I don’t see Old Reddit lasting long. They’ve cut beloved features before, and they’re still calling New Reddit a “beta feature”. After they’ve pumped enough resources into developing it, I’m sure they’ll move past the “test” phase and just cut Old Reddit out entirely. That’s probably going to be Lemmy’s next big user surge.
Does Reddit suppress mentioning Lemmy? I remember for a while this past June 2023 there were a lot of auto-deletions for mentioning or linking to Lemmy. I was never clear on who was deleting things and where. I guess linking to the r/Lemmy subreddit (or a fediverse sub) could work as long as the subreddit doesn’t get banned.
When they removed old.compact shortly before the API debacle, which was really the only way to view a relatively functional site on mobile without a constant nag popup begging you to download the app, I knew the end was near. I had started looking for alternatives at that time. Chatter about alternatives really started to ramp up around then from what I could tell. I think everyone knew what was coming. I’m not sure there will be a surge, since most people that cared likely bailed long ago. Anyone still using old.reddit is viewing it from a desktop, and probably already has a Lemmy account.
The battle is already over. Reddit just needs to get to IPO so Spez can cash out with more than he got the first time. Then it’s someone else’s problem.