STOP saying “fuck u/spez” START saying “FIRE STEVE HUFFMAN”

lemmony@lemmy.world to Reddit@lemmy.world – 1825 points –

“fuck u/spez” means absolutely nothing to anyone who isn’t familiar with Reddit, it’s just noise.

“FIRE STEVE HUFFMAN” is a clear, actionable statement that has a clear target and goal and actually has meaning to people who don’t know what Reddit is (like say, a potential shareholder or investor)

Idk where to put this since r/savethirdpartyapps got banned so post this wherever will get noise if you agree

205

Lmao you sweet summer child. You think firing him will do shit? The company has cancer. They are trying to go public. Nothing is going to fix whats wrong with the company now. It's terminal.

This is how it goes.

Company makes good product.
Company goes public.
Company becomes shit.
Company dies.

Rinse and repeat.

Also, firing spez does nothing because this wasn’t spez’s decision.

If you look at the history of Reddit’s API, it had a fee until spez became CEO again and made it free. This was when the 3PA took off.

Being the CEO does not mean that you get to actually make major decisions for the company. Think of the CEO as the face of the board of directors. They are the ones that approve/deny major changes.

You want the board changed, not spez.

Why do we want anything to change?

Why are we still sitting on this new platform talking about ways reddit can be saved?

What's happening to reddit is the end result of the sort of platform it is and the current state of the tech industry. With or without spez, its course is set, nothing we do will slow or reverse it.

Feels like maybe there's some younger people here that haven't gone through the death of a platform/site before. Us older social media folks have seen this time and time again, have had to migrate from self-destructing platform to self-destructing platform many times.

So take it from me: reddit is done. No matter what happens next, it is never recovering. There will be no reset button or rolling back anything. The damage is permanent, and the profit incentives run too deep.

Let it go.

I am so tired of this sentiment. You're not wrong about the corporate stuff, but blaming people for wanting it to get better serves no purpose. For all its flaws, Reddit had something that no other site, not even this one, has been able to remotely replicate. I didn't use the site for news, politics, memes, or mindless scrolling. I used it because it was literally the only place to discuss niche topics and interests.

Whether we like it or not, it's the only place where a lot of these niche communities exist. Users that were here since Digg will find a new home, but the one who can barely use a Macbook may not. And I'm all for helping as many of those communities migrate, but the truth is that for many communities, especially the ones less technically inclined, the death of Reddit means the death of that community, and that's really fucking sad.

Niche community boards existed before Reddit, they will exist after Reddit.

Not in a way that's accessible to casual audiences. You can watch literally any show, and chances are there's a sub where you can go talk about it. That was not the case 10 years ago. Unless your show had a cult following, the only people to talk about it with were people you knew. I hope that someday we can turn this site into the same kind of thing, but we aint there yet.

Yes it was a bit of work to find niche subjects in the old days but it was all out there if you really cared. Having communities too accessible to casuals is both a blessing and a curse. Constant conversation is a great time killer but the quality of those conversations really suffers.

It is really a fine line between the two and I think federated social media could actually pull it off. Reddit has been shit for a long time and the API fallout, even though it had no direct impact on the way I used Reddit, was just the last straw. No point trying to save a dieing animal, sometimes the most difficult decision is for the best.

blaming people for wanting it to get better serves no purpose

Yeah. No one is doing that. We're blaming them for tolerating bullshit.

The users played every card they had and Reddit didn't move a fucking millimeter. If they had come up with absolutely any sort of compromise, you could have a decent argument. But Reddit has made it very clear that the only changes that are coming are the continued enshittification.

If users actually stopped contributing to the site, they would have no choice but to roll back the changes and come up with another solution. But not even a small fraction of the site's users slowed down for more than a couple of days.

I mean I agree with this part. That's why I'm commenting on this site and not the other one, but that doesn't mean we have to pretend the other one doesn't exist and that we don't care what's going on there. I agree that everyone should move here, but nevertheless, most of them aren't, and I cannot control that. The fact is that most people are not deep enough into the internet to make a pros and cons list of social media sites. They just use what other people use, or what pops up first on Google. We are neither of those things, and until we are, I have a vested interest in what happens at the other place.

