cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19004972

Let’s be honest, the real reason Lemmy build most of its traffic is because of Reddit users. But the thing is, outside of the mass exodus in the west that too from the PC era… people discover and join Reddit not because it’s another social media like Facebook or Twitter that people need to reserve their usernames on like a brand or celebrity but because Google Search is kinda… actually absolute trash by SEO and machine learning crawlers.

Most of the world (I am from India btw, hello~) join or even discover reddit because they’re trying to search for actual solutions, recommendations, advice or even reviews by actual experienced people without having to go through another YouTuber which can stem from troubleshooting a router, finding an actual FOSS option or seeking immediate solutions to the recent CrowdStrike fiasco for example. After having to visit reddit every time whenever using a search engine including for education to career advice, I ended up directly signing up with reddit a decade ago.

Recently, Reddit even restricted its search results to Google only in a business partnership meaning those using Bing, DuckDuckGo to Ecosia or even SearchGPT wouldn’t be able to access Reddit answers anymore. Say, if someone searches for how to block ads on chrome as example - Solutions like uBlock Origin come into existence and continue to exist because of the combined community in Reddit that Lemmy is trying to preserve.

Unlike others, am not saying Lemmy would be dead but it would be pretty much like Discord-Telegram or Tumblr instead of wiping Reddit or correcting Facebook. Reddit is not something you discover from word-of-mouth or join from peer pressure unlike other social media which is even truer for Lemmy but because it actually helps and is useful to people.

Lemmy can’t be taking the path of 𝕏 (Alone Mask’s Twitter) but any of the good platforms were before the Enshittification with Facebook’s way~

  • over_clox@lemmy.worldEnglish
    73·
    2 months ago

    Interesting and well written (cross)post. If you hadn’t said you’re from India, I would have never guessed. The only spelling error I spotted is right at the end where you said Mask and not Musk.

    All good though, we’re (almost) all human around here. That’s one of the big reasons that more experienced and educated people are switching towards the fediverse…

    Fuck Spez

    • threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      5·
      2 months ago

      The only spelling error I spotted is right at the end where you said Mask and not Musk

      Pretty sure “Alone Mask” is intentional. It seems to be common to misspell his name on purpose. I’ve seen “Elmo Husk”, “Leon Skum”, etc.

      • over_clox@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        Meh, true that. Hell, I dunno how to properly cross post on Lemmy, nor do I bother doing that anyways so whatever. 🤷‍♂️

    • MarkalAlvarez@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      Twitter has been turned into a dumpster fire and people are still using it because of convenience, the same applies to Reddit.

      I left Reddit not just because of the CEO but also because of the awful app they forced their users to use full of ads.

      • over_clox@lemmy.worldEnglish
        31·
        2 months ago

        Spez (or one of their admin monkeys) perma-banned me from Reddit after like 7 years, for of all stupid things, posting actual facts about Elon Musk and his Boring Company’s “Not A Flamethrower” contraption.

        Wasn’t any hate speech. Wasn’t misinformation, I even posted reference links. Wasn’t anything inappropriate or gory. Just straight up facts.

        That was not all that long before Elon bought Xhitter.

        Gotta love the irony huh? Fuck Spez and Musk.

    • Annoyed_🦀 @monyet.ccEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      The only spelling error I spotted is right at the end where you said Mask and not Musk.

      It’s a wordplay. I personally call him Melon Husk.

    • Lemminary@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      Maybe OP is fluent and I’ll give the benefit of the doubt but I’ve also seen many developers specifically from India use Grammarly or ChatGPT to correct their writing. Idk, it’s something to consider.

      • over_clox@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        Indeed, and understandable. Modern AI does tend to do fairly well these days, but obviously no system is ever going to be perfect.

        Not even our own ears are perfect. That’s why humans have the sense to ask questions sometimes, like “Hold up, I didn’t understand you, what did you just say?”

        And if you check my other comments, you’ll catch an interesting story of mine over the misunderstanding of a simple spoken vowel…