this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2023

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SNOOcalypse - document, discuss, and promote the downfall of Reddit.

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reddit r/movies isn't doing too well (old.reddit.com)

submitted 11 months ago by Die4Ever@programming.dev to c/snoocalypse@lemmy.ml

168 comments fedilink hide all child comments

https://archive.ph/CNofz

Why is this subreddit now just askreddit for movies?

Some time in the last few months, r/movies has been entirely consumed by askreddit-style questions like "What's your favorite hidden gem??" or "What actor fell off the map??"

[...]

What is now causing all these unique, seemingly-non-bot posters to suddenly start flooding this particular subreddit with their discussion posts, instead of going to askreddit? Did the whole reddit protest shit change the moderation rules? Has the subreddit been infiltrated by a secret Buzzfeed content farming cabal? I unsubscribed from r/askreddit because I got sick of this shit, but now it's back on r/movies!

What is going on??

I think the comments are most interesting though

Because the audience for reddit has dwindled since July. Reddits offial site and app push controversial posts over just well yovkted ones. Most controversial posts asks inane questions. Then there's bots reposting those questions for karma and then websites juicing social media for content to get crammed down your throat via SEO.

They should make a second internet just for people

This all started with the boycott.

[...]

I’d assumed things would go back to “normal” after the boycott, but it looks like a lot of power users really did take their ball and go home. (I wonder what they’re doing with their time instead? Hopefully some new hobbies? Time with friends?) Maybe reddit will regret removing the 3rd party apps, after all? Maybe we’ll just accept a future where niche subs become little more than BuzzFeed polls, but we get paid if our poll does well, so users won’t care?

It's because Reddit is trying to drive engagement. I don't know if you noticed, but since the purge of third-party apps, the comment sections have been kind of meager, and things don't get as many upvotes as they used to. Heck, half the comments act like bots anyway. It seems like reddit has been distilled down to those most addicted to it and has taken a hard lean into all the most extreme views.

When Reddit killed third party apps, the quality fell off all over the place. It took me about a month to realize the timing and why r/all had so much AITA rage bait stories and celebrity gossip and stuff now. I think a lot of the quality posters and people who liked more high brow discussions just left Reddit.

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[–] loobkoob@kbin.social 245 points 11 months ago (21 children)

This makes me sad. Not just because of what happened with reddit, but because I'm still missing that high-brow discussion. Most of my reddit comments were replies to other people, rather than top-level comments, and I spent more time reading comment sections than I did looking at the content they were discussing.

I like it here, but I don't feel like I come across the depth of content I did on reddit. I don't mind the lower quantity - that's expected on a small platform - but I'm definitely not enjoying the lower quality. Most of the activity seems to be around memes and American politics, neither of which particularly interest me, and most of the comments across most posts feel fairly unsubstantial. It's so much rarer for me to find something I want to reply to on here than it was on reddit.

[–] harmonea@kbin.social 65 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I don't mind the lower quantity - that's expected on a small platform - but I'm definitely not enjoying the lower quality.

I think the issue here is that there's a sweet spot where quantity and quality are in equilibrium. You NEED a certain quantity before you have a high chance of finding insightful comments on a given topic -- to simplify things, if there's a 1% chance a given comment is going to be from an expert with great insight, you have a ~9.6% chance of finding that on a post with 10 comments and a ~63% chance of finding that on a post with 100 comments. The threadiverse just hasn't hit that threshold yet.

Of course, there's a tipping point which reddit is long past, where higher and higher quantities start to drown out the insightful posts with memes and quips, or downvote and mock them with a confidently wrong counter-opinion the mob wants to hear more.

I hope the barriers to entry with decentralized services that the masses find "confusing" are such that we eventually manage to reach equilibirum and not tip too terribly far past it.

[–] loobkoob@kbin.social 15 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Oh I agree completely (and thought about going off on a tangent about "critical mass" myself but decided against it). It's a rough path towards reaching that point, though, if we can't have enough discussions to draw those kinds of people in and keep them around in the first place. I agree, also, about the "signal-to-noise ratio" on reddit being too low in general nowadays - especially post-third-party apps controversy - although I think that's preferable to there simply not being enough quality content in the first place; good moderation (not that reddit has much of that nowadays...) can deal with the noise, whereas it can't make up for lack of substantial comments.

I'm not sure what the best way to address the barriers to entry to the fediverse might be, but I've thought that the various apps either hosting their own instances or partnering with other instances to funnel users towards them and streamline the signup process would probably be a good first step. I think having some barrier to entry is a good thing, though - so we don't tip too far past that equilibrium.

