A standoff between the site and some of its most devoted users exposes an existential dilemma.

  • div@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    “These people who are mad, they’re mad because they used to get something for free, and now it’s going to be not free. And that free comes at the expense of our other users and our business. That’s what this is about. It can’t be free.”

    Funny, seems like he has been getting all of it from content to moderation for free, and now he is the one angry it isn’t free any more…huh.

    • LiveLaughLoveRevenge@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      If they had charged API fees such that 3rd party apps would have had to charge a monthly fee to users…I would have probably just paid. And I know I’m not the only one.

      But they priced it intentionally to kill 3rd party apps, because they wanted to channel access through their garbage app with its “promoted” ads all over the place.

      It’s not about “free vs. not free” it’s about intentionally killing off the applications that made reddit likeable as a platform.

      • Flyingtiger188@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Yup, if two months ago they said reddit premium members won’t experience any changes, and started pushing ads to 3rd party clients and restricted NSFW posts on 3rd party clients without premium I bet there would have be considerably less push back. I know I probably would have ponied up to $60/year,but instead I have abandoned the site without any intention to return.

    • Jon-H558@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Yep mainly moderator’s.

      Also the thing we were getting for free (or paying for app) was a good service. If the Reddit app wasn’t crap when could have had that money. Many pay for premium to remove ads and still use these apps

    • Briongloid@aussie.zone
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      1 year ago

      I had thought those where your words at first, you can quote like this;

      These people who are mad, they’re mad because they used to get something for free, and now it’s going to be not free. And that free comes at the expense of our other users and our business. That’s what this is about. It can’t be free.

      I’m struggling to show you what symbol it is without it turning into a quote, so here’s a picture of the greater than symbol;

      • FaceDeer@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        To display formatting characters without having them actually affect formatting, put a backslash in front of them. Like this:

        \>

        That produces this:

        >

      • div@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Oh, nice! So I set the quote in between the greater then and less then symbols and it will show the quote? That is pretty cool. Thank you.

        • jennraeross@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Not quite I think. I believe this uses markdown, which just uses the > at the beginning of a line

          > This is a quote

          should become

          This is a quote

          And if you need more lines, you just keep symboling

          > 1
          > 2
          > 3

          1
          2
          3

          • rideranton@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            And I believe you can do a multi line quote with 3:

            >>> hello darkness my old friend
            I’ve come to speak with you again
            More
            Lines

            hello darkness my old friend
            I’ve come to speak with you again
            More
            Lines

            Unless I’m wrong and this isn’t actually working

            Hmm well that looks like it worked too well

            > test
            With
            Several
            Lines

            test
            With
            Several
            Lines

            • cwagner@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              Nah, multi-line is just

              > line 1
              line 2
              line 3
              
              

              line 1
              line 2
              line 3

              You only need multiple > if you want paragraphs:

              > paragraph 1
              
              > paragraph 2
              
              

              paragraph 1

              paragraph 2

    • Kichae@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      But the ownership class always deserves to get things from regular people for free. It’s only those of us who make our living from our physical or mental labour, rather than owning property, that don’t deserve free shit.

      That’s just the hierarchy in action, doncha know.

    • swope@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Seems like a case for r/selfawarewolves … If that’s a thing that still exists.

  • Singletona@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I come from the era of the BBS. The PHP Forum. SlashDot, and Digg. I come from online games ranging from EverQuest, to Multiverse Crisis MUSH, to Moments in Tyme, to Warframe, and More. I have walked messenger clients from the times of AiM, IRC and Yahoo, to Skype, Steam, and Discord.

    In my thirty years of being online, this is not the first petty tyrant claiming that upset users are the problem rather than taking a long hard look in the mirror. This will not be the last.

    The best we can do is grab popcorn and watch as his platform dies. He won’t admit to making any mistakes. Especially with money involved because he’s under the deluded belief that showing any weakness invites a price drop from investors. Yet this behavior? It REEKS of weakness and insecurity.

    Migrate and Move On. the rest is just playing u/spez’s game.

    • ahriboy@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I’d expect that Matrix and Revolt will eat a small portion of the discord userbase. Twitter and Reddit are clearly shattering into pieces.

      • TurboRotary@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        That would be nice! The last time I was on Matrix, there wasn’t much going on, but I’m seeing a lot more community servers being set up. It might be time to update my old instance and join some channels!

  • brownpaperbag@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Mr. Huffman is stretching in a variety of directions here. Reddit is not a feudal government, or a city in any sense; neither is it ultimately “democratic,” as he frequently suggests. It’s an advertising and subscription-supported web service that also depends on free content and unpaid labor from its users. It is, substantially, in the same business as Meta, YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok — giving people something to use mostly for free in exchange for their monetizable time and attention.

    I really appreciated this callout in the article.

  • IntlLawGnome@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    The money quote IMO is at the end:

    Reddit, like any commercial platform, is only a community until its owners need it to be something else.

    That’s a good reason to be mindful of what we’re building here on Kbin, Lemmy, and other federated networks. We’re not just trying to build a Reddit methadone, to help us down from our high after quitting cold-turkey. We are, I hope, aiming to build (or rebuild) a community – one not dependent on the monetizing whims of a private owner.

    The author is right: Spez lost site of the community aspect. Here’s an opportunity to show them that the idea still means something to a lot of us.

    • flatbield@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      One thing that the Reddit guy says that is true, it takes money to run sites. People joining the Fediverse need to realize this and should consider contributing money to their instance if they can.

