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What would a highly profitable Reddit look like? Why would it be bad for redditors?

zerotheliger 3y ago
user experience has always suffered on social media sites that go public and answer to profits they stop caring about the community. and only try selling us shit or sell the content we create. without us reddit wouldnt exist and they need a reminder of that.
- bobthepanda 3y ago
  so far, the issue has been engagement results in ad impressions, and the quickest way to engagement is controversy and anger. The death knell for Facebook was when it became people arguing all the time. Toxicity is just generally not pleasant to be around. Ad quality also doesn't help. Major network TV ads are generally higher quality both in terms of the product they're selling and the production quality, but I don't want to see the millionth ad for meal prep startup of the week or questionable unitasker dropshipped off Aliexpress.
- micv 3y ago
  The user experience of reddit is already poor unless you hide on old.reddit.com. I have no idea how anyone could sign off an interface like the new one, which is just appallingly slow even on relatively high-end hardware.
Liquix 3y ago
It would look like facebook - less and less content, more and more ads. It would be bad for redditors because modern surveillance capitalism/adtech industries are inherently manipulative, deceitful, and will always place profit before the well-being of those consuming the ads.
tlholaday 3y ago
A highly profitable Reddit would be one whose product was reader-paid moderation service. https://stratechery.com/2019/a-framework-for-moderation/ https://stratechery.com/2019/a-framework-for-moderation/
johnnyanmac 3y ago
Well, look at hacker news. the content and audience is different but ultimately it lets you 1. browse topics 2. comment on topics 3. review your history of topics, like favorites, comment histories, etc. So in an ideal world, you do that with no friction. But inevitably, you need to introduce some friction in order to be profitable. be it ads, data mining (to sell to ad companies), or outright asking a user to pay to do the above features. I don't know what route reddit will go, but it will inevitably need to introduce even more friction to be more profitable.

user experience has always suffered on social media sites that go public and answer to profits they stop caring about the community. and only try selling us shit or sell the content we create. without us reddit wouldnt exist and they need a reminder of that.

bobthepanda 3y ago
so far, the issue has been engagement results in ad impressions, and the quickest way to engagement is controversy and anger. The death knell for Facebook was when it became people arguing all the time. Toxicity is just generally not pleasant to be around. Ad quality also doesn't help. Major network TV ads are generally higher quality both in terms of the product they're selling and the production quality, but I don't want to see the millionth ad for meal prep startup of the week or questionable unitasker dropshipped off Aliexpress.
micv 3y ago
The user experience of reddit is already poor unless you hide on old.reddit.com. I have no idea how anyone could sign off an interface like the new one, which is just appallingly slow even on relatively high-end hardware.

Liquix 3y ago

It would look like facebook - less and less content, more and more ads. It would be bad for redditors because modern surveillance capitalism/adtech industries are inherently manipulative, deceitful, and will always place profit before the well-being of those consuming the ads.

tlholaday 3y ago

A highly profitable Reddit would be one whose product was reader-paid moderation service. https://stratechery.com/2019/a-framework-for-moderation/ https://stratechery.com/2019/a-framework-for-moderation/

johnnyanmac 3y ago

Well, look at hacker news. the content and audience is different but ultimately it lets you 1. browse topics 2. comment on topics 3. review your history of topics, like favorites, comment histories, etc. So in an ideal world, you do that with no friction. But inevitably, you need to introduce some friction in order to be profitable. be it ads, data mining (to sell to ad companies), or outright asking a user to pay to do the above features. I don't know what route reddit will go, but it will inevitably need to introduce even more friction to be more profitable.