Don't Contribute Anything Relevant in Web Forums Like Reddit

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.

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    21 minutes ago

    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 bend a knee could get fucked.

  • Jaysyn@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    2 hours ago

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

  • kingthrillgore@lemmy.mlEnglish
    1·
    58 minutes ago

    Reddit is trying to pull its value from content as an AI source, because they can’t monetize users more directly.

  • EliteCloneMike@lemmy.zipEnglish
    1·
    1 hour ago

    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.

  • NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zipEnglish
    7·
    5 hours ago

    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.

      • HCSOThrowaway@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        2 hours ago

        You’re an internet user.

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

        You make me sick.

      • Passerby6497@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 hour ago

        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
        3·
        2 hours ago

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

  • BladeFederation@piefed.socialEnglish
    25·
    7 hours ago

    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
      5·
      6 hours ago

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

      • BladeFederation@piefed.socialEnglish
        1·
        45 minutes ago

        That would be a bitch ass move reddit would do, yeah. “Oh don’t worry, you can use a VPN, just log in!”

        logs in

        banned

  • melsaskca@lemmy.caEnglish
    14·
    10 hours ago

    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.