The landscape was different. Digg was in 2004. Reddit in 2005. They both came in a time where social media was at it's infancy and it was anyone's game to make it big. Whereas today, there are already established social media sites and the best any alternative social media outlet can do anymore, is absorb some numbers and try to prove to be the better alternative. It's a lot about thinking outside the box and figuring what a platform can do that the other can't.
soulifix
If we're perfectly honest - No.
Reddit has over 53 some odd million users. Million with an M. Lemmy has gained, at most, upwards of just thousands. To call it a 'mass exodus' is really overselling it.
It's going to take a fairly long time, for Lemmy to even scratch 100k even. I'm on both Reddit and Lemmy. Lemmy, for a more positive experience. Reddit, because the numbers are just there.
I feel bad for every user that hasn't experienced an internet before all of this. Golden years to me, was 1996 ~ 2008. To others, far earlier.
The only thing we had to deal with then, was just popups. Now, it's like every fucking thing imaginable has to be turned into some subscription or retooled to be shareholder friendly. Because that's exactly what everything is gearing towards to appease - these fucking shareholders with stakes. Shareholders, who constitute a band of people who have absolutely no knowledge or fucks given as to what made things as good as they were in past internet. It's all about data farming for money to then market people to shit.
Google had to go and acquire YouTube, things seemed okay in the beginning. Now look at it, fucking bombardment of ads if you aren't using an adblocker. Amazon had to go and acquire Twitch and things seemed okay in the beginning. Now look at it, you're meaning to tell me I have to sit through 8 ads, while you minimize a stream of a channel I'm watching?! AND You're going to make YOUR OWN SUBSCRIPTION WHEN AMAZON PRIME ISN'T ENOUGH?! ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE?!
Reddit was great until 2016, it broke itself over politics. Then it broke itself even further by 2020 and now we are where we are with it. Social Media, is running in place. It's about statistics anymore. Has Facebook ever been useful and functional? I'm having a hard time now remembering when the last time it even had real people helping you, because now it's just in some stupid half-ass wiki that doesn't even have all of the answers in it's own ecosystem.
Everyone is too politicized now, almost can't go a damn few comments anymore without someone coming up to you with an emotionally charged reply, that's hiding in the background, the basis of their political stance.
FUCK WEB 3.0 AND ALL THAT IT HAS WROUGHT!
Glorious.