Reddit CEO tells employees that subreddit blackout “will pass”

"There’s a lot of noise with this one. Among the noisiest we’ve seen."

They're not just noises Spez. They're voices, they're trying to talk with you.

Yeah it's been said he has contempt for the users but i think it's more just utter disconnection. He thinks he owns a website, instead he's got the infrasctructure for a community - one that's angry and can go elsewhere.

But will enough us jump ship? i hope so but am not that optimistic
- It's mostly irrelevant to me whether Reddit crashes and burns or just enshittifies itself into oblivion. The API pricing change as an event made me realize how little value Reddit was providing, but if others are content with the site's direction, they have an audience.
  
  Same thing happened with Facebook a decade ago. So long as Reddit doesn't go the Facebook route of covering the web with bullshit to the point I have to add their domains to pihole, it would be difficult to care less about whether this is the end for Reddit.
As opposed to spez talking over us. I don't think he understands the distinction.

That said I won't be going back. Just deleted my account. :)
It's the voices of the dead
- Lol

Hate to by the pessimist, but he's not wrong. Most subs will open back up tomorrow, I doubt most will close again. The users that aren't on board will jump ship, but a greater percentage will likely just grumble and complain while they continue using the service. It's what they're banking on.

They're not getting me back. I doubt that will affect their bottom line much, but it's all I can do.

While you're absolutely correct, keep in mind Reddit heavily relies on a smaller number of people dedicated to creating the communities, the rules, moderating, engaging users, fixing issues.

Sure, the large number of people from all across the world interacting and that are missing from Lemmy is a major letdown... But can Reddit sustain itself for another decade while actively pushing away the dedicated moderators? The community creators? The people carefully writing full blown wikis? Can they keep their userbase by slowly filling their app with bad quality clones of services like TikTok, NFTs, Twitter Spaces? How many ads will people tolerate? How many times can Reddit push "random" livestreams to people's feeds and remove communities they dislike?

It won't be today, and it won't be thanks to the blackouts... But Reddit is already done, it just takes a while to fully halt a moving train even after the engine collapses.
For me the benefit of the various mismanagement crises at Twitter and now reddit is that they push enough people to alternatives to create a critical mass there. Mastodon will likely never be what Twitter was, but enough interesting people and enough of my professional network now have a presence on the latter that it's become a viable alternative for me. Same thing here. Whether or not Lemmy ever reaches reddit's proportions, there are enough interesting links and discussions here to keep me occupied. And if not, I could probably stand to spend a bit less time on social media anyhow.
- I agree completely. Also, I mentioned elsewhere that I feel more likely to actually contribute to this smaller community. I've already made more posts (2...3 maybe?) in a week here than I did in the last 2 years on Reddit. When you don't feel like you're shouting to 3 million people who aren't listening, it's more fun! It's hard to really talk to anyone when you don't know anyone at the party right? Is that enough analogies? I feel like that's probably enough...
Yup, they did their market research, they know most will pop up online. Hopefully the leaked memo will piss off more admins to stay down, I really do hope most will, but most of those mods love being in power - and they're not in power if they are down.

well, only if we let it. which we prolly will.

I do like how the Verge is treating this like a real news story and not just "some weird thing on the internet"

Yeah, their interview with Christian Selig was an interesting read as well: Apollo’s Christian Selig explains his fight with Reddit — and why users revolted
- I found it fascinating (and exciting) that Lemmy and Kbin were directly mentioned!
  
  A significant number of Verge staff are actually pretty active on Mastodon nowadays too, which is awesome.
  
  Shame Christian doesn't see the value in developing a client yet, but let's hope that changes 🤞

Ya this blackout needs to be indefinite at this point if we want any actual reddit changes.

I intend to stay here on beehaw. It will take me a while to get over the habituated behaviors I had with reddit, but the quality of the posts over here is high. I don't feel like voices are getting drowned out over here. So reddit won't miss me. Over time, I won't miss reddit. All good things must end.

Now time to enjoy watching how new communities and the software driving Lemmy develop.

Yeah, I also will be staying on Lemmy. There's bugs and performance issues but the quality of conversation is better and interaction feels genuine. There's also actual possibilities to contribute instead of getting lost in a sea of rehashed comments.
The main thing that is missing now (and I assume will remain missing) are the hobby communities, especially those aimed at non-techies, like sewing, cross stitch,... I feel the people there aren't going to bother with figuring out Lemmy/Kbin/Fediverse... because they tend to be less tech savvy.

I wonder if the comments about no significant revenue drop still holds true today. I was quite surprised to see that there doesn't seem to be too big a drop in posts & comments (~1k) aside from the crash yesterday. https://blackout.photon-reddit.com/

I think that's kind of proof-positive for just how much content on Reddit is now controlled and pushed by Reddit itself in some way. If 75-80% of the subs where content gets hosted are not adding content, but there hasn't been a meaningful dip in content, it's because Reddit is the one controlling the content.
- That's my thought too. Even before this, I felt like I was reading automated posts and chat bot responses on reddit. It seems like a zombie forum where most of the "people" weren't really real, it was just recycled content, laugh tracks, and being force fed content posted by reddit itself (versus users) scraped from other places.
Bots have been turned up to 11 to help curb the stats. It'd make sense if this is to prevent the IPO from being impacted by the blackout.

He's not wrong.

A lot of people will/have moved to Lemmy. The question is, can we take advantage of the momentum and turn this into a real reddit alternative? Because when the blackout ends a lot of people will return to reddit.

While I would certainly like for Reddit to experience the consequences of its actions, I don't think it actually matters all that much.

Most people will probably go back to Reddit, but there will be others who will not. Right now, as far as I can tell, the best thing to do is not to hope Reddit fails and everyone has to come here; but just comment, create, etc, here and make it a community you are happy with regardless of what Reddit does. (Especially since in all likelihood, Reddit will keep on trucking along for a long while)

We absolutely must ship what we said we would

This absolute blind faith that what roadmap they have set for themselves is "right" is not a sign of good leadership. Maybe they are right and these protests are meaningless in terms of business metrics, but that is not what Steve is saying here. He is dead set on the path he created, outside metrics be damned

Maybe Reddit won't fail now, but if I were on the board I would be paying close attention to how Steve is leading Reddit through this period and consider whether his complete dismissal of user feedback is a good model for a company preparing for an IPO.

Ignoring their users wholesale will eventually come back to bite them in a meaningful way.

“I am sorry to say this, but please be mindful of wearing Reddit gear in public,” CEO Steve Huffman says in an internal memo. “Some folks are really upset, and we don’t want you to be the object of their frustrations.”

Oh piss off, Spez.

This was provoking to read and I'm not even a major subreddit moderator.

I hope this response enrages the moderators enough that they extend their blackouts indefinitely. Prove him wrong.

“I am sorry to say this, but please be mindful of wearing Reddit gear in public,” CEO Steve Huffman says in an internal memo. “Some folks are really upset, and we don’t want you to be the object of their frustrations.”

Oh piss off, Spez. First you slander /u/iamthatthis and accuse him of blackmail and now you insinuate people mad about your greedy business decisions are out to commit physical violence against your employees?

At this point it’s not only about the subreddits standing up for their values but each and every one of us. Right now it’s easy to join the boycott Reddit. It will get harder and reveal who really meant it and who just joined the drama

the Fuck it will.

That's true and it's fine, I now know that there are definitely communities outside of reddit that I'd rather be in (like selfhosted@lemmy.world). I haven't been back on reddit and I'll give any alternative 'sub' a good chance.