I agree. The change in total Reddit users ended up small, but the drop in quality is huge. A lot of my favorite subs are now just memes, reposts, and astroturfing. There’s very little left of genuine worth. But it’s no great loss. The days of Reddit being the front page of the Internet and a hub of discussion are long gone. C’est la vie.
Personally I’m glad to see Reddit fading away. I have found so many more artist, makers, and thinkers on Mastodon, Lemmy, and Pixelfed than I ever did on Reddit. The fediverse is hard to navigate and has a higher barrier to entry. But those same qualities keep the influencers, astroturfers, and advertisers at bay. I love the experience of exploring people’s feeds and follow lists as a means of exploring. It feels so much more organic and engaging. It’s not for everyone, and the fediverse will probably never become a giant of social media. But maybe that’s for the best.
At any rate for now we have our own corner of the internet to explore and enjoy away from the some of the more negative influences wrought by social media. Enjoy it. It may not last. Just like old Reddit.
I swapped my old bike in at a local charity /coop. My old one was too large and wasn’t getting used because of it. The new one came second hand and fits much better. I’ve been riding almost every day since and have replaced a decent number of trips I would usually make by car.
My wife rescued an old limanted faux antique table from the curb this summer and we’ve been having a good time restoring it over the holidays. We’ve been learning to work with vaneer and how to do patches and the like. It’s been a lot of fun.
I’m looking forward to some gardening this spring. I was able to convince my landlord to let us take out a large section of lawn and replace it with a native xeroscaped garden. My wife and I have been working on it for a couple of years now and it’s really starting to fill in. My cat seems to appreciate it as well. When we moved in our back yard was basically critter free, now we have tons of birds, squirrels, possums, and the odd skunk.