Yes it had been pretty shit since maybe 2016 or so honestly. You can go on any thread of an article on any subreddit and the top comments and top replies are like pre manufactured echo chamber propaganda for whoever is astroturfing or modding that community. Don’t get it messed up, Lemmy is guilty of echo chamber attitude as well but on Lemmy it’s at least a mass of people causing an echo chamber not one likely corporate interest pushing a talking point. Definatley feels more “natural” here I suppose. Or more human? Idk if I get rained on with downvotes here I’m pretty confident every individual one had a person behind it, vs u broke with the propaganda machine on reddit then you get downvoted into oblivion or censored/deleted. And if u get banned here it’s usually only one community that you likely don’t want to be in anyways, so benefits both the banned user and the community. I was glad the api debacle happened because it’s the only reason I learned about the fediverse!
The 2016 point is, on point. I remember the absolute flood of pro-Trump, incel, conservative content that felt completely inorganic and had very little representation prior popping up literally everywhere, everyday. It was like a firehose of far right fringe ideas was aimed at Reddit. Reddit 100% had problems prior but it was mostly focused on violence/sexual violence towards women and girls and wasn’t ever on the front page, other than maybe Jailbait. Even at the time people using Reddit were aware and talking about how unnatural it all seemed but now it’s too far gone and been normalized.
I was a very early Reddit user, and a “power user” for over a decade who was permanently banned for “inciting violence” by saying I was surprised Kanye hadn’t murder/suicided Kim or Taylor yet as a joke. I think my far left progressive comments were more likely the reason.
Yes it had been pretty shit since maybe 2016 or so honestly. You can go on any thread of an article on any subreddit and the top comments and top replies are like pre manufactured echo chamber propaganda for whoever is astroturfing or modding that community. Don’t get it messed up, Lemmy is guilty of echo chamber attitude as well but on Lemmy it’s at least a mass of people causing an echo chamber not one likely corporate interest pushing a talking point. Definatley feels more “natural” here I suppose. Or more human? Idk if I get rained on with downvotes here I’m pretty confident every individual one had a person behind it, vs u broke with the propaganda machine on reddit then you get downvoted into oblivion or censored/deleted. And if u get banned here it’s usually only one community that you likely don’t want to be in anyways, so benefits both the banned user and the community. I was glad the api debacle happened because it’s the only reason I learned about the fediverse!
The 2016 point is, on point. I remember the absolute flood of pro-Trump, incel, conservative content that felt completely inorganic and had very little representation prior popping up literally everywhere, everyday. It was like a firehose of far right fringe ideas was aimed at Reddit. Reddit 100% had problems prior but it was mostly focused on violence/sexual violence towards women and girls and wasn’t ever on the front page, other than maybe Jailbait. Even at the time people using Reddit were aware and talking about how unnatural it all seemed but now it’s too far gone and been normalized.
I was a very early Reddit user, and a “power user” for over a decade who was permanently banned for “inciting violence” by saying I was surprised Kanye hadn’t murder/suicided Kim or Taylor yet as a joke. I think my far left progressive comments were more likely the reason.