It’s crazy how reddit’s run like it’s a 1-2 year old startup still trying to figure out how guidelines, communication, consistent rule enforcement, etc. work.
It’s becoming more and more apparent the site’s success was despite the company running it, not because of it.
They were actually told to get bent but not fired, which is even funnier. Imagine insulting and belittling a key department in your company but letting them continue to run things.
I am starting to realize it’s not “work” I want to get away from, it’s Wall Street.
I mean it’s not my boss or their bosses who are saying that my work won’t help cancer patients unless they pay a 100 bucks for something I can make for 3 bucks, it’s the Wall Street investors who bought the company.
And it’s not the corporate hierarchy at Reddit that tells me that they need to blast ads in my face and make me argue with bots, it’s the Wall Street investor valuing its IPO.
If Reddit had just kept their mouth shut, 2 days after the blackout most subs would be back online and the others would eventually follow.
But no Spez had to open his mouth and take actions, forcing subs to open again, telling lies about the app creators.
Basically turning all of Reddit against him.
He’s panicking. His biggest lie is that this protest doesn’t matter and hasn’t and won’t impact Reddit financially. It already has and will continue to do so. You can tell that the people who actually post content worth viewing are here and not there, despite the smaller numbers over here.
I mean it’s not just reddit. While investors probably don’t care, the fact that he lied about easily disprovable things that did or did not happen doesn’t bode well. I don’t think it’s going to hurt their bottom line any time soon, but that kind of spinelessness isn’t exactly liked.
Yeah, the angry irrational reactions show that all the talk about the protests just being noise was a bluff. It might have blown over, but it hasn’t exactly because it got a reaction.
I think its going to end up a successful move for them.
They built a platform. The users built the site over the years with minimal interaction from reddit.
They now have a platform, millions of users, and full control of what they want on that platform.
The writing has been on the wall for a while now, they want the traffic but don’t want the problems that come with mostly community driven content.
All the profile redesigns, ability to “follow” users, profile pics, awards, all that has been an indication of the direction over the last few years. The last few steps was to kick out the problem users and be left with those who don’t really give a shit and just want to see memes on their phone while they take a shit. The people who hear about reddit and just grab the official app from the store. The people who don’t care about APIs and protests and modding or accessibility tools. Just eyeballs to look at their ads.
Those people will stay. It doesn’t matter if 25% of the community leaves, because the natural growth in the next few months from the eyeballs will claw it back over time.
Once they have an obedient user base who are strictly bound to what reddit want them to see, think TikTok or facebook users, that’s when they will see off. And it will pay off handsomely.
I would have agreed with you if it had just been the API changes, but the recent behaviour from admins is extremely alienating. All they needed to do to fix this situation is strike a deal with app developers and say sorry. The protest would have been over in a day and things would have largely gone back to normal.
Instead, they dug in their heels and behaved like insecure little tyrants. They lie, they force mods out of their subs, they undelete comments, etc. There’s no trust left between admins and community, and in the long run that’s going to kill the website.
The thing that makes reddit great is the user created content. That content is provided by a tiny minority, while the vast majority just consumes.
Most of the people creating the content care about the platform, and they will leave if they are alienated enough. That’s not even mentioning the thousands of hours of unpaid mod work. You might find some power-hungry replacements for the bigger subs, but the quality of mods will decrease, which will make the community worse in the long run.
If they continue on this path, reddit will end up like 9gag. There’ll be content, but very little of it will be original, and it won’t be all that interesting for targeted advertising like it currently is.
