As Reddit Crushes Protests, Its User Traffic Returns to Normal
Technology@kbin.social – 35 points – 
pcmag.com
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Technology@kbin.social – 35 points – Technology@kbin.social – 35 points – Technology@kbin.social – 35 points –
It'll take a bit before they realize the subs they liked are turning into garbage
This. Reddit is going a Reddit thing right now with quirky protests. It's fun. It's engaging.
But Reddit is actively making its website and its apps worse. They're not profitable, and they know launching an IPO while in the red is going to make them less money than if they're in the black. They're going to try and squeeze that extra value out of users.
Spez has been making shit decisions because the company's backers want to move quickly to sell. They no longer seeing their investments pan out over the longer term, and now seems like the best time to get off of this train. The curent AI hype means that they can pitch Reddit's business model as a mix of ads and selling their backlog of user content for language model training.
But he's also been making shit decisions because he's believed that Redditors are a captive audience. That they have nowhere else to go. That's exactly what it looked like 3 weeks ago.
That is no longer true. There are now multiple active alternatives for people. None of them need to have 50 million people on them, they just need content, and that content is starting to flow. This means Reddit isn't sticky anymore. People will move away over time as they further enshitify the site.
Reddit hasn't been shot in the head. It won't die immediately. It has cancer.
Great analogy. Reddit is also like someone with a serious addiction. In this case, to money. They're going to keep making stupid decisions because they've got to have that money, and not just "enough" but more and more and they'll screw you over to get it. You'll forgive them once or twice. You'll try to talk them out of it. You'll get their friends involved. You'll tell them all that they're throwing away. But they've got to have more money. Ultimately you have to give up on them for your own sanity. They'll still be wandering around town, stinking and ridiculed and talking to themselves, doing anything no matter how degrading for just a little bit more money. Eventually you'll just pretend you never knew them.