alyaza [they/she]Megathread for Reddit Blackouts and News - Day 2
skepticaliforniaThe blackout is definitely having an impact on Reddit traffic, especially the level of commenting on posts. Look at https://blackout.photon-reddit.com/ and the posts and comments per minute. The comments are usually up to the top or above the number of posts and they are way down. Posts overall are way down as well.
dirac_fieldHmmm the effect is not as dramatic as I was anticipating. Am I reading this right? Say the daily average in comments/minute is around 5k: seems the average today is around 4k. A 20% dip only. Not much compared to 50+% of the subreddits going dark :(
Yes, but most of the traffic is from people going to the front page and seeing /all (this is what I read yesterday, I am assuming it is correct). My guess is most visitors who use Reddit's apps or go in through the browser are not participating in the blackout, or maybe don't care, so there will still be a large number of posts. The people supporting the blackout likely make up a large percentage of users who comment on new posts, and that is way down. I'm seeing a lot of posts, but far fewer comments on those posts.
WahotsNot to mention the sudden impact of reddit cutting off all 3rd party access on the 30th/1st.
PowderhornIt's unclear how useful aggregate post and comment totals are in terms of measuring the effect of the blackout on content.
I feel comfortable saying that 80% of Reddit content on my subscribed subreddits has no impact on my day or understanding of life. Thus, the question becomes what 20% has been lost.
Yes, good point. I really feel something like this is more of a building surge, rather than a tsunami. A lot of us leaving is not going to sink them in the near term, but they will slowly see an erosion of quality posts and more importantly quality comments. I've heard they really want to monetize access to all the conversations for data harvesting, and if the overall quality of that drops, the whole thing is worth a lot less.
JoeKroganI see it ending up like Facebook
GraceGHThe real Digg>Reddit type exodus happens when people start saying "all the good content on Reddit is just reposts from (insert federated instance)". I don't think this blackout in and of itself will do it, but it's another domino on the path to destruction for them. If we're lucky.
One thing to note that noticable amount of Reddit traffic is actually bots and they're not taking time off. Be it legit bots or bots farming karma to peddle corporate ads later.