It won’t disappear, but it certainly won’t be a multi-billion dollar company.
the ‘4D Chess defense’. we can’t keep saying that mistakes are actually intentional when there are so many examples of the mistakes, being made for the same reasons, by the same types of people (out of touch CEOs with terrible judgment)
If you go by Spez (Hoffman) literally saying recently “We’re 18 years old. It’s time we grow up” and “It’s time we grow up and behave like an adult company”, it can give you insight into how he thinks of Reddit (and age, as he was a former /r/jailbait mod). The idea of ‘age’ in a company is such a man-childish way to think about it. The idea that after 18 years you, as a co-founder of a company, apparently have just such little thought into this is mind boggling and shows he’s basically just coasted the entire time. He apparently hasn’t:
Determined the vision of the company (therefore the guidelines, rules, etc)
Have a roadmap about where this is going (short of the sudden push for IPO)
Figured out how to turn a profit without alienating the user/mod base
This should evoke no confidence from any current or potential investor and while I initially hoped for this guy to be forced out, so I could come back. I don’t think it will get rid of the issues of platform and community stagnation, toxicity, bots, or the push to make a profit. At this point with this whole Kbin/Lemmy/Threadiverse-era on the horizon, I’m actually excited. This is a great time to reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and where we want to collectively go with these platforms and how make it work for us. I’m looking forward to the future and to shake off the malaise that clicking on Reddit basically everyday for the past 18 years has done to us.
At this point with this whole Kbin/Lemmy/Threadiverse-era on the horizon, I’m actually excited.
Same. People always opine about how reddit was better X years ago, but it really was. Over the past dozen years, I’ve gradually unsubscribed from every default sub and most larger ones. They always turn into meme-factory shitholes full of puns, recycled one-liners, and totally irrational explanations why you’re wrong (many of these seem to come from intentional contrarian accounts/bots). There’s a demand for that stuff, sure, but it’s gotten harder and harder to find sincere, thoughtful comments.
I’m planning to delete my reddit account next week, but already finding myself coming here more frequently because the quality of the interactions is better. I can’t recall the last time I received a comment there with as much time/effort as the one I’m replying to right now.
I always found Reddit to be more enjoyable in the niche subculture stuff anyways, hopefully some of those communities move over here. You would think that the admins for Reddit would understand the “innovate or die” mentality, but that unfortunately does not seem to be the case. I too am looking forward to what Lemmy/KBin brings as a replacement.
It’s crazy how reddit’s run like it’s a 1-2 year old startup still trying to figure out how guidelines, communication, consistent rule enforcement, etc. work.
It’s becoming more and more apparent the site’s success was despite the company running it, not because of it.
Well, whether Reddit likes it or not, mods were a department of specialists working on some unique aspects of their business.
That whole department got told to get bent, in essence fired, but they don’t even have contracts in place preventing “disgruntled employee” stuff.
This is what happens.
They were actually told to get bent but not fired, which is even funnier. Imagine insulting and belittling a key department in your company but letting them continue to run things.
Hey! Some of us come here to get away from work!!
I am starting to realize it’s not “work” I want to get away from, it’s Wall Street.
I mean it’s not my boss or their bosses who are saying that my work won’t help cancer patients unless they pay a 100 bucks for something I can make for 3 bucks, it’s the Wall Street investors who bought the company.
And it’s not the corporate hierarchy at Reddit that tells me that they need to blast ads in my face and make me argue with bots, it’s the Wall Street investor valuing its IPO.
Mods are the QC on the free product made by volunteers.
If Reddit had just kept their mouth shut, 2 days after the blackout most subs would be back online and the others would eventually follow.
But no Spez had to open his mouth and take actions, forcing subs to open again, telling lies about the app creators.
Basically turning all of Reddit against him.
He’s panicking. His biggest lie is that this protest doesn’t matter and hasn’t and won’t impact Reddit financially. It already has and will continue to do so. You can tell that the people who actually post content worth viewing are here and not there, despite the smaller numbers over here.
I mean it’s not just reddit. While investors probably don’t care, the fact that he lied about easily disprovable things that did or did not happen doesn’t bode well. I don’t think it’s going to hurt their bottom line any time soon, but that kind of spinelessness isn’t exactly liked.
Yeah, the angry irrational reactions show that all the talk about the protests just being noise was a bluff. It might have blown over, but it hasn’t exactly because it got a reaction.
to be fair they did let the 2 days pass, they only started hitting out at mods of the ones staying dark.
But the app creator lies in the lead up is dumb
I think its going to end up a successful move for them.
They built a platform. The users built the site over the years with minimal interaction from reddit.
They now have a platform, millions of users, and full control of what they want on that platform.
