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Reddit Doubles Down

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Re: Reddit Doubles Down

#351

Post by remote_phone »

extr wrote: post #38

I don't really understand why it had to be this way. It's so easy to think of other ways this could have been handled. Even just announcing the same change with 6 months of lead time rather than 1 month would have gone over better. Or boil the frog and gradually introduce API restrictions. It's as if the CEO is purposefully being as belligerent as possible to rile people up.

Because they want to IPO as soon as possible, so showing a bump of revenue from API shows the promise of more revenues for investors.

Remember they took a 41% cut in valuation recently. IPO is going to be challenging so they want to show as many different streams of revenue as possible.

Re: Reddit Doubles Down

#352

Post by Terr_ »

worrycue wrote: post #311
roody15 wrote: post #96

It seems that the end game of corporate controlled social media is for corporate interests to control what you read or watch. Happened with the feed of Facebook. originally was a true social network where you scrolled through what your family and friends posted. Now it is a algorithm designed to maximize attention and sell influence, Happened with YouTube. Used to be really pro independent user … now the search funct…

YouTube search is officially trash. It doesn’t even support excluding terms using “-“. I was trying to find video essays on Cyberpunk, the worthless search kept giving videos of the stupid Cyberpunk 2077 video game. I had to use Google search to find what I needed. Also YouTube search likes recommend me unrelated stuff too nowadays. For heaven sakes, can we have a search that just do its damn job.

> YouTube search is officially trash. It doesn’t even support excluding terms

Thinking back to around 1995-2005, I really regret how so many "search" tools (both online and in certain OSes) have become opaque and unreliable "let me guess it for you" engines. Features to correct them when they are wrong--like negation of terms--are sometimes unreliably badly/non-documents, or nonexistent.

It's not a lack of knowledge or skill--FFS Youtube owner Google has its own history as a search engine there--but all the commercial incentives aligned for Enshittificiation, and I wish I knew how to fix it.

Re: Reddit Doubles Down

#353

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

jrm4 wrote: post #275
extr wrote: post #38

I don't really understand why it had to be this way. It's so easy to think of other ways this could have been handled. Even just announcing the same change with 6 months of lead time rather than 1 month would have gone over better. Or boil the frog and gradually introduce API restrictions. It's as if the CEO is purposefully being as belligerent as possible to rile people up.

I don't understand why the users aren't just leaving? Surely the software/infrastructure can't be that hard to replicate, especially on a "subreddit" level? Why don't a few big mods just go this route and tell everyone else?

One of the key criticisms from the moderator side of things is that Reddit by itself is not usable; you simply can't moderate a large subreddit effectively using only on-platform tools. So they can't migrate to a Reddit clone which won't have all the third party support that's been built up.

Some communities have talked about going to Discord, but that's of course more of a closed platform in most ways.

Re: Reddit Doubles Down

#354

Post by Terr_ »

gardnr wrote: post #203
roody15 wrote: post #96

It seems that the end game of corporate controlled social media is for corporate interests to control what you read or watch. Happened with the feed of Facebook. originally was a true social network where you scrolled through what your family and friends posted. Now it is a algorithm designed to maximize attention and sell influence, Happened with YouTube. Used to be really pro independent user … now the search funct…

Have you checked out lemmy yet? https://join-lemmy.org/instances

I'd be a lot more willing to try if whatever identity I made was somehow portable to another instance if I change my mind later, rather than feeling like I've just entered into permanent lock-in with a random party of unclear reputation and future compared to the other choices. At least for me, that choice-barrier is surprisingly strong.

Re: Reddit Doubles Down

#355

Post by predictabl3 »

jojobas wrote: post #294
predictabl3 wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They better get their buck quick before investors realize what that means for the future of content on reddit. Because much as some folks here seem to believe, there IS actually more to reddit, reddit as it exists today, than just ad impression counts. I'm not some social media genius but the way that this being talked about by some people, who I guess haven't been a part of reddit over 17+ years, I am flabbergasted…

How do you monetize what's more than ad impression counts? Also apart from various types of nerds it appears to be mostly outrage echo chambers.

My name's not Steve and I don't think anyone would hire me to consult, but oh I dunno, this sure wouldn't be the way I'd go about it. I've actually read some horrifying hypotheticals on how reddit could've boiled this frog a lot slower, probably quiet silently.

In some sense, as a non-share holder who wants to see people build these communities in the open, I appreciate this approach.

Re: Reddit Doubles Down

#356

Post by voisin »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #282
dasil003 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most likely it's about control, not financials.

I found it interesting that spez admitted in his call with the apollo dev that the actual hosting cost for the api calls were pennies compared to the 'opportunity cost' of not having users use the official app. He basically admitted that harvesting data via the app and selling it to advertisers was reddit's bread and butter now.

Adtech business models are a blight on society. It’s a drug that ultimately, 100% of the time, leads to the downfall of the company due to the fundamental mismatch between company incentives and user desires.

Re: Reddit Doubles Down

#357

Post by dumpsterlid »

TX81Z wrote: post #33
AtlasBarfed wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit is a private company that runs on the donated labor of thousands of people doing moderation and policing. 99% of users rely on that labor. And it isn't a given some other forums will rise to the same level. This dumb trope of "economics will ensure an equivalent product will appear" is a laissez faire fantasy.

I moved from Twitter to BlueSky and am much happier. Mastodon wasn’t for me. When I log into Twitter now it’s just to see how bad it’s gotten and I log out. I’m sure it will be similar for Reddit - no clear “winner” at first, but the start of a gradual and irreversible decline for the incumbent.

[dead]

Re: Reddit Doubles Down

#358

Post by jesushax »

jrm4 wrote: post #275
extr wrote: post #38

I don't really understand why it had to be this way. It's so easy to think of other ways this could have been handled. Even just announcing the same change with 6 months of lead time rather than 1 month would have gone over better. Or boil the frog and gradually introduce API restrictions. It's as if the CEO is purposefully being as belligerent as possible to rile people up.

I don't understand why the users aren't just leaving? Surely the software/infrastructure can't be that hard to replicate, especially on a "subreddit" level? Why don't a few big mods just go this route and tell everyone else?

After /r/TheDonald was banned, a bunch of right wingers did exactly this by creating TheDonald.win and other sites (including one for /r/TheRedPill), forming the win network. Honestly, the interface was better than Reddit and the site was very active, demonstrating that moving communities off-Reddit is very doable.

TheDonald.win went down because the admin saw the light after Jan 6 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/02/05/why-the...)

Re: Reddit Doubles Down

#359

Post by jesushax »

waboremo wrote: post #301
wing-_-nuts wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What gets me is if all the third party apps had banded together and said 'july 1st, we all pivoting to support a new platform', that would have been enough of a network effect to effectively cold start the network effect on whatever they targeted. It would have been dig all over again, and this time reddit would have been in the dust bin.

The coordination required for such would be quite intense. Also fragile, as the third party apps would quickly abandon any roadmap agreed upon if Reddit changed its mind. Maybe it can happen now among the apps that have put their foot down about a complete end, but certainly loses a lot of momentum from those who might have already uninstalled them.

Isn't this basically how Reddit got popular, when everyone was mad about Digg's UI update so they wanted an alternative?

Re: Reddit Doubles Down

#360

Post by scubadude »

mulmen wrote: post #262
xatax wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Snoo is the name of the reddit alien. I believe it was going to be the original name of the site (what's new - what'S NOO). Since "redditor" is a community name, it makes sense there would be a different internal/employee demonym and Snoo fits the site as good as any other name might.

Here’s an idea, call them employees.

Family! ;-)
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