because Reddit no longer matters

Oh, this arrogance is amusing. It stems from the phrasing of “no longer”, as if to say that this platform has already been the downfall of Reddit when it so very clearly has not. It might, one day, but that is still in the distant future.

You wish for your comment to be true, when it is merely wishful thinking. Certainly, all of us here want that to be true eventually, but let’s not fool ourselves: Reddit is still unimpressed and practically untouched by the protests and these competing sites. Just look at what we have here: a string of early alpha versions, hastily churned out by a few brave volunteers. Do not get me wrong: I praise their work, as it is indeed impressive, but it is but a drop in the water against the Snoo behemoth.

The influx of users from Reddit is significant, but only from the perspective of the Fediverse. From the perspective of Reddit, it is nothing. They say good riddance to annoying users; and it is exactly these users that come here instead. Those that remain on Reddit, may likely be those that “we don’t want them here” while the influx is exactly the kind of users that we do want.

There is a fine truth in your statement, although maybe different than you meant it: Reddit does not and should not matter for users in the fediverse. In that sense, what Reddit does and is, really does not matter. Fediverse users should ignore Reddit as a whole, not even regarding it as the enemy. In that sense, Reddit does not matter. In much the same way that gas prices don’t matter to an ant.