Moogly

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

Traffic quality plays a big role too. If you never click on or engage with any ads your visits aren’t worth much anyway. You could even vpn yourself from a poor country and be considered even less valuable to the ad machines lol

It’d be a preferable situation if it were either/or but even then I realize I’m probably not big and bad enough to strong arm myself into that position everyone else would rather have.

Spez is/was a doomsday prepper though I think he figures he’s got an edge over everyone else

The leadership is too much for me. Too many right wing shitbirds with conspiracy delusions, too much open partying with Ghislaine(sp?) Maxwell, and too many mishandled scandals relating to sexual content with minors.

Huffman (Spez) gave some interview where he talks about civilization falling and he’d “be a slaver rather than a slave” (paraphrasing, I don’t have the interview open) which is just wild because he’s scrawny as fuck.

There’s always rumors of an IPO but I feel like the current staff isn’t fit to head a public company and would crumble under wide public scrutiny like on the markets

I don’t think they can ipo until a lot of the current staff has been replaced, Huffman included. Some of these dudes been around the company for too long and been involved in too many of reddits old scandals. Only so many pedos and child sex traffickers can come through your offices before the shit begins to get residue everywhere

If the public took a closer look at Reddit leadership I think it would only fuck their ipo.

https://nypost.com/2020/07/08/ex-reddit-ceo-ellen-pao-knew-ghislaine-maxwell-allegations/amp/

If you’re waiting for spez to admit how wrong he was and blah blah, don’t.

i think he will, except it’ll be in some backhanded way where he frames himself as a victim. He can’t help himself when it comes to the victimization stuff like how he criticized third party apps for being more profitable than actual Reddit which is just pathetic from an investing standpoint

I think Huffman is very weak as a CEO and consistently misses the mark so he’ll be whining again sooner or later for sure

I’m pretty upset over it but less about the third party apps but more that it feels like part of a larger theme: our open discussion mediums are under consistent errosion. Twitter has become a shitshow, reddit will flounder however it can to monetize users to attract investors, and most people that care about communication at large lack the money or means to provide a fleshed out service.

Reddit is still accessible for most so this change isn’t like on the order of recent Twitter changes, or some of the Facebook shit from like 2015ish. It just feels like these massive communities are both important but also impossible to maintain and preserve properly in the current digital/market landscape

The users most affected are the ones most likely to post or curate content. One of those users is more important than a hundred lurkers. So I figure if there’s an effect it’ll be from losing disproportionately valuable OC creators.

I’ve posted so much content across accounts in the realm of a couple million karma in total. It’s not the first time I’ve reflected on content with 20k+ views and figured this benefit is going both ways with Reddit.

If I’ve been as addicted to Reddit as I’ve been for years and I’m still willing to find alternatives I figure there must be some other power users like me. Idk if it’ll actually have any effect but I think it may on at least some smaller communities

Feels like we sit by complacently while they keep corroding our communities. It’s crazy how much we can tolerate