Dear User,

We will soon begin rolling out changes to Reddit’s User settings. It is getting a refresh that includes changes to ad personalization, privacy preferences, and location settings.

As part of these changes, we are retiring a setting that you have previously turned on that limited how we used your activity from the Reddit platform to personalize ads. We have replaced the setting with a new option to select categories of ads that you may not wish to see.

More details are available in our announcement and help center.

These changes are rolling out starting today and you may see the changes over the next few days.

Users will be tracked with no opt out. Posts may be monetized, which will make content even worse No refund or any type of usable credit for users that spent hundreds on Reddit coins The entire vibe has done a 180° since all these new “positive changes” are rolled out.

  • TehWorld@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    252
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    1 year ago

    I’m not spending much time on Reddit these days but in no way is this the end for Reddit. The VAST majority of the user base just doesn’t care. We may see more users trickling in and Lemmy is sure more ready now than ever but people are so used to being advertised to, that this won’t be a big issue long term. People are dumb.

    • foggy@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      90
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Idk man, literally asked a bunch (3) of friends how reddit is lately who had no idea what was going on this summer with the API changes and didn’t care when I told them. Here are there responses:

      “They’ve gotten really bad at putting relevant shit in front of me”

      “Been a ton more ads lately”

      And

      “dude thank you for telling me reddit had porn lol”

    • Rolando@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      47
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      The hope is that the non-dumb people will leave for here, and that they’re the ones who make quality content.

      • rDrDr@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        15
        ·
        1 year ago

        Reddit users will be reposting Lemmy content for real money gold by 2025. Fucking spez…

      • JohnnyEnzyme@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        One thing I hadn’t thought much about until recently-- the quality of comments is so much higher here, and I don’t have to typically scroll through a wasteland of dudebro jokes to get to relevant replies.

        So, comments are also ‘content,’ and from what I’m seeing, Lemmy already has a distinctly smarter / more mature userbase.

    • Jah348@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      1 year ago

      This is for sure the final nail, it’s going to collapse just like Facebook and Google did after all that ad stuff. Profiting off a user data is clearly a failed business model and we see that time and time again.

    • ConstipatedWatson@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I completely agree with this!

      Also, it’s an unfortunate rule of thumb that, when you see a sensationalized headline, most likely it won’t have the effect it claims to have…

      Well, let’s hope there’s a steady migration to Lemmy (though numbers are small here)

      Edit: added last line

      • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Fingerprinting is mostly pointless once you’re logged into the site.

        You can use Mullvad which is TOR but without the TOR.

        • PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Can you explain more about Mullvad wrt Tor? I’m shopping for a new VPN & looked into Mullvad extensively because it’s my #1 choice so far. What about it specifically makes you say that?

          • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            1 year ago

            Mullvad the browser, not the VPN. They partnered with the TOR project to create it. So it has all the same browser protections of the TOR browser except that it doesn’t go through the TOR network so it’s actually mostly useable for general daily use.

            Mullvad is probably the best choice exclusively for VPN. I chose Proton only because of their “suite” of products under a single subscription.

            • PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              1 year ago

              Ahhhh, my apologies…I completely misunderstood!

              Thank you for taking the time to explain all that, and for the positive words about Mullvad VPN. My current subscription is almost up, so I should get it soon. Have a good one :)

  • Smacks@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    55
    ·
    1 year ago

    No, this won’t kill Reddit. If they can essentially remove every third-party app, they’ll easily be able to start selling user data. Whether we like it or not, the majority stayed on Reddit.

    Nothing short of somehow breaking through ad blockers like Twitch did will make people stop using it, even if that.

      • beefcat@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        If you have irl friends/family that’s only on facebook you can’t really leave.

        they can all still talk to you via phone, text, email, in person, etc. that is what i told all my family when i hopped off facebook

        • InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          1 year ago

          No easy way to share vacation or gathering photos. If I post one and my aunt comments everyone can see that discussion and join. Not so with just chat groups. Overwhelming majority want this layout and there is no easy way around it.

