this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2023
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This is just a short rant and is not meant to insult anyone already on here, or further newcomers that joined, join or will still join. Also reminder that this is based on my experience and not necessarily facts, YMMV.

Anyways, in the last few days I've noticed that for some reason, especially on the r/piracy sub (although other subs are of course no exception), that there has been a more positive sentiment towards spez (the CEO of Reddit) and a very negative one against the mods and the protest.

I can understand that a protest which you don't want to take part in may be a breach of your apathy - though what we protest will sooner or later affect everyone, not just those that want to continue using 3rd party apps. I'm guessing they just don't (want to) understand. I'm just gonna leave the following quote here do with that what thou wanteth:

"There's something extremely pathetic about complaining about a problem that only concerns you, but wanting to pull everyone along"

On another note they're also calling everyone who participates in the protest and or makes a comment about alternatives a "mod bootlicker". I want to thank OtakuA* and everyone who does what they do for spreading the word, even when bombarded with downvotes which sadly and disappointingly does happen.

What really got me over my shadow to write this rant (and first post actually) though, was the following reply I got, in return for agreeing with someone and calling the people bootlickers:

"You're shilling for a different company lmfao...pot calling the kettle black..."

I still haven't figured out what they meant? I don't want to call myself smart but maybe I'm not stupid enough to understand?

Anyways, I expected nothing but was still majorly disappointed with the people over at r/piracy where I thought they would be most in favor of the protest.

I hope this rant is coherent enough to understand and that some of you get what I'm saying. I'm not looking for solutions personally I just wanted to get this out. If there are grammatical errors I'm sorry English is not my first language and I also didn't want to read over this post too often otherwise I overthink and delete without posting.

Tl;dr: Admin bootlickers call protesters & supporters "mod bootlickers", me mad

I hope this post shows up I'm posting from kbin - I also didn't look if there were other posts about this already because I wanted to say this asap

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 year ago (3 children)

We're encountering several little phenomena here.

  1. Many of the people who were passionate or concerned about this issue are here and elsewhere - but they're no longer on reddit. The anti-protesters are those who didn't understand, didn't care, and are just annoyed that their opium hit is suddenly asking them to give a shit. They're consumers, and in the absence of those who care, they've gotten bolder and a larger proportion of representation on the site. In the ~2 times I have checked in on Reddit, I've noticed a drop in comment quality.
  2. This is a classic Conservative reaction. Not exactly the Donkey/Elephant kind, but that raw conservative instinct endemic to humanity. It's the fear that change is a zero-sum game, where is people move up, other's status degrade, or if it doesn't. that someone will create a new environment that they themselves are less familiar and adept at navigating. Some people are so insecure that they'll lash out at anyone as long as it makes them just sit still in their chairs, please. These people are fear-driven ghouls, it could have been anything and you'd get a similar reaction.
[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (3 children)

This is a classic Conservative reaction. Not exactly the Donkey/Elephant kind

I mean it kinda is also that kind. If you look at the post histories of the loudest and most aggressive people who oppose the protests, it's pretty clear they're right-leaning ultra-capitalist types. Which is not much of a surprise; since the protests are against Reddit's efforts to aggressively monetize the site, they're effectively a protest against the effects of capitalism.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I mean it kinda is also that kind.

I don't disagree, but I thought it was important to point out that this comes from something deeper than just rank partisanship before something thought I was merely culture-warring.

you can see this in the lingo and memes they use, which mostly come from that crowd.

Yeah I debated touching on this, but didn't know how as you did. This is the 'drop in quality' I was referring to. There's been a marked uptick in the impotent-anger nihilism talk/memes that characterize the reactionaries, elon-musk dickriders, and crypto-bros. I saw that the two times I was there and decided I wanted none of that swamp.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I agree with the phenomena at play, but have to say that conservatism/liberalism (not the political kind) is not a black and white characteristic. It is much more nuanced than that. A person can be entirely conservative in one ideological area of their life, and entirely liberal in another. Eg. (this example may be using the political sense just for illustration) Someone may be entirely fiscally conservative with their money, but entirely socially liberal with their social mores (very open-minded sexually, etc). Or vise-versa, or any other combination thereof.

The way that we as humans tend to group people into black and white, dualistic groups is not only destructive to the human race, it's inaccurate. Humans are not dualistic, black and white beings. Everyone's characteristics and beliefs are a smattering of many different aspects, all presenting/leaning in conservative or liberal, one way or the other. But very few people fit into the category where everything they believe is conservative, or liberal. Most people are a complex combination. Trying to oversimplify it into two categories is a creation of political and media narratives that keeps people divided and powerless to greater interests, and hating each other. Humans are much more complex than that. We all have many liberal and conservative aspects, masculine and feminine aspects, etc.

Of course, every four years in November, they use the best tactics they can through our screens to make sure we fully pledge our loyalty to one of those two categories.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Reddit is full of contrarians. A lot of the smaller subreddits in particular likes to be contrarian to anything they saw as mainstream Reddit

Also, the people who are really pissed at Reddit probably have left so the remaining population has a larger proportion of people who don’t care or even support what Reddit does.

