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Reddit Doubles Down

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Re: Reddit Doubles Down

#231

Post by bloopernova »

lokar wrote: post #106
paxys wrote: post #49

It will be interesting to see the eventual outcome of this saga. I have already seen backlash against the backlash in many subs. /r/NBA, which was mentioned in the article, had a poll one day before the blackout and made the decision based on 8000 votes (out of a total 8+ million members). Casual users were not happy to find out that they would have nowhere to discuss the most important game of the season, and the mo…

This is about the transition from a site mostly about engaged focused discussion by enthusiasts to a more mass market generic social site. I bet most views at this point are just the generic popular view, not driven by a subscription to a sub.

Ok, but why can't reddit serve both types of user?

Split old.reddit off into an "old school" version that has 3rd party apps, but needs a subscription to access. Then keep new reddit as their tiktok Instagram clone.

Re: Reddit Doubles Down

#232

Post by Spoom »

a2tech wrote: post #142
judge2020 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An influx of capital would be easier by making everyone pay $10/mo to access the API via third-party clients. Would still be unpopular but would mean people could still have the experience they want to see from reddit. but that's the issue - Reddit's been focusing on other forms of content only in the native Reddit app, like TikTok-esque live streams and promoted posts from subs you aren't subscribed to.

They have a $4/month product ALL ready that removes ads and gives you more features. Making that a requirement to use the API is by FAR the simplest and most profitable option. Its also more profit then they're proposing to get from their API charges

Yup, would subscribe to this in a heartbeat to keep using RIF.

Re: Reddit Doubles Down

#233

Post by threeseed »

judge2020 wrote: post #117
CommitSyn wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or they're broke and reddit is soon to be bankrupt. But even so, if they had just said that, the outcome would be so much different. Because as of now it seems like they're fucking people over for the sake of fucking them over.

An influx of capital would be easier by making everyone pay $10/mo to access the API via third-party clients. Would still be unpopular but would mean people could still have the experience they want to see from reddit. but that's the issue - Reddit's been focusing on other forms of content only in the native Reddit app, like TikTok-esque live streams and promoted posts from subs you aren't subscribed to.

It's pretty obvious why they want Apollo and similar to disappear.

Because they want the freedom to add more of the features you suggested. To join the existing classics like Chat, For You Feed and the Redesign all of which are insipid and poorly implemented.

Even the new Discover tab isn't even personalised despite recommendation algorithms being so basic to implement these days.

Re: Reddit Doubles Down

#234

Post by morkalork »

bshipp wrote: post #230
CommitSyn wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or they're broke and reddit is soon to be bankrupt. But even so, if they had just said that, the outcome would be so much different. Because as of now it seems like they're fucking people over for the sake of fucking them over.

If they're broke than they should have first stopped self-hosting videos and images. I can't believe their API call cost is more excessive than their video and image hosting costs.

I wonder how much impact their shit-tastic video player has on bandwidth costs. On one hand, when it freezes and refuses to play, it saves money. On the other hand, constantly restarting videos to try to get them to play probably costs some since it doesn't appear to be caching properly either. The net cost could go either way.

Re: Reddit Doubles Down

#235

Post by disconcision »

thr_low_latency wrote: post #75
paxys wrote: post #49

It will be interesting to see the eventual outcome of this saga. I have already seen backlash against the backlash in many subs. /r/NBA, which was mentioned in the article, had a poll one day before the blackout and made the decision based on 8000 votes (out of a total 8+ million members). Casual users were not happy to find out that they would have nowhere to discuss the most important game of the season, and the mo…

Moderators _seriously_ underestimate how hated they are. At this point I'd rather the admins just take back the subs and let the voting system sort it out. Like how it did for the first 10 years of the site's life.

people complained just about as much about moderation on reddit in 2010 as they do today

Re: Reddit Doubles Down

#236

Post by 8note »

paxys wrote: post #202
ammut wrote: post #119

The post by the Apollo dev made it sound like they had gone back and forth for a while before the final pricing was laid out. I wonder why reddit didn't come up with a price that worked for all parties. Isn't some money better than none + ill will from the community?

I highly doubt a different dollar amount would have changed the outcome. Reddit wanted $2.50 per user from the Apollo dev. Would $2 have been more palatable? Or $1.50? Would the extra few cents per month really make the difference between a user subscribing or not? The conversation is really only about free vs not free. Everything else is a smokescreen.

A change in start time would be more impactful, so that he could ramp up charging his users

Re: Reddit Doubles Down

#237

Post by morkalork »

ink_13 wrote: post #205
raincole wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My personal (cynical) bet is that Huffman actually understands what Reddit is better than us, and Reddit will be just fine after this. To be completely honest, if a two-day blackout is proven to be the most serious "protest" the community can do, I'll buy Reddit stock when it IPO.

If Reddit isn't going to value its communities, it's just going to turn into a clone of the bloated corpse of "I Can Has Cheeseburger", an endless stream of cat pictures and short videos, posted and reposted. High in traffic, maybe, but catering only to the lowest common denominator, stripped of the things that made it valuable to long-time users. But that's probably fine with them. Reddit seems to have taken that th…

That's exactly what it's going to become. Lop in the eternal September of new users aging-in every year that don't even know what it used to be like and they're set.

Re: Reddit Doubles Down

#238

Post by [deleted] »

lapcat wrote: post #168
CSMastermind wrote: post #64

> A number of Snoos have been working around the clock, adapting to infrastructure strains, engaging with communities, and responding to the myriad of issues related to this blackout I find a CEO referring to their employees as 'Snoos' to be offputting personally. I'm sure it's meant to be a fun and inclusive term but the guy is sending out a pretty serious email that ends in, "I am sorry to say this, but please be m…

It sounds like something from Dr. Seuss

[deleted]

Re: Reddit Doubles Down

#239

Post by threeseed »

raincole wrote: post #99
whatsuphotdog wrote: post #40

I love that the CEO calls the users voicing their displeasure "noise". When those users voice opinions on other things, it's called content. When those users voice their opinions against reddit, it's noise. Hoffman continues to display a fundamental misunderstanding of what Reddit is. The very people that give your platform its value are revolting against you, and you think it's noise. What's your product? What do yo…

My personal (cynical) bet is that Huffman actually understands what Reddit is better than us, and Reddit will be just fine after this. To be completely honest, if a two-day blackout is proven to be the most serious "protest" the community can do, I'll buy Reddit stock when it IPO.

We still don't know what the impact will be of Instagram's upcoming Twitter clone.

It does look like more of a hybrid between Twitter and Reddit with the threaded conversations and nerd-friendly API layer i.e. ActivityPub.

Re: Reddit Doubles Down

#240

Post by jmyeet »

It's almost like we have a problem with the workers (producing the UGC) being separated from the means of production where the owners of reddit are simply trying to extract more and more money from the users who produce the content.

I, for one, am shocked and surprised.

I'm not a big fan of boycotts generally. Most of the time they're performative. But this one seems to have teeth. I hope this goes on indefinitely rather than than having an end date that the owners can simply wait out.

Reddit should not be an expensive site to maintain. It's text and some CDN media, basically. There's no reason it can't run profitably but the owners simply want to extract as much value in the short term to increase the IPO price. Short-term profits.

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