I see an awful lot of people here who have quote left reddit, and yet they still go back to Reddit every day to see what's going on, or to grab popular posts so they can repost it here and try to get imaginary points or something. All they're really doing is helping inflate metrics like this.

I'm not really surprised, I'd actually assume that sexy John Oliver and the other protests created a lot of additional traffic. People post like crazy and a lot of people want to see that, especially since it got some coverage on news sites. Add to that the big majority of people who do not care (remember that 80% of traffic was still reached) plus some who may have been sympathetic enough to join the two day protest but don't care enough to continue to stay away. It's really not surprising that we're back to normal numbers.

Thankfully this isn't the only impact people currently still make, so this isn't over. The real question now will be how else it might change Reddit.

maybe i'll use the web version for some time, not gonna use their app for sure

I don't think most people understand the protests. I had to explain it to two people who use the platform.

I look up my acct and see my deleted comments and posts being magically revived. Did screen caps of most of it and it is definitely a real thing. Is that a metric for traffic?

Oh, man, I'm sure the traffic is up... It took me FOREVER to delete all my comments and posts across 18 accounts. That 5 second lockout on API calls is a total bitch!

This doesn't surprise me. Most people don't have the time or desire to keep up with tech news, and they just want to feed their addiction. It'll be interesting to see what happens 1~2 weeks after the new API rules are active, and people realize the app they use no longer works.

I never created a Reddit account, and only visited under duress, so I'm not really affected by this. So I'm just cooking up popcorn & watching the show.

Did anybody seriously expect anything different?

My first reaction was one of questioning the statistics.

Then I realized that the way they were generating their stats wouldn’t have counted me for the most part.

Then I realized that I wasn’t really all that unique; most power users wouldn’t have shown up in those stats.

At that point, the stats made more sense.

As I expected.

I'm not sure it it's just Reddit that makes me sick, or Google. It's the way that society is getting dumber and more subservient.

I definitely get angry when I hear people are 'googling' everything they want to 'search' for. Similarly that people simply wish to protest Reddit - when they don't really care, they're just jumping on the RANT bandwagon.

With the advent of instant gratification, smartphones/internet access, I welcome the lack of need for a paper dictionary.

However, people go further - they love the way the big tech can aggregate their content and dish it up to them.

They don't care that they are being spoonfed solent green, and increasingly denied the ability to find actual answers to their questions.

If you do disturb them, like a borg they will become disoriented. They start to drown until they can feel the comforting caste of blue light on their faces as they dive back into their familiar environment.

Reddit's CEO is not stupid - he knows that most of it's users are sheep, and the escapees will be a minority. The mods, addicted to their power trips, will return and take whatever shit they have to... what else is their life good for?

Reddit is not 'crushing' the protests. The protests were mostly a flash in the pan - now most folks got bored, and just wanna go back to reading their joke of the day.

Moving Forward

A couple of problems. Firstly, even if I've been talking on Fediverse somewhere about a topic - if I search that topic, it will not take me to the Fediverse - I get taken to Reddit.

Unless the Fediverse content is getting included in search engine data, it'll never be driven from that direction.

I know personally that the reason I created my Reddit account is that I would find answers there, and then end up discussing them where I found them.