Hopefully I’m posting this in the right place, but I see Reddit developments as Tech news right now.

Wanted to share a website that is tracking Subreddits that have/will be going dark. It even has a sound notification for when they change their status.

Edit: Adding the stream https://www.twitch.tv/reddark_247

Double Edit: Data visualization https://blackout.photon-reddit.com/

  • Bruno Finger@beehaw.org
    5·
    1 year ago

    It’s sad though I truly enjoyed Reddit like obviously many here, but also to be fair I’ve also felt like the quality of posts and comments overall degraded and the whole thing turned into a big meme factory where only funny images with text and tiktok reposts really were uploaded.

    The whole thing started going downhills as soon as the first tiktok reposts started flooding in to be fairly honest. Let’s please not let this happen much here, unless of course in dedicated communities for that because everything has a place.

    Also, this is my first ever post on Lemmy, hi 👋

    • Whooping_Seal@sh.itjust.works
      3·
      1 year ago

      I feel like this still depended on community. There was plenty of more niche hobby specific communities that were enjoyable. r/coffee comes to mind for me or something like r/fountain pens. I still enjoyed r/Analog although that had it’s own issues.

      • that_one_guy@beehaw.org
        1·
        1 year ago

        Yeah there are going to be quite a few TTRPG subreddits that I will miss. I really hope that the fediverse will be able to grow enough that niche interest pages can thrive here like they did over on reddit.

    • Grizzzlay@beehaw.org
      1·
      1 year ago

      I’m hoping that a great deal of mods out there will continue to stay dark if nothing changes. And I expect nothing from Reddit’s admin team to change. Just let the site devalue for the rest of the month to bots posting the same garbage over and over.

  • followthewhiterabbit@beehaw.org
    3·
    1 year ago

    Just flipped the switch (so to speak) on a couple subs I moderate, and the largest (just shy of 1m users) will be going dark in a few hours.

    What surprised me most is how well the members are took it. To be fair the subs I moderated are typically quite tech-minded, so everyone is quite in-the-know with what is happening and why.

    It makes me furious that a site built and maintained by the users is being exploited at the users’ expense.

    I hope Reddit bleeds money from this silly line they drew in the sand.

    • RedPander@lemmy.rogers-net.comOP
      1·
      1 year ago

      I’m curious if you directed the users of those subs to any particular alternative?

      I mean, apparently they are already bleeding money, but I doubt that these changes are going to do much to help in that regard.

      • followthewhiterabbit@beehaw.org
        1·
        1 year ago

        On two we presented the options abailable (Lemmy, Mastodon, Usnet and so on), on the biggest we didn’t do that. It was a last-minute announcement, so didn’t really have the time (also too many cooks with different recipes, so to speak).

        I’m sure it won’t matter in the long run, but should we not try? A giant company runs on advertising. And the time we stop users interacting and engaging with these ads can only be a good thing.

        As I’m writing this, 4,669 of 6,934 subs have gone dark.

        Its beautiful to see.

  • lorossi97@feddit.it
    2·
    1 year ago

    I don’t see myself going back to Reddit if they keep those subs closed down. However I do believe that if this “strike” goes on for longer than a week or so, the admins will forcefully replace each closed subreddit mods to make them live again.

    • TexMexBazooka@lemm.eeEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      My partner is a casual reddit user; the experience change was immediately apparent. She got bored and switched to facebook because all of the niche communities that the larger subreddits repost from went silent.

      • s_s@lemmy.oneEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        My GF is also a pretty casual reddit user and she was pretty pissed about her favorite subs being closed.

      • BlackCoffee@beehaw.orgEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        This should be bumped.

        The smaller/niche communities is what made Reddit interesting.

        When those eventually decide to pack and the only vibrant communities are the meme subreddits etc then you would probably see a drop in usage.

    • Bluejay@beehaw.orgEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I saw that too - hopefully the changes will show in the next “up” cycle. Apparently the bots are out to play as well.

    • setsneedtofeed@beehaw.orgEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I’ve continued to tell people: This won’t kill Reddit in the sense of outright turning it into a ghost town. If your only goal is to make Reddit collapse overnight, you’re going to be disappointed. The quality content that many people here enjoy is not what makes up the frontpage of r/all or what a huge amount of passive users consume. Reddit has more than enough low quality trash to backfill the frontpage and keep users occupied.

      Anybody migrating should focus on porting quality content. Let reddit live long and be a dumping ground.

      • strainedl0ve@beehaw.orgEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        I see this less as a damage to Reddit, and more as an opportunity to diversify, make people aware of the threat of centralised corporate-run platforms, and to build the federated internet alternatives a bit more, to give them momentum.

        • ultraHQ@beehaw.orgEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Yep! Although it is too bad that when you sesrch for reddit alternstives, that lemmy doesn’t come up.

    • nottheengineer@feddit.deEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      The large subs and front page just consist of bots reposting the same old content. The bots are easy to tell apart from real people just by eye, so I’m sure that reddit either has no problem with that or that they made these bots themselves to hide the fact that actual users are becoming less and less.

    • Square Singer@feddit.deEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, I was negatively surprised as well. Almost 60% of all big SFW subreddits closed, and still only a small percentage less posts and comments.

      • fresh@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        I’m guessing (hoping) the difference at peak will be larger. All we can do now is wait and see, unfortunately.

  • ioNabio@lemmy.world
    1·
    1 year ago

    I wish someone or a dev could make this list in these website and propose lemmy/kbin equivalents for us the redditors to join instead. On the other hands mods of those subreddits if they want they can make a community over these platforms.

  • copacetic@discuss.tchncs.de
    1·
    1 year ago

    My Reddit frontpage only contains a few minor subs still which are probably without an active moderator and some „going dark“ announcements. Very noticeable.

  • richie510@lemmy.world
    1·
    1 year ago

    I’m really confused by the chart on the site https://blackout.photon-reddit.com/ I understand the dip annotated with the red arrow, but I do not understand the rebound annotated with the green arrow… With that many sites down, it should not be possible to rebound to normal levels…

    • RedPander@lemmy.rogers-net.comOP
      2·
      1 year ago

      I could actually see engagement staying relatively the same since most people are probably popping Reddit open for a few minutes, maybe engaging, then moving on.

      What I do find odd is how consistent Posts per minute are over time. But it doesn’t dip or rise with comments. So now I’m wondering how automated a lot of posting is.

      • PenguinTD@lemmy.ca
        2·
        1 year ago

        Bots, all the bot posts. If you even check “All” for a bit even on Lemmy you will see the bots are moving here as well.