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submitted 1 week ago by Blaze@sopuli.xyz to c/reddit@lemmy.world

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19466667

Money, Mods, and Mayhem

The Turning Point

In 2024, Reddit is a far cry from its scrappy startup roots. With over 430 million monthly active users and more than 100,000 active communities, it's a social media giant. But with great power comes great responsibility, and Reddit is learning this lesson the hard way.

The turning point came in June 2023 when Reddit announced changes to its API pricing. For the uninitiated, API stands for Application Programming Interface, and it's basically the secret sauce that allows third-party apps to interact with Reddit. The new pricing model threatened to kill off popular third-party apps like Apollo, whose developer Christian Selig didn't mince words: "Reddit's API changes are not just unfair, they're unsustainable for third-party apps."

Over 8,000 subreddits went dark in protest.

The blackout should have reminded Reddit’s overlords of a crucial fact: Reddit’s success was built on the backs of its users. The platform had cultivated a sense of ownership among its community, and now that community was biting back.

One moderator summed it up perfectly: “We’re the ones who keep this site running, and we’re being ignored.” 

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ok....

but does this mean I could get my account back in the next few months/next year?😭😭😭

[-] haunte@leminal.space 227 points 1 week ago

Despite this seemingly rosy picture, Reddit is still bleeding money. In the quarter ending June 2024, the company reported revenue of $281.18 million - a 53.63% year-over-year increase - but still posted a net loss of $10.10 million.

Most of the actual work on the site is done by unpaid moderators. Hosting bills are probably huge but not THAT huge. I'm sure they have a decent sized staff, but not THAT big. I wonder what's going wrong...

Reddit Files to Go Public, Reveals That It Paid CEO $193 Million Last Year

Ohhh... Well, there's your problem, dumbasses.

[-] random8847@lemmy.world 141 points 1 week ago

Wow, out of a total revenue of $281 million $193 million goes to a single person? Holy shit. What a selfish asshole you have to be to disregard all of your employees and take such a huge cut for yourself.

[-] Beaver@lemmy.ca 43 points 1 week ago

Spez is the unnecessary overhead that creates extra work for the workers

[-] sushibowl@feddit.nl 28 points 1 week ago

Nah, that's mostly stock options, so it doesn't come out of the revenue. His cash salary was only a couple hundred thousand.

It's probably better from a tax point of view. Plus he's planning to cash out big on his own IPO, so he prefers the stock.

[-] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago

You should look up the absurd pay structure of Musk at Tesla or how at Facebook, despite it being a publicly traded company, Zuckerberg literally cannot be fired.

The reason tech tends to chase stupid trends like AI is that there really aren't that many people in charge of the whole place. They all know each other; they're all buddies. And they all chase the same stupid fads together.

[-] Yambu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 week ago

It's actually insane. I'm not built for corporate jobs but goddamn I have no idea how anyone would want to work for such a company.

[-] Annoyed_Crabby@monyet.cc 52 points 1 week ago

It's a sign. Spez will now milk the company and make himself billionaires for the next few years, then sell the company for tens of billions, and new owner will run it into the ground, milking whatever left of it. Then it will become the blandest, soulless socmed.

[-] mudmaniac@lemmy.world 32 points 1 week ago

Sounds like a job for Elon Musk.

[-] Veneroso@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago

Please let this happen.

No one can ruin a company quite like him.

Or sell it to Trump Media Group.

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[-] demizerone@lemmy.world 37 points 1 week ago

Basically paid that twat 200 mil to kill the site.

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[-] Blaster_M@lemmy.world 183 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Best thing to ever happen on reddit is the guy that posted on askreddit how to set the site language back to English because he accidentally set it to Spanish... and everyone posted their replies only in Spanish.

That was peak reddit.

[-] Seraph@fedia.io 157 points 1 week ago

They banned bots from WholesomeMemes and there were no posts for 2 days. Dead Internet is now, and it's at Reddit.

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[-] lvxferre@mander.xyz 117 points 1 week ago

I think that this article is accurate and sensible.

There's a point that I'd like to add, that the author doesn't mention: user trust.

The main value of an online platform is the user trust, as it dictates the users' willingness to help building it instead of vandalising it. In Reddit's case it means people writing well-thought posts, moderating communities, reporting content, using the voting system, etc.

And user trust is violated every time that a platform takes user-hostile decisions. Like Reddit has been taking for almost a decade; with 2023's APIcalypse being a big example of that, but only one among many.

And when user trust is violated, it's almost impossible to come back. John Bull explains this well, with the Trust Thermocline; but the basic idea is that those violations pile up invisibly upon a certain point, when they suddenly become a big deal and the platform bleeds users like there's no tomorrow. And once it reaches that point it's practically impossible to come back.

