The race for "Worst Dumpster Fire" is heating up. Everyone place your bets!

I'd exchange Reddit and X. The rate at which X is going downhill right now just cannot be beaten by anything.

Twitter(/X - such a bullshit crappy name) is the Kmart of web 2.0 companies. Just a husk of what it was and in a massive free fall decline.
- It's basically a matter of a branded domain name and Mastodon will take over.
  
  Governments and entities like the New York MTA are going to want something they control, rather than something that falls to the whims of some billionaire.
  
  The tech for Mastodon is there. You just needs orgs that care less about reach and who trust people to come to them (like the New York MTA).
Agreed. I mean I never expected Elon to be smart but good god is that dude an idiot. Everyone reading this could 100% do a better job in his shoes.
- If I had bought Twitter back then, I would have just done absolutely nothing and raked in the cash.
- That's assuming that his goal is to run a profitable social media company that people respect, enjoy, and that makes profit. However, he's loaded af and can easily pay for the best consultants in the world. Considering that, I think it's possible that he might be reaching his goals, they're just not what we assume they are.
Yeah the thing that people are upset about reddit for with rate limited apps is something twitter did years ago. Then theres the everything else involved on twitter and its not even close.
Came here to say this. X is doing worse than Reddit.

I feel like it's unfair to include TikTok as it had a clear headstart by being a dumpster fire since the very start.

Musical.ly certainly was a thing.
- Hey, the rebrand was successful!
  
  Nobody associates it with paedos now and their “take existing videos and put our horrid moving shitty contrasted watermark on it” starting strat worked a dream
- It has been an dumpster fire before it was even made.
- And Vine!

I mean, TikTok was already bad to begin with but what did they do to deserve a spot next to Twitter? Did I miss something? Surely they can't do worse than trying to make their paid only, right?

Yeah TikTok is bad but it also works as expected.

Yeah it's the worst algorithm ever, basically spyware, bans LGBT+ people, etc. But that's quite frankly how it always worked.
- Bans LGBT+ people
  
  My fyp is full of bipoc LGBTQ+ people? Twitter on the other hand tries to feed me right wing news sources and disinformation all the time. There's a spectrum here and TikTok is far on the other side.
  
  Also to be frank the algorithm is by far the best out of any company with a "for you" algorithm. It blows pretty much anything else out of the water entirely.
- People rightfully call out TikTok as a spyware because of their ties with CCP, but how exactly are other social media giants and big tech any different as they too have ties with the CIA, FBI etc
- Why do you think it's more spyware than any other big tech mobile app or social media?
  
  And based on my experience getting hooked so fast into while I didn't want to touch it, it seems it has the best algorithm. I'm off it now, like all other social media expect for fediverse, but I can testify on this
- bans LGBT+ people
  
  Source? because I follow a ton of LGBTQIA+ people without any issue.
- Idk, I find it's algorithm very easy to control compared to every other social media, its much easy to manipulate. My fyp is full of gay people so idk what you mean by the second statement.
Needed three graphics.

Does this reflect how the platform is actually doing or do we just like the circlejerk of wishing they would fail? Because everything I've seen says Reddit has been completely unaffected by the changes made and they're still getting more user signups, engagements and interaction/posts than ever.

Tik Tok also seems to be growing strong.

Twitter is a genuine laughing stalk and is pulling major shit.....but everyone still seems to be using it regularly.

if you have been back to reddit, they might have growing numbers (probably due to shitty practices forcing you to use their app instead of mobile browser) etc. but the quality of discussions and the amount of bots just reposting the same comments skyrocketed.

I mean it's a huge site, it won't die, but if you look at it that way, Facebook is still alive, do you have a desire to spend time on that site though?
- Pleased to say I haven't been back to Reddit (except to scrub my entire history there to nuke my account). Reddit quality going completely down the toilet is something seen long before these changes were made. It's really sad to see that companies aren't forced to make better products because people will put time and money into these shit platforms regardless.
- I have been back to reddit to check things out from time to time. The quality has definitely degraded, and their changes to not seeing NSFW stuff without logging in or using their app has me visiting less and less.
  
