Obviously a few years ago, the API changes caused the reddit community mods to strike, and caused a mass-blackout of most reddit core communities. Eventually Reddit removed a handful of mod teams on some notable subreddits and caused the rest to chicken-out. But it did birth the Fediverse properly.
I suspect Reddit will make another step at some point which causes another comparable exodus. This time, if they do, the Fediverse is far better developed to handle it. What do you imagine it might be?
From what I gather – I deleted my very active account there promptly with the end of Apollo support and would never have ended up on Lemmy without u/spez; I’d say “thanks u/spez”, but I’ll stick with “fuck u/spez” – from Reddit “from the outside”, those who are still there are impossible to get away. Reddit is destroying third-party apps and the official app is shit? Who cares! Reddit is only usable on a mobile web browser with great difficulty? So what? Reddit is flogging all user data to AI companies? Oh, someone probably has my data anyway.
If Elon Musk buys Reddit tomorrow (for whatever reason he’d want to) and obliges all users to buy two new Teslas, they’ll probably accept it without a murmur. They’ve all long since become jaded. Fortunately, Aaron Swartz no longer has to witness this crap.
Of all the - often eldritch - parodies of Garfield, I like this the least.
To be clear by “exodus”, I don’t mean the destruction of the platform - but simply enough that would swell the Fediverse.
The platform has already been killed by u/spez. All that’s left are scorched ruins. Why would those who live in scorched ruins ever move out? No, those who did not leave will probably remain there now.
(Marginal observation: Among those who are still there, there are an astonishing number who, just a few years ago, wrote that they would never return to Reddit and would delete their accounts forever…)
I think that is happening actively since probably January this year.
our numbers have gone down since January, sadly
https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/stats&months=12
PieFed has gone up, but not enough to offset the losses https://piefed.fediverse.observer/stats&months=12