With Reddit, I suspect it was mostly timing that can’t be replicated unless something mind shattering and truly catastrophic were to happen. (Much more than what already has. Hey, it’s possible Spez can fuck up even worse.) It bridged Web 1.0/2.0/3.0 (god I hate that term) and was able to facilitate mass user migrations from Digg and Fark along with a number of smaller communities that shut down or died off. Lemmy and Mastodon -do- have room to grow but I suspect people prefer “the one thing” to move to and unfortunately, there isn’t that one other Reddit alternative, I’m happy enough to be here, but I’m not counting on this federated alternative to reach 10% of the total userbase that Reddit had.
Nothing really replaced LiveJournal. Nothing really replaced Tumblr. SmugMug, Flickr, Blogger were all functionally similar sites that just never got as far. I think we’re going to see a bigger change in the style of the next social media site that reaches popularity more than we are going to see a functionally similar one replace Reddit and reach the same userlevels.
And I think we have the exact same problem with Twitter. Why would anyone want to move to another functionally similar microblogging site if Twitter still has more users? The problem we’re seeing with post, mewe, etc… General people don’t want to split themselves between several sites to keep in touch with everyone they know.
So they will just ignore what bothers them for as long as enough people remain on Twitter or Reddit.
I’ve been around long enough to eventually realize that no one community lasts. They all die. Whether it’s due to attrition, incompetence, infighting or just those in charge giving up the pretense of professionalism and turning it into their little sandbox full of cat shit… Something new will always show up and it’s a matter of time before something loses or reaches critical mass. However important that ‘reaching critical mass’ can be for some sites… it just doesn’t seem like that happens as often anymore. TikTok being the last big example I can immediately think of. How many people do you see talking about their Kik, Snap or Telegram chats? “Everyone I know is on TikTok, I’ll just go there instead.” (Or Instagram/Facebook/Whatsapp.)
Whether it’s general sites like Fark or specific forums like HardOCP/Forum screwing the pooch, the only thing I’ve been able to take away regardless of what happened: Sticking around always led to a more negative outcome. People only end up rewarding themselves with toxicity by choosing to remain with a site that has turned on its community and tried to tell others where they can or cannot go.
Those who insist on staying… I’ve stuck around on some sites/services for those one or two that I wanted to keep in touch with. It wasn’t worth it in the end.
Cut loose. Enjoy the next spot. Tell people where you’ve gone but don’t waste time with wondering if people are going to make it. If they care, they’ll find their way.
This includes not trying to convince people to follow. If they need to be convinced, they likely won’t have as good of an outcome as they expect from your sales pitch.
Why would anyone want to move to another functionally similar microblogging site if Twitter still has more users?
Perhaps because the quality of the experience is better, even if the number of users is lower. As Twitter appeals more and more to the far right, those might not be the users people want to be hanging around with.
Nothing really replaced LiveJournal. Nothing really replaced Tumblr. SmugMug, Flickr, Blogger were all functionally similar sites that just never got as far. I think we’re going to see a bigger change in the style of the next social media site that reaches popularity more than we are going to see a functionally similar one replace Reddit and reach the same userlevels.
And I think we have the exact same problem with Twitter. Why would anyone want to move to another functionally similar microblogging site if Twitter still has more users? The problem we’re seeing with post, mewe, etc… General people don’t want to split themselves between several sites to keep in touch with everyone they know.
I feel like the Livejournal crowd settled into Tumblr and AO3, and the same people have accounts on both and their online presence intermingled enough you’d recognise a tumblr user on AO3 and vice versa. I feel like forums had yet to make the transition to something like AO3 for fanworks; the creators of the work (user generated data) collectively control their data. AO3 is now collecting and archiving scattered archives and restoring them or planning to restore them; the work is enormous and it is run by volunteers after all. The true legacy of Livejournal users are AO3.
If a forum site can exist where people can have absolute faith in the site like that, people will come. If a true non-profit forum can exist, maybe archives of dead forums can be revived.
But first, there must be the first call and there must be an answer. It was a massive work.
