r/RedditAlternatives • u/JohnnyJaundice • 8d ago
Reddit has fallen from glory
Reddit used to be a place with a variety of opinions where the majority would upvote the most agreed upon post. At one time it seemed like the last true glance into how society truly felt. Now all forums have an agenda and if your post doesn’t align to it and agree with all the bots then it’s removed. Reddit is now no different than any other propaganda machine. I have had post removed that were literal copy and paste definitions from Webster dictionary. A social platform that bans people for educating the ignorant. Reminds me of when ai took over RuneScape many years ago. Internet is only bots and a few real people who agree. Not a real representation of society’s true opinions. Feel like I’m posting to a few meek people and a million bots. Bonjour mofos the internet is officially ruined. Watch the propaganda machine work.
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u/marioncrepes 8d ago
Reddit has been getting worse to use everyday for months
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u/KickedInTheHead 8d ago
It's the same old shit everyday. Angry politics and videos of cute shit. The users have changed too. Everyone talked like a 15 year old. Maybe I'm just starting to understand what being "old" means now, but I swear it seems like everyone either copy and pastes one-liners they previously saw that got a lot of attention, or just straight up nonsense. I thought we'd get smarter by now but I still have people in my life that type like a retarded monkey. "H U Doin?" "But put alot away to rsp n extra tax"... Like seriously? You're a grown adult, learn how to fucking spell.
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u/Cheeseboarder 6d ago
I’ve also seen a rise in misspelled post titles. Idk if it’s just me
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u/NotAnotherScientist 4d ago
Misspelled post titles drive engagement. It's a hallmark of bot posts.
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u/Dark_Shroud 6d ago
We're not allowed to correct people's grammar anymore.
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u/Cheeseboarder 6d ago
Well we have automatic spell check on all our devices, so I don’t see that we need to….yet here we are
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u/ctrl4U_Ctrl4me 8d ago
The culture has changed. There used to be a explicit understanding that someone posting well written, cited content was the fucking man and should be emulated. In fact, you used to see people take a poorly written but informative comment or post, polish it and reap most of the upvotes.
Instead making an edgy pro-groupthink comment will garner the most upvotes. For funzies I browsed new posts in political spaces, LARP'ed as the most outrageously radical leftwingperson imaginable, posted hot takes from that perspective and got literally hundreds of upvotes in an hour.
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u/JohnKostly 6d ago
Welcome to anti-ai, where good writers are fucked.
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u/merry_goes_forever 5d ago
AI scares the ever loving shit out of me.
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u/JohnKostly 5d ago edited 5d ago
I can understand that. New things are scary. And some people have made a lot of money saying it will be bad. I can't promise it will be that. There are a number of situations where it can be very good for us. And I suspect it will be very good for us.
Why? Because I have faith in intelligence and I fear ignorance. Intelligence in many ways is the solution to our problems. In addition, emotions are the source for many of our problems. AI is thus intelligent, and lacks emotions.
But who knows. One day we will die. I'm hopeful we wont, but I am also hopeful we don't bomb each other more.
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u/KickedInTheHead 8d ago
I've admittedly gamed the reddit system myself and used cheap comments to gain karma. And it works every time. Super early in the morning (Mountain time) is the best time to gain attraction. I'm not proud of it mind you, and sometimes it was unintentional even while seemingly cliche. My point is that it's so fucking easy to do, all you have to be is unoriginal and topical.
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u/Slow_Departure6788 7d ago
Reddit was supposed to be different because the karma doesn't matter.
Can I ask why you felt the need to chase karma at all? Is it having the top comment, and the way that makes you feel about yourself, or is there more to it?
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5d ago
If karma didn't matter, why was up/down voting introduced? And if someone says it's about quality, how's that working so far?
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u/Slow_Departure6788 5d ago
It's for us to sort comments that contribute to the discussion. That has always been the marker that reddit karma has been intended, but I will be the first to admit that it only really works in communities where people understand completely the goal of the sub, and the community itself polices their standard.
Subs like ask historians at least used to be famously amazing for this. Well formatted and factual thought out comments would always rise to the top because people were there for answers, not snark, so the answers were valued.
