This isn't "a couple of weeks ago" issue. The enshittification most likely begin when they rolled this modern design and used variety of darkpatterns on existing users to trick them to move into updated interface. This was all done to attract younger audience who has short attention spawn and who doesn't mind ads and sponsored content served via this bulky interface that keeps you interacting with site under dozens of "load more" elements.
Tho, perhaps the slow decay of site started even earlier with arrival of Ellen Pao; content already was spiraling down at that time
I don't think there's any hope for reddit; I expect that site will be even more sanitized to the point no "unsafe" content will be allowed to be posted. There are subs around that already are being used as platform for spreading PR of companies, which have nothing in common with these exotic truly run by ordinary people small communities.
I’m not sure if this is a downside yet, but I know even less of what’s going on in the world since July, having bailed on Twitter and FB years earlier and having made a conscious decision to stop purposefully consuming “news” a few years ago.
Reddit was the only site I would scroll by world events to learn of their happening. (clearly I’m still here, but it’s a bit more niche)
I agree with your sentiment, but I do wonder what could replace reddit. It's true that the larger subreddits have been pretty terrible for years. However, reddit has often been the _only_ good source for useful and true user-sourced information. What vacuum should I buy? How can I get some old PS2 game to run on my steam deck? Can I disable the telematics system on a Toyota Tacoma? etc.
It's easy to see this sort of access to information disappearing, and it's also easy to imagine that even if it didn't die now, it would soon be destroyed by large-scale usage of AI. I think the internet very briefly put a lot of power in the hands of users, but the pendulum is swinging back hard.
I completely agree and it often baffles me the lack of nuance I see here on HN. “Reddit became crap”. No it didn’t. Maybe it’s less appealing and valuable than in the past, but it certainly still is a goldmine in more niche subreddits. Or simply to have a laugh at r/funny.
There's goldmine of information on 4chan's niche boards as well. But people referring to "4chan" the website tend to talk about the wide strokes of communities.
It's the same with reddit. Sure, I do appreciate some small gaming communities that I can't find anywhere else, but it's not what the site cares about, nor what many people see when they go to reddit.com. You need to search for those communities,and they aren't guaranteed to be good. Or active for that matter.
What we're seeing is the downsides of centralizing. Replacing Reddit would require putting everything in one place again, and would likely lead to the same result down the road.
There are still active forums for most topics, and site search works just as well. What changes is a return to the old world where you can't put in one site to get it all anymore.
Has there ever been an online community that improves over time? At best it seems they grow, then they’re doomed to either maintain at a certain level (like HN), or slowly slump into the melt and burn away.
Reddit started charging huge money for API access. Thing is, reddits leadership are wildly incompetent and those APIs were relied upon by the mods to actually handle the vast oceans of posts that go on each day.
Its left the mods with greatly increased workload as they now need to use the crappy tools Reddit gives them, and for some communities like the folks on /r/blind the site is totally unusable.
Most subreddits have ended the protests, and those that don't have had their mod teams forceably replaced, usually be people who are more interested in being mods than actually moderating.
Reddit had hundreds, if not a thousand people willing to work for free managing their site for them and they still screwed it up, just unbelievable stuff.
API access is still free for moderation and accessibility tools. It’s just third party clients with high API usage that were effectively killed with the pricing change.
disappointing but not unexpected. These are just other "irrelevant power users" to reddit, but for the sake of pretending to care they at least try to keep up the appearance of caring.
And for those who go "the average redditor doesn't care": well, here is another example of "power user" you may not have considered. They certainly are the minority, can't disagree with that.
The problem is that knowing the rug can be yanked out anytime, the desire of people who helped write and maintain the tools to do so has somewhat fallen to zero.
Perhaps that's a good thing in some ways. The communities with only a very light-touch moderation to get rid of spam are often the most enjoyable, where you can speak relatively freely without the looming threat of some overbearing mod censoring and banning you because they don't like your opinion.
Tho, perhaps the slow decay of site started even earlier with arrival of Ellen Pao; content already was spiraling down at that time
I don't think there's any hope for reddit; I expect that site will be even more sanitized to the point no "unsafe" content will be allowed to be posted. There are subs around that already are being used as platform for spreading PR of companies, which have nothing in common with these exotic truly run by ordinary people small communities.