I really hope the fediverse is different. At the very least, that it can evolve in a way that we don't have these jarring "migrations". People can just move to a new platform that federates with the old one, and slowly/gradually move over to the better thing.

Oh I was just informing people. A lot of people think that the CEO decides the direction of the company when that is rarely the case. I’ve been done with Reddit since June 11, I’m just here to watch it burn.

We need to just let reddit die as a sign to all other executives that their customers are the ones who hold the cards.

We weren't the customers. We were the content creators. We gave the site value that was then sold to advertisers, as the cost of keeping the platform running.

Thinking of platforms like reddit as businesses is the inherent problem in the first place. Running ads or having some premium features should only be for the purposes of maintaining the site. The second the people running it decide that it's time to start making profit for themselves is the moment it dies.

That's why I deleted all of my data before leaving. I'm not letting reddit keep my contributions to add to their value. I hope everyone here has done the same.

We need to just let reddit die as a sign to all other executives that their customers are the ones who hold the cards.

The same thing could have been said about Digg. They are too stupid. Companies start out small, and have stars in their eyes instead of money bags, and talk about how they want to be different and want to do good for the world. Then once they grow beyond a certain size, they became the same evil shit as any other corporation. It happens time and time again, and it will continue happening.

That's when the venture capital shareholders kick in and want the money. That's the cause.

Reddit's customers do hold the cards. Users are the product, advertisers (and now, potential investors) are the actual customers.

You want the board changed, not spez.

Katelin Holloway - Former exec of vc capital firm Initialized.

Michael Seibel - Y Combinator partner

Patricia Fili-Krushel - previously the President of ABC TV Network, and an EVP at both NBCUniversal and Time Warner Inc.

Paula Price - Former board member of JP Morgan Chase bank

Porter Gale - CMO at Personal Capital

Robert A. Sauerberg Jr. - President and CEO at Conde Nast

Samuel Altman - president of Y Combinator and now the CEO of OpenAI.

Zubair Jandali - global head of App Developer Ad Sales (owned by google). Ddirector of US performance sales at AdMob.

2 techbro ghouls

4 financial elite bougie pricks

1 TV elite bougie prick

1 advertisement industry ghoul and all round bougie prick

Overall you nailed it, but the terminology you used to summarize those roles is really cringe.

How's that boot taste?

Is that what you say everytime you fail to comprehend a response? Tell me how that makes any sense.

Nah mate it's what I say to americans that see basic political terms as cringe because america has turned their entire system into a politically illiterate joke. You'd probably get a culture shock if you saw me using the word comrade but if you came over here you'd find it is in common use in labour parties all over europe.

You didn't say comrade, or bourgeois. You said techbro ghouls and elite bougie prick. Then proceeded to slander me as a bootlicker despite me agreeing with your point.

Bougie is just shorthand for bourgeoisie you think I want to type that out every fucking time? Half the time I have to double take just to be sure I'm not spelling it wrong even after the 500,000th time writing it.

Worse/ bigger than just the board, even; with higher interest rates, investors are wanting more returns immediately, not just DAUs or some kind of proxy for future returns.

This is why all tech companies are becoming shittier and more expensive to the end-user (cf. Netflix cracking down on password sharing, Twitter (to some extent Muskrat’s entry there was a cover for him to dump money from Tesla without raising suspicion; itself necessary due to it struggling with the same issues in a high interest environment), Google’s anti-ad blocker attempts).

Reddit's API never had a fee, it was always free. Reddit was built in an era where there wasn't really much difference between an API and the HTML view you see, they both had the same backend code, with minor differences on the presentation layer.

RiF had some kind of agreement where they were paying Reddit actual money until shortly after Huffman became CEO. I don't think they were "paying for API access", but they were a third party app that generated revenue for Reddit until Huffman came along.