Finally, let’s be honest /r/piracy was dominated by casual pirates at best as shown by the posts and comments “what’s a seeder” “what’s Usenet” “OMG Rarbg down what do I do”. So they’re not hardcore pirates with a dedication to piracy/warez ethos just casuals looking for links and shit

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They're not even contrarian they're just ignorant and they love it. You can present them facts all day long and they just never learn or at least try to understand. I didn't even bother replying to the people that replied to me on that comment thread I mentioned because it's just a waste of time.

Second point is true for the most part most people that would leave of course have already left either abstaining from social media (or at least Reddit) or coming over here.

I will never understand the people that support what Reddit does though I actually do not see the downside to protesting for the greater good aside of not being able to chow down on repost fodder for a while until Reddit gets their act together. They're actively hurting themselves, I'm very sure that the loss of 3rd party apps sooner or later will have an effect on even the people that dare use the official app (If Reddit has a monopoly of Reddit apps why should they waste their resources improving that app).

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I’m very sure that the loss of 3rd party apps sooner or later will have an effect

I'm probably one of the minority that uses a browser on PC. I think the majority use mobile. When their mobile app suddenly stops working end of the month, they'll be left in the breeze. If they relent to the Reddit app they'll be in for a disappointment. I expect another surge of sign-ups here at that point. There's no sign of any reprieve from Reddit, Spez is going full Nazi on this thing.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

They're not even contrarian they're just ignorant and they love it. You can present them facts all day long and they just never learn or at least try to understand. I didn't even bother replying to the people that replied to me on that comment thread I mentioned because it's just a waste of time.

I have the same sentiment. Some people don't want to think, they want to pick a side, get angry and rant or attack anyone that goes against their 'side'.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (4 children)

So much irony especially coming from a piracy sub. You'd think pirates would support decentralized communities. It's also just another example of reddit's complete inability to understand how protests work; they're supposed to be an inconvenience, that's literally the point.

Oh well, I'm kinda glad a lot of them are staying there, there's a noticable lack of toxicity here vs. reddit. I just hope the decent ones will make their way over.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No, a large portion of pirates are just "gimme free shit" types. They don't care about preservation nor fighting various causes. They don't care about the people who make the free shit nor seed the free shit. They care about nothing but themselves. So I'm actually not surprised to see that sort of me me me sentiment there. The people who did care are probably gone, all that's left are the leeches.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Yes! When the blackout was first announced I wanted to go over there and see them supporting it asap I don't remember the early reception anymore since I don't even remember what happened yesterday but the only stuff that I remember is mostly in favor of the Reddit Administration and not the protest which is EXTREMELY weird for a piracy subreddit.

It's not even the decentralization hate that surprises me the most, it is the support for big corpo that surprises (and disappoints) me the most.

But yeah gotta agree with the last point, quality over quantity.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I’m totally in favor of socialized social media. Since shortly after the blackout I’ve been looking into the fediverse (it’s all very confusing, depending what order you find things in, though the new user guides are making it a lot more friendly), and the whole idea of being able to choose what sort of communities you interact with, having control over what happens directly? Fabulous.

I’m really looking forward to the mobile apps that are being worked on, but ultimately I hope the people who suck take forever to show up here, when things are already well established as far as general behavioral practices between communities, and the shitty people have to find a bubble universe and leave everyone else alone.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm happy to be a mod bootlicker. I happily left Reddit when all this came about. I feel like too few of the subs I was in had good communities, so no big loss. Happy you folks jumped.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Same here. Mods were the people that built the communities. I don't give a flying f*** to the admins, and as long as we get a good Leminn app, I'll be happy.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago

Anyways, in the last few days I’ve noticed that for some reason, especially on the r/piracy sub (although other subs are of course no exception), that there has been a more positive sentiment towards spez (the CEO of Reddit) and a very negative one against the mods and the protest.

I could swear this is the bot campaign run by Reddit.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago

Honestly mate. Ignore reddit. Its full of drama and crap now. Stop going back to look at it, all you are doing is adding fuel to the fire of drama.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Your probably seeing more anti-protest sentiment there because pro-protesters are not on the site now to defend themselves, were all on lemmy/kbin or taking a break from social media.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Yea I wasn't surprised that people on reddit were ready to forgive and forget in pretty much every sub after a few days, the people that were fed up had already left.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Anyways, in the last few days I’ve noticed that for some reason, especially on the r/piracy sub (although other subs are of course no exception), that there has been a more positive sentiment towards spez (the CEO of Reddit) and a very negative one against the mods and the protest.

Do we even know if these are actual real humans (aka: not reddit bots, admins, or shills)?

We know 100% that spez made hundreds of bots in 2012 to fake "busy-ness", and that was when reddit was started.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/06/reddit-founders-made-hundreds-of-fake-profiles-so-site-looked-popular/

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The article is from 2012. Reddit (and the fake profiles) was started in 2005.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So, the practice of using bots/multiple accounts by a corporate interest to change the sentiment/narrative in an online forum has a history that goes all the way back to 2005.

