Lemmy has blown up within the past week. “Taking down reddit” was always a pipe dream, but now we have a real alternative with committed users. I’d call that a success.
I also think lemmy now has more momentum. More users and content will follow, even if not in as massive groups. This new usage will help improve lemmy and next time Reddit fucks up, lemmy could be even better situated to handle the refugees and less will return. I joined lemmy when I left Twitter and was exploring the fediverse. But it wasn’t too active til now
i just broke my own rule and posted to reddit modcoord using a burner account. will react and burn it in 24 hrs.
my message to them was this: unfortunately human mods will be the next to go - they’ve shown their power to reddit and once this ipo happens they move from becoming a thorn in spez’ side to a risk to shareholder value that needs to be “mitigated.”
spez wants control. control of the apis. control of the app. control over the platform . he can get there first two but then mods prevent the last. he needs control if the ad revenue is to happen so he can exit with his golden parachute. health of the communities or platforms be damned.
i suspect at some point he’ll not only demod all of the human mods in favor of botmod + ftes but may also go the extra step to delete the mod accounts entirely – he’ll justify the killing of their handlers with some bs policy.
this will leave mods demodded; powerless with no voice or identity - consider… how can u/newname prove they’re really u/ex-mod without revealing personal info that might doxx themselves?
recommended they establish an alternate means of communication with their community here or on discord.
we should also consider standing up an mod coord here so they have a place they can freely speak and plan without sock puppet spez accounts or bots courting the conversation.
Keep in mind that some subs are back online specifically to ask users what their next move should be. A few subs I’m subscribed to are considering rolling blackouts or allowing posts only one day a week. There’s still 2x the amount of subs currently private than total subs that originally signed up! Many news sites are reporting that the blackout is continuing today (shout-out to all the reddit journalists fighting back with the tools they have). Its way too soon to declare this whole thing “didn’t work”.
I agree. I’m watching /r/ModCoord and it seems quite a lot of subs are going dark indefinitely - but we need the biggest subs on board to make a difference.
Advertisers are taking note, though, which is promising - especially if we can get a bit of steam behind the campaign to bring subs down indefinitely.
