SimilarWeb has just released traffic estimates for June. According to these estimates, Reddit’s traffic has seen a 3.36% month-over-month decrease.
For comparison, here’s how traffic has changed for other popular social networking websites:
- Discord.com: +0.51%
- Twitter.com: -1.65%
- Instagram.com: -1.35%
- Facebook.com: -3.18%
- TikTok.com: +0.77%
- Pinterest.com: -2.27%
- Youtube.com: -2.02%
Source: https://www.similarweb.com/website/reddit.com/#overview
I thought about this comment, and realized that somehow, I just don’t care so much anymore. Instead of worrying about what I left behind, I’m looking forward to what’s ahead of us.
I think it’s because even before the whole 3d-party-app drama, there already was this undefined feeling that Reddit’s best days are behind it. Maybe it’s the effect of ad money and monetization, or it’s the inevitable trend towards low quality content that comes with mass adoption, probably it’s both.
Whatever the cause, in most subreddits, the old Facebook-style rot had already set in. Once-cool subs now being an endless barrage of tired memes, bots farming karma, and people being assholes. The things I joined for years ago, the engaging discussion, random encounters with amazing experts, the cutting-edge internet anarchy, it’s all already long gone.
When I opened the app (Baconreader in my case), I only did it out of habit, to then spendy time scrolling through an endless list of things that made me slightly go “heh”.
So, maybe most people will stay on Reddit for now, and probably I will have to leave behind certain communities instead of finding direct replacements. But I see that as a good thing. As long as even just 2% of Reddit’s users make it here, I’m excited it will grow into something much better than what I left behind.
Well said. We’re onto something good here. The discussions are great, & I think part of the reason is because comments aren’t getting upvoted like crazy or downvoted into oblivion, nobody is karma whoring with stupid puns or references. Anyone here is just hanging out and shooting the breeze, it’s goddamn refreshing. It won’t keep that underground feel forever, but I’m glad to be here right now.
The thing that really bothers me is that some of the communities I was active in through mobile are pretty much impossible to find outside of reddit.
They’re way small on it, too, so who knows if they’ll even migrate or just fade away.
This here is really my only concern. I followed a good number of subs that existed for actual discussion, not just meme dumps, and unless they’re migrated to Lemmy, I will be missing them.
Sure, I can access Reddit just for those topics, but so far I’m staying away from that site completely in my own self-protest.
( I know, I know, I’m a literal molecule in a drop in a bucket, but damnit, I’m doing my part! :) )
Be the change you want to see in the world. If those communities haven’t come over, start them. Seed them.
I think that’s going to be my plan, if I can talk to some of the current mods and ask them to do so here as well. I’ll create the new communities, but have no interest or time for actually moderating them.
I’ve tried browsing with the app but the content I’m being fed seems to have different priorities to rif. The niche stuff that I really want to read appears to be being buried.
It’s made it so much easier to just not give them any content myself as I decided to stop posting there.
I’m really looking forward to seeing where lemmy goes as it’s attracting the kind of people I enjoy associating with. Reddit is headed in the opposite direction IMO.
I feel like I was noticing this on the main site as well. I’d be surprised if they hadn’t been changing the algorithms to spoon feed us specific content, but there’s also a very high likelihood that the overall feel of the content has changed after swaths of people migrated out, and then I’m sure I have a bias against Reddit now as well :P
That is how I feel as well. I haven’t completely given up on reddit just yet, but my usage is going down, and I open reddit more by accident than anything. Lemmy is my new default and I’m not complaining.