I don’t know, size made it pretty bad. Subreddits with hundreds of thousands or more users create environments where no one is trying to have a discussion. People are just vying for attention. That creates an environment where comments are either all jokes, or all snark. It’s really, really hard to have anything that resembles a human experience in a place like that. People stop recognizing each other as people, and just treat everyone as an audience.

That makes for a pretty bad experience.

@david_chisnall thanks this is a really interesting perspective. I’d have assumed larger / more complex systems would be of interest @cheri_alliance

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I stopped talking about politics because I would be brigaded by western/capitalist bros.

With the Ghislaine Maxwell WorldNews moderation stuff I wouldn't doubt if there were more unknowns around banning generally cordial leftist/Pro Palestine/Anti capitalist voices. I mean also just look at the Luigi Mangione crackdown.

It bleeds into conspiracy, so I try not to push it much, but I'm sure there's some type of moderation aspect.

Pixelfed and our side projects like Loops, FediDB and Fediverse.info are funded by people like you!

We could really use your help right now, please boost for awareness!

https://pixelfed.org/support-our-project

#Pixelfed

CompuServe, Rebuilt

https://compuserveweb.com/

(Web) CompuServe Information Service: a working recreation of CompuServe from the 1980s era written in Pascal using historical content

@Kurorori ha, ich auch!

German defense tech giant Helsing launches Clarity, an intelligence platform using military-customized AI agents to rival Palantir's Maven and Anduril's Lattice (Ingrid Lunden/Resilience Media)

https://resiliencemedia.co/helsing-launches-clarity-a-competitor-to-palantirs-maven/
http://www.techmeme.com/261111/p21#a261111p21

CLOSE THE DOOR we’re hot boxing the place

It reminds me a little of the old internet. I like how relatively small it feels, and that people post content for the sake of the content, not to promote themselves. I haven’t found my usual corners yet, the ones I used to hang out in on older platforms, but I figure that’s just a matter of time. I’m not super nostalgic for the old internet or anything, but it’s nice to find at least a hint of something human-centered somewhere.

I hope it doesn’t fall apart and that it keeps growing.

I was skeptical when I switched to Linux, but then I ditched Windows on my dual boot for good. It was a hugely positive experience, and it really felt like freedom. I’m hoping this will be the same.

And don’t be mad at me if I act totally clueless here sometimes 'cause all that is new to me.

They do ask for funding from time to time, though. It’s definitely not cost-less running a big website.

yes, of course, but it’s not a business model. Which means decisions aren’t driven by profit. The issue isn’t about money, it’s how/why it flows

cross-posted from: feddit.org/post/37870004

reddit got bad because spez (the reddit admin) restricted API access to the platform for third-party apps, such that people would be forced to use the official app or web UI, both of which display advertisement and collect user data (e.g. scroll behavior).

the reason why this happened is because reddit is a for-profit company and tries to extract money out of the userbase, at the expense of the users.

another example of a bad decision that reddit made was to push a lot of ragebait (“Am I The Asshole?”) because company shareholders want to see “engagement numbers” go up, and if somebody writes an angry reply to a post, that’s “engagement”. but it makes you angry at the stupidity of the “Asshole”, so it makes your day worse. that is another example how reddit makes money at the expense of the users.

size (number of monthly active users) is not what made reddit bad. commercialization is.

we should probably get rid of the “don’t make lemmy grow, it will ruin the platform if we grow” idea.

Wikipedia is proof you are wrong, it is possible to run large-scale services with no profit

Hab mich grad random daran erinnert, dass ich als Kind gerne meinen Kopf an den Röhrenfernseher im Wohnzimmer gehalten habe und es dann so angenehm an der Stirn gebrizzelt ha. Vielleicht erklärt das einiges in meinem Erwachsenenalter.

Polycule contacts book and personal relationship manager software (like crm for business)

Call it Meta Data

I see the point but I don’t necessarily agree. Before the intense commercialization Reddit had definitely changed for the worse for me because of the influx of people.

I stopped talking about Linux because Winbros would brigade me. I stopped talking about politics because I would be brigaded by western/capitalist bros. The discussions also got a lot worse over time and nuanced opinion was almost always down voted and brigaded.

I fear the same would happen for lemny if we suddenly had a hundred million users. Having a good community is desirable, but having a ton of people not so much so.

Imho, “submitting content” is the language of commercial sites. Like we are working for free for a business. But people post their ideas, hang out with friends, and share their art and code freely because they want to connect with other people. Some people have the means and knowledge to maintain a server allowing that to a limited number of people. It costs money, sure, and time, but this is also a thing people do for fun, sometimes with the help of voluntary donations.

Size and commercialisation generally go hand in hand. After all, how do you keep something running with infinite users submitting infinite content for free?

This is a big issue for everyone, it’s important that the fediverse understands that size might some day increase the importance of sensible business models or proactive funding initiatives to counter the growth. This doesn’t mean harmful profit models necessarily, but it does mean keeping revenues under control for individually run nodes or for archiving services for old fediverse domains that might not exist forever.

We know… we were there.