I’m feeling a real positive energy and community spirit as a result of the sudden fragmentation of reddit’s foundational use base.
And I love how chaotic it is! How there is so much to learn. How each new platform is separate yet somehow meshed in a way that will only become clear with time. I love the performance issues, even – just because it feels new, like something exciting is happening.
It reminds me of what the net used to be like before everything became just variations of a single beige blob. Reddit’s frontpage was essentially churn. There was value in its smaller subs, but after over a decade of use, everything became all too familiar. And looking back, I preferred reddit way more before they changed the up/downvote counter. But that’s all in the rear view mirror now.
We’re all participating in a huge shift, and it won’t be the familiar, convenient, linear path we’ve all become accustomed to. And I love everybody’s optimism and willingness to pitch in to build a better web for future generations.
I started my reddit main account in 2011. I used to be a highly active mod for a niche sub for about a year between 2012-2013, before bots were widespread to help moderate. But then from like 2014-2020, the number of times where I would start typing up a response for a default sub, then just deleted it all out of fear of the dogpiling eventually just drove me to being a lurker and very passively consuming content. In 2020, I finally started a new hobby and the became engaged and active with submitting new content and contributing some comments.
I already feel so much more empowered to engage here. This actually quite civil and highly cerebral culture really gives me the nostalgia for when I first started on reddit. I have questions though for what will eventually happen with the toxics and deplorables find a home here just to ruin it for everyone else.