So perhaps we aren't watching Reddit die. Nor we will, in the future - because Reddit is already dead. What we're watching instead, with morbid curiosity, is a headless chicken running around, while we place some bets on when it will stop moving - so venture capital can have its dinner.

[-] Blaze@feddit.org 45 points 1 week ago

So perhaps we aren’t watching Reddit die. Nor we will, in the future - because Reddit is already dead. What we’re watching instead, with morbid curiosity, is a headless chicken running around, while we place some bets on when it will stop moving - so venture capital can have its dinner.

Well put

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[-] Dead_or_Alive@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago

I can’t pinpoint when Reddit died in my eyes. But I can say the long road to where it is today started with Reddit Gold.

Reddit Gold was a minor change that didn’t do much of anything besides offer a way to collect money directly from the user base. But it was the start of monetizing the site and every decision by Reddit management after that point furthered that monetization at the expense of everything else.

[-] gerbler@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago

I didn't mind Reddit gold as a method of paying for upkeep on an ostensibly free site. If well-off Redditors wanted to chip in to help with maintenance resulting in fewer or less intrusive ads then that's grand.

The point when they started losing me was when the Reddit front page modernised into the Instagram feed looking abomination it is today and when they shifted from Reddit gold to the silver diamond thing they have now. No I don't want to make an avatar. No I don't want to follow users or have them follow me.

It started as the last example of old social media like forums and got metric'd into this half-formed freak of a site that seems to actively resent the users that build and maintain their entire platform.

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[-] Angry_Autist@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago

I can pinpoint the exact moment: When the admins actively gave t_d a full pass on anything they wanted to do in 2016.

That single act drove away more users than any previous exodus.

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[-] Anticorp@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Very well said, and it was the trust violation which finally pushed me off of Facebook and Reddit. Reddit as we know it is dead, it's obvious to anyone who used to use it. But AI is here, and it's going to continue pumping semi-believable posts and replies for years, making it look as if the site is still booming. But the posts are vapid, devoid of soul, and almost always written with an ulterior motive to sell something or some idea. The Dead Internet is here.

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[-] Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 93 points 1 week ago

My favorite of the protests was DnDmemes becoming a goblin porn subreddit, and the final reply of the main mod "I shitposted me way in here, I'll shitpost my way out". That and demanding a d20 roll for persuasion(?) from the admins

[-] Drusas@fedia.io 46 points 1 week ago

I liked pics becoming nothing but sexy pictures of John Oliver, with the notice that all pictures of John Oliver are sexy pictures of John Oliver.

[-] Nytefyre@kbin.melroy.org 77 points 1 week ago

And Spez's response?

"OMG! STOP GOING DARK OR I AND MY LEGION OF SLIME ADMINS WILL REMOVE YOU FROM POWAH!"

And so he did which is why some subreddits came back from being dark. Some subreddits submitted to their own fates. Other subreddits reluctantly came back, proving the protest was just a mere farce that amounted to a nothingburger.

And what did Spez do after the whole fiasco? Why, he punched Reddit into now being Public. Completing what people had long speculated that he'd do.

And what did Spez do after that? He's now rolling out the concept that Subreddits will be monetized.

Spez has ultimately learned nothing from these incidents and expects it to get better, with that stupid shit eating grin on his face because he huffs and breathes in all of Musk's farts.

[-] AtomicHotSauce@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago

he huffs and breathes in all of Musk’s farts

This is comedic gold. But the bad part? I envisioned it. Thanks a lot.

[-] abbadon420@lemm.ee 19 points 1 week ago

And he's getting rich off of it too. I mean, that's his whole gain, right? Money! He's given his soul for money. The whole community hates him, but at least he's gotten rich now. I'm sure reddit's annual founders parties must be a hoot.

[-] Nytefyre@kbin.melroy.org 13 points 1 week ago

For a group of so-called intellectuals and rowdy revolutionists, Reddit users seem to have a knack for taking it up dry than doing anything about their problems.

I guess that is truly Reddit's nature.

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[-] ramble81@lemm.ee 18 points 1 week ago

Spez has ultimately learned nothing

He’s learned he can do this shit and make money. It may not be a perpetual money machine. But he now has enough and will milk it for all that’s left. That’s what he’s learned.

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[-] Beaver@lemmy.ca 58 points 1 week ago

I’m trying to upvote as many Lemmy posts as I can find on the Reddit search function to hasten the demise of the pet project of Spez since the third party apps are up to snuff now!

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago

I'm not sure if there is any way you can promote links to my account, but feel free:

https://www.reddit.com/user/FlyingSquid/

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[-] MarkalAlvarez@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago

Let’s hope more people will join the fediverse so we can all stop feeding our data to these greedy companies.

