this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2023
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

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Reddit would become compatible with Lemmy essentially making it it's own "instance", and suddenly 3rd party apps work with Reddit again.

Full circle.

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[–] saucyloggins 114 points 1 year ago (3 children)

That wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing. Someone wrote a good article about how Google bullied their way to kill XMPP. Something to keep in mind with what Meta is planning.

https://ploum.net/2023-06-23-how-to-kill-decentralised-networks.html

[–] DocMcStuffin 45 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yep, instead of Embrace, Extend, Extinguish they did Embrace, Impede, Extinguish.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

Yeah it's support a platform, make that platform dependent on you, then abandon the platform. The users who remain are left with the option of abandoning the platform as well, or sit in a graveyard.

[–] s38b35M5 12 points 1 year ago

Very good writeup. I remember learning about XMPP with gtalk and then it fading away. These things happen, and if we don't remember, well...

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That article was a really interesting read! In my opinion, while integration can be a good thing for many aspects of the world, we can't expect the giant company to not try to swallow us whole, which is why we must stand up to monopolies.

[–] MiddleWeigh 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

When personal profit is involved, expect the worst...IME

[–] x4740N 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

When capitalism is involved, expect the worst

FTFY /p

[–] ulu_mulu 109 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Please no, I didn't quit reddit to have reddit around me again.

[–] rcmaehl 39 points 1 year ago (3 children)

We are the corp. You will be assimilated. Your meta and meme distinctiveness will be added to our own. Lower your mods and surrender your communities. Resistance is futile. - Reddit, probably

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

I mean, if they were to adopt ActivityPub and enable federation, you can pretty much guarantee they'd slap ads next to content pulled in from FOSS instances. Kinda their thing.

[–] chrundle 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So who will be Locutus in that scenario

[–] x4740N 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not spez because spez is willingly fucking up reddit

Spez could be counted as a borg queen

[–] x4740N 2 points 1 year ago

My comment also got me into deep thought about how humanity is like a borg collective but we don't realise it

With the controlling rich being the equivalent of a borg queen and capitalism being the control

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Who shall be our captain in this interwebspace trek?!

[–] AlaskanShrimp 3 points 1 year ago

"We will take your lands, your children, your traditions, and your future."

  • Genghis Khan, probably
[–] aggelalex 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Reddit federating would provide us with a much better API for 3rd partys. It would be the walk back of the century.

[–] ulu_mulu 5 points 1 year ago

Did you forget to add /s to your comment?

[–] Boiglenoight 69 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

My mind has already closed to Reddit. At first it was surprising how quickly I abandoned it, but it’s not really. The Internet is a fast moving place, with sudden trends and viral content being the norm rather than the exception. I like Lemmy so far and it serves the same purpose, perhaps with its own problems but with pros that outweigh the cons. No one person or company owns it. That’s progress.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

For me, it felt really easy to leave because I had zero social connections on Reddit. I'm not sure if I'm the weird one, but I never learned any individual users' names or felt ways about stuff, except in the rare case that they became a meme, like shittymorph. I was there for like 12 years and nothing tied me to it. Moving to the threadiverse was as easy as changing a bookmark.

[–] jjoelson 6 points 1 year ago

That was also my experience on Reddit. Subreddits would sometimes have a culture in terms of the types of posts and comments that get upvotes, but I was never really aware of specific individuals.

[–] RunningInRVA 4 points 1 year ago

I’ll certainly miss u/shittymorph.

[–] Cameli_Hostis 46 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I think we'll all be better off if we can keep Reddit and Meta^✱^, and Corporate Information out of the garden.

How to kill decentralized networks.

^✱^ now with legs

[–] cazyius 4 points 1 year ago

This was a fantastic read. Thank you so much for sharing it! I’ve started my own lemmy instance in hopes of making an instance available for “everybody” in my region, having the local culture as our common ground. But this helped me realize that it might maybe need a thought or two before pushing forward. Those who I thought would be a part of it aren’t those who would maybe want to give up traditional service for one fighting for freedom, ethics and morals.

