Technology@lemmy.worldbyAniki@feddit.org
17 hours

Don't Contribute Anything Relevant in Web Forums Like Reddit

karl-voit.at English

When you post on reddit, instagram etc. you’re giving the company your valuable data. (And it often is valuable, you put your thoughts into it and all that). Consider if you take 15 minutes to create value content, you’d get paid $5 or sth if you were doing it commercially. Now all that value is donated to big tech companies. (that’s the only reason why they have value at all.)

So what’s the problem with that? The problem is that reddit and others can instantaneously put your years-long effort behind a paywall. I’m not joking. Look at these:

when i want to see content on reddit (for research) or instagram (for local community) they don’t allow me to see the data that users have contributed. Reddit claims that it blocks VPNs for “security reasons”, meanwhile i’m using VPNs in browser’s incognito mode to not be tracked. Instagram wants you to sign in sothat they amass more users and can take leverage of the network effect even more.

I can understand restricting who can post to limit bot activity, but reading must always be possible. After all, it’s our data. That’s exactly what happens when you give your data to big companies to “communicate with other people”: your data becomes a source of income for them, at our expense.

74
    Don't Contribute Anything Relevant in Web Forums Like Reddit
    • Jaysyn@lemmy.worldEnglish
      19 minutes

      I abandoned my 250k+ karma account two years ago when I saw where Reddit was headed.

    • EliteCloneMike@lemmy.zipEnglish
      7 minutes

      I use Lemmy (obviously as I’m posting here) and Cat’s Arch Redlib (https://catsarch.com/) to view Reddit. I sometimes post on the r/poisionai subreddit, as I am disgusted with how AI has been used in general, but that’s a different topic. Also, if you’re using Chrome incognito, you can still be tracked, even with a VPN on and without signing in to your account. Might want to switch browsers to reduce your digital fingerprint. Just a suggestion. Assume anything Google is tracking you at some level for behavioral or personalized advertising. Again, that’s a different topic, but thought it was worth adding.

    • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3 minutes

      After a decade of reddit and over a half million karma I quit for multiple reasons. Primarily the cash grab for the API and forcing the reddit app, but also the explicit acknowledgement that the mods and community were absolutely being exploited for unpaid labor and anyone who didn’t take a knee could get fucked.

    • NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zipEnglish
      3 hours

      I still host 3 websites that I publish anything technical or helpful on. It really doesn’t cost much to do and is helpful for me to be able to go back to as reference myself.

      I never do ads or even seo.

      • db2@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2 hours

        With the amount of csam there that’s quite an admission…

        • Passerby6497@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1 minute

          I can’t say I ever seen CSAM on reddit, it’s quite easy to avoid if you’re not looking for jailbait shit

        • Kaligalis@lemmy.worldEnglish
          54 minutes

          I didn’t see any CSAM on Reddit. But I can confirm that there indeed is plenty of adult porn there.

        • HCSOThrowaway@lemmy.worldEnglish
          36 minutes

          You’re an internet user.

          Don’t you know how much CSAM there is on the internet?

          You make me sick.

    • BladeFederation@piefed.socialEnglish
      6 hours

      I hate that “you were blocked by network security” page so much. Fucking smug fedora wearing neck beard with his arms crossed. What the fuck fo you think is going to be the difference of someone using a VPN vs being logged in with a VPN on network security? You’re just lying to me reddit.

      • FG_3479@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4 hours

        It’s likely so they can block scraping and DDoSing from people behind a VPN by just banning their account.

    • melsaskca@lemmy.caEnglish
      8 hours

      My biggest beef with this new shaky-information world is that they hardly ever accurately date-stamp and time-stamp things anymore. This took me less than a minute to type and I find it mostly worthless so I’ll be donating this one for free.

    • hoagecko (he/his)@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      11 hours

      What I’m particularly concerned about lately is the growing share of online forums that don’t even publish their content on the web.

      The most famous example of this type of forum is probably Discord.

      As those of you on Lemmy know, many people chose Discord as an alternative after Reddit’s deterioration.

      Hasn’t this problem already escalated to the point where access to content isn’t guaranteed not only to some bots but even to individuals without accounts?

      Shouldn’t those who love the web be extremely wary of online communities that don’t even try to be based on the web?

      That’s what I think.

      If search engines truly only show the “existence” of forums, then the open web is truly over.

      • Goodman@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        8 hours

        I don’t think that we should be wary of them. It is only natural that when the whole web is overrun by bots, these gated communities will pop up. It’s an easy way to keep a lot of bad traffic out, while a space for users to interact and be authentic.

        And yes, I think the open web is truly over.