## Hello there! Maybe you stumbled on this from other Lemmy instances, maybe
this was linked to you from Reddit, either way, hello there!
tldr - This instance aims to be a fun place for all things pop music and beyond.
Share your theories, hype up your favorites, talk about the latest drops, and of
course, full clowning is encouraged. ## For Redditors, what is this, how does
this work? For many of you, you will hit this post from a link you’ve seen on
Reddit. I am like you, I am a fellow “Reddit Refugee”. I’ve been on Reddit for
12 years, I originally came over from the original Digg migration. In that time
I’ve seen some of the best Reddit moments. I was there all the way back from the
Narwhal Bacons at Midnight (we were so cool back then), to the Poop Knife
[https://www.reddit.com/r/MuseumOfReddit/comments/ke8skw/the_poop_knife/], to
the original /r/Place, all the way up to the most recent /r/Place. All along the
way, I always felt a sense of pride and accomplishment
[https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsBattlefront/comments/7cff0b/comment/dppum98?st=JH2MUORV&sh=5997c5a5]
too. In that time though, I’ve seen my favorite platform go through ups and
downs, but most recently I’ve noticed that I haven’t been enjoying it. My number
one stop to see memes, cat pictures, and blow off steam has slowly but steadily
become one of my main sources of anxiety. From cat scrolling to doom scrolling,
and no matter how many subs I removed, it got worse. It’s undeniable to me now,
while Reddit is still mostly user-content, the most “engaging” content is
promoted in a way to keep you engaged, even if that damaging to our mental
health. So why now? Well Reddit, as many of you have probably seen, is starting
to charge for API access. For those who don’t know, the API is basically the way
applications talk to each other, and so Reddit is basically starting to charge
for other programs to talk to Reddit. You may think “but how does this affect
me, the average user”, and for many of you it won’t, but for a large chunk of us
users it means that we are losing how we interact with Reddit. Apps like Apollo,
Reddit Sync, BaconReader, RedditIsFun - all will be rendered useless. The
writing has been on the wall for a while, but now that it’s happening - well to
me, a long standing Reddit user, means it’s time to look for (or at least
prepare) alternatives. And now we’re here! ## Okay, but why PopTalk? Good
question! Undoubtedly some of you will be coming from Lemmy and see this
instance, roll your eyes, and make fun of it - and hey that’s okay, we’re on the
internet! (Just please don’t do it here) However, the most fun and engaging
community for me personally, out of all of the years on Reddit, was
/r/TaylorSwift. I’ve loved most of the posts there, I love the Swifties, even
the ones with the most outrageous theories, even the ones who claim that 1989
(Taylor’s Version) is coming out soon. (It totally is though, right, right?).
The swifties have been a great community, I’ve loved hyping the tour, the music,
it’s been so much fun. If Reddit is going to shrink, one thing I’d like to have
is a landing place for those friends I’ve made. At the very least, if anyone is
going to have their app removed and are looking for alternatives, I’d like to
make sure there’s a good place for their content (beyond other celebrity places
that devolve into NSFW-ish image spamming). Of course I don’t aim this to be
limited to just the Swifties, but any and all pop music. I frequented
/r/PopHeads a lot, I’m a fan of Carly Rae Jepsen, LadyGaga, Ed Sheeran, and Lana
Del Rey. (And Lana fans, while I agree she’s still alternative, she was featured
on Taylor’s album and she sold out her show in Mexico in 4 hours, so I’d say her
fans are welcome here ;) Community Creation is currently open so feel free to
start communities you may enjoy, even memes (YouBelongWithMemes reborn?) and
circle jerk style communities are welcome. I don’t want just straight up hate,
I’ll be moderating that, but I also know ribbing is cathartic. If you made it
this far, thank you for reading through my mantra. I have no idea if this will
be successful, maybe it’ll only be a few people who are excited about a few
shows, and for those few people I’ll say thanks for dropping by, I hope we’ll
have a good time! ## Next Steps I’m going to write up a simple “Reddit Refugee”
post too, that I’ll link here, to get you acquainted with Lemmy, what the
“Fediverse” is, and how to get up and running quickly.
Hey everyone!
Full acknowledgement, I’m a pophead. Better or worse, it’s who I am. I love Zeppelin, I’ve seen live Pink Floyd, Foreigner, The Who, even Van Halen (not Van Hagar), but at the end of the day, I do love me some Taylor Swift.
So, I put my love of pop music and homelabbing together and here we are, https://poptalk.scrubbles.tech/. The post here explains why, but the pop community on Reddit has always been a fun one for me, and I want to make sure if there is a mass exodus of people out of there they have a place to land.
I’m currently leaving community creation open right now, I would like to officially welcome other popheads, BTS stans, swifties, Jepsies, Angels, whatever to the PopTalk server, a place to talk about pop music. (or any other band communities you may want to create).
I know it may not be for everyone, but for those few who love a good hype thread, I hope you enjoy it.
I’ll be posting soonish when the dust has settled a bit more. I have a few discord servers of people who are very hesitant towards Reddit right now starting to put feelers out for alternatives.
Step 1 today was to set it up, see how Lemmy folks take it
Step 2 is probably Discord, see how my friends and folks over there think
Step 3 is to probably post to Reddit itself, showing that if you’re looking for an alternative or if the hammer falls end of June then you can know there’s already a place set up.
Otherwise I see these groups fracturing to many different social groups. So, not directly do I have a userbase, but I’m hoping I’ll be providing a “landing pad” for the folks who get dropped.