The writing has been on the wall for a while now, they want the traffic but don’t want the problems that come with mostly community driven content.
All the profile redesigns, ability to “follow” users, profile pics, awards, all that has been an indication of the direction over the last few years. The last few steps was to kick out the problem users and be left with those who don’t really give a shit and just want to see memes on their phone while they take a shit. The people who hear about reddit and just grab the official app from the store. The people who don’t care about APIs and protests and modding or accessibility tools. Just eyeballs to look at their ads.
Those people will stay. It doesn’t matter if 25% of the community leaves, because the natural growth in the next few months from the eyeballs will claw it back over time.
Once they have an obedient user base who are strictly bound to what reddit want them to see, think TikTok or facebook users, that’s when they will see off. And it will pay off handsomely.
I would have agreed with you if it had just been the API changes, but the recent behaviour from admins is extremely alienating. All they needed to do to fix this situation is strike a deal with app developers and say sorry. The protest would have been over in a day and things would have largely gone back to normal.
Instead, they dug in their heels and behaved like insecure little tyrants. They lie, they force mods out of their subs, they undelete comments, etc. There’s no trust left between admins and community, and in the long run that’s going to kill the website.
The thing that makes reddit great is the user created content. That content is provided by a tiny minority, while the vast majority just consumes.
Most of the people creating the content care about the platform, and they will leave if they are alienated enough. That’s not even mentioning the thousands of hours of unpaid mod work. You might find some power-hungry replacements for the bigger subs, but the quality of mods will decrease, which will make the community worse in the long run.
If they continue on this path, reddit will end up like 9gag. There’ll be content, but very little of it will be original, and it won’t be all that interesting for targeted advertising like it currently is.
It won’t disappear, but it certainly won’t be a multi-billion dollar company.
So they basically want a 9gag?
It’s an intentional tanking of the company :)
I’m more inclined to believe it’s just incompetence.
Agreed. Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by incompetence. Hanlon’s razor
Why? By who? Wouldn’t employees and particularly spez want the platform to succeed so they can cash out?
the ‘4D Chess defense’. we can’t keep saying that mistakes are actually intentional when there are so many examples of the mistakes, being made for the same reasons, by the same types of people (out of touch CEOs with terrible judgment)
If you go by Spez (Hoffman) literally saying recently “We’re 18 years old. It’s time we grow up” and “It’s time we grow up and behave like an adult company”, it can give you insight into how he thinks of Reddit (and age, as he was a former /r/jailbait mod). The idea of ‘age’ in a company is such a man-childish way to think about it. The idea that after 18 years you, as a co-founder of a company, apparently have just such little thought into this is mind boggling and shows he’s basically just coasted the entire time. He apparently hasn’t:
This should evoke no confidence from any current or potential investor and while I initially hoped for this guy to be forced out, so I could come back. I don’t think it will get rid of the issues of platform and community stagnation, toxicity, bots, or the push to make a profit. At this point with this whole Kbin/Lemmy/Threadiverse-era on the horizon, I’m actually excited. This is a great time to reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and where we want to collectively go with these platforms and how make it work for us. I’m looking forward to the future and to shake off the malaise that clicking on Reddit basically everyday for the past 18 years has done to us.
Same. People always opine about how reddit was better X years ago, but it really was. Over the past dozen years, I’ve gradually unsubscribed from every default sub and most larger ones. They always turn into meme-factory shitholes full of puns, recycled one-liners, and totally irrational explanations why you’re wrong (many of these seem to come from intentional contrarian accounts/bots). There’s a demand for that stuff, sure, but it’s gotten harder and harder to find sincere, thoughtful comments.
I’m planning to delete my reddit account next week, but already finding myself coming here more frequently because the quality of the interactions is better. I can’t recall the last time I received a comment there with as much time/effort as the one I’m replying to right now.
I always found Reddit to be more enjoyable in the niche subculture stuff anyways, hopefully some of those communities move over here. You would think that the admins for Reddit would understand the “innovate or die” mentality, but that unfortunately does not seem to be the case. I too am looking forward to what Lemmy/KBin brings as a replacement.
Willfully forgetting how those things work. Like his hero over at twitter.