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“They’re shooting themselves in the foot,” Mir says. “The content of the users is what makes the platform worth visiting. These hosts kind of run into this confusion that their hosting is the reason people are going there, but it’s really for the other users on the medium.”

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[-] dan@lemm.ee 59 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If it wasn't hurting them they wouldn't be doing damage control.

It's working, keep it up.

[-] heartlessevil@lemmy.one 19 points 1 year ago

It's seriously hilarious that the "damage control" has been more damaging than the blackout itself

[-] darkmugglet@lemm.ee 13 points 1 year ago

Ironically, if Reddit has been up front and said they were killing third party apps, and kept their mouths shut they would have faired better. For a stupid play like this, speaking only makes it worse. This is going to be taught in business school on how to kill a business.

[-] TechyDad@beehaw.org 10 points 1 year ago

They could have even gotten third party apps to pay for API access. They just needed to set a fair rate and a workable timeline for the change.

Instead, they said "we're charging $20 million starting next month. Good luck trying to stay afloat with those sudden costs!"

Reddit could have increased their profits and kept users/moderators happy, but they chose Burn It All Down instead.

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[-] ericjmorey@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

Either way, I'd be preferring alternatives. On desktop, old.reddit.com plus RES (which is not entirely clear if they will be effected, though it looks like it will not be), but the mobile experience is not good on a mobile browser and I really don't like the official app. Without RiF, I would not be participating much even without a direct alternative.

[-] the_robomafia@readit.buzz 9 points 1 year ago

Definitely I would have gone back if not for the complete and total disrespect spez has shown towards the community

[-] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 year ago

Honestly I think every time spez says something stupid it convinces another wave of Redditors to check out Lemmy

[-] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 7 points 1 year ago

The exit didn't start with the API announcement, just gained steam. What's truly baffling is that Reddit seems to want data on where users' final straw is.

Who knew the best "celebrity" endorsement for the fediverse comes from the CEO of Reddit...

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[-] Alfredo_Boyardee@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

There’s a term for that. The Streisand Effect, I think.

[-] themadcodger@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

That's in the same vein as "it's not the crime it's the cover-up"

[-] TechyDad@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

I don't usually fault companies for messing up if they own up to their mistakes and make it right. Everyone is going to make mistakes and things will go wrong at times. It's how a company handles events when everything goes sideways that shows whether they are good or bad.

In Reddit's case, they could have acknowledged that their API plans were too aggressive and overpriced. They could have paused any API pricing changes and worked with third party developers to come to a solution where Reddit is paid, but third party developers don't have to shut down due to immediate and insanely high costs being demanded. Everyone could have walked away benefiting and Reddit's reputation (in my eyes) would have been intact. I'd likely be posting there right now instead of here on Lemmy.

Instead, Reddit decided to double and triple down. Their CEO decided to accuse the developer of Apollo of threatening Reddit and, when phone call audio proved this was a lie, blamed the developer for "leaking personal phone calls." Then, that same CEO claimed that the API was never meant for third party apps (ignoring and trying to rewrite history) and said that any moderators who kept their subreddits blacked out would be replaced. All while claiming that the moderators should rest easy because Reddit would definitely provide tool themselves to replace lost third party tools despite no sign of this happening and trust being totally shattered. (And so much more that I'm not including because this comment is too long already.)

So Reddit messing up? That could have been forgiven had they done the right thing afterwards. But now, after completely botching the response? I hope Reddit withers away to nothing and the CEO's IPO dreams die on the vine.

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[-] redcalcium@c.calciumlabs.com 15 points 1 year ago

I haven't been to Reddit for a few days and they did these stuff already? Let's keep this up.

[-] lunacybooth@readit.buzz 8 points 1 year ago

They wouldn't be lying about trying to work with devs

Its fascinating watching him keep digging. He bullshits, gets caught out, so he bullshits about a different dev. Rinse. Repeat.

[-] Bobbinapples@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

They wouldn't be posting propaganda notices on new reddit's homepage

I want to know more about this, i haven't heard of this yet.

[-] dan@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This appears at the top of the page until you dismiss it (at least for me): https://i.imgur.com/Uo3t2TI.jpg

Here’s what it links to: https://mods.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/16693988535309

Yesterday they were linking to some much more blatant propaganda/history whitewash, here's the link: https://www.redditinc.com/blog/apifacts

[-] QHC@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

I like how it says their "updated" API rate limits but doesn't mention when those rules went into effect or how much warning they gave developers.

Spoiler: the answers are "very recently" and "not even a month".

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[-] CarolinaBlues@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago
[-] dan@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

Thanks I've been trying to fill in those claims with links so this one is great :)

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[-] arcticpiecitylights@beehaw.org 40 points 1 year ago

Corrected headline: The Reddit API Cash Grab is Breaking Reddit

[-] CoachDom@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 year ago

True! Put the blame on the one's that earned it

[-] ElysiumXII@beehaw.org 32 points 1 year ago

I hope Redditors don't cave and cease protesting, clearly it's working if Reddit has to force subs to reopen.