I don’t think lemmy or the fediverse is the answer, not yet. On the other side Meta will undoubtedly dilute the fediverse, unless as strong an entity as the non-profit running AO3 can stand up. A collective body have to exist if only to shelter one massive instance, an instance that welcomes any and all so that the rest too can exist.
With Reddit, I suspect it was mostly timing that can’t be replicated unless something mind shattering and truly catastrophic were to happen. (Much more than what already has. Hey, it’s possible Spez can fuck up even worse.) It bridged Web 1.0/2.0/3.0 (god I hate that term) and was able to facilitate mass user migrations from Digg and Fark along with a number of smaller communities that shut down or died off. Lemmy and Mastodon -do- have room to grow but I suspect people prefer “the one thing” to move to and unfortunately, there isn’t that one other Reddit alternative, I’m happy enough to be here, but I’m not counting on this federated alternative to reach 10% of the total userbase that Reddit had.
Nothing really replaced LiveJournal. Nothing really replaced Tumblr. SmugMug, Flickr, Blogger were all functionally similar sites that just never got as far. I think we’re going to see a bigger change in the style of the next social media site that reaches popularity more than we are going to see a functionally similar one replace Reddit and reach the same userlevels.
And I think we have the exact same problem with Twitter. Why would anyone want to move to another functionally similar microblogging site if Twitter still has more users? The problem we’re seeing with post, mewe, etc… General people don’t want to split themselves between several sites to keep in touch with everyone they know.
So they will just ignore what bothers them for as long as enough people remain on Twitter or Reddit.
I’ve been around long enough to eventually realize that no one community lasts. They all die. Whether it’s due to attrition, incompetence, infighting or just those in charge giving up the pretense of professionalism and turning it into their little sandbox full of cat shit… Something new will always show up and it’s a matter of time before something loses or reaches critical mass. However important that ‘reaching critical mass’ can be for some sites… it just doesn’t seem like that happens as often anymore. TikTok being the last big example I can immediately think of. How many people do you see talking about their Kik, Snap or Telegram chats? “Everyone I know is on TikTok, I’ll just go there instead.” (Or Instagram/Facebook/Whatsapp.)
Whether it’s general sites like Fark or specific forums like HardOCP/Forum screwing the pooch, the only thing I’ve been able to take away regardless of what happened: Sticking around always led to a more negative outcome. People only end up rewarding themselves with toxicity by choosing to remain with a site that has turned on its community and tried to tell others where they can or cannot go.
Those who insist on staying… I’ve stuck around on some sites/services for those one or two that I wanted to keep in touch with. It wasn’t worth it in the end.
Cut loose. Enjoy the next spot. Tell people where you’ve gone but don’t waste time with wondering if people are going to make it. If they care, they’ll find their way.
This includes not trying to convince people to follow. If they need to be convinced, they likely won’t have as good of an outcome as they expect from your sales pitch.
Perhaps because the quality of the experience is better, even if the number of users is lower. As Twitter appeals more and more to the far right, those might not be the users people want to be hanging around with.
I feel like the Livejournal crowd settled into Tumblr and AO3, and the same people have accounts on both and their online presence intermingled enough you’d recognise a tumblr user on AO3 and vice versa. I feel like forums had yet to make the transition to something like AO3 for fanworks; the creators of the work (user generated data) collectively control their data. AO3 is now collecting and archiving scattered archives and restoring them or planning to restore them; the work is enormous and it is run by volunteers after all. The true legacy of Livejournal users are AO3.
If a forum site can exist where people can have absolute faith in the site like that, people will come. If a true non-profit forum can exist, maybe archives of dead forums can be revived.
But first, there must be the first call and there must be an answer. It was a massive work.
I don’t think lemmy or the fediverse is the answer, not yet. On the other side Meta will undoubtedly dilute the fediverse, unless as strong an entity as the non-profit running AO3 can stand up. A collective body have to exist if only to shelter one massive instance, an instance that welcomes any and all so that the rest too can exist.
ah genmay, that takes me way back