I really appreciate how Verge has covered this absolute shitshow. The administration is insisting on doing every stupid move possible to get their way, and destroy the communities in the chase to be a generic social TikTok clone.
Good riddance. This place is way better for my mental health.
The Verge's coverage of this so far has been really good. It's probably because they think drama like this will get a lot of clicks, but even still I've enjoyed their articles.
Absolutely wild. I used to moderate a local-area subreddit with around 39K members and decided to just cut my losses. Deleted my account and never looked back! I was happy to see that the remaining mods stuck with our 2-day blackout plan.
Honestly though, it was such a miserable job. Constant bad-faith arguments from folks trying to post heinous comments about asylum seekers, LGBTQ+ folks, etc. It really makes you lose faith in your fellow man. I'm very happy to have given it up. I guess this is why Facebook spends millions of dollars on content moderation -- it's very taxing.
I guess this is why Facebook spends millions of dollars on content moderation
Meanwhile reddit is shitting all over the people who were donating these millions of dollars worth of content moderation to them.
Anybody who invests in the reddit IPO must be an absolute idiot.
Seriously. There are tech companies out there which are 100% scams and they are better run than reddit. They do not understand how their own product works. DO NOT BUY!!!!
Well, if the guy really wants to be Elon and follow the example from the Twitter, then shutting down moderation to let the racism, homophobia and science denial run rampant is all part of the genius plan.
It’s insane that any CEO would point to Twitter and say, “that’s the model we want to follow”. They are making like 5 figures worth of money on subscriptions, they have lost tons of advertising due to their content policies in the Elon era, and people generally feel unsafe so a bunch of people left the platform. What is redeeming about any of that?
It sounds like this was done without any warning, too. Subs can, and have, changed their rules many times. Users voting to allow NSFW content is already precedented.
Unilaterally removing mods who are in direct compliance with your order to reopen the sub isn't a good look, particularly since one of the biggest drivers of this protest is the lack of communication with mods.
Judging by the comments you get if you suggest switching away from Reddit, Reddit will do very well. I won’t be there, but they’ll be successful even if the site goes more to shit.
Apparently, those subreddits are now not only open, but completely unmoderated. Reddit's solution was to remove the mods and put nobody else in charge. I'm sure that won't backfire in any way whatsoever! /s
For a public spokesperson, this is such a hostile and condescending response:
Asked if Reddit could confirm the reinstatement, Rathschmidt declined, saying, “I’m not going to set a precedent of confirming with The Verge every action we do or don’t take to ensure users can access their communities.”
I quite enjoyed reading that quote. You can practically see the columnist rolling their eyes. Does this spokesperson not understand how to say "no comment"?
That is a very strange reply, you'd think reddit would have the standard answers figured out lol. Especially for a company that wants to go public you'd expect spokespersons who give the "we are committed to our communities and their interests" answers.
Even if you wanted to stay as a mod you'd have to have taken a shot to the heart after all of Reddits shinanigans lately. Years of free effort and this is the thanks you get. Absolutely disgusting betrayal of people who have done a mostly fantastic job keeping the wheels on the beast all these years and I'm absolutely stunned they did it.
Lol how dare he frame this like he's firing employees for not doing their jobs. This isn't a job dipshit, it's unpaid volunteer labor that for some dumbass reason you think you're entitled to just for offering an empty room for people to walk in, decorate, and create community in. Honestly what a POS.
It's honestly crazy how poorly this whole thing is being handled. Reddit admins are really showing their true colors and keep doubling down on everything, making themselves look like absolute fools. They realized they don't have as much power as they wanted and are acting like grumpy children throwing a temper tantrum
“90-plus percent of Reddit users are on our platform, contributing, and are monetized either through ads or Reddit Premium. Why would we subsidize this small group? Why would we effectively pay them to use Reddit but not everybody else who also contributes to Reddit?”
If I'm reading this correctly, this is blatantly assuming that he would rather loose those 10% of users who use third-party apps, than letting them use Reddit for free. He even calls it "subsidizing" them. The tricky part for the CEO-wannabe spez is to know how much of those 10% are content creators. Are users who use third-party apps more prone to post or not? Because let's face it, if he's betting on having a thriving social network trying to mimic tiktok, instagram, etc... he's light years behind. Reddit will never be the choice of shitty influencers and people mimicking each others dances. It's just too complicated of a network for such a basic user-base.
OR...he just wants to prep things up to sell and disappear. From everything I read, his Eloncrush is the most worrying part of it all.
These 10% are the power users and likely the biggest contributors to the platform. I'm totally okay with letting these guys come here and start up a new community while reddit tries to make it work with the casuals and lurkers.
CEO Steve Huffman told me in an interview last week, “90-plus percent of Reddit users are on our platform, contributing, and are monetized either through ads or Reddit Premium. Why would we subsidize this small group? Why would we effectively pay them to use Reddit but not everybody else who also contributes to Reddit?”
It's called a "loss leader," Steve.
Dude's sounding like the kind of guy that cuts IT, security, and janitorial because they don't bring in revenue. But then, he did say he's following the Musk model. Which is, basically, that.
90-plus percent of Reddit users are on our platform, contributing, and are monetized either through ads or Reddit Premium
I wonder how many of those reddit premium members have cancelled their subscriptions. I know I did. I had premium for years as it seemed like a good way to give a little bit back to a site I was using multiple times a day, every day. As soon as Spez started his bullshit I cancelled it and won't be back.
All they had to do was offer API keys with Reddit Premium. Plug-and-play into your 3rd-party-app of choice. Can't believe those dum-dums chose to kill off their golden goose instead.
And it not bad at all, they are making such a spectacular show of how every corpo social media fail and why everyone need to get off of there and run their own community that are federated/distributed.