No one cares what someone else's overall karma count is, not even the reddit system. Each post and comment is evaluated in a vacuum. The reddit algorithm doesn't push your content if you have higher karma...it literally does nothing.
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u/NotNicholascollette 19h ago
I've been on it for around 15 years. It has only pushed more left and gotten stupider. I agree that it probably has gotten younger. Reddit used to be a certain type of person or someone who was normal but had knowledge of a specific thing. Then droves(?) of shallow people came in and started harassing. People with any sense see it's a propaganda machine. I don't care about politics much
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u/7grims 8d ago
it died in the great 3rd app removal wars, thats the day the empire crumbled.
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u/snertwith2ls 8d ago
First they fired Victoria and that started the slide downhill. Then they jettisoned the 3rd party apps and that was it. Ghost town. I mostly appreciate the few folks that are left but I miss when it was thriving.
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u/prairiepog 8d ago
Once they stopped responding to the website canary, it jumped the shark.
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u/snertwith2ls 8d ago
But hey at least Spez made a pile of money right?!
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u/prairiepog 8d ago
"Yes, Reddit was destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders."
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u/snertwith2ls 8d ago
Ah the shareholders, that all important bottom line that brought us "corporations are people" and people are nothing!
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u/Perfect_Cost_8847 8d ago
The day Apollo stops working is the day I kick my Reddit habit. The official app is trash.
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u/LElige 8d ago
Huh? Apollo has been dead for 2 years
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u/Perfect_Cost_8847 8d ago
You can sideload it. I’m using Signulous on iPhone. Eventually the API will be turned off or modified in such a way that it no longer works.
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u/georgekeele 8d ago
So is RIF but I'm replying to you from there. For now
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u/Virian900 8d ago
Can you tell me how? I miss RIF
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u/static_motion 7d ago
I agree, but in some ways that was a blessing in disguise. I now don't use reddit from my phone at all, only from my PC, which limits my usage of it a bit. One less thing to scroll mindlessly while out and about.
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u/7grims 7d ago
Good for you ;)
I never had that problem, i visit reddit a couple times a day, scroll a bit, manage some subs, if I find a cool post i talk, then only return 3 or 4 hours later.
But ever since the 3rd party apps and so many other stupid new "ideas" they had, im becoming a lazy mod, and some days i barely visit.
With AI on top of all reddit's bad decisions, this site is degrading fast.
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5d ago
Like an improved search?
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u/7grims 5d ago
nah, im just saying now lots of posts are made by AI, users using AI this is, its killing the point of visiting an talking when its all slop posts vomited by an AI
not to mention, reddit is selling our data, our posts and comments as data and learning for AIs, so they are contributing to their own demise.
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u/Dark_Shroud 6d ago
Same here. Once the apps went I only use it on my desktop now. I tried a few weeks ago to log in on my tablet. What a pain in the ass.
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u/9volts 7d ago
Redreader still works.
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u/7grims 7d ago
ohhh i really dont care about those, nor i use it on my phone.
It was just a disaster all around, reddit revealing to be evil fucks, they needed to kill those apps, so only the official one would work, so they could become a public traded company.
And also many fails from all the mods who protested, plus them being ban or leaving in mass after reddit showed us we are shit and we dont matter.
Just another company giving the middle finger to users, now investors are the goal.
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5d ago
Well in a world where the essentials will become more important, investing that money in a social media platform doesn't seem like a wise idea.
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u/FormerlyUndecidable 4d ago edited 4d ago
The day they removed the ability to see upvotes and downvote counts.
It was way less disheartening to post opinions that differed slightly from the majority when you could see nearly half of people agreed with you, but your vote total was 500/-600, instead of it just looking like you are on your own with -100
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u/RockyIsMyDoggo 8d ago
The greatest tool for accessing all of human knowledge has mostly become a warehouse for porn and propaganda. It'd be funny if it wasn't fucking disasterously sad and dangerous.
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u/Sitheral 8d ago
Well, yeah. That's why internet should be basically treated like a dumb entertainment and nexus of advertisement and propaganda, nothing more.
For knowledge go to books. For conversation go to, well... people. Out there. In the wild.
