Amazing that he can’t think of a way to make money that doesn’t involve alienating the unpaid people who keep the place running.
I haven’t abandoned Reddit entirely, but I’ll never use the app…downloaded it once a year or two ago, and deleted it within an hour because it was ugly and confusing. I honestly think maybe the next phase of the protests, for those who still are active on Reddit, should be mass deletion of the app and using only the desktop site/mobile browser version. The API thing was meant to force people onto the app, so mass organizing to delete the app would hit them where it hurts.
Yes, Reddit is a big dataset and yes, Reddit deserves to make some money off that if other organisations are going to scrape that data, for AI or anything else.
That’s what they should be blocking and monetizing. Not those few users using 3rd party apps. Those folks (posters, mods) are amongst the ones creating that data set for Reddit, free of charge.
They are right about needing to make money to continue as a successful business. But they are doing it the wrong way and alienating their key assets.
Which is why I’m here :)
Why does reddit deserve to make profit from content made by others? They are service provider - they are not entitled to the work of people who used their service.
Ok. I’m about to abandon an account that’s 17.5 years old. I despise what reddit is proposing.
But, honestly, how do you propose they turn (some) profit so it could last forever? Losing money isn’t a long-term recipe for success. I’ve got no problem with reddit seeking to profit. I’ve got a problem with their short notice and their refusal to let third party clients be part of the ecosystem they wish to create.
Same. Late to the conversation here, but in the same camp. About to delete a 13.5 year old account.
I’d be fine with Reddit making money, if they did it in an honest and predictable way. The way they’re going about it though is short sighted, deceitful, and completely unnecessary.
They could make money hand over fist if they just tweaked their approach a tad, kept the community happy, etc.
Bundle API usage in with Reddit Premium. Have it use upper limits of say 100k requests/month to the API. Anything over that and it’s on a per 10k/requests billing cycle sort of thing.
Push the cost to the consumer, so if AI wants to scrape all the data, they can pay for it just like everyone else.
I just burned my nearly 12 year old account. It’s just not worth it anymore. Reddit has made promises it can’t keep and does not intend on keeping.
Genuinely don’t understand how reddit has failed to make money.
Reddit’s entire value is based upon the unpaid contributions of its users- they generate and moderate all the content on the site for free, and these are the things that bring people to the site.
How entitled must one be to think they can ignore all this and be fine?
Also how tf is reddit not able to break bank?
The functionality of their website was relatively simple - not underming the reddit devs here. The costs must’ve been minimal before the redesign and the dumb ass decision to host their own images and videos. Did they burn up all their money for the redesign and the shitty app?
They want to make money while turning reddit into another right wing shit hole.
Right wing? Money is a pretty nonpartisan matter.
Most of the right-wingers have already fled off to Gab, MeWe, or Mastodon.
I was referring to the upcoming U.S. election.
This man just does not know when to shut up.
I guess at least he’s being honest? What he has to say is shitty, but I guess it’s better than being lied to.
I wish he was honest to begin with and said “Hey, we’re no longer supporting third party reddit clients. I get you’ll be pissed about that but them’s the beans we have to drive more people to our app for money reasons”
Instead, this whole charade reeks of stupidity and desperation.
Exactly. Rip the bandaid off and be honest instead of trying to gaslight everyone. Probably would’ve resulted in far fewer people checking out Fediverse alternatives.
Deleted my Reddit account today, not gonna let Huffman use my content to make money and his attitude is very concerning tbh
Waiting on them to fulfil my GDPR data request.
One I’ve got all my data (since there was some useful stuff there over the years) I’ll follow up with the “right to be forgotten” request as well.
Keep us updated how this goes. Are they even governed by EU law if they are in the US?
There are some American news sites that don’t serve to European users for that reason. Instead, we get a screan that explains that GDPR is too much for them to handle.
It can be circumvented with a VPN, but I haven’t bothered so far
If they want to operate in the EU (for example, selling ad space to European companies to show to European users) then yes, they are.