If they were doing that in 2005, I can't imagine what they are capable of now, or how widespread these types of practices are.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

r/piracy users out of all? Wow, I can't even believe that, as piracy to me is the epitome of freedom, which Reddit itself certainly isn't.

"Mod Bootlickers", huh? I'd call them "Spez Bootlickers" in return. Wth.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think that's the difference between pirates that believe in free exchange of media and information, who take a moral stance against the corporations... vs guys who just want the easiest way to see the newest marvel movie without paying, they are already going out of there comfort zone to learn to pirate at all and they don't want any further inconvenience.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't even bother to reply to these type of people anymore I just downvote them and get on with it because I know arguing with them is the biggest waste of time, have already done it enough (I can see the hypocrisy coming from me posting a whole rant about them but I thought that would be more worth my time).

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Totally get the rant. Sometimes you just need to vent. No hypocrisy here, IMHO.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

For hire private 50 cent party. Typical PR move, beyond just Reddit. A statement like

You’re shilling for a different company lmfao…pot calling the kettle black…

is probably written by someone who doesn't know or care about the details of what's been happening. Which means they're probably either using a script, or making assumptions to just do their job. The fact that decentralised communication is a far cry from corporations is completely missed because they probably just don't know.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

I find it hilarious that the link to reddit in the sidebar is tagged "Bootlicker Bay" -- genius :)

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Huh. This is kinda weird... but I think I'm done protesting Reddit. It's not that I approve of any changes, but rather... I'm happy here on Lemmy? Protesting would kind of imply that I want to go back to Reddit and I think I might be good here...

As more of us move to Lemmy, the less push back you'll see on Reddit cuz we're all over here. I guess that's expected.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

I feel the same way. I'm actually surprised how easy it was too break my Reddit habit and transition over here. So far the communities I've joined seem to have a more pleasant crowd than on Reddit. We'll see how long that lasts 😂

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's something extremely pathetic about complaining about a problem that only concerns you, but wanting to pull everyone along

The literal definition of a protest. A protest that isn't disruptive to others is just a parade.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I literally Lol'd at this, being a server at a restaurant in a Downtown area for years, parades were so much worse than protests. I get the point you were making, and I agree, I just found it funny when I read it.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Well, you're here so to hell with Reddit. There's so much garbage there you have to filter, so many shitposts. Totally different environment here so welcome and enjoy.

But yeah you'd think the piracy sub would be in more in support of the mods and devs, but I don't know, they're probably just being selfish about the protest. Anyway, doesn't matter. I think it's been a week or two since I've logged into Reddit and I'm never going back.

BTW I see you're on Kbin, how do you think that compares to Lemmy.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Very true, I still log on from time to time though (of course via old reddit + ad block) to see how the protest works out, new subreddit rules etc that I vote on in favor of the protest of course.

To the question at the end, I actually registered on Lemmy first and registered on kbin a bit later, for me it is very much the same but I prefer kbins interface the only other difference that I know of is of course the "Microblogs" which I look at sometimes but don't use myself.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

i mean, i'm pretty sure the majority of people who are still on reddit are the ones who don't care about the protests. So this doesn't surprise me.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They can do whatever they want. I expect to see the quality of the subreddit go down very quickly as the people that made r/piracy worth visiting and ensured the quality have either left or being called mod bootlickers have all either left or will leave. So it's gonna be fun to watch.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

I haven't been commenting in /r/piracy or reddit for that matter anymore, so if there are large numbers who have taken that attitude it is expected that the voices you'd expect to hear would change as active user demographic changes.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

People usually don't care about distant fires, till it is too late, and that fire has slowly crept its way to their backyards. Our ignorance and apathy towards communion ship given the fact we are supposed to be social creatures is ironic to say the least. I have made my peace with the fact that most people are selfish and will not budge until something inconveniences them directly and so it is important to be independent and to have the courage to stand alone for your cause. Along the way if you meet likeminded people then consider yourself lucky and cherish them.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Yeah, ironic. A medium that should encourage vibrant communication and idea exchange has instead nurtured ignorance and hate. 🤦‍♀️ Thanks for your post!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm confused too, but my interpretation so far is that some people are choosing piracy because they want to get a fast and easy access to the things they're looking for, and that the protest is making things harder so they are just mad because it's not easy anymore

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not even sure what they're mad about though because the last few times that I actively took part in r/piracy the top posts at least were always memes instead of useful information and otherwise the megathread has many backups on different locations as well as fmhy which has its own website.

They don't lose access to ish no matter the protest. But given their ignorance I can see how they could think that.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

It shows they didn't even visit the wiki which is all the resource you really need. Probably were off downloading crap and installing stuff from piratebay and getting infected while using no ublock origin to visit sites.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Most of those are bots, some of them are just casual users who dgaf.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's a small minority if you see the upvote/downvote count on comments

Just make positive comments encouraging the move to Lemmy/kbin and it'll be fine.

I've been explaining what's going on in the comments for the confused people and they've mostly been in support.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

I am with you! Reddit fans are pathetic.

They don't understand they are giving away their data so a selected few can profit from it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Sounds like a civil war is about to within many subreddits

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Fuck Reddit (the company and the website). Spez can suck it. The echo chamber mods can also suck it.

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