[tuchsen]

Is it weird that I don't really mind the splintering? Have massive social networks really been a net positive for society? It seems like, depending on how they're moderated, they'll end up in some local maxima of rage baiting and trolling (Twitter, Facebook four years ago) or a super sanitized dumb feed of cutesy content (TikTok, Facebook now, and soon Reddit). You always get defenders of these networks that say if you do X/Y/Z and not A/B/C, then you'll get value out of them.

My X, Y, and Z formula for Reddit over the last couple of years has been to ignore the larger communities and focus only on interesting niche content. I think that's how a lot of other people use it, for the long tail of actually interesting content. And hell, I don't think you need the massive network effects of the larger social networks to make that work.

[gilmore606]

Global-reach social networks have been good for very narrow niche interest discussion. If I have a question about Civilization 4 or roguelike game development, it's nice that I can post somewhere that's likely to be seen by a large fraction of the world's devotees of those subjects. When Reddit burns down that won't be true anymore.

[tuchsen]

I'll give you that Reddit has certainly made it easier for those communities to organize and form. I don't think it's true that it's the only place that those communities will ever form on the internet. Theirs nothing special about Reddit, Digg was a thing before Reddit, and forums before that.

Our computers are all still connected, web browser and web servers exist. With software like Lemmy, it's become super easy to stand up a place for people to connect. People that like Civilization will find each other without Reddit.