He's been sniffing too much Musk.
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Reddit CEO: Apollo-Related Subreddit Blackouts 'Will Pass,' No Significant Revenue Impact So Far
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I wouldn’t mind a return to the days where there were multiple forums (kind of like this one at Macrumors) for different interests or topics instead of having the most popular forum for every topic in the world all being at one website.
There’s a bit more community at sites like MR, you recognize other frequent poster’s usernames (Hi, @TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️ ) it’s a more intimate feel and you also avoid doom scrolling for hours because you can’t as easily jump between 50 different forums on one site.
There’s a bit more community at sites like MR, you recognize other frequent poster’s usernames (Hi, @TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️ ) it’s a more intimate feel and you also avoid doom scrolling for hours because you can’t as easily jump between 50 different forums on one site.
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Some of these redditors actually believe their little 48 hour protest amounts to some kind of revolution, when in reality they’ll log back in tomorrow like nothing ever happened.
The content there is not created by Reddit but by the users. The amount of self-help and DYI stuff found on Reddit belongs to everybody Reddit hosts that content, nothing more. I understand they wanna charge for using their servers and it's perfectly legitimate but they're not sharing any of the ad or API revenue with the content creators.
They have to get profitable. Full stop.
There's two ways to do that - advertising and subscriptions.
If they'd picked subscriptions, there would have been a huge outcry of complainers who demand the service for free. So they picked ads. But people block the ads via third party apps, so they have to replace that with API charges.
Now, it's arguable that they may have the charges wrong, but that's a different conversation from having them at all. Basically they need to replace the revenue lost because of the lack of ad views. Whatever that per-user/per-month number is, divide it by the number of API calls, and then parcel that out to the third party apps.
For the people threatening to delete their account, if you don't generate revenue for them, they probably don't care - and my appreciate it because you're no longer using up server resources they have to pay for.
I'd prefer a dual model, where there's an ad-free, tracking free subscription option alongside a 'free' mandatory advertising option, but they didn't do that.
There's two ways to do that - advertising and subscriptions.
If they'd picked subscriptions, there would have been a huge outcry of complainers who demand the service for free. So they picked ads. But people block the ads via third party apps, so they have to replace that with API charges.
Now, it's arguable that they may have the charges wrong, but that's a different conversation from having them at all. Basically they need to replace the revenue lost because of the lack of ad views. Whatever that per-user/per-month number is, divide it by the number of API calls, and then parcel that out to the third party apps.
For the people threatening to delete their account, if you don't generate revenue for them, they probably don't care - and my appreciate it because you're no longer using up server resources they have to pay for.
I'd prefer a dual model, where there's an ad-free, tracking free subscription option alongside a 'free' mandatory advertising option, but they didn't do that.
I was just thinking about a different way to do it and hit on that exactly. Certainly less contentious.
At first I didn't care too much, but reading that statement by the CEO kind of disturbed me. Not only is he a cold hearted SOB, not caring about the backlash ("this will pass"), but he also demonized the crowd, implying that they are prone to violence. That was enough to push me to delete Reddit from my iPhone and cancel my subscription. I'm not supporting any psychopath-owned social media sites anymore (Reddit and anything owned by Meta)
What about Reddit that uses thousands and thousands of free moderation that many of those mods liked Apollo due to being more useful for mods. The CEO is just trying to prop up Reddit to make the IPO look amazing and he is doing to dump it with a payday. Once Reddit is publicly traded there is no way it will be able to get away with having free volunteer mods then that will be needing more employees and larger HR and more basically everything to make a functional publicly traded company work along with now making stockholders happy.
Honestly I am surprised at the rumored IPO estimates when you factor that Reddit has been functioning like it is small "forums" like website. I just don't see how Reddit currently operates being successful as publicly traded, between the bots (and there are a ton of bots), and a lot of free work (mods), and probably more I can't think of off the top of my head.
