Reddit risks losing its identity in pursuit of profits

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 1083 points –
Reddit risks losing its identity in pursuit of profits
techzine.eu

Reddit isn't profitable, despite having more than 50 million daily active users. In preparation for an IPO, CEO Steve Huffman put the platform's API

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I'd argue reddit lost their identity days ago. Several iconic communities and features died with the API slaughter. Now it's just another link aggregator without the things that made reddit unique.

Yeah the risk has definitely already materialised. Reddit is forever changed even if it’s still alive.

Can you elaborate on this? Which landmarks have permanently fallen?

I know that Minecraft left. Based on what I've read here recently, the r/android mods moved to the fed as well. BotDefense just closed up shop.

The AMA subreddit mod team gave up on support and recruiting people to give AMAs. /r/pics and /r/videos are gone, almost certainly not coming back. Many companies, like mojang, that used reddit as a semi-official forum have left. Numerous small and medium subreddits have migrated over here. Not API related, but april fools this year was literally just a potato. Other than maybe /r/askreddit, there's not much there anymore that I can think of that still makes it unique.

Not OP, but /r/AMA was one major casualty - mods just basically said F this we're not dealing with this crap anymore. /r/Pics is fighting the admins on the NFSW tag, along with /r/cyberpunk. /r/interestingasfuck was another one.

As a long time ex-Redditor, the impact is definitely felt - it's just become another link aggregator. I no longer feel any attachment to the site, especially after finding the Fediverse a much richer source of intelligent content and commentary.

Acutely maybe, but it began years ago. I remember as early as 2013 or so people were saying it was not what it had been before

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