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[–] Dadifer@lemmy.world 20 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I don't know. I get the same raw energy here as I did when I first joined that other site. I get a rush of joy when I discover a new, cool community. The truth is, Lemmy is literally what you make it, not shoved down our throats by someone looking for their first billion.

[–] IronKrill@lemmy.ca 25 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Lemmy is what we make it. I can't keep a community alive on my own, but sadly that is the reality for a lot of subjects right now.

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[–] dpkonofa@lemmy.world 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It’s also far too confrontational for such a small community. People’s posts asking for help get downvoted, comment replies get voted down just because of tribalism (shit on Windows, much?), and replies devolve to insults far faster. There’s really no place for any kind of nuanced discussion.

[–] loobkoob@kbin.social 21 points 11 months ago (12 children)

I hate to say it, but I think that's just an issue with online culture in general nowadays. I've been saying for years at this point that "the internet is where nuance goes to die". But I agree; I wish it wasn't the case here, and I wish it was something that got called out more. Calling out people for their extreme and distasteful political opinions is fine, but piling on people because they're fine with using Windows or whatever is just ridiculous.

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[–] Corgana@startrek.website 211 points 11 months ago (6 children)

While I don't think Reddit is going to collapse anytime soon or anything, any moderators that chose to stay after seeing how little Reddit cares about them, are not going to be the sorts of people with a bold vision on what they want to see in a community. What remains of the culture is just going to get more and more generic as evidenced here.

[–] specseaweed@lemmy.world 62 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Digg didn't collapse overnight. Neither did MySpace. Or Fark. It was little by little then all at once.

[–] Perfide@reddthat.com 54 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

And even then, all of those websites still technically exist, in some form at least. They died, but they're not dead.

A lot of people seemed to expect reddits crash and burn to eventually shutter the service entirely, but even if every single major content creator left the bots would keep things running semi-smoothly for the less engaged users for probably years to come.

[–] SineSwiper@discuss.tchncs.de 21 points 11 months ago

Brain drain.

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[–] remotedev@lemmy.ca 137 points 11 months ago (3 children)

looks like a lot of power users really did take their ball and go home. (I wonder what they’re doing with their time instead? Hopefully some new hobbies? Time with friends?)

Nah we're doing the same shit just on Lemmy now

[–] trailing9@lemmy.ml 49 points 11 months ago (18 children)

Are they not allowed to mention lemmy or do they not know?

If people don't know, how can they be reached?

[–] Astroturfed@lemmy.world 32 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

You get shadowbanned for mentioning lemmy. The post likely wont even be visible either.

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[–] Number1SummerJam@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I thought there would be a lot more discussion on reddit about the new privacy changes and migrating to Lemmy. Either people genuinely don't care or Reddit is actively suppressing discussion about this to keep their user base.

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[–] hansl@lemmy.world 18 points 11 months ago (6 children)

Where are the good movie communities on Lemmy? I searched a couple of times but couldn’t find one that matched the old Reddit one.

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[–] kadu@lemmy.world 125 points 11 months ago (6 children)

The entire subreddit becoming thematic "AskReddit" with a constant loop of the same borderline braindead questions is actually what happens to every single Reddit subreddit, unless heavily moderated.

I moderated three Brazilian subreddits: a CasualConversation equivalent, a Fitness equivalent, and a AMA equivalent. Guess what? Those questions were 80% of all new posts, and we of course had rules and threads to deal with them - which meant a looooooooot of time wasted removing posts, explaining why they have been removed, redirecting users to existing threads, getting cursed at for removing the post, and so on. The few times we experimented with not removing them, they flooded the subreddit, hid new and interesting content, and people complained.

So if moderators are leaving, this is what will happen.

[–] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 40 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yup. Fluff principle - TL;DR barely passable content will flood any vote-based community, unless you take measures against it.

[–] OpenStars@kbin.social 14 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I got tired of holding the line against that long before the protests - that is why I believe what I heard said about the fact that most mods that cared about their communities only lasted a year, maybe two. I gave up modding one game community, and then along with the protests a second one, and each time I can barely stand to go back and read the posts there, bc they always trend more towards this, as you say bc it takes continual efforts to stop them!