Honestly I am surprised at the rumored IPO estimates when you factor that Reddit has been functioning like it is small "forums" like website. I just don't see how Reddit currently operates being successful as publicly traded, between the bots (and there are a ton of bots), and a lot of free work (mods), and probably more I can't think of off the top of my head.
Minor nitpick. I'm not a redditor and haven't been on the site in close to a year, but a lot, not all but a lot, of the site is link aggregation. They aren't (often) creating the things they link to, just discussing/trolling/yelling about it.
Doesn’t even have to get to that. They could literally flip a switch and turn all the subreddits back on.
Just letting the temper tantrum run it’s course.
I’m the same way. I’m a mod of a couple apple related subs and the rest of us are torn as well. I put a notice on the front of the sub saying that it’s closed with a link to the discord so at least they have somewhere to go.
Probably trying to find replacement mods that are willing to be treated like garbage for without actual pay?
Little 48 hours, little week, little month... Our cynicism, belittling ourselves is the reason why these rich oligarchs became so predacious these days.
Good luck finding them. Why in what universe would anyone be willing to be treated like garbage without being paid?
It’s worth pointing out that Reddit is a very different service from Twitter. I could honestly see this backfiring on him. Also worth pointing out that he’s already been caught out on a major lie related to the developer of Apollo. My guess is he’s more concerned than he’s letting on and sent the confident message to his employees knowing full well it would be leaked publicly—and be seen ‘accidentally’ by those who he really intended the letter for. Look how good everything is going in here, we’re unaffected. To say that 8,000 subreddits are potentially shutting down isn’t worrying him is likely another lie. The mods of Reddit practically manage the website, entirely unpaid. A very different prospect from how twitter works.
but what about r/wallstreetbets ????
How am I going to ensure my financial security???
How am I going to ensure my financial security???
The way I see it, these sub-reddits are nothing more than freeloading parasites, trying to make money without any sweat equity in the game.
Just considering human psychology, it'd be extremely difficult for Huffman to reverse course at this point. He's already publicly stated and re-stated his position, tied himself personally to it, publicly tarred the reputation of beloved developers ("his 'joke' is the least of our worries"), and here has now doubled down again by stating his intention to ride it out.
I've made the decision to move on from Reddit unless I can use Apollo with it. The Twitter blowup, though, provides reasonable hope for Huffman that he can steer the site through pretty much anything. Most users are probably not unhappy enough to truly stay off Reddit, just as Twitter's takeover by a transphobic, narcissistic, over-the-hill edgelord didn't dent that site's traffic.
I've made the decision to move on from Reddit unless I can use Apollo with it. The Twitter blowup, though, provides reasonable hope for Huffman that he can steer the site through pretty much anything. Most users are probably not unhappy enough to truly stay off Reddit, just as Twitter's takeover by a transphobic, narcissistic, over-the-hill edgelord didn't dent that site's traffic.
Nothing is stopping them. In fact, I expect that’s exactly what they’ll do, but that doesn’t mean the people posting quality content that makes those subs useful and makes Reddit valuable will return.
@TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️ would need to quit their day job to keep up with reacting/responding to all those comments! 😜
(Tongue in cheek – no offence intended)
Please use cited, objective facts to explain how subreddits make money for anything but reddit itself.
Contrary point of view:
Reddit is a business struggling to be profitable. I enjoy using it and would really like it to stay around. Only way for that to happen is for Reddit to be profitable.
They live from advertising revenue. API will not bring them any, so there is a need to monetize or kill it (to force users back to ad funded side). Another option would be subscription pricing, but Twitter has demonstrated how bad that option is.
Reddit is a business struggling to be profitable. I enjoy using it and would really like it to stay around. Only way for that to happen is for Reddit to be profitable.
They live from advertising revenue. API will not bring them any, so there is a need to monetize or kill it (to force users back to ad funded side). Another option would be subscription pricing, but Twitter has demonstrated how bad that option is.