To be fair, no user "owns" their account. Everything about your Twitter account, from the user name to the data you tweet belongs to Twitter. I hesitate to call it a dick move. It's more of an Elon move.
I don't think we should worry about an app we will never use. :)
The difference is people generally don't care about a change if it doesn't inconvenience them beyond their tolerance threshold. Losing access to 3rd party apps? Bad to some, but probably the profit of the move will exceed the cost. (their hope) But get a rep for ratting out your posters to authorities and it suddenly becomes very personal for more people.
Reddit understands it's value is in content to sell. If reddit starts ratting out it's free content creators, they lose value. Their actions are a profit calculation, not some noble stand to protect privacy.
For me, I don't need new fancy features to communicate. I don't need video chat rooms. I don't need constant notifications. I just need a simple place to post my social expressions and read other people's social expressions. I don't want my experience to be shaped by algorithms designed to keep me engaged and present. For me, social media is like going down to the pub and talking with some regular friends. The BIGGER a platform is, the less it's about being social, and it's more about promotion. Promotion of self, events, clubs, companies, etc.
Threads will take away people from Mastodon, but that's a good thing. Because it will appeal to people who desire a different social media experience. They can take the foam off the top, leaving us with a smaller group that prefers a simpler, less invasive, social media. I don't have to share all my contacts, my browsing history, my health data or my financial data to Mastodon (or any service in the Fediverse) in order to use it. You cannot say the same about Thread.
I will always side with something like Mastodon over Thread. That doesn't mean I don't believe Mastodon cannot fail. It certainly can. But it won't be Thread that kills it.
The things I upvote and downvote are in line with my personal values and I am not ashamed of that. I have no issues with anyone knowing my reaction to a post. On Discord anyone can see who leaves reactions on a message. Same with Facebook. It will show you who added what reaction.
Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, Instagram...their default content (your frontpage, your personal feed, etc) show you the content their algorithms have determined will make you most engaged and remain there longer to 1. Generate more free content for them to sell, 2. command your attention so they can sell that attention to advertisers. Corporate "social" media is technically "social exploitation" and has effects that reach into the real world. The behaviors they feeds spill into our interactions in real life.
I find this more mildlyhumorous than infuriating. I'm looking forward to a new era where every news article no longer includes a string of embedded tweets. :) As a non-twitter user, this certainly doesn't encourage me to bother making an account.
When I was displeased with reddit, I deleted all my comments, deleted my account and started getting my social fix from here as wellas in the WordPress blogosphere.
I honestly don't care what happens at reddit. I'm certainly not gonna get mad when others keep using the site. One of the things I see a lot in today's culture is the demand for me to be upset with this company or that company.
Every successful business out there got that way by exploiting someone, usually labor. I can't exile myself from society. So I try to depend on corps as little as possible, but it's impossible to boycott every company.
I get your frustration, something you love has changed. You feel personally damaged. But let it go. You don't need reddit. Accept that also means you don't need reddit to fail. Until you do, you're just going to stress more and more as you see people doing whatever it is they want to do instead of what you want them to do.
Former redditor. What do I call myself now? Lemming? lol But I also noticed that I don't see some Karma score equivalent, which is a great thing to leave behind. Those imaginary points were just useless at best, and used against people who were new at the worst.
I feel like this move has nothing to do with investors and everything to do with setting the standard for big corps like Microsoft and Google to be able to scrape their massive amount of data to train next gen AIs. They know they have HUGE amount of data from now and for years and years ago. Content, created by others, then sold for enormous profit.
Not everyone watches US politics, or Fox News. I live in the US and don't know her. I am sure there are famous faces you don't know because it's not your field of interest. Can you identify famous contemporary painters by face? Physicists? Composers? Game designers? Belittling someone's education because they don't know something you do is pathetic and says a lot more about you than it does the person you were mocking.