yeah, this is not true. some subs are gone. there are still tons of people there. HOWEVER, the level of shitheadedness is increasing across all subs, even ones that were once relatively free of it. I’m seeing fewer thoughtful responses and more of the kind of reactionary kneejerk bullshit you expect from the front page subs or youtube comments or something. As ever, niche content remains your best bet, but I’m noticing a sharp decline in quality. This has been happening for a long time now, but this event has certainly been a(nother) tipping point. People have constantly compared reddit to digg in this instance, implying that the same kind of replacement is nigh… but I don’t know. We are kind of in uncharted territory on this. In the earlier days of the www there was always a new thing, but the Digg collapse happened (or started happening) like 15 years ago, the internet is an entirely different beast now. I don’t know what’s going to happen with reddit, but I’m on permanent lurker status over there until I suss it out.
I agree with everything you said, but I have a few additions that I’ve noticed in terms of Reddit going downhill. I’m seeing a ton of anti-copium in this thread, but ngl, I Reddit has gotten a LOT worse for me as a whole as someone that uses it regularly. it’s the reason I came here, even though I actually didn’t stick with Lemmy originally after the blackout (due to lack of content).
-Like you said, shitheadedness has gone up
-Reposts and unserious posts have gone up (replacing actual interesting and varied content, which has gone down)
-Content farming has gone up (related to the above point)
-“Subtle” advertisement like astroturfing has gone up (once again, reducing visibility of any actual worthwhile posts)
-The NSFW side of reddit is legit worthless at this point.
In addition the the app being unusable and the APIs no longer allowing for third party apps. I’m a bit surprised there are so many people in this thread that claim not to have noticed. Like, Reddit has legitimately turned into IFunny quality material seemingly overnight from my perspective. I’m not sure how people could not notice, but maybe I just use it differently from others.
This may not affect the shareholders at the end of the day since it will probably just turn into a low quality garbage machine that still makes money, but from an actual social media perspective I think there will be a significant number of others like me who need to find a new home that’s not full of shit content.