[–] Brisolo32 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Or lemmy kills reddit like reddit killed digg

[–] Regna 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Unfortunately (or fortunately), AI bots did not exist at that time. Plus, Digg was only succesful for 2 - 5 years, while Reddit managed to get at least 12 succesful years in before turning violent on its users with the help of AI and advertisers.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Reddit's enshittification was delayed by COVID, but it happened nonetheless.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Money grab via IPO. During covid Reddit saw all the crap companies going public and making bank and tried to get in too, but the bubble popped before they could close a deal. Now they are trying again while things are on the upturn and investors are more willing

I wouldn't touch this IPO when it does happen, major rug-pull vibes

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

I think Reddit is going to end up killing itself I don't think it needs help.

[–] MattiCat 19 points 1 year ago

I don't think Reddit will go extinct (at lest, not for many more years), but I don't think it will federate either, because theyll find it even harder to make bank than they already do, espeially when most of the rest of the fediverse will likely immediately de-federate them as soon as they get a foot in the door.

It will dwindle to insignificance with a few die-hard users, like Yahoo, and eventually fizzle out through lack of funding. Or it will be re-purposed and used for something different, like Myspace, and be quietly successful in its new but much smaller role.

[–] hydra 18 points 1 year ago

No thanks, it would be yet another EEE scheme.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

I hope all major instances would immediately defederate

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Imagine if that happened and then most instances defederate to prevent stealing of our data. Cause they‘d have to pay me more than they want for the API to get even one more word out of me.

[–] nero 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

All data on here is wide open for everyone to take, including reddit afaik

[–] ZIRO 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Isn't that a good thing, though, at least to the extent that data is free for sharing?

[–] nero 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah, i’m not saying it’s bad? Just stating the facts?

[–] s38b35M5 9 points 1 year ago

I vote for extinct

[–] TurretCorruption 7 points 1 year ago

Most people dont care about the api changes. Reddit won't be going anywhere provided they don't start harassing their actual customers off of the platform.

I think these federsted sites will grow a fair bit but once everyone forget about the reddit drama, the numbers will plateau.

[–] art 4 points 1 year ago

Mastodon is a "failed service" for only having 12 million daily active users. Twitter has 400 daily active users. History will likely repeat itself.

Lemmy, Kbin, and Calkey will never have Reddit numbers but we can still build a vibrant community here. Because this platform isn't a business we don't need huge numbers.

[–] PM_ME_FEET_PICS 4 points 1 year ago

I can't wait to see it all burn.

It will be really enjoyable to watch if it ends up happening

[–] Alkider 3 points 1 year ago

If anything, it would be better if reddit sticks around just to haze people kind of like tumblr right now. Makes it easier to have a discussion here.

[–] OmarDontScare 3 points 1 year ago

Reddit isn't fun

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Best case scenario. As optimistic as I am about Lemmy, Reddit have a massive history which is going to suck to lose when it inevitably implodes like a submarine visiting the Titanic.

[–] zikk_transport2 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I would leave Lemmy then. Lemmy is the whole point to not have the CEO, but to own the "platform" by the community.

[–] SmoothIsFast 10 points 1 year ago

If Reddit federates, they would have no control over the other instances. You could still be on Lemmy. That's the whole point of federated sites, they talk to each other without a single sovereign authority.

[–] gsa32 0 points 1 year ago

In your dreams maybe

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

reddit is still going quite strong with content and comments in even the most trivial of threads, which isn't bad at all for Lemmy or kin, just that the news od reddit's demise are pretty overstated

I'm more than happy to stay here though. The firehouse of content is so much more manageable

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Reddit probably won’t die. I mean Facebook is still one of (the?) most popular social media sites. Not that anyone of interest makes it their main platform.