  The comment section is still nice, but I just don't see the quality it once had.
We can take a look at the comment count on major subreddits over time. Using the top 5 most commented listed on Subreddit Stats, and then using Social Rise to see comments per day (go down to "Graph of" and click "comments").

https://social-rise.com/subreddit-analysis/askreddit

https://social-rise.com/subreddit-analysis/AmItheAsshole

https://social-rise.com/subreddit-analysis/Starfield

https://social-rise.com/subreddit-analysis/AITAH

https://social-rise.com/subreddit-analysis/NoStupidQuestions

All except Starfield show comments cratering at the beginning of July, and they're not coming back. Obviously, Starfield is a special case given the release of the game. AITAH was also just starting to pick up and then had its jugular cut out. Across the board, there looks to be a 3 or 4 times reduction in comment rates.

Now, perhaps the site is still OK among the more niche subreddits. That'd take a lot longer to analyze. But it's clear the big traffic drivers are not pulling people in anymore.
- While I overall agree this seems to be the case at first glance, I do notice that august there’s a huge drop that correlates with school starting up again. Probably need to compare to previous summers.
  
  Edit: looks like it's still pretty huge even accounting for that
If popularity was all that mattered, McDonalds would have Michelin stars.
Only a good 0.1% of reddit actually "creates content" with the rest having only engagement via comments. A good 99% of those also don't do anything but lurk.

The people that make the content are also the ones more likely to switch to alternatives.

It's an engagement loop so while the amount of signups and accounts is unchanged, there is simply less content to keep people around and to monetize.
asdfasfasdf
- I believe that s shifting the burden of proof.
- I don't save sources in case of future need for references. I haven't written a thesis on the matter. It came up in a few articles in my tech news RSS feeds. You're welcome to not believe me and I would readily consider contrary information anyone else offers it.
Reddit is driven by search traffic and the results got a lot worse since a lot of good posters quit. They lost the content but not the users yet, I think it's just going to take a long time before they truly see the damage in their traffic statistics!
- The google-Reddit search got really screwed up when the private subs numbered 7-8000. I’m curious if there have been any lingering effects.
Yeah Reddit just became more like Facebook which is disappointing, but not a dumpster fire.

Twitter is a radioactive dumpster fire that's spawning mutant fire rats. There's really no comparison.
- I just have a hard time believing this when the_donald started on reddit. The site has been an incubator for right wing actors for years. Even the infamous Stormfront recognized the opportunities for recruitment there years ago.
No, but we are on lemmy so we obviously don't care how well billion dollar companies are doing profit wise.
- I care insofar as seeing how badly they can screw up

Put Unity somewhere up there for their recent debacle

Unity is hors-concours, they've already won this race. None of these social networks have managed to fuck up so badly as to fully destroy their reputations like Unity did.
- I don't know. Twitter running rampant as a nazi platform and safe harbor under Elon's tenure/stewardship has been something else. That platform was always a mess/ bad but not to the degree Elon has cranked it up to. It's full blown mania/ hysteria on that platform.
  
  Edit: I miss the days of Twitter when I could've used it as my own personal news ticker/ use it to follow sports and my favorite sports reporters. It's shocking but there are actual uses and use cases for Twitter. It used to not be social media trash.
what happened to unity
- They tried to apply a per install fee and make it retroactive for all games using the Unity Runtime. Meaning games made with Unity even a few years ago who didn't agree to this would be charged each time someone uninstalls and reinstalls the game.
  
  This is the second time they have tried to make retroactive changes, by the way, and they even deleted the part of the TOS that prevented retroactive changes.
  
  It's really just one of many things they have done in the last few years
They won this is a fight for the 2nd seed

Crazy how TikTok don't even seem so bad anymore thanks to the other two completely fucking imploding.

I think Twitter will be the largest fall.

Like, they went from publicly traded household name, used by news sites everywhere... to... well...

Elons shenanigans has to be worse than spez surely

Spez just copies what daddy Musk does, so give it some time

I know lemmy hates Reddit but X is easily taking the cake here. Do you think Elon is respecting ANY of the policies around old user data? If you were EVER on Twitter, Musk is all up in your business.

I hesitate to speak for everyone... Okay, now I will. As ex-Redditors, we absolutely hate Reddit because we knew it in the past, and we also know it now. So authoritatively, fuck Reddit and fuck Spez.

(I know not everyone here came from/cares about Reddit)
- I don't hate Reddit. I love what Reddit can be.
  