This is false, look it up. The API had a fee until 2016.

I assure you it was free, as I worked there in 2010-2011, and built many bots and tools using said api thereafter. I never paid a cent, and none of the people using my bots did either

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For me, it would more be about spez getting fucked and not being able to profit from the IPO. Couldn't really care less what happens to reddit at this point, but it would be nice if Steve Huffman got shafted as consequence for his greedy behavior.

It's the shareholders that are greedy. They want him to do this.

And I'm sure if the two guys who actually made the site were still there, they'd have just rolled over and completely killed the spirit of the thing they put their heart and soul into, just because some Chinese holding company wants to increase profits next quarter...

Do you think he's the end of the line? It doesn't matter who's in his position, they'll be making the same choices he does, because he answers to the shareholders.

Nah, I know he's not the end of the line. Reddit is dead to me regardless, it's not like I'd go back if Huffman left. It's more just about seeing him fail as a direct result of the stupid decisions he made so smugly.

Yeah, it doesn't matter if they hire another CEO or put another board in charge. The outcome will remain the same. They're trying to IPO, get their cash, and then from then on, they'll be bending over for investors.

Reddit as we knew it is long gone. Its time to move on.

You forgot the step where someone else takes dominant control of the space

Why there’s always the top comment in any kind of protest with a Sweet summer child already giving up at the start?

I heard this is a very American thing and I would suggest you guys to change that attitude and start fighting for your rights for once. If you keep all giving up your rights will be eaten by the corporations even further.

Lol yeah. Also just because I'd like a different platform to be dominant doesn't mean I don't need to use the current one sometimes

I agree, but more just trying to move the meaningless into something meaningful. Reddits gonna die most likely because capital is gonna capital. But at the very least this dickwad could go, he’s an asshole, and the company would be marginally better without him, and idk karma would be nice if it was possible no?

I agree that it would be nice if Huffman got the boot, but I think it wouldn’t be good to let the other managing scumbags say, “hey, big scumbag gone, no one here but us Good Guys(TM),” which might be what they’re already planning to do.

It isn’t meaningful. It’s just picking one fall guy for your ire, and not coincidentally it’s the only Reddit executive anyone knows. Just leave the site if you don’t like the direction the Board is taking the company. Otherwise you’re still driving their user engagement numbers.

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I prefer Join Lemmy.

It's the only thing that will actually make a difference.

I don't care if spez is fired or not. It doesn't matter. He's incompetent, but he's just carrying out the wishes of the investors.

It doesn't really matter who corporate shill runs reddit, reddit is already over the edge that they only care about what is under the line. Fediverse is the future!

I said bye, now I say “Lemmy’s pretty cool”.

It has been about 20 days for me. But I hardly miss Reddit. While my niches aren't niche enough here yet, I am actually having somewhat meaningful discussions.

Admittedly I just took a huge jump and changed so many platforms, devices and software this month that I might not even notice the intricacies.

It’s pretty rad, much happier here just miss my larger communities

how about we stop talking about reddit and enjoy lemmy instead?

I agree, but, you know... This community is called "Reddit".

Yeah i was going to comment something about stop giving reddit clicks but then i saw the community

Agreed Reddit is dead to most here this is nonsense posting, kicking a dead horse

Does anybody know a good app for lemmy im using connect now but i hate it. it has no subscribed feature for all i know.

Connect lets you subscribe, but right now I am using a mix of Connect, Liftoff, and Jerboa. I think I like Jerboa best so far.

It does, you can subscribe to communities and go to front-page section to view posts from subbed communities. So far I prefer connect over the others, most reminiscent of relay and jerboa just kept crashing on me don't know if they fixed it since.

This definitely has a lot to improve, specially in the interface part

Still, it has a lot of potential

“fuck u/spez” means absolutely nothing to anyone who isn’t familiar with Reddit, it’s just noise.

And "Fire Steve Huffman means absolutely nothing to anyone who doesn't know reddit CEO's name.

