Spez, and Reddit as a whole is basically counting on most subreddits opening back up tomorrow after the 48-hour period.
Really hope that mods can hold out for longer, make them really panic.
This just in from forbes.com:
“Investors are fed up. Fidelity, which led Reddit’s $700 million funding round in 2021 with a $10 billion valuation, has cut its Reddit company valuation by 41% since it invested. This could scupper Reddit’s plans to eventually go public with a reported valuation of $15 billion.”
Who actually loses a game of chicken of this magnitude?!? u/spez, you listening?!?
The app owners will work with him to prevent AI training from taking data from the site for free. And any issues the third party apps have doing that will be shared by the official app. They’re not special in that regard. You can’t really have public secrets behind a paywall. It doesn’t really work.
There are many, many options here that are only being held back by Huffman’s ego. Imagine losing billions in valuation because of personal ego. I bet investors are thrilled.
Isn’t it entertaining to watch?!! I’ve gone through a few bags of popcorn over the course of the last few days🍿🍿
that’s one thing I still remember after all of this. Popcorn still tastes good
“ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?” - Huffman, probably
It’s not just his ego but also his incompetence which has been very apparent for his entire tenure. I really don’t get how they’ve be never managed to find someone who’s up to the job.
I’m not surprised that Fidelity is losing faith in Reddit. The way Steve completely alienated the whole community, well he’s basically shooting himself in the foot.
Also he admitted they don’t make money and said they need to be profit driven til they do.
To me that says he’s not sure this will actually make Reddit profitable; so looking at it from a detached, “I just care about the money” perspective I’d be really nervous about investing in Reddit. Feels like Spez would just light it all on fire.
They really need someone competent at the helm.
Competence runs a distant second to “trustable” at this point. Spez has shown he can’t be trusted.
Wait until he starts retroactively editing posts and/or deleting and shadowbanning against mutinous mods. I really hope the blackout keeps rolling a week or two and they see their ad rev and user impressions tank.
Spez already said they aren’t changing their minds. And by the time the realize they might want to, it’s going to be too late.
I posted about kbin.social in a comment thread from RIF and saw my comment posted, but when I checked under my profile the next day, the comment was gone. Not deleted by mods or reddit…just gone, like it never existed.
This was shortly after reddit banned the kbin subreddit for “spamming”.
First time something like that has ever happened in the 10+ years I’ve been on there. Pretty much cemented my decision to stay away unless major changes happen.
The surefire way of getting your ass in trouble: Pissing off rich, powerful people.
That said, it would be such poetic justice if WSB somehow ate reddit’s tail because of this.
Note that this cut in valuation has nothing to do with the blackout. It’s actually old news. Forbes did mention it in their most recent article, but the majority of the drop in valuation was last year.
https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/01/fidelity-reddit-valuation/
Fidelity, the lead investor in Reddit’s most recent funding round in 2021, has slashed the estimated worth of its equity stake in the popular social media platform by 41% since the investment.
Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund’s stake in Reddit was valued at $16.6 million as of April 28, according to the fund’s monthly disclosure released over the weekend. That’s down 41.1% cumulatively since August 2021 when the asset manager spent $28.2 million to acquire the Reddit shares, according to disclosures the firm has made in its annual and semi-annual reports. […]
The substantial markdown of Reddit’s value by Fidelity predominantly occurred by the previous year. Nevertheless, it merits pointing out that Fidelity has persistently implemented minor reductions in the worth of Reddit’s shares in the ensuing months.
correct but the drop in valuation is what spurred the API fees and subsequent backlash. This will cause valuation to drop further.
Quote is from today’s piece here https://www.forbes.com/sites/qai/2023/06/13/redditors-go-to-war-with-the-company-as-it-enforces-eye-watering-prices-for-reddit-api/
It is ALL about the Blackout…
No. I mentioned that:
Forbes did mention it in their most recent article, but the majority of the drop in valuation was last year.
The “new” valuation, 41% lower than their investment, was announced in April 2023.
Thank you for stressing this. It should be higher up.
u/spez, you listening?!?
Clearly he hasn’t for even a brief moment.
Even if the subs come back online, I won’t be back unless changes are made, which it appears there won’t be. On to greener pastures (kbin)!
I remember Digg saying the same thing.
I am at the point where I think, Reddit may well bounce back in general, for there are lots of people whose only experience of the web is using huge corpo-sites, but I still won’t be there except for the cases where I have to use it for some crazy reason. The Fediverse feels a lot more hopeful and open, like the web was in the early days, and I much prefer that to the monolithic corporate site system. So wherever possible, I will pass on that.