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[-] gencha@lemm.ee 57 points 1 week ago

I'm calling bullshit on any user count they release. The site was filled with bots even when I still used it. People kept complaining about "karma farmers" as if there were users who repost popular content. It has always been largely Reddit's own bots too keep new users entertained and recycle popular content so that it reaches as many users as possible. They turned this up to 11 before going public.

Now that they no longer provide an API, they are free to make up any fake metric they want to try to pump up their worthless stock.

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[-] Don_Dickle@lemmy.world 52 points 1 week ago

Fuck reddit ...fuck the mods who abuse their power. Fuck the bots. Fuck the corporate greed bs. The admins have always been cool to me until I was perma ban. But kind of seem like nice folks.

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[-] solsangraal@lemmy.zip 45 points 1 week ago

they'll be fine. as evidenced by twitter, there is absolutely no amount of enshittification that will make some people leave

[-] paultimate14@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago

Hasn't Twitter lost ~30 million active users, about 10%, since Musk bought it? Plus there's probably going to be a couple million more gone from the Brazil ban.

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[-] zeephirus@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago
[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago

Fuck, I remember Yahoo.

It was never cool but in the stone age it was hip for about 30 minutes.

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[-] forgotmylastusername@lemmy.ml 43 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Reddit's strength has always been its community

There's something nobody talks about much when it comes to reddit. It's that the internet has moved past community. It now revolves around monetized "influencers". Nobody fosters community for the sake of it anymore.

Reddit has outlived its time. It's apparent they've been trying to evolve with the times but the platform isn't fundamentally geared towards this coporatized era of the internet. They've been trying to pivot the platform into social media style. Users now have profiles with avatars, bio text, followers/subscribers. There's now a social graph. The big picture with these things is they're trying to make it into a corporatized social platform like all the rest.

The problem isn't reddit itself. It's the internet that isn't geared towards community anymore.

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[-] can@sh.itjust.works 33 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

And now they're teeming with bots* and drove away the power users. Look how many posts and comments they've lost in the last year just from me alone.

Edit:

The beauty of Reddit was its decentralized structure.
Users created and moderated their own communities with freedom and autonomy, and it led to an explosion of niche interests and discussions. Want to debate the finer points of medieval weaponry? There's a subreddit for that. Obsessed with pictures of birds with human arms photoshopped onto them? Yep, there's a subreddit for that too.

Took a bit but I'm glad we found the actual decentralized structure we needed

[-] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 29 points 1 week ago

It gives me great joy to be reading this via Boost.

[-] mesamunefire@lemmy.world 28 points 1 week ago

I remember when they kicked mods off their platform when the subreddits went private on the API retaliation. Now quite a few are on here. Meanwhile, some of those subreddits are still having issues moderating.

Personally I think mods should be rotated once in a while by the community instead of giving power to them indefinitely on communities. But reddit really messed up there. Some mods are mods of hundreds of subreddits which is silly and unsustainable.

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[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago

Will Reddit seize this opportunity? Or will it continue down its current path of self-destruction?

HAHAhahahaha

[-] Mwa@thelemmy.club 22 points 1 week ago

ngl i feel like reddit starting falling off after the api thing it became mainstream

[-] AsakuraMao@moist.catsweat.com 21 points 1 week ago

Reddit was cool. Reddit management had Head Up Ass Syndrome, though. Reminds me of some other social sites too lol.

[-] FinishingDutch@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago

Reddit certainly had issues prior to the 2023 API change, but that really was a pivotal moment for sure. Overnight we lost apps we loved and people who made the platform what it is abandoned it or worse - were forced out. Good content creators fled, resulting in a lot less quality content.

And we all know how the mods Reddit appointed handled things. Now, I’m not saying they’re ALL nazi’s, but there’s folks running the show who would fit in perfectly with the ‘just following orders’ mindset…

The platform needs to die, the stock needs to tank and the people involved need to be drummed out of the business entirely.

[-] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 18 points 1 week ago

Corpos gonna corpo, there is a lesson here folks but people reading this right now, already know this.

[-] theonetruedroid@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

I'm still running Sync for Reddit using a patch from Vanced. I don't know why I even bother. That site has gone so far downhill from 10-15 years ago. People used to get flamed for not reading an article or using improper grammar. Comments were, more often than note, well thought out and articulate. Now, the site is a cesspool or memes and idiocracy.

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[-] interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 week ago

How can the demise of reddit be hastened ? Its bloated corpse clogs up the pipes of the internet still.

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this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2024
665 points (98.3% liked)

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