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It all just blows my mind, because realistically none of these details even matter. It's reddit's ball, they can take it and go home any time they want. They do

It all just blows my mind, because realistically none of these details even matter. It's reddit's ball, they can take it and go home any time they want. They don't have anything to prove, they don't owe anything to anybody, not even an explanation. Ultimately they need to make a profit and they think this is the way towards that. I just can't understand why they feel the need to keep publicly stating things that are either outright untrue or at least misleading. Just make an announcement to the effect of "this is the pricing, we have determined this is the best way to meet our financial goals" and shut the hell up. It's not hard! The BS / gaslighting about precise numbers and the misrepresentation of what they've heard from developers is completely pointless.

Aaargh20318 3y ago
> I just can't understand why they feel the need to keep publicly stating things that are either outright untrue or at least misleading I can only think of one reason: they’re panicking. > It's reddit's ball, they can take it and go home any time they want. While this is true, Reddit knows they are dependent on their users for their survival. That’s why they are panicking.
- cute_boi 3y ago
  isn't everything depended upon their users for their survival?
  - harrisi 3y ago
    Not to the extent that Reddit is, at least not in the same way. Other companies can exist and even thrive regardless of what users want by being necessary or legally mandated. Oil companies' users aren't their customers. Equifax doesn't care about how users feel. ADP, Geico, SAP, utilities, banks, etc. aren't the best companies for users, and many of their users dislike them, but it's generally not a threat to their profitability. This is a somewhat cynical view, admittedly, but overall, many successful companies don't need to please "users" in the same way Reddit does. They obviously make some amount from advertisers, but they need users for advertisers to advertise too.
  - Aaargh20318 3y ago
    Most companies provide a service or product to their users, and their users pay for that. The company creates the value for which their users/customers pay. With Reddit the majority of the value to users is not created by Reddit but by the users themselves. The only real value that Reddit provides is a platform, and it's a platform that would be fairly easy to replicate (from a technical point of view it's just a large scale CRUD app, nothing special, it's a solved problem). The only real reason that users stick with Reddit is the network effect, but that is the biggest risk to their platform as well. If they manage to alienate enough of the most active part of their user base into moving to another platform, the same network effect with ensure the rest of them follows, taking all of the value that Reddit provides to their visitors with them, and as a result all of the value all those visitors provide to paying advertisers. This is not as unlikely as you'd think, because only a small percentage of visitors to Reddit actively contribute.
    - slashtab 3y ago
      [dead]
- kushan2020 3y ago
  You are quite wrong to think they are panicking. I can assure you they planned and anticipated for a backlash of this proportion. And also came to the conclusion this will be worth it.
  - jtriangle 3y ago
    That affords reddit inc. with quite a bit more competency than they deserve. They have made a habit of fumbling and bumbling their way through things like this, and I don't think this is an exceptional circumstance.
pas 3y ago
they are in the business of community building, a bit directly but mostly indirectly through the various subreddit teams thus they have a reputation as platform gods, and now they put up that reputation as bargaining chip, it's the classic "trust us, we care about you", and now it seems they really don't. so now they owe an explanation to users, teams, and in general to anyone who they directly or indirectly hurt.
kushan2020 3y ago
It’s because they have hired a bunch of people whose job is to do the PR. Just like if you ask a surgeon for opinion his opinion will lean towards surgery, because that’s what he knows.
paulddraper 3y ago
It's called PR
slashtab 3y ago
[dead]
vkou 3y ago
> It's reddit's ball, they can take it and go home any time they want. They don't have anything to prove, they don't owe anything to anybody, The only reason Reddit is worth anything is because its community produces content for free to it. Reddit doesn't have to do anything, but it also doesn't have to be worth anything, either.

Aaargh20318 3y ago

> I just can't understand why they feel the need to keep publicly stating things that are either outright untrue or at least misleading I can only think of one reason: they’re panicking. > It's reddit's ball, they can take it and go home any time they want. While this is true, Reddit knows they are dependent on their users for their survival. That’s why they are panicking.

cute_boi 3y ago
isn't everything depended upon their users for their survival?
- harrisi 3y ago
  Not to the extent that Reddit is, at least not in the same way. Other companies can exist and even thrive regardless of what users want by being necessary or legally mandated. Oil companies' users aren't their customers. Equifax doesn't care about how users feel. ADP, Geico, SAP, utilities, banks, etc. aren't the best companies for users, and many of their users dislike them, but it's generally not a threat to their profitability. This is a somewhat cynical view, admittedly, but overall, many successful companies don't need to please "users" in the same way Reddit does. They obviously make some amount from advertisers, but they need users for advertisers to advertise too.
- Aaargh20318 3y ago
  Most companies provide a service or product to their users, and their users pay for that. The company creates the value for which their users/customers pay. With Reddit the majority of the value to users is not created by Reddit but by the users themselves. The only real value that Reddit provides is a platform, and it's a platform that would be fairly easy to replicate (from a technical point of view it's just a large scale CRUD app, nothing special, it's a solved problem). The only real reason that users stick with Reddit is the network effect, but that is the biggest risk to their platform as well. If they manage to alienate enough of the most active part of their user base into moving to another platform, the same network effect with ensure the rest of them follows, taking all of the value that Reddit provides to their visitors with them, and as a result all of the value all those visitors provide to paying advertisers. This is not as unlikely as you'd think, because only a small percentage of visitors to Reddit actively contribute.
  - slashtab 3y ago
    [dead]
kushan2020 3y ago
You are quite wrong to think they are panicking. I can assure you they planned and anticipated for a backlash of this proportion. And also came to the conclusion this will be worth it.
- jtriangle 3y ago
  That affords reddit inc. with quite a bit more competency than they deserve. They have made a habit of fumbling and bumbling their way through things like this, and I don't think this is an exceptional circumstance.

pas 3y ago

they are in the business of community building, a bit directly but mostly indirectly through the various subreddit teams thus they have a reputation as platform gods, and now they put up that reputation as bargaining chip, it's the classic "trust us, we care about you", and now it seems they really don't. so now they owe an explanation to users, teams, and in general to anyone who they directly or indirectly hurt.

kushan2020 3y ago

It’s because they have hired a bunch of people whose job is to do the PR. Just like if you ask a surgeon for opinion his opinion will lean towards surgery, because that’s what he knows.

paulddraper 3y ago

It's called PR

slashtab 3y ago

[dead]

vkou 3y ago

> It's reddit's ball, they can take it and go home any time they want. They don't have anything to prove, they don't owe anything to anybody, The only reason Reddit is worth anything is because its community produces content for free to it. Reddit doesn't have to do anything, but it also doesn't have to be worth anything, either.