this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2023
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Reddit Migration
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### About Community Tracking and helping #redditmigration to Kbin and the Fediverse. Say hello to the decentralized and open future. To see latest reeddit blackout info, see here: https://reddark.untone.uk/
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I think the problem stems from the fact that Reddit and other 'private' businesses are acting like public squares. People use these systems as public spaces in which they can build communities, relationships and ideas. It's not just a question of "well it's private so they can do whatever they want". Lawful is the same thing as ethical. Some people on Reddit have their society on Reddit. What does Reddit owe them? It's a demand to ask 'How should Reddit and other businesses participate in society in a way that is ethical and helpful?'
What really amused me is when Reddit sent messages to moderators saying things like "your subreddits are public spaces which users depend on, so you should open them".
When obviously what they mean is "your decision to close your subreddit is hurting our revenues, and if I don't keep up the payments on my BMW then I'll be forced to drive an old Honda, so either open the subreddit or we will forcibly do it ourselves".
Oh absolutely, but is that the fault of the private company or the people who use it? There are now alternatives that are decentralized and run on free open source software with the specific purpose of creating public spaces that can exist without pressures from CEOs, shareholders, and advertisers. Why not use them instead of whining on Twitter about Twitter or complaining on Reddit about Reddit?
You know why. Network effects, usability, marketing, astroturfing, etc.
We need to do a better job at making the Fediverse more inviting and easier to use. Have a better, clear path for migration.
We should start by designing better and more informative UX, and ditch the email analogies altogether.
Nobody imagines the correct thing when we harp on about how decentralized and amazing everything is, analogous to email but also reddit and twitter combined but also different but it doesn't matter because it's all the same in the end.
I've actually had a lot of success explaining this all like email; where you and I can create our accounts on different "email services" (instances) yet still be be able to communicate. Using something so ingrained in every day life makes it much more approachable, imo.
Once that concept is understood, simply saying that the fediverse, aka everyone who uses this technology, has alternatives to most of the major social media sites is not beyond most people. I mean, we're all here, right?
Problem is how do you make migration easy without running into centralisation again. You ideally need to spread people out across the Fediverse, or we will just end up with another monolithic Reddit that can do what it wants
I think one way to help this is to make migration from one server to another really, really, really frictionless. Like to be able to do so on a whim with very little drawback if any.
It might allow people to start off in a central thing but then be able to hop to a smaller instance once they get their Fediverse legs.
Instances are still privately operated and at the whim of their operators, who are technically free to delete and modify posts arbitrarily. They are not public spaces.
The American legal definition of “fiduciary duty” precludes “ethical.”