Reddit isn’t profitable, despite having more than 50 million daily active users. In preparation for an IPO, CEO Steve Huffman put the platform’s API
Reddit isn’t profitable, despite having more than 50 million daily active users. In preparation for an IPO, CEO Steve Huffman put the platform’s API
The funny thing is… for me it wasn’t even the API changes, it was how Steve reacted to the community feedback. If you need to make your app profitable that’s fine by me, but don’t ignore your customers so bluntly. They could’ve easily worked politely with devs to find an agreeable API price, find alternative funding streams for those devs, etc. They did none of that, instead Steve acted like a jerk.
Honestly if they’d worked with the Apollo dev and he’d turned around and proposed something reasonable like $2 a month to continue using it I’d still be on Reddit.
Treating Reddit users like shit, treating devs who have made their whole business about making Reddit better like shit, fucking with unpaid mods, and finally, this weird manifest destiny attitude that Reddit will succeed despite all of the above turned me to the Fediverse.
Just make it part of reddit premium! Ugh, why wasn’t that the solution.
Stil frustrates me. Being fair about why the business side needs it and then giving a time frame to devs to integrate with premium calls would have been the best option.
There would have been some revolts because of it, but nothing like the last few weeks imo
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Good point! It was not a given, but right now it seems like Reddit’s choices (and related events at Twitter/Meta) have been driving new platforms to emerge. I’m still incredibly suprised by the adoption of Lemmy and Kbin and especially the quaility and diversity of available apps for the platforms. It’s just really cool to see what people can do when they care about communitites of people coming together.
100%, I was mad about the api changes but realistically I would have stayed
But seeing the interviews he gave was just too much. Especially when he was talking about monetizing people who say things on Reddit they wouldn’t say to their therapist. Like, that group specifically you want to milk? Fuck spez
This is the business world in general. Consumers need to say to businesses in no uncertain terms that they cannot just do whatever they want and still remain profitable. Without users, there is no profit. Charging for the API would be completely acceptable and expected, but they decided to go the most cartoonishly villainous route possible. This is what a lot of companies are doing now. They have gotten far too used to the profits being free. We should teach them a lesson, collectively.
I’m 43. I lived a good amount of my life without the Internet and even more of my life without smart phones. Even after gaining reliable Internet access, I remember the times when the Internet was not just a few big companies. I just rediscovered one of the old forums I used to hang out on is still operating. They have an active IRC channel as well. Don’t think we can’t go back, big tech. It would be so easy to go back. Don’t tempt me with a good time.
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reddit did both of those originally
but when they started taking private VC money they had to start making returns on that investment which spiraled into the current situation
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It’s so true! I’d still be on Reddit too. Social media is not that big of a deal in my life. I never imagined having my nerve struck so hard. That I’d delete a 11yr old account. Loosing Apollo definitely would have lowered the amount of time I would have spent on Reddit, but I changed comments, burned my accounts, and did a gdpr request, when I saw Spez’s AMA and he doubled down against Christian. And Christian easily provided the call recordings. That was so terrible. I don’t want to be anywhere near that.
I still haven’t fully moved on from it. I’m not sure if I’ll delete my account or wipe my comments or not. I don’t think it really hurts much to actually have an account registered with them(?)
There’s also a fair chance that I’ve answered some useful techal support, programming guidance, or career guidance questions on there that would be lost to the search engine gods if I wipe my account… And that seems not so great.
I don’t think everyone needs to be so drastic. And helpful genuine answers on niche topics is how I found reddit in the first place. In a way, for me, reddit became a google alternative. I liked seeing a qualified discussion about something. Especially discussions about things that never feel trustworthy, from life, relationships or even product purchases. I always feel I can distill a conversation down to gain perspective. Lemmy will accomplish that, but it’s going to take time to build it.
I can’t see myself “using” Reddit again. But it will be inescapable to visit the site when I just need a good answer to things from years ago that were arrived upon in some old thread. To me that’s reddits greatest value. What we all contributed. So I totally understand why you can’t so handedly throw it all away.
This sounds a bit like Google’s murdered project Vark.
Yeah, we all see his extremely punchable face. Simultaneously blond and ginger and rat-like. It’s a big reason I’m off reddit.