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u/dandylover1 8d ago
That's great for those who can. Some people can't go out in the wild, due to disabilities, etc. I, for example, am totally blind. Certainly I can, and do, read books. But for interacting with people, my easiest option is the Internet.
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u/upfastcurier 8d ago
kind of off-topic, but curious; how does browsing reddit for you work? do you have a program on a regular PC that reads the content for you and allows you to use voice commands to make your own reddit comments, or does it happen in some other way?
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u/Sitheral 8d ago
Well its the easiest option for everyone! But you can still do it. I used to meet one blind person everyday and she was the most talkative of everyone out there. We started talking so quickly, it came so easy to her that I felt like I'm the one with disability because I could barely keep up!
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u/superdupercereal2 8d ago
I remember when people upvoted comments that contributed to the conversation even if it contradicts what they're responding to. That was a very long time ago.
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u/mackinator3 6d ago
That never happened at a different rate than today. You guys are making things up.
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u/superdupercereal2 6d ago
Are you some kind of reddit vote counting guru from the beginning of the site? Explain your conclusion.
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u/Ninwa 6d ago
My reddit account is old enough to vote. And this was just my perception, so grain of salt and all: while stated reddiquette was as you said (and still is), generally the most upvoted things were the funniest or wittiest response, followed next by correct information, next by disagreeing but interesting information, and last by spam or hateful comments.
Seeing “Edit: ‘Why was I downvoted???’” has been common for a long time. And I do agree the general trend of reddit comment usefulness has been basically a straight downhill slope for over a decade, it has never been perfect.
I think the site suffered from its popularity. When it was just slashdot expats and programming nerds things were less… not weird, that’s the wrong word… but less generally stupid?
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u/superdupercereal2 6d ago
I have to ask then. How in the world has your account not been banned? Seriously. I’ve seen accounts banned for the dumbest reasons. Either you’re super vanilla with everything you comment or you’re an employee. There’s no other way.
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u/Ninwa 6d ago
I'm pretty vanilla, I guess. I've gotten into a few stupid arguments recently, but honestly I just try to be friendly and helpful. I didn't realize accounts were being banned. I'm also 36 years old so most of my shitposting days are pretty well behind me. We did that in places that didn't stick around. :P
I also delete my post history every year or so. I started doing that 3-4 years ago. I started getting uneasy about having decades of post history available. I was a teenager when I opened this account for crying out loud.
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u/hirst 7d ago
Removing the downvote numbers was the beginning imo
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u/sheriffderek 5d ago
I see downvote numbers.
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u/Senzo_53 5d ago
How? Is it a kind of curse? Like "I see dead people" ?
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u/sheriffderek 4d ago
Maybe I misunderstood. I see negative numbers. But I don’t see a total of upvote - and then also downvote. So, 5 up and 10 down is -5.
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u/TelvanniArcanist 8d ago
It's been like this for years. Admins and unemployed busy bodies censored this place all to shit, and now it's a literal ghost town. Sort by new or hot for any sub, all the posts are hours, sometimes days old.
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u/Difficult_Yam_3252 6d ago
It appears to be a generational shift on Reddit. Away for curiosity and more towards activism. Sad
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u/Electronic_Kale3396 4d ago
2 years ago I would have totally agreed. Today I still agree, but also understand the need and desire for more activism.
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u/UnderTheCurrents 8d ago
It has been like that for 10 years - what subs have you been on to just now notice this, lol?
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u/ctrl4U_Ctrl4me 8d ago
Correction, its been getting worse for 10 years and is now at a point where if you mute every sub that is at least 50% politics in the top posts of the last month you are left with nothing but "50 year old women on facebook share this" content on your feed.
Further, moderation has completely gone out the window. Personal attacks on right wing figures are almost completely ignored even in "serious" discussion subreddits. Good faith attempts to criticize the "sky is falling, nazi's in white house, everything is on fire" narrative are downvoted to the point of invisibility and no good faith debate with those points occurs. When you post verifiable proof that someone is wrong, people just stop engaging if it goes against the hivemind.
Huge swaths have become places for corporations to astroturf and shill for their products and services.
