I was actually somewhat ok with going back to certain Reddit communities (although NOT just mindless scrolling) after the blackout. There’s a lot of communities where (I thought) there’s literally no alternatives.

Then came his latest wave of interviews attacking people that did their jobs for them (mods, Devs making a usable mobile app) and making insane hypocritical statements about “democracy” (everyone would gladly kick you out given the chance) and “landed gentry” (dude, if the mods are the out of touch landed gentry, that would make you the out of touch king, right?)

Why is he still giving interviews? Not like I even care about the company but seriously what good can he possibly do at this point, every day thousands more people leave for good.

Anyway, I seriously don’t think I can use Reddit with a clear conscience, at all, anymore, at least for now. Every time I interact with the site (even with adblock) I can’t help but think the entire time I am proving this millionaire megalomaniac right (that users will always come back no matter how shit the site is because they have to)

I guess there’s always the chance the board is letting him self destruct to offer him as the sacrificial lamb.

I honestly don’t know if this will last in terms of me not using reddit at all, but every day this idiot opens his mouth is another day I’m not using reddit and another day I’m searching for and interacting with alternatives.

  •  3Melvi   ( @3Melvi@kbin.social ) 
    7•1 year ago

    Same. Now that the CEO revealed the mindset that drives reddit behind the curtains, the problem shifted from a matter of convenience (access from APIs) to a matter of principles:

    1. the corporation has an authoritarian style of problem-solving;
    2. it has no respect for the userbase or the developers, thus it is not transparent,using underhanded tactics to push a narrative and hide their real goals;
    3. it wants to control every aspect of our interactions to make the userbase receptive to aggressive marketing;
    4. it has no qualms to limit access to content that is 100% created by users, not to use unpaid labor (the mods) to maximize its profits;
    5. it sees the userbase and the mods as expendable when they voice an objection on a policy, despite being those they exploit to make their model profitable (reddit is nothing without the moderation and the user-made content)

    This type of aggressive capitalism is becoming a poison for the web.
    It is going too far, destroying what has made the internet a special place to share information: no limits to exploration, to sharing, to expression. Now they want to create isolated bubbles behind login walls where they can be owners of the info and controllers of the space to sell data, product placements and ads.

    Perhaps these new technologies like the fediverse are the answer, the solution to put a brake on this ugly phenomenon.
    I hope decentralization will be the beginning of a new “Internet Renaissance”, bringing back a bit of the spirit of the 90s.

    •  TheAngryBad   ( @TheAngryBad@kbin.social ) 
      5•1 year ago

      I saw the same. I was just about tempted to slide back and browse quickly on my lunch break, then I saw that and just noped out of there. This place is building up quickly and strongly enough that I probably won’t bother going back to reddit if he’s going to keep up with this nonsense; I don’t really need that sort of BS negativity.

  •  Rain3h   ( @Rain3h@feddit.uk ) 
    6•1 year ago

    No matter how noble the cause realistically his position and actions were predicable.

    That said if they really are in undeleting comments from those who have closed their accounts it’s a huge privacy breach and a few years down the line all those inevitable fines from around the world will sink the platform, IPO or not and spez will be welcoming people at Walmart.

    Can’t wait.

  •  recursed   ( @recursed@lemmy.recursed.net ) 
    4•1 year ago

    As someone who’s been on reddit for almost 12 years, who’s also a developer. It really has saddened me to hear so many I’ll things he’s said to other dev teams.

    This is the main reason why I’m trying to go all in with Lemmy, subscribing to different communities, etc.

    At this point, if Reddit doesn’t make him step down and all these popular third party apps go under because of the API pricing, i will rarely be visiting reddit in the future.

  •  oatmilk   ( @oatmilk@kbin.social ) 
    3•1 year ago

    same here, I was gonna wait until July after the third party apps stopped working just to slowly adjust to the fediverse, but I deleted my account today after reading about everything that’s happened

  •  EccTM   ( @EccTM@lemmy.ml ) 
    3•1 year ago

    I guess there’s always the chance the board is letting him self destruct to offer him as the sacrificial lamb.

    I don’t believe spez is self destructing, He’s doing what benefits both himself and the board in bringing about these changes. Your right about how the board will probably use him as the sacrificial lamb though, along with giving him a healthy severance package on the way out. Pretty sure they’ve even pulled that on a smaller scale before with all that AMA staff drama. It’s all an attempt to maximize profits for their shareholders when they turn Reddit public, and then they can cash out too. They won’t be reverting any of these decisions after, even when they do push spez under the bus, because we users aren’t the priority.

    •  TheAngryBad   ( @TheAngryBad@kbin.social ) 
      3•1 year ago

      we users aren’t the priority.

      You know what they say. If you’re using a service for free, then you’re not the customer, you’re the product. They don’t care about what we think in the same way a farmer doesn’t care about the opinions of his cows. It’s just never really been this glaringly obvious before.

  •  tal   ( @tal@kbin.social ) 
    2•1 year ago

    I’m probably a lot less negative about Spez than a lot of people here. I mean, end of the day, he spent hundreds of millions of investors’ dollars, and he’s gotta make a return for them. They weren’t donating to him to make a cool forum. They were expecting a return.

    And this business model, at a high level, is the norm for dot-coms. Operate in money-losing mode, but have an especially-attractive service to grow the userbase. When you finally get a large userbase, then you have to shift over to monetizing them and being profitable.

    I mean, Reddit was inevitably going to reduce user experience to try to generate more money at some point.

    But none of that means that what Reddit is doing makes it the most appealing place for me. I mean, I’m over here not because I want Spez or Reddit to burn, but because it’s just not really the place I want to be with the changes. I’m not angry, but, for me, kbin is just preferable to Reddit now.

    There are fewer users and less content on the Fediverse right now, but that’s okay with me. I moved to Reddit back when it was one page with mostly people talking about things of interest to the Reddit staff. It was a lot smaller than the Fediverse is now.

    •  CleoTheWizard   ( @LimitedBrain@beehaw.org ) 
      3•1 year ago

      Platforms have to turn to make money. But that can be done ethically. There were many universes where 3rd party apps didn’t have to shut down. Or where they were given notice. And I guess this move just was really mask off for spez. Of course reddit needs to make money. But you can do that without shitting on the site you built.

      It’s the epitome of what capitalism does. It’s like ‘oh you like this place or hobby or content sharing or socializing? Well now it’s worse and costs money!’ Because capitalism has ruined everything else and it will sell you and your community of friends to the highest bidder.