[-] Smellmop@beehaw.org 27 points 1 year ago

I haven't been on since the 10th and I was on it near constantly before that. If reddit sync isn't going to be around 10 days from now then I have no plans to use the site anything like I used to. I literally have no desire to learn their crappy app and lose the curated experience I had set up for myself. The only redditing I plan for the future is googling for specific questions in niche communities.

[-] ElysiumXII@beehaw.org 6 points 1 year ago

The only redditing I plan for the future is googling for specific questions in niche communities.

Same, though you could possibly find some non Reddit answers to your questions

[-] worfamerryman@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago

That’s kinda what I have been doing. Sadly Reddit has Ana amazing database for tech stuff. Luckily I was able to find most of my info in non-Reddit spaces.

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[-] kazarnowicz@beehaw.org 9 points 1 year ago

Same here. I'm trying to find other ways to support the protests. The community I'm moderating there will migrate over to here (yay!) but I don't expect more than a couple hundred to move. I will keep moderating the community over there (because we're a gay community and a safe space for trans men which is sorely lacking on Reddit), but I've deleted the app from my phone and only use old.reddit.com with uBlock origin to make sure I'm not contributing to Reddit's bottom line.

[-] Linnce@beehaw.org 22 points 1 year ago

“Any plan that involves endless and continuous growth is bound to run into scale issues, which is where I think Reddit and Twitter are running into problems,” Mir says. “You can’t inflate the balloon forever. It will pop at some point.”

I'm looking at you too, Netflix.

[-] HeavyCream@beehaw.org 28 points 1 year ago

stares at capitalism

[-] PenguinTD@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 year ago

funny how the article does not mention lemmy or kbin, but put in disclosure that their parent company have stakes in reddit. And the best the author can do is

If users have invested significant time in a community, it’s going to be a pain to find something amid the sea of federated upstarts that all claim to be the next best thing.

The mentioned article by Rory Mir actually mentioned lemmy and kbin, cause it's EFF. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/06/what-reddit-got-wrong

[-] slartibartfast42@beehaw.org 11 points 1 year ago

Reddit’s plans—driven by an urge to make the company more profitable as it inches toward going public

Correction: Reddit's plan is driven by an urge to make the company profitable.

[-] runarskoll@beehaw.org 9 points 1 year ago

Not trying to sound like La Palice but in all the articles and posts about this issue, they seem to miss the core of what is making users mad (the mods fight is different, although in the same direction, but solvable).

The thing to the user who's generating content and not only swiping his finger is: they don't want to experience Reddit as other users experience Instagram, Facebook, TikTok or Twitter. They follow issues, not people. If you get in the middle of this relationship between the anonymous user and their discussion on an issue, with your tricks to show them your promoted content, you'll be told to fuck off.

There's nothing to improve in the Reddit Official App. Everybody hates the principles it's created on, much ahead of the poor design choices and lack of features.

[-] density@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago

Mir offers another business metaphor for the tension on Reddit: “If you have a really good music venue, but you break relations with every notable artist, you’re not going to be a very successful venue. You need to really prioritize the needs of the folks providing the value on your platform.”

Brilliant. Reddit looks out at a crowd of people at a packed show and says "ok we could lose 5%". But those are the ones who return another night as musicians. And you cant run a music venue long term with open mic 7 nights per week.

[-] storksforlegs@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Plus they dont want to pay bouncers so the number of assholes is going to keep creeping up

[-] holo_nexus@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago

What really did it for me was Huffman’s quote on how “Reddit users, communities, and discussions are one of the largest data sets that cannot be given away for free” (summarized quote).

The rumored IPO made an entire corporation do a 180 so ruthlessly and clumsily in a way that I have never seen. It’s destroying itself and rightfully so.

[-] Bowen@beehaw.org 6 points 1 year ago

Fidelity dropping reddit's valuation by ~40% made me go "oh boy that's bad news" when I saw it at the start of the month.

Imagine thinking you're cashing out at 10 billion and now you're only getting 6. The horror.

[-] Nechesh@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

Imagine you're an employee thinking you're going to have stock worth 100k, and suddenly it's worth 60k and falling.

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[-] dan@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I honestly can't believe he's being so egotistical about it. Insults mods as "landed gentry" and users' concerns as "noise" - those are literally the people that have created this "valuable dataset" he's coveting so greedily.

[-] minorsecond@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

That's why I nuked all my posts and edited every one of my comments to point to kbin / lemmy before deleting my account. They may revert my changes, but I at least wanted to try to prevent them from benefiting from me in any way.

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this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2023
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