There is truth to this. But, Reddit’s drama also put the spotlight on the fediverse and the need for alternatives to Reddit in general. Personally, I can say I did not even know it existed. Over the last ten-or-so years, Reddit really did develop a monopoly on forums. The progress we have seen with Kbin, lemmy, etc is because of their heavy-handed and poorly executed crackdown on third-party apps.

But still, you are correct that the fediverse was not yet a full-fledged alternative to Reddit in June. Many lemmy clients, such as Memmy or Mlem, were not ready yet. And most promising Kbin client, Artemis, is still in beta as well. Even Kbin itself is still technically a beta (not that I don’t love them both lol). Had all of these been ready in June, then I think the Reddit exodus would have been much more dramatic and impactful.

I think we need to give it a bit more time. After all, Reddit didn’t get huge overnight either. So long as we keep posting and commenting away, and create environments/communities that are welcoming, we should be able to eventually grow into something that can rival Reddit.

We can’t fix what happened. The June fiasco brought attention to the Fediverse and it provided a boost. A boost the fediverse wasn’t fully equipped for, but a boost nonetheless.

The best thing to do is prepare for the next fiasco. And given “Reddit pays you for updoots” is still incoming, there will be a next fiasco. Make sure bugs are fixed, be able to point to some apps or alternative views that people made, and overall be a smoother transition than what was before.

Karma based social media can be seen as failed social experiment that only lead to polarization , echo chambers , and shattered communities .