Niche subreddits can have good content, and also I find myself looking at Reddit threads that come up in web searches, like if I search for a tech problem I'm having. But yes, the behaviour of Reddit as a profit-hungry corporation makes me want to not use Reddit or see their ads.
Sure that is true. Thank you for looking at my post and replying to it by the way. But I was just thinking how some people might just look at the top comments and nothing else. Maybe the upvote system does have some benefits though, like making bad posts less visible.
I was thinking how, back in the day, the most popular web browser was IE, which wasn't on Linux. Now the most popular browser is Chrome, which has been on Linux since 2009 or whenever it was.
And of course lots of other big software is on Linux, like VS Code, Zoom, Slack, Skype. And Linux is on the Steam Deck. So yes I agree, Linux has come a long way.
Lemmy seems to have quite a lot of people to be fair. Apparently Lemmy.world has nearly 7,000 users a day, which is quite a lot when you think about it.
One thing I think about is that maybe there are drawbacks to the Reddit-style format of Lemmy. A cool thing about old internet forums is that posts were show in chronological order with no upvotes, which is more similar to a real world conversation. You'd read the most recent posts, rather than the most upvoted posts. This means somebody new to the conversation can have their opinion seen.
The upvoting system means that a small number of posts get nearly all the upvotes and attention, and people who post later have their posts largely ignored.
Maybe I'm wrong but it's just something I thought about.
True, I remember the government trying to sell off Channel 4. Anyway I guess my point was that ads don't necessarily ruin a platform if the platform has a decent purpose other than just profit... although I definitely do hate seeing any ads, even on Channel 4 or anything else.
Interesting, maybe the content has changed, I probably don't watch enough TV to have noticed. But I think Channel 4 news is pretty good, and I liked their Paralympics coverage.
But then you could look at Channel 4, which does show ads to UK people, but I think Channel 4 is still okay and I don't think it has been ruined by ads. So maybe a profit motive is what causes enshittification, rather than just ads. I definitely hate ads but maybe ads alone don't destroy platforms.
True, they don't show commercial adverts in the UK, but they do to other countries. People outside the UK can access the BBC website but they'll see adverts on there, and apparently BBC America (shown in the US) has commercial adverts
And Channel 4 of course does show commercial adverts in the UK, but I think they still make some decent content, and I don't think they're on the verge of self-destruction
Maybe the real problem is when an entity is chasing profits, because Channel 4 isn't a normal for-profit business, since they're owned by the government, and I think they have to abide by some rules
I don't think that's necessarily true - maybe it depends on (a) the owners of the platform and/or (b) whether there are sources of funding besides advertising
E.g. here in the UK, the BBC and Channel 4 are both broadcasters owned by the government, and both are funded at least in part by adverts. But I think both of them are relatively healthy and aren't on the brink of destroying themselves.
I think most of the BBC's funding comes from the licence fee (British people pay for a TV licence) but they make some money from ads shown to international audiences. Channel 4 is solely funded by adverts I think, but it's owned by the government and I think they have to abide by certain rules and targets.
More anti-consumer stuff from corporate bigwigs
I just use Google with uBlock Origin to get rid of adverts