As an effect of the recent Reddit blackout, the company is now surrounded by disappointed investors and community. I predict that Reddit may end up facing the same fate as Tumblr: being sold to another company. Only time will tell what the future holds for Reddit, but one thing is for sure - the protest will leave a lasting impact on the platform and its users.
Yeah, I’m thinking that each subreddit’s choice to stay private or restricted is a little irrelevant in the long run. The big realization here is how everyone has become so dependent on one single platform: Reddit. Reddit corporate has made it abundantly clear that all of its users and all of its content are simply there to support the compnay’s bottom line, and that their needs and preferences are completely irrelevant in the grand scheme. We need some competition across different platforms to help reel in these mega-centralized mass social media destinations, forcing them to cater to their user’s interests as well. I understand the idea that Reddit needs to make money to survive, and I don’t want to stop them from doing that. But with an entire world of solutions, is this really the only one they could have chosen? If, for example, they were actually responding to the AI companies training their models on Reddit at great bandwidth cost to Reddit, why not just price out the AI companies and leave the 3rd party apps alone? I don’t buy their cover up story. It’s all ads, content control, and the desire to press people into their own algorithm and behavioral ecosystem.
I just hope many still stay offline for a longer time to protest. I don’t think 2 days will be enough. A but if damage is done but if there will be no 3rd party apps I’m out. I’d pay for Reddit Premium if that would give me a personal API or something
A lot of users are willing to pay for an ad free personalized experience, but this seems not to be enough for reddit.
A fediverse “Reddit” will not spontaneously exist overnight but will be the best long term solution, I’m not sure the current implementations are Product Market Fit enough.
edit: grammar
Agreed. But it seems likely that the blackout will soon be extended since alot of people on YouTube advocated it.
I’m off. Donezo unless they reverse course. I’ll log in one last time on the 30th to permanently close the subs I own. I’m debating if it’s worth the effort to scrub my account and delete it, too.
I think even 100% reversal and going back to a free API indefinitely would still not be enough to get many of us back, including myself. The entire company has lost any remaining trust, and they were pretty much in negative balance to begin with.
The API stuff may have been the motivator, but this kind of movement doesn’t happen so quickly without lots of underlying, pre-existing problems.
Honestly, they’ve shown their cards. Even if they reverse course, we know they’ll just try tightening some other screws.
They’re an unprofitable company, and once they go public, the new board of directors isn’t going to let that stand for very long when all of the other big social companies have been clamping down.
For me, I was on my way out of Reddit when the new Reddit appeared and features on RES were starting to break, but the I got Apollo. That app was keeping me there and I have no reason stay after it no longer works. I’m just deciding if I want to delete my oldest active account or not. There is a lot of information in there but I don’t see going back. I just look forward to good communities that aren’t drowned out by a million bots over here.
I suspect the real long-term harm to Reddit is that it will have started the push for alternatives in earnest. That, combined with Twitter and now Discord going to shit, all in such a short timespan, gives me hope that enough people will see the value in the Fediverse.
The way I see it Reddit will probably carry on just as most websites do, but will become the place where ‘normies’ do their thing just like Facebook has done.
I’m able to find high effort content here in the fediverse but I think there will need to be some solution to simplify things a little for the less netizen-like population to really get onboard