Reddit Exodus - The Word Cloud Tarot Show - 19 Jun 2023

This week everyone has been leaving #reddit in the
latest wave of the #digital #migration. @[email protected]
does a 5 minute #tarot reading to find out what's up
with the #redditExodus, and finds it's about
the tension between capital and moderation.

### Past - 5 Of Wands, Strife

Reddit has _strife_ and _conflict_.

In an advertising supported website,
The owners need _quarrels_ and _revulsion_ and
_sex_ and _violence_ and _hostility_ in order to
keep users online and show them adverts.
There's an inherent _tension_ between
the needs of the Users and the needs of Capital.

And now there is an _uprising_, a _challenge_,
the users striking to _defend_ their forums
against the admins. The users are at _battle_
with the owners, Trying to put _pressure_
on the admins to concede.

### Hidden Influence - 5 Of Pentacles, Worry

This card describes the moderators who are
the backbone of Reddit. _employees_ without _income_
who do the _hopeless_ and _wretched_ job of _curating_
the site. They see the _stagnant_ _bleakness_ and
the _alienation_, and yet turn up to turf out
the trouble-makers and keep the conversation flowing.

They take the _strain_ of running the community,
and get little but _sorrow_ in return.

### External Influence - 8 Of Pentacles, Prudence

The main external pressure on the site is of course
_money_, and the _debt_ taken on to build the site,
the _frugal_ requirement to
_consolidate_ the _finances_ and make the
owner's _investment_ into _gold_.

The website needs money.

Even if that means the moderating tools must suck.

### Present - 3 Of Trumps, Empress

So lots of people are leaving for the alternative,
Lemmy and KBin, the whole _innovative_
_plethora_ of _diverse_ and _ingenious_
systems that make up the Fediverse.

There are new and _inspiring_ ways to
organize ownership and _potential_ in the network.

There's also the _achievement_ of the _richness_
of responses, turning forums into shrines to Jon
Oliver, or shutting down the existing forums.
Great _creative_ protests everyone.

Reddit's users are rebelling, and many
are leaving for their own little empires
on the networks that nobody can own.

### Outcome - 14 Of Pentacles, King

The outcome though, at Reddit at least, will be that
the _King_ will reign. The _financial_ and
_corporate_ side must win because they are
_fundamental_ to the _conservative_ and
_corporate_ nature of the institution.

It is Reddit's website, and they can ruin it
for money if they want to. Indeed, they
actually *must* do so, that is the _enduring_
and _effective_ truth of a _reputable_
advertiser-_dependable_ _network_ in a
capitalist _economy_

### Summary

All online discussion places are places of
conflict and strife, but if given ownership,
the moderators can bring a peace to make it
worthwhile.

Sadly, the economic really is that the moderators
do not own Reddit, the capital does, and they
demand a return, which is against the moderators
interest.

Some are leaving to start their own empires,
run by the mods for the mods on federated
open-source software. Which is good,
because on Reddit itself, indeed in all
capital-owned advertiser-friendly enterprise,
the money is king and the users and moderators
do not own their own space.

We at Wordcloud Tarot do own our own space,
you'll find us on Peertube and the Fediverse,
and our own website, though also mirrored on these
capital owned enshitified hell-sites:

### Next time:

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