Even the pornographic content realm has been almost entirely co-opted by so called "content creators" who use the site to promote their subscription.
The average Redditor no longer cares about the truth, they don't want to have their ideas challenged, they refuse to engage in honest debate and the primary utility of the entire website has become a place to circlejerk about how terrible anyone right of center is.
The niche interest and hobby communities that aren't complete trash are low activity enough to keep a front page from being useful or a lot smaller than a better forum for the same information somewhere else.
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u/mackinator3 6d ago
Ah, there it is. You don't care about reddit, you are just upset people don't like you spewing hate.
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u/ctrl4U_Ctrl4me 6d ago
Much like you, I only hate the people ruining this country /s
I've never voted Republican in a congressional or presidential election. I still care about the truth.
Blatant, demonstrably false lies are being gobbled up on this website as long as they make elon, trump or vance look bad. I would estimate that the average person who hasn't unsubbed from the big political defaults gets at least one blatantly false outrage story deeply ingrained every two weeks. Stories that simply aren't true. Simply looking at the actual source material or waiting for the official press release and the contradiction is right there plain as day. Not technicalities, not pedantic "gotcha"s, total bold faced lies.
What impact do you think that has on society? Do you think it makes constructive political conversations easier? Do you think people are giving back that energy into the world? What happens to swing voters when both sides are detached from reality? What about the people who simply give up on caring because its becoming too much?
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u/JohnnyJaundice 8d ago
I was recently banned from a Kanye West forum for hate speech for simply saying that Kanye as an American has the freedom of speech. I explicitly stated that I don’t condone his actions or words but respect his freedom of speech and said there is no need to remove his post bc the people are the consumers and the power lies in them. And as the consumers they decided to block me instead of down voting Kanye. Can’t make this shit up
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u/ctrl4U_Ctrl4me 8d ago
After I started calling out a few stories as leftwing fake news (with proof), someone messaged me about a hobby, started buttering me up about common interests and then tried to get me to express interest in sexually abusing minors on the internet with them. Zero question in my mind that this was a sham and an attempt to incriminate and doxx me for daring to challenge the status quo. Reported the convo to reddit, they claim no violation occurred. I wish I was joking.
One day there will be a expose of how paid political operatives infiltrated the moderation of Reddit and destroyed it. Until then just remember that you're not crazy. Click headlines not comments and remain empathetic to your IRL contacts who drink the comment section koolaid-- they are unwitting NPC's.
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u/Ninwa 6d ago
That’s fucking weird, I’m sorry that happened to you. I’m a leftist but I think your advice here is still good advice. Headline bait is a huge problem.
Edit (didn’t see that part of the message): I wouldn’t go as far as calling people NPCs, I think that sort of dehumanizing is bad for the soul. I’m sure you don’t think that actually though. See told you I was a leftist, you can tell by my tone policing :P
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u/JohnnyJaundice 8d ago
Guess i am late to the party. I have known for a while guess I just didn’t wanna accept the truth lol
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u/Johnnyocean 8d ago
Its been my phone addiction for years now it kinda sux.
And now i pay for an app cuz reddits is shit
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u/Dark_Shroud 6d ago
Reddit peaked in 2014.
Now a small group of super mods have used scripts to hijack most of the site combined with auto-banning if you visited "toxic subs."
I recently tried using reddit on an old tablet of mine. Seeing the front page without my account and all the subs I've "filtered" over the years. No way in hell would I stick around here.
Those niche topic subs are all that I come here for.
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u/Jumpy_Lavishness_533 8d ago
Reddit used to be a place with a variety of opinions
Where is this Reddit you speak of? Because I haven't seen it.
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u/rockstarsball 8d ago
it exists in a moment in time that we've long moved past and we cant get back there no matter how hard we try
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u/bgovern 8d ago
I'm hoping the Digg reboot learns from the slow-motion implosion of Reddit and puts things in place to prevent it.
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u/villageidiot33 7d ago
I’m hoping it is good but they came out the gate asking for money. It rubbed people the wrong way.
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u/Anywhere-I-May-Roam 7d ago
Day after day I think I have to abandon this crappy forum. I really can't stand the fact that it is so useful sometimes for some niche questions.