  I just can't support support its current trajectory. If they backpedaled settle of the recent decisions I'd return tomorrow, because after spending 3 months here I've found zero communities with enough activity to justify leaving the "everything" feed.
- I hate reddit, but I always hated reddit, it was always a cesspool. back in the day before the recent admin drama it was really horribly bigoted, and when lots of people jumpped ship recently, the community got real racist real fast

I feel like unity is the most likely to die. Their users are way more likely to switch to an alternative than people using reddit

Unity alternatives are also way more known than reddit or twitter alternatives

Also, anyone who wanted to leave Twitter, Reddit, or TikTok likely already have
But the alternatives aren't as developed. Godot still isn't great for 3D projects and Unreal is Epic and also has royalty fees like Unity tried to add.
- Unreal only has a 5% fee on games that made over 1 million USD
  
  Unity wanted to add a 0.20 USD tax for every download after you made 200K USD 200K users(which changes depending on how many downloads your game has and which plan you are using)
  
  Units pricing method could have been easily exploited, game developers would have to pay for people pirating their games, if a free to play game reached those requirments, it could cost them more than the game made, giveaways would cost game developers money and all unity games would have to collect data

That text layout is…well dumpster fire is strong, but it’s definitely a smelly smolder

It's just a wastebasket woopsie!

Xitter is now enabling disinformation intentionally. Put ‘em at the top

Well, Tiktok demotes china critical accounts and promotes china friendly ones, people who tried it came to the conclusion that's it's roughly by the factor 10 so they aren't even hiding it!

Yeah i also completely forgot Unity. This "Worst Dumpster Fire" ladder only had 3 spots.

The enshittification of TikTok: https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/

Very relevant to all of them

Great article!

wtf is a Kia race

It's a race in which there are only losers.
- So do they all burn or implode in the end like the majority of KIAs?
A very easily stolen race, all you need is a USB stick
- Rip a lil plastic…
Maybe it is Killed In Action?
- Has to be.

Philips coming up fast in 4th place. CAN THEY BEAT TIKTOK?!

FIND OUT TOMORROW!

what did philips do?
- Require an account that collects your information to use the hue lights you've already bought and have been using just fine without that.
- I believe is the thing about requiring accounts for the Hue lightbulbs thing, which is obviously bonkers

What did TikTok do recently? Reddit and TwittX I know about. Could have added Unity to the mix, even if they’re not social media.

Everything fucked up western social media dose but time two and with a grain of chinese propaganda!

I don't think I've ever seen so many wish to devalue the companies at the same time. Let's not forget about robinhood also. I can't wait until reddit IPOs to short the shit out of it. You have to know their valuation is a farce and bullshit. The numbers are totally cooked there.

Edit: stupid autocorrect

X and Reddit situations are kind of similar, but tiktok is shit for different reasons

There's metagame factors to this.

Reddit users often hate Reddit but feel stuck in it without alternatives that they can accept.

Twitter (it's not X, fuck that silly aging "peaked in the XTREME 90s" divorce dad nonsense, I hope he cries more about it billionaire-tears ) has lost a lot of users and the ones that are left are devoted cultists that pay money for relevance symbols on their accounts. blue-check farquaad-point

TikTok has people that are hooked on the algorithm to the point that they may not bother even participating in any such survey because it isn't on TikTok.

I don't use TikTok. Is that bad?

No. Just look at what friends share with a VPN up in-browser. You’ll get all the cultural context you’ll need lol
No matter what this 40 year old boomer ass Lemmy user base says, TikTok is amazing and some people are doing some really incredible things on it. You should give it a shot.
- I'll skip on the China spyware. But thanks.
- Don't you feel your brain rotting and your attention span waning from all of the 15 second hits of dopamine being shoved into your face?
  
  TikTok is not good for your mental well-being.
- Eat tide pods and steal kias. Incredible things
- Cool ageism.
- I used TikTok once. Three hours later I didn't realize that it was already midnight. Uninstalled immediately. Never again.

What's up with tiktok?

Think your not going to be able to skip ads.
- YouTube is already far ahead on that front.
  
  I remember when any ad over 15 seconds was skippable after 5. Now, if I turn adblock off, I may receive dual minute-long unskippable ads, even less than 5 minutes apart on an hour long video.
  
  It's actually more egregious than cable TV
- That's not the issue with Tiktok

OP, social media usage is down across the board. These platforms won't truly die until the next cycle of growth. Autumn? Winter? Usually gaming goes up when the cold weather comes around. Perhaps we will see growth then. We ought to be making sure we make communities for each new game that comes out, if an instance creators goal is to attract a lot of people. If they prefer quality, well, keep on this course. Lemmy is amazing.