And like, on the one hand, if that is what the people there want...then power to them? Except even they complain about it too, bitterly - both "why can't I say whatever I want, when/however I want?" while also at the same time "why are others free to say what they want too, can't they be removed somehow?" (ignoring the obvious answer that yes they can be blocked, though that takes all of two whole clicks!:-P). Also, they seem pissed whenever they ask a question on the sub's main feed (ignoring the rules & things like a prominent Questions megathread pinned for precisely that purpose, or in some cases a "Questions" flair, instead putting something like a "Guide" flair, representing the exact opposite purpose of what that was designed to mean) but then nobody remains who wants to answer it. Like: "What phone should I purchase?" (ignoring the fact that the previous 10 posts all had an identical title, nor are there any details about what the person is looking for, plus again a megathread for precisely that)

I would say that it's literal children taking over the internet, except some of the people complaining say they are retirees, others middle-age with kids, others in college, etc., so it is not a matter of mere physical age. Still, it is a childish mindset of wanting others to take care of them, while not being restricted from doing any of the things that they want to do. Nor is it selfishness, I believe, not precisely; although it may be more akin to self-centeredness. In this way then, it is like a public park or playground where people choosing not to abide by the rules destroy the experience for everyone, ironically also including themselves (when they come in wanting to play, and then everyone leaves rather than play with them, under those circumstances).

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[–] AceBonobo@lemmy.world 25 points 11 months ago (1 children)

How much of that style of posts is bots?

[–] kadu@lemmy.world 40 points 11 months ago

In 2023, I'd guess 40/60, with users being the majority. You might expect all of them to be bots simply copying other popular posts or mimicking basic language, but users themselves were the ones making most of these repetitive questions.

It's a mix of not wanting the effort of searching something, but also wanting random internet strangers to entertain you. This mixture results in trying to engage comments, but with very little effort, so you get the endless "what's the saddest song ever?", "what's an underrated movie everybody should watch?" and finally "what's the sexiest sex you've ever sexed?" posts repeating forever.

[–] CaptainAniki@lemmy.flight-crew.org 20 points 11 months ago (2 children)

the real cycling community hung out at the circlejerk sub because the regular sub was full of the most boring, trite, entry level shit imaginable.

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[–] JerkyChew@lemmy.one 89 points 11 months ago (1 children)

When you monetize karma, this is the result. Reddit will be Buzzfeed / WatchMojo / Snapchat Top 10 lists in a couple months. But number 1 will shock you!

[–] Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Well, what is it? And is it the hit 1996 film Kazzam starring Shaquille O'Neil?

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[–] Sho@lemmy.world 86 points 11 months ago

Glad to see the migration actually made an impact to some degree.

[–] RelativeArea0@lemmy.ml 80 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Reddit nowadays feels like quora + socmed with stagnant contents

[–] Paradox@lemdro.id 61 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Reddit has been dying for a decade or longer, it's just now the people who saw it through all the previous crap, and tried to make it have some semblance of the site it once was, have up and left, leaving it to the brainless hordes.

[–] Corgana@startrek.website 45 points 11 months ago (7 children)

If I had to name a year when Reddit turned sharply for the worse, it would be 2015 when Gamergate-style ""discussion"" tactics took over everything. It's not entirely Reddit Inc's fault, but they also did nothing to stop it or slow it from devouring the platform. Good moderatrors who didn't tolerate fools could only do so much to preserve their communities when the Admins openly embraced engagement at the cost of everything else.

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[–] londos@lemmy.world 53 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I don't understand. I was told in no uncertain terms from many news outlets that "Reddit won."

[–] what_is_a_name@lemmy.world 42 points 11 months ago (8 children)

Reddit’s bottom line in the short term is unimpaired that is how they won.

But in the long term- they are dead. I mused on this before.

Social network need monopoly - otherwise the business model struggles. One Facebook. One Reddit, one Instagram. Facebook, Insta, Snap, and TikTok however are struggling because they are now the same thing in different packages.

Not so Reddit. Reddit was a true monopoly. Nothing else compared. Well no longer. All their hiking have spawned a true credible alternative in Lemmy/Kbin. This will kill them. No matter of it’s Fediverse or something else - now there use than one place for Reddit. That means a third, fourth and fifth place is in the realm of possibility. And they WILL emerge. Others will try to enter the Reddit space.

Reddit had a niche and it was so dominant. No one truly tried to enter my ya niche. But that was not good enough. The enshittified it over and over again. And now the. Have competition. As they will never have a monopoly again. They will struggle to get their ads money. They will struggle with the margins. They will struggle. Yahoo will buy them in 10 years and do the mercy blow.

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[–] JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works 46 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I wonder what they’re doing with their time instead? Hopefully some new hobbies? Time with friends?

Way too much Lemmy...