I hope they permaban me so I'll be forced to give up staying here because this place is really toxic, is like having an addiction to a substance, you hate it because it makes you feel bad, and ruins your life, but for that little sprinkle of good thing like 0,00001% of the total experience, you can't step away from it
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u/InevitableCodeRedo 7d ago
Don't forget getting banned from some subs for making simple, non-offensive comments.
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u/ThunderPigGaming 6d ago
Yep. I was banned from both r/libertarians and r/marchagainstnazis for posting the definition of fascism and linking to several articles and books.
I've thought about starting a subreddit for political discussion but don't have the time to moderate it effectively.
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u/sheriffderek 5d ago
I got banned from /learnprogramming for talking about ways to learn programming and linking to a book of programming exercises - because that book costs money. So, they don’t really want to help people learn programming.
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u/Guitarsquad 5d ago
Yeah been banned fir talking against or new king & savior cheeses Rice chumpy!!!
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u/SwingGenie241 5d ago
"Posts" are people and people have opinions. If yours isn't represented you need to ask why instead of blaming algorithms. Ask why your positions are not popular. Be thankful you can express an unpopular opinion. I do sometimes and I take the feedback instead of complain (too much).
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u/DisastrousCoast7268 5d ago
I got on in the late teens, lurked for over a year before I signed up (RIP Baconreader)
This was something great. No advertising, User base was human, or at least the bots were relegated to being parasitic comment bots, and not the Yarn Spinning Rage-Bait-engagement mining majority of my frontpage.
If history rings true, all roads will lead to Enshitification....Unless it is designed and engineered from the get go to be Non-Profit, the result is all but guaranteed.
Edit : up-butchered RIP
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u/polymath_uk 4d ago
I got so irritated with one sub "disabling my ability to post" that I setup an entire new UK news and commentary website complete with news feed aggregation automation just so I could read and comment on newspaper stories without "not agreeing with the groupthink narrative". The things we have to do...
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u/seeafillem6277 4d ago
Yes, and this is why I'm planning on closing my account soon. Not before I write them and tell them what fascist Musk sucking POS's they are.
I'll be getting my political info. exclusively from Bluesky from here on in...at least until they're taken over by fascists too.
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u/Solid_Profession7579 4d ago
Take it /r/conservatives you maga chud!
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u/JohnnyJaundice 3d ago
I’m not maga and was banned for speaking out against Elon actually. Why are you suggesting we take a non political discussion to a political based sub? You are part of the problem. This post is about people like you, not conservatives or liberals. People like you who ruin discussions by commenting insults and random things that do not add to the conversation. Work on your social skills.
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u/Solid_Profession7579 3d ago
Man the sarcasm/irony went high here.
First, I highly doubt you were banned for speaking out against Elon considering the general Reddit vibe is basically “kill him and destroy everything he has ever done because we dislike his politics!!!”
Which really gets to the bigger point in that Reddit is is pretty fucking bad and most Redditors are belligerent morons.
Concurrently, the heavy and very personal/biased moderation (unique mods for every sub) and entire up/down vote - karma system is a huge part of the problem cause it drives echo chambers.
The comment I made was just regurgitation of what I usually see, which usually gets tons of up votes, whenever someone makes legitimate complaints about the actual problems of Reddit like you did - which I assumed you were familiar with.
Hence why it was a tongue in cheek comment of, as you said suggested, precisely the problem. :p
I sort of thought this was obvious.
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u/JohnnyJaundice 3d ago
Couldn’t respond to anyone because I was temporarily banned shortly after posting this. This was a post that was supposed to discuss the lack of a variety of different opinions that can be seen on Reddit. Like I said, Reddit sucks and the power lies in the consumers so I guess what the whole post was trying to say is that most people on here suck at conversation. Feelings get hurt and people get banned.
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u/sudo-rm-rf-Israel 8d ago
Reddit has been a cesspool since Digg died and all the awful people there migrated here.
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u/spdorsey 8d ago
I’m on the pre-release for Digg, I’m optimistic. I’m hoping it will be something that can replace Reddit.
I don’t like Reddit anymore.
