I have been joking to a couple of friends today who were also redditors that I’ve been feeling withdrawals from reddit throughout the day. Like I knew I was addicted, I just never thought I was going to have to face the consequences of withdrawals!
But there’s also a major part of me that’s feeling a sense of loss. I had two reddit accounts that were 11+ years old. I used an app called Redact last night to totally expunge my comment and submission history, and I just was hit by so many emotions watching my old content turn to ashes.
Reddit is where I always spent my depression spirals, but it was also where I found hobbyist communities and group help support. I found sexual partners through reddit, and used to even moderate in my early days. It’s where I used to keep up with a TON of current events but also read from so many diverse perspectives with expertise on topics.
As much as I am tentatively excited for the culture and community we can build on kbin, I truly am feeling the inconsequential reality of all that karma and browsing. Reddit felt like it was going to be immortal, but even the mighty fall.
Anyone else bummed??
I was a Redditor before Digg started to suck. Yeah, there’s a lot of grief. But the one I loved changed a long time ago. Our marriage is long dead. This is the end of the pain.
I feel sort of lost, because one of my sources of information is cut off. Besides being able to be a part of that highly-specific community you were looking for, reddit also was very good for finding answers to any random question and avoiding bad google-search articles that are quite often unhelpful.
Honestly, I’m not feeling grief so much as I just have this muscle memory where I keep checking RIF on my phone and now it’s just a bunch of random crap because there’s barely any content left for people to upvote. I imagine this will resolve itself once RIF stops working.
You’re not alone. It sucks but they’re heading towards locking off all that stuff unless you’re a paid subscriber.
I’m no longer in the sadness stage of grief, now I am angry. I have thought of all the stupid things they’ve done since I joined in 2018
First they made the awful new layout
Then they promised to implement css in new reddit, only to never do so
Then they introduced too many award variations, and made it so people could get them for free, removing what value the awards had.
Then they made customizable snoos, which while cute were uneccesary.
Then they introduced, barely advertised, then killed reddit cspan. Never heard of it? Can’t blame you!
Then the introduced NFT avatars.
Then they did that awful april fools arg that was so hidden only a few did it and those who found the answer found it on discord. Also the answer was reddit was run on a literal potato which seems to be truer by the day.
Then they did this API shit.
During all that time where they could have introduced features that were useful to their app and fixing up the cruft with new reddit, they slaked off in order to increase profits. Only two features that were useful were ever introduced during 2018 - 2023: polls and gallery uploads. That’s it.
So I am sad for the communities, but reddit itself? Nah.
I stuck to one subreddit /r/machinists and who knows where it went. The sub mods announced their blackout like on Saturday and with really little time for a community to start migrating…Community is probably all over the place now. Old forum hosts like Practical machinists or some other incarnation of it. I feel its absence and looking for other things to fill that gap…
Which leads to…
I miss being able to jump into a new community and already have a wealth of beginner questions already answered. Trying to get into Xenoblade series and almost all user questions/answers are behind reddit. A handful at Quora for some reason.
Hello fellow Xenoblade player, If it helps, feel free to ask me anything and I’ll try my best to answer. Love the series and would love to share the love ahead.
Meh. I used reddit since about a year after its launch. I noticed the last two days my thumb reaching for the reddit app on my home screen. But then I pause, remember I deleted rif, and just log into kbin and try to be active. Right now sorting by new has been amazing. Lots of new magazines (shout out to the one I made tvsuggestions).
I think you can get the reddit dopamine hit by being active on kbin. Investigate! Explore the site! Make a zine!
The plus side is I’m using it way less than reddit while simultaneously being way more active on the medium. Win win
I’ve found myself doing the same. I’ve instinctively opened Apollo about 6 times yesterday and each time I’ve force quit the app immediately.
I can’t bring myself to delete it just yet. @christianselig made one of the best R*ddit apps and in a way this whole protest has been a great way to break away from my addiction.
@BeatNik
I wound up deleting Apollo, just because I was too dumb to see where one logs out! But, having it be gone, completely, makes it easy to not go back.
Yes, it sucks that all my hobby communites might be unavailable for some time. But on the side I feel very excited about the change because the big tech internet pissed me off for quite some time and this might be the last nudge I needed to invest myself in something like the fediverse.
It’s also a chance to start your hobby community.
I don’t mind switching it up and going new places. The only thing that I find sad is that I created a Reddit account linked to all my preferences, it took years to craft that account in a way that it gives me value and join, while at the same time filtering out the BS that I didn’t want to see. Now I have to go through that process again.
However, this can also be an opportunity to get more focused and qualitative content again, and steer away from becoming a TikTok publisher. Because let’s be honest, the homepage of Reddit was simply becoming a repost of TikTok.
The only thing that I find sad is that I created a Reddit account linked to all my preferences, it took years to craft that account in a way that it gives me value and join, while at the same time filtering out the BS that I didn’t want to see. Now I have to go through that process again.
That’s exactly what I’m going to miss as well. I built up multiple multireddits for my interests (cars, audio, biking, tools, etc) and I’m kinda sad I have to start over again. But I can’t get behind what reddit is doing right now so I’m learning all I can about this fediverse stuff and forging ahead!