      • Genericusername@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Facebook kind of died and used the momentum it had to reinvent itself. Back in the day I used to see updates from my friends, and I used to interact with them. I stopped using Facebook at some point a few years ago and recently got back to it. I use Marketplace, and in my country people with the same hobby as me seem to interact over Facebook more than anything else. Younger people rarely upload except for a few very active outliers. Most of the content is these clickbaity short videos of 5-minute crafts or live-feeding frogs to slightly larger frogs because Facebook thinks I’m into it for some reason. They just made an addictive never-ending stream of content.

    • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      1 year ago

      Whether we like it or not, the majority stayed on Reddit.

      The fight may not be over though.

      Where people didn’t really care about an API change for third party apps, they may care a lot more about having ads shoved in their faces whether they like it or not.

      It’s all about breakings their inertia to change.

      • Sunroc@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        People en mass make “economic” decisions. If they view an alternative such as lemmy as too difficult to use, or their communities are not here they will rather tolerate the ads. Learning to use a new app or having to start the community themselves is too much effort for most people.

    • thisisthelastonebtw@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      1 year ago

      If there are still Facebook and Twitter users, of which we know there are, nothing will kill Reddit.

      However, I’ll say I’m someone not good at change but am agoraphobic, so my only “connection” was Reddit, and I finally gave in and deleted for good.

      Still getting used to this platform, but hopefully can find less toxic users here. Social media seems to be made special for bullies.

    • titter@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      1 year ago

      SAME. Relay for reddonk stopped working, needed updating, and came back with an unavoidable subscription model suggesting i should pay 5.99/mo to continue “enjoying” reddit at my pace. Some people probably would, “oh, what’s that one banana a month”? I don’t sign in, thus I don’t post, comment, vote, reward. This is just me being charged to lurk on a website that forked in ungodly amounts of profit over a reward system they trash canned. Reasonably so because they didn’t really reward the user as much as it was just micropaymemts to reddit, and people were noticing. Instead we are “rewarding all 3rd party users by letting them pay to use our content”.

      Mind you this is on top of reddit recent announcing that they will no longer give you the option to not be tracked, instead replacing it with “tires of ads you can opt out from”

      SMH

  • HiramFromTheChi@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    36
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    If you wanna keep your bookmarks and the subreddits (communities) that you’re subscribed to before deleting your Reddit account, I made a free tool to help you store and offload that data.

    It’s called Reddit Account Manager, and it’s 100% free.

    You can also use it to manage your Lemmy account(s), of course.

      • HiramFromTheChi@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yep, the ideal workflow for migrating would be something like this:

        1. Use Reddit Account Manager to neatly organize and store your Reddit accounts, bookmarks, and subscriptions
        2. Request your data archive from Reddit itself
        3. Use something like Redact or Power Delete Suite to remove your content from Reddit
        4. Permanently delete your accounts from Reddit
        5. Move to a federated alternative (optional)
      • HiramFromTheChi@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        Your question’s a little nuanced, so let me try to answer this as thoroughly as possible:

        The short answer is: If the platform you choose to use it is accessible from your Android phone, then yes. But it’s not Android- or iOS-specific.

        Out of the platforms that it’s available on (Airtable, Notion, Coda, ClickUp, and Baserow), all of them except for Baserow have native mobile apps. With that said, Baserow is also mobile responsive, so you don’t need a native mobile app to work with Reddit Account Manager.

        • Reddit Account Manager is a template built on top of those tools (Airtable, Notion, Coda, ClickUp, and Baserow), so you’ll need an account with at least one of those to use it.
        • Reddit Account Manager is built without code.

        Hope that clears things up. :)

        • Mango@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Uhh yeah that didn’t clear things up.

          I don’t have a computer and I want all my Reddit content deleted without having to do manual labor for the next several months.

      • HiramFromTheChi@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        You could use a service like SimpleLogin, Addy, Duck, or just a temporary fake email generator. I don’t mind if you give me a fake email address—you have a right to privacy.

