Was it natural and expected for Reddit, a titanic website of the Internet to get hit with a fatal blow- with user-induced blackouts and third-party abandonments?

To answer this;
we should look at what Web3 itself means. ^{sounds_of_booing}

Listen now- this isn’t the “cryptohell” or “Zuckburg” that we think of. What we mean here is decentralization, user-built environments and unity.

Decentralization may sound like a cryptogimmick to some, but I assure you that it is an already big part of the web here. Decentralization is, as the name suggests, a form of liberation from any centralized sources, like big companies, goverments, “the elite”, etc… It is the platform itself being sustained on its users rather than a single entity that has all the saying of a platform.

This freedom is really enticing, especially today- as more and more people feel exploited by many “centralized” strong entities, with companies that harvest your data, attempting to turn their users into products- companies that attempt to rain you down with ads, and/or needless products born out of near-pure consumerism.

Reddit, despite being centralized- stands on user-made content. That is what “Reddit” is in the first place. The company makes money from it, grows from it, and is expected to make the environment- Reddit, better. But we struggle seeing that, maybe because there is little flow back to the website quality itself (lol). The environment, its users can’t have a saying of. The “center”, keeps changing it, and the changes just push it more away from the users. User-built environments are hard to manage, but allows the users themselves to change the place as how they see fit- benefiting for them and other users. Because it is not like they can make money or similar means of gains out from a decentralized place that easily- This does mean less sponsors and monetary motivation for the devs (this is actually a rather big problem in foss…) but this also means direct growth out of passion and benevolance, the devs working for the gains of all.

We are strong when united- when we work together keeping this place up. Either with code, donations, content, activity or just some other stuff in general- This place, the website, the “environment”, is kept by the very users and the unity that is born out of it will keep and change this place up.

This is Web3- born out of Web2’s user-content websites, when the users themselves are finally uniting to shape the Internet as how they see fit. Not mega-corps, wonky gov’ts, “alphabet agencies” or just overall financially powerful out-of-touch Scrooge McDuck wannabe potential DC comic villains. We are, as the content-makers of those websites, are capable of making our own places, meant for us and others.

This is what Web3 is meant to be: Made by websurfers, for websurfers.

…

Recently, Reddit broke down. Many are here for this reason, and almost all here know the reason for that- The website tried to mess with its users. API costs being higher (most likely, trying to be the devil’s advocate here) due to company-tax, more targeted ads to rack in more money- money that doesn’t flow back into making the website better, and many changes that are explicitly anti-consumer, forcing people to make accounts and make them use their app, to more directly harvest user data, and the way Reddit is currently handling “the Blackout” by simply doubling down, choosing to ignore what keeps Reddit alive.

And now? Well…

Disregard my title. Reddit isn’t going anywhere.

Reddit isn’t dying. There is a big hit, but the titan can’t die with a single punch- it wasn’t fatal, not even close. The stock of Reddit, the userbase- it may be well back to “normal” in just a few days.

It was rather unnatural however, for a protest of this size to occur. Some may think many “plebbit” users are quite contempt with what they are given, especially knowing how consumerist they are (funko pop momen), or how they would regard Lemmy as just an “Odysee”, an “alternate” to Reddit. Knowing the amount of people rushing here, I can say this is… a happy suprise.

But despite it being a suprise, it was still expected. Sounds like a weird oxymoron, but it was. You do expect people to act like this when pressured from big corps like Reddit- I mean, this isn’t Reddit users’ first rodeo when attacking big corps… It is weird even, how Reddit responded to this, knowing the community of Reddit itself are known for attacking anti-consumer corporations (a nice way to gain some sense of pride and accomplishment if you ask me, lol)

Reddit doesn’t have to die in the first place.

We have Lemmy already. We have Mastodon- we have ourselves. We don’t need Reddit, or do we need Reddit to die for the success of Lemmy.

The website has already grown enough- big enough to be active and support itself. You no longer need Reddit, if you were using Lemmy. Reddit may not lose, but we won regardless.

Make this place like your home now. Enjoy, all.

Long live Lemmy.

-NNC