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.
someone should have shown this graph to the dipshits in charge
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.
I suspect they could’ve overcharged still, but just shut their mouths and continued as normal. Each new tactic is awful and self harming.
All the 3pa’s shut down business the moment the actual API prices were announced. This wasn’t a protest move, the prices were simply 20 times higher than what they were promised and impossible to work into their business model. Reddit couldn’t have overcharged and continued as normal - it was a deliberate move to kill off 3pa while pretending they are not. Reddit COULD have charged this API price to users directly via Reddit Premium, but failed to do so.
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
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.
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.
“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 the kind of stuff which makes Reddit unique 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.
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.”
He’s just taking cues from the hostile behaviors he has seen at the top over there…
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”?
We need to strike back with a coup
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.
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.
