this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2023
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People aren't reacting to this sudden interference with content aggregation with as much outrage and fear as they should.
The thing that Twitter, reddit, and so many other sites that have recently been bought up and swallowed, do so well is aggregate information for us. It provides us a pool of information, with which we as a collective society can sift through and analyze together through the lens of our experience, our professionalism, and our intelligence.
Before these types of sites, we were segregated and isolated. As much as I miss forums, for the most part they became bubbles that hyperfocused on singular categories. This kept us in our place. This kept us from venturing out and sampling things that were different and other. When sites like Fark took off, we suddenly had insight into things we may never have had interest in or knowledge of before.
Corporations and governments are trying to dismantle aggregation because it keeps us informed and it keeps us involved. It informs us of the other, and allows us to co-mingle in an environment where we might be exposed to new ideas and new ways of doing things that were otherwise not available.
We shouldn't just be lamenting the downfall of reddit due to our lack of entertainment. We should be very, very afraid of the day when the only way you can find 'other' information is by using very specific search terms.
People in power have been working very hard for a very long time to take us back to a time before the Internet, and a time before aggregation. What I sincerely hope comes out of this is the realization that we are all stronger together with our complex variety of ideas and perspectives, and our ability to question things and provide information to each other.
In case anyone has forgotten, Twitter is a lifeline to many corners of the world most of us will never touch and have no way of accessing otherwise. Twitter was the tool for dozens of uprisings and protests around the world. Twitter was the catalyst for so many young people to connect and realize that the situation they were in could be changed. And that's been taken away. It's been made a joke, and people are leaving in droves. People whose experience and support could help the next protest. That's exactly what they want.
But what do I know, I'm just a rando on the internet, who may be able to tell you the answer to your very niche question, who may say just the right thing when you're needing support, or who may pass on your story to someone else who knows a journalist, which may lead to your voice or your injustice being heard.
They're trying to isolate you. Don't let them.
This action that we all have taken, by using this platform instead. Is it the "correct approach"? Lemmy being open source and de-centralized system. The apps and server software being organically developed in public by those knowledgeable/ skilled in the community.
I would favor this place, where dev team can receive donations for their work. Have an clear plan for the year with objectives on their github page or website. So that the overall thing contentious to operate/ function. Even OK to have informative & valuable ads but not being disruptive on the sides.
We might try with "opt in" adds, go to profile to enable them, but allow community to vote for ads and see if that can provide enough revenue.
I would be much less bothered with ads if I would see some kind of effort to make them less annoying.
Maybe because I came up in the much older web, I just don't really get this at all. How are people getting exposed to other communities in reddit other than people linking or saying they exist or googling them or searching on reddit? All things that work exactly the same on Slashdot, or the fediverse, or forums. I've never had reddit tell me about a different sub I should join (and I think I'm glad about that).
I never used twitter, couldn't see how it would be possible - it always prevented me from seeing content without joining, and I don't typically join sites I don't know if I even want to be a part of. And the ultra short posts made it useless to me anyway - no actual information there and ultra short "sound bites" that I don't need more of.
And being beholden to one company is not a good way to interact with lots of people anyway - these huge group areas become cesspools as shown over and over again.
@jmp242 @Morgueanna People these days aren't getting the practice they need to search and curate their online activities because the main platforms they grew up interacting on - twitter, insta, and tiktok, suggest communities and other users to you. They get intimidated without the assist they get from these suggestions because the breadth of options is overwhelming if you don't know how to navigate, and without very clear intervention and ramps for low-skill users it's hard to retain anyone who doesn't have the time and inclination to learn. Took me a while to figure that out, eventually learned it from a research librarian that she's actually got to work harder to teach people how to search these days.
I guess I can blame education, but heck I may have just grown up at the right time.
This is exactly how I feel. For as much (deserved) hate as Twitter gets, it was great for small communities. I've made best friends off Twitter who I still talk to daily. And it was amazing to connect to people like artists or game devs. Reddit is the same -- I won't lament the easy entertainment, I'll lament the absolute wealth of information that might be lost in comments and text posts if the site becomes harder to search. Google itself is already trash if you're trying to find real reviews of products or troubleshoot something, what happens when adding "reddit" to the end of the search no longer helps?