• Anomander@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    There were years there when any watermark from another site would get OP lynched in the comments, and now Admin over there is sufficiently out of touch they’re going to start doing it to their own content.

    Bets are on that this is a stupid kneejerk test from Reddit, worried that post-migration community hubs are going to “profit from their content” the same way Reddit did to places like ifunny or 9gag during it’s entire growth arc.

    • irinotecan@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      They’re also trialing blocking access on mobile if you use a web browser. I swear, they are really trying to run off the old user base.

      It can’t be long before they trial actively blocking ad blockers, and then ditching old.reddit.

      • Xeelee@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        So what will be left of Reddit? What’s the point of trying to turn it into 9gag? They can’t be that removed from reality.

        • sneakyninjapants@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          I think that’s where they’re headed intentional or not, but probably intentional. I think they’re trying to pivot their business model. If I had to guess what will happen going forward in broad strokes.

          • Strike will break one way or another (mod removal most likely)
          • Huge mod turnover
          • Moderation quality takes a nosedive with spam, thinly-veiled ads, porn, and trolling ending up more and more prevalent in regular subs
          • Confidence of power-users starts to evaporate once the post quality sucks and niche subs devolve to /pics and discussion turns into the Youtube comments section
          • Comments become heavily restricted by Admins to pump their upcoming IPO
          • NSFW content either gets eradicated or heavily restricted by admins to pump their upcoming IPO
          • Slow diaspora of power-users to nowhere/federated platforms/new centralized platforms/niche forums/discord
          • Vast majority that’s left are Tiktok adjacent crowd scrolling though the site upvoting and downvoting (though that’s being gamed even more than currently) with little meaningful discussion or community in subs anymore

          so like 9gag.

          Bonus-round predictions:

          • Google has to re-rank search results because Reddit isn’t a treasure trove of niche knowledge and mostly-real user experiences anymore
          • AI firms scraping Reddit for LLM data will cease eventually and most likely start redirecting that to where the real discussion’s are happening
          • /spez will have cashed out soon after the IPO, carrying buckets of money off into the sunset
          • New leadership and duty to make all the cash will finish strangling the holdout’s of Old Reddit
          • Invasive ads and lack of anything resembling good content will make the site a shell of its former self.

          I’ll be surprised if this process takes another 5 years, but by year 10 I definitely think the downfall will be complete.

        • EquipLordBritish@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          I think they’re working under the assumption that the majority of users don’t care enough to leave and that new mods and people will step up after the exodus. Their actions, however, paint a picture that it’s going worse for them than they planned, if they’re taking specific reforming actions to counter the backlash. Or spez has just gone full Elon.

      • danielton@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        u/spez insists that old.reddit isn’t going away, but he’s already proven himself to be untrustworthy.

      • gh0stcassette@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        People always talk about sites blocking ad-blockers, and I’m sure sites are trying to, but I’ve genuinely never been to a website where ublock origin failed to work. Like, even if there’s a big banner over the screen you can’t dismiss, just open the ublock zapper tool and block the banner

    • Rhaedas@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Or the opposite, cropping out someone’s watermark or signature to pass something as original, even putting a new watermark over the old one. Can’t wait to see redditors still holding out saying it’s not a big deal and then find Reddit itself is doing the same thing.