Discussion: Reddit has decided to force everyone to log in · Issue #609 · redlib-org/redlib
github.com
From Reddit's Q3 2026 Shareholder Letter (page 5 of the PDF): And a key piece of work to retain new audiences is shifting Reddit to a logged-in-only experience. It’s a big one for us, and it’s a bi...

Github redlib thread still unfolding. From reddit shareholder letter,

And a key piece of work to retain new audiences is shifting Reddit to a logged-in-only experience.

Most on lemmy know the privacy and bot-infested dumpster fire reddit is. So it’s very easy to think good riddance. But that misses an important point. IMO.

Inspite of the dumpster fire, it also contains a huge body of knowledge not found anywhere else. Example. Many times I have searched for a super obscure error message and the only good hits were a reddit thread in a tech sub. This is formerly open knowledge, accessible privately, now being closed and locked behind logins.

In old web forum days, weird niche info was distributed all over. That made it robust. Big tech social media displaced most of that world. It all got centralized. No matter hjow awful their algorithms are, no matter how toxic, those sites do have riches of knowledge.

We ARE losing something, if open access to niche info created by normal ppl is cut off.

“Ppl will figure a way around” you may say. There is no way to win that fight in the long run.

  • stravanasu@lemmy.ca
    351·
    1 day ago

    I generally agree with your sentiment. But let’s see some possibly positive sides at the same time:

    • Maybe this will encourage or entice people within or outside that wall to come to places like Lemmy.
    • And maybe will encourage people on Lemmy and similar platforms to share even more.
    • As time passes, a lot of that knowledge and information there becomes obsolete. This is something I’m strongly noticing also on StackExchange for example.
    • mseven@piefed.caEnglish
      181·
      23 hours ago

      It’s why I’m testing out piefed.

      But I’ve also been in software dev for 20yrs and am not your average user…

      Went from MySpace, to Digg, to Reddit, now looking for new place for news feed that isn’t tainted by the great algorithm.

      • AliOski@feddit.nl
        4·
        11 hours ago

        Can somebody explain to me the differences between Lemmy and Piefed? It seems I am unable to access Piefed communities but they are amongst us. Has this to do with my specific instance not being federated with them or am I missing something else?

        • Blisterexe@lemmy.zip
          3·
          8 hours ago

          This page has a full list of differences: https://join.piefed.social/features/

          tl;dr is that:

          • It’s written in a different language, so appeals to different developpers, also claims to be easier to maintain and more efficient, but I can’t judge that.
          • Has Post & User Flairs
          • Has emoji reactions
          • Has polls
          • Has Post & User Flairs
          • Has multicommunities
          • A chat feature
          • Better moderation
          • a more feature-rich and (subjective) nicer default UI with stuff like consolidated comments,

          I can access piefed communities and posts from my lemmy instance: PieFed link: https://piefed.zip/c/fedilytics@piefed.zip/p/1963727/growth-of-the-fediverse-20261102 Lemmy link: https://lemmy.zip/post/74312955

          Most popular communities are lemmy ones, so it might just be that you haven’t seen one yet, they should be perfectly cross-compatible (minus the extra features), since they’re both threadiverse software.

          • AliOski@feddit.nl
            2·
            6 hours ago

            I think I figured it out. Seems like due to my instance not being that active, many PieFed communities are not searchable because nobody interacted with them from my instance. After I input the specific community in the URL, and thén try to search, i can find it through the search function on my instance…

        • mseven@piefed.caEnglish
          1·
          9 hours ago

          I just liked the piefed interface better. Still learning how it works myself. Hopefully someone knows more.

    • artyom@piefed.socialEnglish
      1010·
      10 hours ago

      Maybe this will encourage or entice people within or outside that wall to come to places like Lemmy

      People say stuff like this all the time. History tells us that will not happen. There was a sitewide protest when they killed the API but no one left. History tells us there is fucking nothing these social media corporations can do to get people to leave. Because they have tried over and over again in recent years and it always fails. Maybe 1% finds somewhere else to spend their time.

      E: you people need to familiarize yourself with the concept of hyperbole. I wasn’t looking for your anecdotes.

      • AliOski@feddit.nl
        2·
        11 hours ago

        That is not true. I made a Lemmy account around the time they started fucking with the API, if I remember correctly. I wasn’t that active here because I felt like the content was very limited and the people too radical.

        Now that my Reddit account has been restricted because “you need to verify your age” 🤡 Not just NSFW stuff restricted, the whole site is restricted for my account. Can’t even access my account settings anymore. (I really should figure something out but alas I care too little).

        That’s why I have become more active here. No other options.

      • Sergio@piefed.socialEnglish
        102·
        19 hours ago

        There was a sitewide protest when they killed the API but no one left.

        Before the API protest, Lemmy had less than 1000 Monthly Active Users. Right after the protests, it shot up to just under 70,000 and then settled down to around 38,000 users. It currently has around 31,000 Monthly Active Users with another 7,000 between Piefed and Mbin.

        then:

        now: https://fedidb.com/software/lemmy

        • Bieren@lemmy.today
          1·
          11 hours ago

          I feel like someone needs to create a bot farm to advertise Lemmy all over Reddit. Not specific instances, just Lemmy as an alternative. What’s one more bot spamming the site.

          • Sergio@piefed.socialEnglish
            15·
            18 hours ago

            A lot of us don’t want to be in a community with millions of people. Some people like stadiums, other people like cafes.

      • CrypticCoffee@lemmy.ml
        41·
        17 hours ago

        Nothing?

        I have been on Lemmy for years after they blocked apps.

        It is called getting a spine and sticking to their principles.

        I lost sympathy for those that keep persisting with that shit hole for all kinds of excuses.

        • Businesskasper@feddit.org
          2·
          15 hours ago

          Same :) At first I just wanted to have an alternative to Reddit. More like a backup in case it gets worse. Then I realized that I was browsing Lemmy more often so I deleted my Reddit account and here we are. I’m the first generation who was on facebook. Then our parents joined and we moved to Twitter. After Musk ruined that we fled to Reddit and now Lemmy.

      • dubs@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        161·
        1 day ago

        I dunno, one of the big reasons that Reddit got big, was Digg shooting themselves in the foot.

      • leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        51·
        19 hours ago

        There was a sitewide protest when they killed the API but no one left

        There are dozens of us! Dozens!

      • aim4harmony@lemmy.world
        13·
        1 day ago

        How do we know for sure? The site is infested with bots that may create traffic to compensate the activity by the actual human users, who fleed their service. Afaik even spaz confirmed that most of the traffic on Reddit is generated by bots.

        More recently, I’ve seen tons of comments about Proton that seemed like numerous copies of the same idea shared with less than one minute intervals. It detinitely felt suspicious when reading similar ideas time and time again.

        • artyom@piefed.socialEnglish
          44·
          1 day ago

          Because despite what everyone says, bots are still very easy to spot, and aren’t capable of creating the type of high quality submissions that keeps users there. And because I talk to people IRL every day that still use it. I’m yet to meet anyone in person who knows what the fediverse is.

      • ItsComplicated@sh.itjust.works
        71·
        22 hours ago

        There was a sitewide protest when they killed the API but no one left.

        I’m no one important and I left. I think a lot of people are fed up with being monetized at every turn.

        If there really are more bots than real people participating as others claim, then the real people are going somewhere. Maybe they will stumble in here.