The Fediverse is far from flawless, but maybe it’ll fix its issues over time. Let’s find out.
“I am sorry to say this, but please be mindful of wearing Reddit gear in public,” CEO Steve Huffman says in an internal memo. “Some folks are really upset, and we don’t want you to be the object of their frustrations.”
“This is a minor annoyance nbd but also people want to stab you”
i’m as annoyed with reddit as the next guy, but damn, imagine stabbing someone over that lmfao
The longer I go without Reddit, the more I realize I don’t need it. Let it burn
Without Apollo, I don’t care what Reddit does.
I guess this is the new Reddit! Time to kick our feet up.
I expected as much. 2 days is a pitiful protest length. I will not be using Reddit any longer whilst keeping an eye on updates from here and other news sites. I’m hoping this memo encourages all subreddits to protest idnefinitely until this assclown of a CEO is willing to negotiate lower API prices. And if he’s not, onto greener pastures. And watching /r/wallstreetbets figure out a way to destroy their IPO when it eventually launches.
I agree i’m in no hurry to use Reddit. I’ll be satisfied if enough people stick around and keep the place interesting. In fact i would say sticking around the fediverse is the only answer to dystopic corporate domination. Those who return, enjoy your exploitation, lol.
My two subs are both pretty small, but they’re staying gone until/unless the API changes get reverted.
Fuck Spez.
I really need to stress that it’s so important that the subs on Reddit remain private until action is taken, I’m still not sure why the 2 day blackout was chosen in favour of an all out black out.
They probably weren’t sure at the start of how much support they’d get so they decided to have a set date just so people could unite easier and would be more likely to take action. I’m sure they’d have suggested a longer period if they knew they’d get this much support. They probably also hoped Spez would’ve backed off by now.
Subreddits have to prove him wrong or there will be no change.
I was there for the migration from kbin to reddit and I’m here for the migration from reddit to kbin. There’s no need to prove anything to spez. Reddit is already in the past.
I think you meant “from digg to reddit”?
I dunno about you, but I rather like it here - it’s a bit more old school on KBin and reminds me of my youth. Maybe this will be the renaissance of the BBS and forum, but now federated across the internet in beautiful FOSS and distributed networks.
I’m really enjoying Kbin as well. Ironically the people left on reddit are saying they’re enjoying reddit more too with the blackout, as they’re seeing smaller subreddits they used to not see, and the large subs filled with spam and reposts are mostly dark.
I think the lesson here is that reddit got too big for quality, which is ultimately what the admins want. Quantity over quality, more users to sell advertising too, and more users to sell their analytics.
I like the smaller conversation lately. I realized I became more of a lurker the last few years because the conversation either got too unwieldy. If I try to make a comment, it just got lost in the sea. Or the threads were filled with same old tired jokes or messaging. I like the older style forum because I felt anyone can participate in a discussion.
Reddit ought to know first hand to never underestimate a bunch of apes with a purpose and access to a computer
Exactly. The 48 hour black out won’t change a thing. The only way anything could change is if the black out is indefinite. Personally, I feel like wiping my account and moving on is the best course of action.
I’m planning to begin to wipe my old account once the blackout ends, starting phase two of our protest, the dismantling of Reddit. They should not be allowed to profit from our content in perpetuity. I will delete what I’ve contributed.
yeah, if they can keep the protest up they will win. They may already have. As soon as users take the trouble to create new accounts on things like Kbin, the less likely they’ll retreat back to reddit. Honestly for being in its infancy I think this has been a good platform.
Yeah, even if they reverse course and offer a public apology I’ll probably end up primarily staying here. Yeah it’s a smaller community, but sometimes that’s for the best.
It really feels like 2010s Reddit did. But with more interoperablity and a clearer vision about who it wants to be morally speaking.
I haven’t spent much time here but so far it’s the most approachable reddit alternative I’ve been to.
A lot of us have just been waiting for the next big thing to come along, the quality there just gets worse and worse, the large amount of users seems to be only thing reddit has going for it. I’d be thrilled if the Fediverse took off, I’d never go back to the other site again.
personally never created account on reddit because the default user interface was so bad BUT giving kbin a try because comments are encouraged. A desperately missing feature on mastodon.
Reddit relies on moderators to mod the subs free of charge. Mods use API powered bots to help make life easier.
If mods are dumb enough to open up after two days and continue moderating subs, they’re going to learn real hard on July 1st how much more difficult it is to manage a sub without all those automod bots.
We’ll see what happens next month when the brown stuff hits the fan.
