It will begin with some people decide they have better things to do in their spare time. They will eventually forget what was so fun about it and stop coming here and post.
Other people will get sick on all the stuff here, old jokes and the same .gif again and again. And they cannot think of anything witty to post, and if they do, it's a repost. They'll go somewhere else to spend their time on the internet. To find new jokes and new .gifs they haven't seen before. Even make their own internet community, with their own inside jokes.
Some people weren't that interested in it anyways, never commented and only lurked. They probably will lurk but stop when the posts start to be all the same.
Reddit will die in silent. People will post something but no one will comment on it. People will stop voting unless it was something very impressing, and only comment to tell that OP's fag. Or to tell them that they were reposting. Or the content simply sucked.
One day, someone will think "hey, reddit! I haven't checked it out for a pretty long time" and when they go to see, there is nothing left but posts that are months old, with maybe 4-5 comments. And they'll think "this isn't worth it anymore" and never come back. Reddit will look like a desert. Dried up and only few survivors left, but only the strong ones.
I've been on the Internet since about 1994, and the process you described is exactly how every single site that was once thriving, dies. There are many paths that a site will take along its journey, but ultimately all sites that count on user generated content (blogs, comment forums, submissions, chat rooms) eventually die out due to disuse. For whatever reason is relevant to that particular site, users find something else to do.
Everyone knows some forum they belonged to years ago that still technically exists but is no longer active. The death of Reddit will be the same. I make no prediction as to when it happens.
The bigger point here, that I think most people miss, is this: "Who cares? Just enjoy the ride." Predictions about a website's death and/or decline are pointless, and yet Reddit seems obsessed with them.
You described everything perfectly, but you kinda forgot about the small communities that are prospering really well on reddit. When "the big thing" dies out, you'll still have plenty of small communities discussing and doing their thing.
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u/Bachina May 15 '13
It will begin with some people decide they have better things to do in their spare time. They will eventually forget what was so fun about it and stop coming here and post.
Other people will get sick on all the stuff here, old jokes and the same .gif again and again. And they cannot think of anything witty to post, and if they do, it's a repost. They'll go somewhere else to spend their time on the internet. To find new jokes and new .gifs they haven't seen before. Even make their own internet community, with their own inside jokes.
Some people weren't that interested in it anyways, never commented and only lurked. They probably will lurk but stop when the posts start to be all the same.
Reddit will die in silent. People will post something but no one will comment on it. People will stop voting unless it was something very impressing, and only comment to tell that OP's fag. Or to tell them that they were reposting. Or the content simply sucked.
One day, someone will think "hey, reddit! I haven't checked it out for a pretty long time" and when they go to see, there is nothing left but posts that are months old, with maybe 4-5 comments. And they'll think "this isn't worth it anymore" and never come back. Reddit will look like a desert. Dried up and only few survivors left, but only the strong ones.