I left Reddit just ahead of the blackout, and I’ve only been returning for one small private sub that can’t effectively be moved. I figure, since it’s private, Reddit doesn’t get much credit for my activity there.
I’ve used Relay exclusively for many years, so I’ve been happy that it’s continued to work. It will be annoying if/when I have to use the browser to go to that sub.
Well the article states that the issue was more managerial than quality of employees, granted, it is very biased since their statements are from ex-Reddit employees but some of the quotes in the article state that they wanted to focus on fixing the important issues (moderation tools etc) but the managers demanded more product improvements that generate profit, and moderation tools are not it. After all, this is the same platform that let The_Donald for years, I don’t think moderation was ever a priority at all for Reddit
Actually, that sounds like exactly what I would be advising them to do in a situation like this. Reddit has been bloating itself with new features that nobody has been asking for because it keeps trying to turn itself into Facebook or Discord or whatever. If Reddit needs to become profitable I'd suggest cutting those and focusing entirely on what Reddit already does better than its competitors. Link aggregation and threaded discussion. Do just that, but do it better. That would allow them to shed some massive expenses both in technology and in staffing without impacting the income from its core business.
They didn't do that and it's probably too late now. I don't know how Reddit would be able to shed its Imgur-like image and video hosting at this point, for example.
Reddit has been bloating itself with new features that nobody has been asking for
Exactly. Almost all their "exiting new features" have been subtracting value and turning the site into shit. That's why I left, not because I care about the API. I don't understand why they kept paying people to make reddit worse. They should roll back their source code to 10 years earlier.
Yeah, Reddit, like so many other websites, seems to have gotten into its head the idea that it wants to recreate the 90s AOL experience, but not in the fun way.
I wonder if there’s any data available on how much content was generated from 3rd party apps. in my experience, reddit was accessed solely through an app (rip baconreader). am I wrong in thinking that the users are the product and advertisers the customer?
You’re not wrong and this article really drove this home for me.
Especially how leadership really didn’t care about moderators having the tools they need to do the job they volunteered for.
They don’t care about the quality of the site, just that people keep posting so they can package up all that sweet sweet data for advertisers.
Think about all the little niche communities. I’m sure Reddit can link your username to your real identity internally. Imagine the profiles they can build and sell.
They don’t even care if you stop posting, it’s all there.
am I wrong in thinking that the users are the product and advertisers the customer?
I think there was/is a monetization route through the use of user data (probably why they’re pushing their app so much) as well as using all the data for things like language AI modeling.
But on that last one it seems like the biggest players such as openAI and Microsoft already scraped their site freely. Not sure if they’ve missed a big chunk of that opportunity by now
I have developed the impression, and it’s mostly just my hunch not so much evidence based - spez and co are kind of kicking themselves for being oblivious to the AI training rush and failing to monetize on it. Probably didn’t even realize it was happening until we all did via crazy headlines showing up in news about what AI could do. That kind of thing may lead to kneejerk decisions on api access
If Reddit leadership was oblivious, their heads were under a rock. Various GPT iterations have been training on different subreddits and posting to places like r/SubredditSimulator for years and have even been reported on in the media well before ChatGPT came out. Here is one report on it from 4 years ago:
While third party app users probably had a larger proportion of contributors, Reddit is big enough to still have plenty of content. Moderators are more interesting and it remains to be seen over time if an erosion of quality moderation happens which would make Reddit even shittier. Especially since Reddit seems to keep fumbling when it comes to providing good first party mod tools, see the whole r/Blind fiasco.
am I wrong in thinking that the users are the product and the advertisers the customer?
As long as profitability is the goal then you are correct.
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