3 ms·

> Do we, random Internet commenters, really need to know the complete story? If this was Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft, or some other similar company? No. But

by debacle 12y ago

> Do we, random Internet commenters, really need to know the complete story? If this was Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft, or some other similar company? No. But Reddit is run on donations. They have relied on community support for almost a decade to stay afloat, and their relationship with their userbase is more mutual than any of the companies I listed above. They have talked about opening ownership of the company up to the users, and seem committed to it. In that vein, yes, I think that it's reasonable for the users to expect the full story.

duckmysick 12y ago
> If this was Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft, or some other similar company? No. Interesting. I'd say the companies you've mentioned have a better case for sharing the full story since they all are publicly traded. Reddit, on the other hand, is a private company. > But Reddit is run on donations Although I feel a discussion is starting to go downhill the moment it focuses on semantics, I disagree that reddit runs on donations. Reddit gold is not a donation scheme; it's a "premium membership program" [1]. There's a clear list of benefits tied to a reddit gold account. Compare this with Wikimedia Foundation donations which offer no intrinsic benefits for donors. And it's true that reddit community is responsible for keeping the company afloat. But if you think of them as loyal customers who buy a premium membership service, it's not really different from other companies. Plus, reddit doesn't rely exclusively on premium memberships as their revenue. They also serve ads and sponsored links, and they have redditgifts Marketplace. They indeed talked about opening ownership of the company up to their users. It hasn't happened yet, but if it will I can see how the users deserve to know the details. As of now? I don't think they owe the users the full story. 1 - https://www.reddit.com/gold/about https://www.reddit.com/gold/about

by debacle 12y ago

duckmysick 12y ago

> If this was Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft, or some other similar company? No. Interesting. I'd say the companies you've mentioned have a better case for sharing the full story since they all are publicly traded. Reddit, on the other hand, is a private company. > But Reddit is run on donations Although I feel a discussion is starting to go downhill the moment it focuses on semantics, I disagree that reddit runs on donations. Reddit gold is not a donation scheme; it's a "premium membership program" [1]. There's a clear list of benefits tied to a reddit gold account. Compare this with Wikimedia Foundation donations which offer no intrinsic benefits for donors. And it's true that reddit community is responsible for keeping the company afloat. But if you think of them as loyal customers who buy a premium membership service, it's not really different from other companies. Plus, reddit doesn't rely exclusively on premium memberships as their revenue. They also serve ads and sponsored links, and they have redditgifts Marketplace. They indeed talked about opening ownership of the company up to their users. It hasn't happened yet, but if it will I can see how the users deserve to know the details. As of now? I don't think they owe the users the full story. 1 - https://www.reddit.com/gold/about https://www.reddit.com/gold/about