I don’t know anything about the origin of the new use of ‘cap’. No one was saying ‘based’ in proto-internet culture before Lil B’s music videos around 2010-2011. This guy blew up quick and he used the word in his nickname. It was his version of BRRRR for Gucci, FLOCKA, etc. That’s just a fact.

It absolutely was repopularised by Lil B, I was there for it. My understanding at the time was that it was a reclamation of the word from an original slang meaning of being strung out on crack. Lil B was celebrated ironically by the 4channers that later propagated the right wing appropriation of the term. I always interpreted that to refer to being strung out on ‘the red pill’ i.e. being unapologetically fascist.

Mostly lurked since 2009, but always had an account so I could vote. Started commenting and posting more over time, to the point it was too much, having pointless internet arguments as a substitute for doomscrolling. So when I got the first notification about the API changes in RiF, decided it was time to cut the cord. I’d already mostly come around to the conclusion that I’d been wasting my time there, but I had a notion that it was somehow OK because the place I’d chosen to waste it was somehow different and better in comparison to other social media. It wasn’t that I wanted to get on a boycott bandwagon. But the API decision, the thinly veiled intent of their ridiculous pricing, and their steadfastness in making no subsequent attempt to mitigate the changes whatsoever truly was the tipping point where I could no longer do the mental gymnastics required to con myself into wasting more time there.

They also screwed themselves over by playing the r/place trump card so soon after the last iteration in 2022. Rather than doing it to create a cool event to experience once every few years, they did it to drive engagement on Reddit. That’s made people lose interest and even if it’s another 5 years before the next one, many of them won’t come back. It’s a self-acknowledgement that the peak reddit era is finished and wouldn’t have happened without the prior backlash against their enshittification. It’s the type of thing that sets up the conditions for a death spiral, because they’ve resorted to tricks to get people to use the site and eventually they’ll run out of tricks.