I'll go for an easier one: Fuck reddit, join lemmy. Easy and clear, and I'm not sure reddit would get any better with its CEO fired, they'll likely find someone similar.

If you look into the history of "fuck /u/Spez" this is the comment(s) that he edited way back when. It's an eternal reminder of the bullshit that he's pulled in the past. The Streisand Effect in all its glory.

If you're going to say anything, help guide folks out of the dumpster fire. Direct some more content this way.

Who gives a fuck what happens to / what people think of Reddit's CEO.

Reddit should die. And people should come here. I want more instances and communities developing here. Right now I have to hope between reddit and here for some communities. Steve Huffman can go and suck dick.

He does not deserve dick, he should suck a cactus!

But not one of those super spiky ones, but the ones that have tiny hairs that are impossible to get out of your skin when you accidentally touch the cactus and hurt everytime you bump them wrong.

I'd rather just say to migrate to Lemmy, there's always going to be a Steve Huffman, but with Lemmy it's either impossible or incredibly difficult.

Even firing him he would receive Ellen Pao treatment and put another puppet.

Instead of "fuck u/spez" use "reddit is dead" or "join Lemmy".

The best thing to do, is ignoring r/place. If we give reddit our attention they can continue, if not they're nothing.

Yeah but you're still interacting with the site, getting ad eyeballs and adding to the user engagement stats.

If you really want to fuck spez, get off Reddit! Lemmy's already way better.

The one thing Musk and Spez have successfully done is make themselves scapegoats that leave people believing that everything will be resolved once they leave, so people have hope since there's a "clear solution."

These issues run much deeper than the individual owners and CEOs though, it's the rot of the companies and platforms themselves, and getting rid of those people will solve absolutely nothing.

What needs to happen is for people to just switch off and help grow alternative platforms away from corporate meddling. Will it ever become mainstream? Maybe not, but it will never happen if people never try and just give up.

All of these issues are symptoms of our short sighted, quarterly profits driven, capitalist freight train of an economic system.

Wait, they banned r/savethirdpartyapps? I guess they really don't give a shit about anything other than making money.

r/savethirdpartyapps is banned. r/save3rdparty apps is not.

source: just checked it myself

It doesn't matter who the CEO is. They want to make bank and it fundamentally doesn't work with volunteer mods.

Idk where to put this since r/savethirdpartyapps got banned so post this wherever will get noise if you agree

Try r/Save3rdPartyApps

🤦‍♀️ literally two minutes of googling would’ve solved that for me smh

Or, ironically, looking right in the middle of the canvas. (Though you could have ended up in r/save3rdfartyapps).

Why would I want Spez fired when he's been so helpful in spreading awareness and encouraging adoption of the fediverse?

I think everyone would be better off ignoring Reddit and its staff completely. We can build a better Reddit 2.0, and it wouldn't even take a lot of effort. The last year or two of Reddit (from my perspective) was lackluster content from niche communities becoming unbearably toxic anyway.

And bots. And sponsored content.

I didn't mind a good infobot in a niche sub, but moving exclusively to lemmy has made me realize just how insidious the bots and sponsored content are over there. I felt attacked, for lack of a better word, by them even if I wasn't interacting with them.

I wonder how much of reddit is dark internet and how much is real users, and how expotentially that might grow. It should be interesting to observe the collapse at any rate.

I just loaded the front page without logging in out of curiosity. It's utter garbage.

The timing of twitter collapse, threads paid celebrity launch, and reddit implosion feels... Very foreboding.

Don't forget about virtual influencers which is a horror show I just learned about!

Whats firing supposed to do?

Im pretty sure hes planning on leaving on his own as soon as Reddit IPOs and he can bail out with his millions.

Changing CEOs can do a lot, albeit in this case probably not much. At the very least one prick down would feel at least a little go no?

Not gonna happen, and you’re right anyways

Fuck spez is clear and actionable too

I mean, I don’t wanna fuck him but you do you 🤷‍♀️

r/SaveThirdPartyApps got banned?? When did this happen? What was the reason?