        If it helps, my website’s hiram.io. I realize that’s still “random” in the grand scheme of things, but it should at least show you I’m a real person, and I build stuff to build a better web.

  • detinu@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    28
    ·
    1 year ago

    Relay also stopped working for me today, so here I am for good now, at least on mobile.

    I hope reddit sinks to the bottom because of their greed.

    • elysianxr@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      I love Relay but I just cannot pay because that supports Reddit. I love Reddit but not the people on top. I hope it sinks.

        • TWeaK@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          How do you go about that?

          In any case, even the paid version Relay Pro includes trackers, so while I miss the UI I’m not too upset that it’s gone.

    • TWeaK@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yep same for me. I’ve moved to Red Reader, it’s crap for the UI but at least it will continue to work for the foreseeable.

      • detinu@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        For now I’m not gonna move to anything else for Reddit. I’ll use Sync for Lemmy as my daily driver, and I’ll see how it goes.

  • Margot Robbie@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    28
    ·
    1 year ago

    People aren’t going to leave reddit all at once right away, because structure means that individual subreddits are very much isolated from one another in terms of users.

    However, it’s likely that we will be seeing some kind of cultural shift happening there as quality get worse. I feel it’s inevitable that there will be more low effort content pumped out as quickly as possible than ever before now there is an actual monetary incentive instead of imaginary Internet points, and all personalized feed and ad is going to do is isolate individual users in their individual bubble and not allowing human connections to form between them.

    Things are getting better here. The regulars recongnize each other’s name and personalitu, whereas on reddit all the usernames all blends together into an amorphous mass unless it’s one of those novelty accounts or e-celeb or something. That’s the key difference between Lemmy and reddit right now.

    • jaek@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      1 year ago

      Couldn’t agree more. Those novelty e-celeb accounts on Reddit are getting really put of hand, aren’t they, Margot Robbie

      • flathead@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Academy award-nominated actress Margot Robbie does actually spend most of her free time modding an android group on Lemmy - but you will never see that mentioned on mainstream social media.

          • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            1 year ago

            Any advice you’d like to give that would make somebody starting modding a lot easier, would be appreciated.

            • Margot Robbie@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              7
              ·
              1 year ago

              Don’t micromanage, I just let people do whatever they want but encourage them to do their best, and only remove/ban for people who absolutely won’t listen to reason.

              You should also get involved with your comm by talking to people there a lot, so they don’t think you are just some asshole who’s only there to ban.

      • Margot Robbie@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        1 year ago

        Oh absolutely, especially those celebrities who comes in, promote their latest project, say some catchphrases, and leave. Why would they do such a thing?

        Also, that’s Academy Award nominated character actress Margot Robbie to you!

  • BrightHalo@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    1 year ago

    It sucked going from Boost to the official Reddit app and this I don’t really care about but what got me to come here today was my feeds in the official Reddit app have been stale for the last several days and it’s seems to have forgot what subreddits my account is in. I can go to a subreddit I’m subscribed to and see fresh posts but all the built in views Home/Popular/News… All have content I saw hours ago or yesterday… Why do I want to use an app that shows me old posts and makes me hunt down new ones of interest?

      • BrightHalo@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        Same! That’s what I’m using! I had Boost for Lemmy set to pre download or whatever and this morning when looking for my Reddit fix and being dissatisfied with Reddit I was like… Wait a minute, what happened to Boost for Lemmy? I wanted to check that out sometime and started using it lol

    • TWeaK@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      Why would you go to the official reddit app? I continued using Relay until it stopped working yesterday, but Stealth and Red Reader still work just fine and are FOSS. Red Reader was given dispensation for being a disability app IIRC.

      • BrightHalo@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Boost for Reddit is what I’m use to so my plan was to jump ship when the Boost for Lemmy app came out but the download tried to happen when I wasn’t on WiFi and I forgot to install it. With my recent feed issues I remember I was planning to jump ship

  • flummoxed_lummox@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    1 year ago

    I just deleted my reddit account and signed up here as well. Fortunately, I don’t know anyone else who still has an account. Most of my friends and family left a long time ago.