching Reddit burn from a distance on your mountain of cash, spez. Fuck you.