Usually gaming goes up when the cold weather comes around. Perhaps we will see growth then. We ought to be making sure we make communities for each new game that comes out, if an instance creators goal is to attract a lot of people.

Speaking of, wouldn't that be a good time for a general games/gaming instance to spin up then to play host to those communities?

Unity bailed itself out eh?

Unity ain't a website
- then how do u explain unity.com?
No

In 2019 they also performed a retroactive terms of service change and after the backlash they changed their TOS to basically say "this can never ever happen again"

A few months before this recent dumbfuck decision, they actually went back and removed the part of their TOS and that they couldn't make retroactive changes to the TOS and then hoped everyone forgot.

What they've done this time was a calculated business decision where they knew they'd piss people off and just expected most to suck it up and deal with it like they have every other time. They calculated very poorly here though as this was just the straw the fucked the camel raw and everyone is jumping ship. They have proven repeatedly they aren't an engine development prioritized company anymore, they have proven repeatedly that have no issues lying to paying customers and doing shady backdoor shit.

What they did a few days ago was a "whoopsie we tried to fuck you again and it didnt work so we'llwalk it back for now" and for the second time have promised that this retroactive change can't happen again. A second promise days after they broke that promise.
Not really. They fucked up their business contracts/ reputations and there's still a massive push to leave them in dust/ past. There's no undoing how massively they fucked up.

Brought to you by Kia: Who better than a company who can't fix a key switch to cover dumpster fires! Kia: Movement That Inspires Car Theft.

Didn't they also use child labour in the US?
- I think you might be confusing them with the other major Korean car maker Hyundai but it could have been both!

Reddit sucks but xitter and tiktok easily rub the floor with it!

Unity needs to be on this leaderboard.

Nah unity is the monk who pours gas over itself and sits there quietly burning to death

What got bumped from the top 3?

Facebook
- But still trailing close in 4th with the metaverse fiasco!

I’m betting reddit, fuck spez

We really need to get people to get the word out on Lemmy.

I'm on the fence on this one because on one hand, more content is always a good thing. On the other, more people will bring the attention of corporate capitalists
- They already have, just take a look at the increased number of concern trolls, blatant advertisement, etc.
- isn't threads just facebook trying to muscle in on the fediverse
- Its a heavy mixup, but either lemmy dies or its going to get better. Federation has seen a dramatic increase in usership, so I'm thinking its getting bigger. Its inevitable that capitalists are going to see us anyway. We just have to tell them to fuck off. I don't really know what to do besides that lol.

Why is tiktok so high up, It feels like regular shitty social media, not nearly as bad or boring as instagram, facebook, and metaverse.

wait yeah why is tiktok above metaverse lol

gweilos mad, that's literally it
I think as a format memes are very fun on TikTok cause they're expected to always have a sound component so it engages more senses than just vision, just make a good algorithm
- memes are fun on tiktok, that is true. Although as with all social media these days, the alg is too good, I hate going down rabbit holes for hours when I could be jogging or playing dnd with my brother.
It's a Dictatorship's Military Operation. The app's software is more data theft than it is actually used to run the app. They take everything stored on your device, from photos to text history. All of it. If I were to rate all apps on the basis of harm, Tiktok is miles above anything else.
- ever heard of the patriot act, sis?

Since I am side loading Apollo still, Reddit overall is still good. I currently don’t see much change because of this. However, when my RedditAPI key is revoked and I’m unable to generate a new API key, there is no way I can keep using it. I’ve got 5 different Reddit apps on my phone, including Apollo, and they all suck.

Dude just ditch Reddit. They’re getting users to pay people to shitpost and are taking a cut, they also removed the ability to opt out of tracking for ads. All in like 3 days!

As bad as any profit first corporation is, or even agenda first profit second corporations, there will never be anything more cringe than helping a hostile foreign dictatorship for vines with music.

China isn't hostile, afaik only the US has been hostile. And claiming that tiktok did that is equivalent to saying random American company is responsible for bombing Iraq
- China makes a statement that celebrates whenever something bad happens in the USA. The CCP are very much opposed to the USA. They're also in constant territory disputes with neighboring nations and have recently consumed neighboring nations. TikTok is not a private or public company. It is a military Operation. It is run by military personnel on a military site.