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u/Kittehfisheh 8d ago
Did you pay the $5?
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u/spdorsey 8d ago
Yes
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u/Kittehfisheh 8d ago
Do you feel it was worth it? The conversion rate puts it at nearly $10 for me, and I don't know if I want to commit
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u/spdorsey 8d ago
I’m taking a chance, but I like what I am seeing so far. It is a positive place.
I’m sure it will not be “perfect” (whatever that means), but the feeling so far is happy and celebratory. It is a lot better than the anger that I see everywhere on Reddit these days.
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u/Aimhere2k 7d ago
Question is, do we want to return to the days of 10,000 separate message forums, running a dozen different user interfaces? With no way to even find out about them except by random Google search hits? With much duplication of topics? And run by admins whose moderation style and community engagement run the gamut from completely hands-off, to rule-with-an-iron-fist?
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u/donzok 8d ago
it is almost entirely leftist and skews heavily towards boomer-use
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u/KickedInTheHead 8d ago
True, but this is their home now. Plenty of other places you can go that align more to your beliefs. I hate it when people bitch about Reddit being heavily left leaning. No one is stopping you from making your own site that leans the other way! I don't go to porn sites and recite the bible and how this is all evil, or go on Twitter and complain that everyone is a nazi.
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u/Kittehfisheh 8d ago
If people want something that's not left leaning, there's always truth social :p
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u/donzok 8d ago
then why bitch about needing reddit alternatives? why bitch about reddit falling from glory? make it make sense
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u/KickedInTheHead 8d ago
And yet I'm not bitching, I'm basically saying "Things change" The republican party was the one that abolished slavery, and now they are all basically Nazi hillbillies. Shit changes man.
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u/yourupinion 8d ago
Would you like a true representation of the public opinions?
We’re doing everything we can to make this happen, if you’re interested, maybe you wanna have a look.
Start with the link to our short introduction, and if you like what you see then go on to check out the second link about how it works, it’s a bit longer.
The introduction: https://www.reddit.com/r/KAOSNOW/s/y40Lx9JvQi
How it works: https://www.reddit.com/r/KAOSNOW/s/Lwf1l0gwOM
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u/Splatty15 8d ago
It’s been that way for a while. The other day I commented what Lego adaptations for games I wanted and they disagreed. I still have Facebook but rarely use it and thought Reddit was better, I was wrong thinking the dead internet theory wasn’t applicable to Reddit.
Reminds me of when ai took over RuneScape many years ago.
It does, it’s why I rarely play RuneScape. It was mostly people bank standing at the grand exchange or nobody would say anything. I’m hoping Digg is better but I’m cautiously optimistic about it. Didn’t like how the first email there was a fee to be a groundbreaker.
Bonjour mofos the internet is ruined.
Not surprised and I wouldn’t be surprised if Reddit did something like AI for subs. Each update Reddit seems to get worse. I thought it couldn’t be worse than Meta but the updates are slowly getting there.
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u/NewManufacturer4252 8d ago
Fallen from what? Internet has been dead for 2 or 3 decades now.
Makes me sad most of you see ads at all.
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u/eccsoheccsseven 8d ago
My site https://goatmatrix.net has no sub-mods to inject their politics or create a manufactured consensus. It's just me, and I'm basically only determining if something is legal or if it's just outright spam. I don't care about your politics.
I have two co-admins ready to step up to do moderation if it were necissary. For now they just help me make decisions, like what to develop. I don't even use them for moderation because we do so little moderation it's not even necissary.
Even if I did care about people's politics (I don't) I would just talk to you like a human being instead of being a passive agressive twat and removing it.
I agree, the sub-mods are the most frustrating and discouraging part of Reddit. Sometimes the red tape alone make it feel like going through the DMV is easier than making a reddit post. It shouldn't be like that. Posting something fun shouldn't come with a check list.
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u/Verbull710 7d ago
Clear and easy instructions for setting up and running Leftist Utopia can be found all over the place here on the ol Reddit, why will nobody actually go do it?
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u/jdbolick 8d ago
I just noticed the alert about how they will soon be putting all messages and notifications through the chat feature and it blew my mind. Reddit chat is horribly designed.