this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2023
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Reddit will lose at least 25% of its user base after June. Hopefully more, but realistically, older audiences won’t understand or make effort to move off it.
> older audiences won’t understand or make effort
I wouldn't be so sure about that :P
When I was a kid personal computers didn't exist, when the internet came I was already working full-time, I'm "that kind" of old :D
I came here before the AMA was announced and I'm not the only one, very many "older" people used to "old" USENET and mailing-lists/groups are fleeing reddit as well.
And some young people I've seen simply don't care and will go on using reddit no matter what.
Age doesn't matter, it's habits and mindset :)
You can count me in that age group too.... I was there for the very first dial up, ICQ, Messenger, Kaza and the rest of it.
Shut my account on Reddit a few days back and have not been back since. Can't recall how many years I was there but it's easily 10+.
My reddit account is 8+ years old but I don't feel right about deleting it or the comments.
As I wrote in another thread, many of my comments in there are answers to questions and/or explanations/instructions.
So many times I found solutions in reddit old comments that I couldn't find anywhere else that it doesn't feel right to me to remove mine.
You think you’re leaving it there to help strangers, you’re really leaving it there to help Reddit Corporate.
If they don’t reverse course by the 30th, I’m nuking my content.
I respect your opinion, it's up to each individual to decide what to do with their content.
I know it's a compromise, I know it doesn't help from the perspective of "fighting the bad guy" but I still believe it's worth it anytime it helps random people.
Help archive Reddit
I know :)
Napster and Kaza on dialup, PC set to auto redial after 3 hours to keep within the terms of my unlimited data plan.
Just over 20 years on one of the earliest "social media" websites, and I wasn't exactly young when I joined that.
Ahhh good old Napster I forgot about that one.... Waiting hours to download a full track only for someone to answer the phone part way through.
The glory days :)
To add to your list of chat programs, the pre MSN chat program that came with Windows, followed by Gooey and Odigo
MSN was a blast... I can't say I used Gooey or Odigo they don't ring a bell :)
I remember eventually progressing into IRC relay chat (the app I used to use was called MIRC) and that was a blast.
I remember the first time talking to someone on MSN and they were in America. I'm not exaggerating when I say it blew my mind ! I could reach out and speak to someone that far away almost instantaneously. It was and still is phenomenal to me. So much so I eventually changed careers to become a developer :)
I still keep in contact with a couple of people from Gooey (it shut down around 2002 I think), it was an excellent chat platform, you had chat rooms linked to whatever webpage you were on, very good for common interests. We even had a few meetups, I was working contract work at the time and had a 3 month spell were I travelled around the UK visiting various Internet weirdos.
Hello fellow old person! Back in my day, 2400 baud dialup BBSs were the “Internet”!
damn skippy! I would have "conversations" with my 300 baud modem for fun.
The day I upgraded from 2400 to 14400 was a good day. There was one person on one of the multi-user boards I used to use that was on a 300 baud modem. It would take 5+ minutes to get a reply from them lol
Older audience member here. I remember seeing the DOS 2.0 box sitting on my grandfather’s shelf, and him teaching me hours to use the CLI to make in inventory of my baseball cards.
I must’ve been about 5-6 years old then, and I later got to experience the absolute magic of 14.4 and still later that fad of whatever those .mp3 things were supposed to be…
I left reddit and made the effort to learn how these newfangled federal sites work, and I’ll keep at it. Never did quite understand what that clock social platform was about, or why the youngers like it so much, though suspect that’s by design.
I expect it's actually the younger users who will be more resistant to migrating somewhere else. Most of the people I've seen saying they don't support the blackout have said that the official app is the only way they've used Reddit. Which suggests they joined post-redesign
Older audiences are more likely to dislike the new changes, though. They've been on Reddit for a long time and will be aware of how much better it used to be.
A big turning point as well, will be when Lemmy and fediverse sites see more SEO views. An easy way to find a topic or solution is to Google it and add Reddit onto your search. It will be interesting to see if Lemmy ever crosses that point as well.
I'd be surprised if Reddit even lost 5%. The reality is that the vast majority couldn't care less and the people that will leave are a rounding error as far as Reddit is concerned.
Even at 25% Reddit will still have some 2B accounts left. They'll be fine.
Realistically, it’s not so much about effort as it is difficulty in finding a replacement. I’m testing out Lemmy at the moment, but it took over 3 days for my first signup to become active, and that sort of delay is really confusing and frustrating for the average person. I think most people trying to come here may just give up.
Having to write an explanation for why I wanted to sign up was really discouraging for me. There should be more instances without that requirement.
there will be. there is a high likelihood of brigading and DOS attack on the most hevily used instances right now. as more instances are stood up and federation deepens, 1 click signup will likely become much more common. I think sh.itjust.works is currently just that simple.
I ended up going with sh.itjust.works
a stellar choice, internet friend. enjoy! :-)
The signup delay is very confusing, I agree. To make matters worse, in some instances there’s no indication that your request even gets through, so the instructions basically say to try again, even if you’ve already lost your username.
Even if they lose 50% (unlikely) the changes they make will still be more lucrative for them. The people who leave are probably not their most profitable demographic in the first place. The new API fees will easily make up for that. Twitter was the same .. as much as people predicted it's demise it's more profitable now than it ever was.
I'm just hugely happy and grateful to the people behind Lemmy whose hard work and unselfish behavior allowed us all to benefit.
I believe (and somewhat hope) that the n% of users leaving over this are mostly prosumers, leaving Reddit with mostly consumers. The, say, 5% of users leaving might be the ones who create >70% of the quality content the consumers browse Reddit for.
Given that Reddit relies on prosumers like them for 100% of its value, that would be a huge blow.