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I think Reddit is financially unstable and they are doing this to try to become like Facebook, etc. In other words, financially stable. It's a company, if peopl

I think Reddit is financially unstable and they are doing this to try to become like Facebook, etc. In other words, financially stable. It's a company, if people stop buying the product it will fold like any other company. Time will tell.

ummonk 3y ago
When you’re a company relying on outsourcing moderation work to an army of unpaid moderators, it’s probably not a good idea to drive away said moderators. Especially when your customers (advertisers) really don’t like sites that allow bad content to slip through their moderation too much.
imiric 3y ago
That would make sense if they wanted to emulate FB, which is questionable in itself, but how they're proceeding with these changes is completely killing the very thing that made them successful in the first place. It's as if the leadership was replaced with people who don't understand Reddit at all. It's a very dumb move, considering they had all the resources and power to do this right, and still increase their revenue. Now they will increase it momentarily, which will please shareholders, but eventually this will die down as people abandon the platform because it has become a shell of its former self.
- TeMPOraL 3y ago
  > It's as if the leadership was replaced with people who don't understand Reddit at all. You're assuming they care, or ever cared. Maybe I'm getting too cynical, but I feel it's pretty clear Reddit leadership doesn't give a damn about Reddit the discussion/community site. For them, it's just a late-stage company that's been pumped and needs to be dumped. Where we see Reddit as its own unique artifact, they see it as just another money-producing asset, mature and ripe for harvest. They'll destroy it to cash out, as it has always been the plan - it's almost always the plan with startups in general - and find some other thing to repeat the process.
  - imiric 3y ago
    That makes sense now, as a scheme to increase valuation before the IPO[1]. But I wouldn't say that that has been their strategy all along. They're still not profitable after all these years, and the relationship with the community has been amicable, for the most part. The API has been free since the beginning, after all, which has allowed the site to prosper. Though it does feel like they're ready to sacrifice the community for short-term revenue, and that their mid-term plan might just be to cash out once the ship starts sinking. [1]: https://www.reuters.com/technology/reddit-aims-ipo-second-half-2023-information-2023-02-14/ https://www.reuters.com/technology/reddit-aims-ipo-second-ha...
    - TeMPOraL 3y ago
      > They're still not profitable after all these years, and the relationship with the community has been amicable, for the most part. IANAEconomist, but I think the current go-to explanation is that companies can remain unprofitable indefinitely, focusing on increasing growth and stacking more and more loans / investment rounds - as long as interest rates are near-zero, making money cheap. Now that they've gone up, there's enormous pressure to unwind the stack, and such companies need to start making money right frakkin now, hence the sudden squeeze[0] done by Reddit (and other SaaS businesses). -- [0] - The so-called "enshittification". I dislike the term, but it was coined to describe exactly this direction of company evolution.

ummonk 3y ago

When you’re a company relying on outsourcing moderation work to an army of unpaid moderators, it’s probably not a good idea to drive away said moderators. Especially when your customers (advertisers) really don’t like sites that allow bad content to slip through their moderation too much.

imiric 3y ago

That would make sense if they wanted to emulate FB, which is questionable in itself, but how they're proceeding with these changes is completely killing the very thing that made them successful in the first place. It's as if the leadership was replaced with people who don't understand Reddit at all. It's a very dumb move, considering they had all the resources and power to do this right, and still increase their revenue. Now they will increase it momentarily, which will please shareholders, but eventually this will die down as people abandon the platform because it has become a shell of its former self.

TeMPOraL 3y ago
> It's as if the leadership was replaced with people who don't understand Reddit at all. You're assuming they care, or ever cared. Maybe I'm getting too cynical, but I feel it's pretty clear Reddit leadership doesn't give a damn about Reddit the discussion/community site. For them, it's just a late-stage company that's been pumped and needs to be dumped. Where we see Reddit as its own unique artifact, they see it as just another money-producing asset, mature and ripe for harvest. They'll destroy it to cash out, as it has always been the plan - it's almost always the plan with startups in general - and find some other thing to repeat the process.
- imiric 3y ago
  That makes sense now, as a scheme to increase valuation before the IPO[1]. But I wouldn't say that that has been their strategy all along. They're still not profitable after all these years, and the relationship with the community has been amicable, for the most part. The API has been free since the beginning, after all, which has allowed the site to prosper. Though it does feel like they're ready to sacrifice the community for short-term revenue, and that their mid-term plan might just be to cash out once the ship starts sinking. [1]: https://www.reuters.com/technology/reddit-aims-ipo-second-half-2023-information-2023-02-14/ https://www.reuters.com/technology/reddit-aims-ipo-second-ha...
  - TeMPOraL 3y ago
    > They're still not profitable after all these years, and the relationship with the community has been amicable, for the most part. IANAEconomist, but I think the current go-to explanation is that companies can remain unprofitable indefinitely, focusing on increasing growth and stacking more and more loans / investment rounds - as long as interest rates are near-zero, making money cheap. Now that they've gone up, there's enormous pressure to unwind the stack, and such companies need to start making money right frakkin now, hence the sudden squeeze[0] done by Reddit (and other SaaS businesses). -- [0] - The so-called "enshittification". I dislike the term, but it was coined to describe exactly this direction of company evolution.