I think the action should be coordinated with a migration to lemmy, every user who complains about the lack of quality content you forward (via comments) to the counterpart here

Didn't mean to write so much and rant. But the main point of agreement with you is the first paragraph.

You are likely correct on the fact that normie users are pissed off. One of my co-workers (that always reminds me he doesn't use Reddit aside from if he needs to sell or trade PC parts) wouldn't stfu about how it was stupid and "all just about some power-tripping mods" all because HardwareSwap was considering going longer and he was trying to list some parts (due to a different freakout reaction over needing to downsize his PC to have money in savings after a mass purge of some leaders at work). He was mildly okay with it at first because the automods thing being impacted by the new API stuff. All that "okayness" was completely right out the window after that specific thing was adjusted by Reddit.

So while he isn't a normal day to day viewer of the site, I imagine that most of the "I don't pay attention to politics/policies" users (which I think of as the bulk "normie" mainstream users) are not far behind his sentiment. I did ask if he tried other options, like big Discord servers like LTT/GN or other big PC based YT channel fan servers. Or even forums of those channels/sites. He just wanted to removed about the amount of users being so low. Which I also reminded him that r/HardwareSwap was tiny at some point too and there were smaller subs that he could at least try as they would have higher traffic while the big ones were down.

Protests are supposed to make people frustrated and cause normal operations to be messed up. But in the US, we are just taught to hate anyone or groups that dare protest in ways that impact daily functions. We are told that the only "correct" protests are to be in a pre-selected spot out of the way of everyone else. Or maybe a one-off march with speakers just saying how things are wrong and have people cheer and then leave. And reactionaries are supposed to be the ones that everyone supports because they are (like the majority of people/users) "not hear for politics and don't care." They are also the main thing stopping new unions from forming. Which does seem to line up with how much Lenin was correct in speaking about no revolutions are going to win if those folks can't be won over. Which requires being fully ready and willing to be lashed out at, and stand firm in keeping up the effort and care about them no matter what.

It's burning the barn down. Sure, new subs will happen, but they will be harder to find, and they need to re-establish the rules. It also makes monetization hard. All those ads sold against specific subs are worthless. And now reddit doesn't know what subs it can sell ads against. Basically they can only sell ads generally to the entire site. This hits Reddit in the wallet. Also, it mucks up selling the data to AI companies.

Long term, I think you are correct. But short term reddit is trying to IPO. This whole protest will devalue any IPO and cause investors to think twice.

I'm just hoping the protests have forced enough like-minded people into the Fediverse that the culture Reddit had (then lost) will resurface.

I hope it's the death of reddit instead. A platform actively threatening its most important users? That's not sustainable at all.

Most people don't care too much. But if the right people leave, the ones that actually make content and are active enough to attract other people, that might be a tipping point. Fingers crossed.

It does hurt Reddit, the user experience is what keeps people browsing it. If the user experience deteriorates, so does engagement.

But how will the mods then do their unpaid mod work :/

Like seriously the mods that actually cared either swapped to lemmy / kbin or made their own thing or made the alternative protests.

Exactly this, don't make them dark, leave the unpaid work and let it rot

the trouble with this is if Reddit tries to forcefully replace those mods there's still power hungry boot lickers that would happily accept moderating for free