Dunno but apparently r/save3rdpartyapps (number 3) is still there according to another commenter

More effective to say "Reddit it dead" at this point, not that it's useful either just leave and don't look back honestly

Why?

Who cares?

The only reason I can think of that you would want to see him fired is if you still believe he is the one and the only problem. If it wasn't him, it would be somebody else. The whole industry is effectively in the process of imploding. Without him, it would just be some other corporate penny pincher. The problem is the profit incentive.

Also...why bother? The only reason I can think to do this would be because you believe if he's fired, there's a chance reddit is saved and we can all go back.

You're still holding on. Let it go, buddy.

Eh. Lemmy is pretty good. I've moved on. I hope more people do as well and it can go in the giant Internet "has been" pile.

Lemmy just feels so much calmer to me I love it. Even if Reddit makes a full reverse course still won't go back

Who the hell is gonna fire him, though? That's like clamoring for Mark Zuckerberg to be fired. It's probably impossible to.

He already cashed out so I suspect his CEO position is more of a "he knows what he's doing so we'll hire him" than a "I own all of this, so I'm CEO". Unless they were dumb enough to give him a controlling portion of shares as compensation.

That said, they have no reason to listen to people posting on the internet about it. If he gets fired, it'll be over his results not some internet whining. Those who have the influence to get that done know that Hoffman is spez.

The only thing that doing this might accomplish is making it harder for him and others who happen to share his name to get hired in the future. But even that is iffy IMO.

But the people familiar with Reddit vastly out number the others that matter though?

We don’t need other people knowing who Huffman is, we need more redditors aware of what’s going on.

Fighting the wrong fight my friend.

Just stop talking about the entire site completely. Every time you talk about it, or the people it just adds to their counter of people interacting and it helps them out. The place is dead. Let it burn and let the douchebags that have made it a shit hole stay there while we enjoy this place until it goes the same way.

Reddit is rotten to the core, the CEO is just to puppet in front of it all.

Replace the CEO and nothing will change as long as there are investors looking to make a profit.

To be fair, no one should fuck Spez, or do anything that would even temporarily improve the quality of his life.

I got banned from Reddit so I can't help, but still fire Steve Huffman!

So did I. Why did you get banned?

Making fun of Americans, I suspect it may have been a mod, as I had been doing so for quite a long time

And yeah, I'm telling you this when you're probably American too

I'm Canadian haha.

I got banned for posting pictures of Nazis on r/beholdthemasterrace; I took the photos off Nazi Facebook profiles, and one of them found out and complained to Reddit admin, and they banned me.

So Reddit literally sided with Nazis.

I once got banned for posting a picture of an Astolfo in nazi uniform behind a nazi flag as a way to parody the stereotype of croats being nazi femboys (it was a Balkan irony sub) but after a week or so I got unbanned

It's kind of amazing how tech sides with fascism isn't it?

Nah they side with whoever has a thinner skin. The ones with a thinner skin will report you faster and get you banned

Or create more comment and repost bots to dilute the content even further, sure initially it’ll look like increased real engagement but it would drive more power users and content creators away

Wait... I thought we were trying to get Huffman some bitches??

Cmon ladies 'Fuck Spez'.

Seems like a popular fellow, what's the issue?

/s

Is this the right place? I feel like most of us in the fediverse are past "fixing" Reddit and are now just gleefully watching it burn.

I haven't seen the point of saying anything against the man who is the face of a group of people who are only interested in milking all the money they can out of reddit. It's just an expression of anger.

I have much more appreciation for "so long, and thanks for all the fish"

What do you mean? r/savethirdpartyapps is not banned. I am about so amplify your message there now.

I thought his first name was Fart?

do not tell me how to live my life

How about "Not My King", "I Stand with the Landed Gentry", or "Down With King Steven the Turd"

why compare him to a king at all?

He started with the Landed Gentry nonsense. You don't get a Gentry without a system of Nobles and a King.

Besides, he's acting the part.