[–] TheBlue22@lemmy.blahaj.zone 39 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

It never was about the quantity of users leaving reddit, but the quality. Those that didn't care about the changes were not those who were posting the most. They weren't the moderators, the power users, people making original shit. Those all cared about the site and about the changes.

And they all left.

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[–] gwildors_gill_slits@lemmy.ca 37 points 11 months ago (1 children)

/r/movies has always had tons of those generic hidden/underrated gem/actor threads about huge blockbuster films that everyone has seen. It's in no way a new phenomenon. The /r/moviescirclejerk subreddit has existed for years, and lives off those posts.

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[–] dan@lemm.ee 36 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Reddit has long paid mods to be “Community Builders”. Ostensibly they’re there to help other mods build their subreddits, but actually what seems to happen is they spam low effort posts like the ones described (the “question style” post is very popular) in lots of subreddits.

I’ve posted this before but here’s more info:

Have a look at this user’s posts prior to the blackouts: https://old.reddit.com/user/WelshCai/ Lots and lots of low-effort posts in various UK subreddits.

And read this (which was posted after he got accused of being a karma farming bot), note the admin comment confirming it: https://old.reddit.com/user/WelshCai/comments/130zbw6/i_am_a_community_builder_for_reddit/

This link confirms that Community Builders are “vetted and paid by Reddit for their time”: https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/4418715794324-What-is-the-Community-Builders-Program-

Despite claiming they work with mods, the mods of those subreddits don’t seem to be aware of this, as evidenced by this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Leeds/comments/138gi40/reddit_community_builders_please_read_details/

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[–] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 35 points 11 months ago

Discussion quality in the whole platform went down. It isn't just r/movies, or large subs - it's everywhere. Specially jarring if you stopped going to reddit since the revolts, and then checked it "randomly".

[–] ParanoidFactoid@beehaw.org 33 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I left r/movies many years ago. I found that any new release movie under discussion was heavily policed by promoters and marketers with masses of bot accounts to downvote critical comments. So, one example was Alien Covenant, which was a stinker of a film.

I saw it on release, and the review posted at r/movies gave it a big thumbs up. But I'd seen it and I knew it was an awful film. So I said so and got downvoted like thirty times. Everyone who had seen the film and told the truth were bombed with masses of downvotes. Everyone who promoted the film got masses of fake up votes.

This kept happening for so many new releases I just gave up on the sub. I can't be alone there.

[–] Justfollowingorders1@lemmy.ml 22 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

Gaming subs were similar.

Starfield, despite having potential, feels very unfinished. Which is kinda expected for Bethesda, but the games also just boring and underwhelming in addition to the bugs. Yet, I've seen across reddit as there seems to be an open campaign to try and make the game not seems as bad as it is.

I don't know maybe I'm spoiled - I came off the incredible high of baldurs gate 3 into the slop that was starfield.

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[–] HughJanus@lemmy.ml 32 points 11 months ago

They used to farm kharma to sell accounts to other parties. This resulted in a WHOLE lot of karma-farming bots that just reposted old content. Now they're going to just pay those bots directly instead. Now do we think things will get better or worse?

[–] odium@programming.dev 32 points 11 months ago

I wonder what they're doing with their time instead? Hopefully some new hobbies?

Like hell they would ever touch grass. They're probably spending all that time on lemmy.film instead.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 28 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Reddits offial site

I like that this is closer to "offal" than "official".

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[–] Hiccup@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Reddit is a website rotting from the inside out. Can't wait to see how much of a disaster that IPO is going to be.

[–] empireOfLove@lemmy.one 18 points 11 months ago

I'll be very surprised if they even make it to an IPO before downsizing and becoming irrelevant. I don't think Reddit as a company has ever really turned a profit and their major private shareholders have been actively cutting their valuation multiple times. Couple with the spiking interest rates and it's just about the worst possible time to be IPO'ing.

[–] bappity@lemmy.world 23 points 11 months ago (1 children)

astroturfing

[–] jdf038@mander.xyz 16 points 11 months ago

This is true. I mean where else would crappy online blogs get their supposed content?!

[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 18 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Maybe I should go back there and make my fourth Reddit comment in three months. (Down from ~6 per day.) Would be nice to bring more Reddit people over.

Having the niche communities again would be nice. The benefit Reddit had there is that it was the default for so long, people would proactively search out the community for their new hobby. !league@lemmy.ml is just starting to come back.

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[–] Fitik@kbin.social 14 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

A great reminder that !moviesandtv ( @moviesandtv ) community exists!

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