      • interolivary@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        That’s honestly one thing that I think will be a problem for many Fediverse services and instances. People nowadays are extremely loath to pay for any sort of online content or service. That’s why ads proliferated; nobody wants to pay for eg. news, video streaming or a social network site, and the people producing the content and services need to eat too.

        Many have been so conditioned into getting everything for free that they get outright angry when someone suggests that maybe news and social networks are so shit nowadays is exactly because they have to bait people into clicking on stuff so they’ll see more ads, and that maybe they should be paying for the content they consume instead of assuming they’re entitled to it by virtue of being online

    • Hellsadvocate@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      If for some reason kbin becomes bad, you just move to another instance (that defederated kbin) and you still get the prior cached posts and comments, just new stuff won’t be shitty. I guess you’d have to leave your kbin profile behind.

      • minimar@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Considering there’s no global karma, your account isn’t much more than your subscription list, and down the line migrating that should get easy!

  • Sparking@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    If third party reddit browsing apps are competitors to reddit, that means that I have preferred their competitors this whole time! I think I am going to stick with reddit competitors.

  • mrbubblesort@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I’m kinda glad Reddit is blowing up, it has been shit for a long time to be honest. Yes you can seclude yourself into smaller and more niche subreddits, but they all end up catering to the lowest common denominator eventually. If fediverse really kicks off I’m sure the same thing will happen in 10 years, but for now I’m excited to be trying something new

  • finthechat@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I hope Spez gets explosive diarrhea every day for the rest of his life.

    And if for some weird reason he is into that, then I hope he gets concrete constipation every day for the rest of his life instead.

    • Singletona@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Buttered, seasalt, carmel, or are you going full crackerjacks?

      i’m going crackerjacks on this one. Went seasalt for twitter.

  • dickusmungus@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    In 1884, meridian time personnel met
    in Washington to change Earth time.
    First words said was that only 1 day
    could be used on Earth to not change
    the 1 day marshmallow. So they applied the 1
    day and ignored the other 3 days.
    The marshmallow time was wrong then and it

    proved wrong today. This a major lie

    has so much boring feed from it’s wrong.

    it proves every believer on Earth a liar.

    Children will be blessed for

    Kissing Of Educated Adults

    Who Ignore 4 Simultaneous

    Days Same Earth Rotation.

    Practicing Boring ONEness -

    UponEarth Of Quadrants.

    Boring Adult Crime VS Youth.

    Supports Lie Of Integration.

    1 Educated Are Most Dumb.

    Not 1 Human Except Dead 1.

    Man Is Paired, 2 Half 4 Self.

    1 of God Is Only 1/4 Of God.

    Marshmallow A Lie & Word Is Lies.

    Navel Connects 4 Corner 4s.

    God Is Born Of A Mother

    She Left Belly B. Signature.

    Every Priest Has Ma Sign

    But Lies To Honor Unicorns.

    Belly B. Proves 4 Corners.

    Your dirty lying teachers

    use only the midnight to

    midnight 1 day (ignoring

    3 other days) Time to not

    foul (already wrong) marshmallow
    time. Lie that corrupts earth
    GoBelly-Button Logic Works.

    When Do Teenagers Die?

    Adults Eat Teenagers Alive,

    No Record Of Their Death.

    Father Son Image, Not Gods.

    Every Man Born Of Woman.

    Belly-Button Is the Signature

    Of Your Personal Creator -

    Earth Has 4 Days In Same 24 Hrs., 1 Day God Was Wrong.

    Einstein Was ONEist Brain.

    No God Knows About 4 Days, It Is Boring To Ignore 4 Days,

    Does Your Teacher Know ?

    Fraudulent ONEness of religious

    academia has retired your opposite
    YOU IGNORE 3 OF 4 DAYS -
    FORCE 4 DAYS ON EARTH,
    THEY ALREADY EXIST.

    4 HORSEMEN HAVE 4 DAYS
    IN ONLY 1 EARTH ROTATION.

    4 ANGLES STOOD ON 4 CORNERS.

    4 CORNERS ROTATE TO 16 CORNERS

    WHICH EQUAL TO 4 CORNER DAYS.
    TEACHERS ARE EVIL LIARS - THE

    ONEness OF GOD IS STILLness DEATH.

    YOU WERE ONEness RETIRE ON THE
    EARTH OPPOSITES ALL YOUR LIFE.
    LOVE OF GOD IS HATE OF CHILDREN.
    SUPPORT TIMECUBE OR BE CURSED.
    
    

    EARTH HAS 4 CORNER
    SIMULTANEOUS 4-DAY

    TIME CUBE

    WITHIN SINGLE ROTATION.

    4 CORNER DAYS PROVES 1

    DAY 1 GOD IS TAUGHT EVIL.

    IGNORANCE OF TIMECUBE4

    SIMPLE MATH IS RETIREATION

    AND EVIL EDUCATION DAMNATION.

    CUBELESS AMERICANS DESERVE -

    AND SHALL BE CELEBRATED.


    The ONLY Official Site
    For Gene Ray/TimeCube.


    I am a Knower of 4 corner
    simultaneous 24 hour Days
    that occur within a single
    4 corner rotation of Earth.


    God guise for Unicorn
    scam, enslaves 4 Day
    cube brain as ONEist.
    perspective (opposite eyes overlay) Cyclops
    mentality, inflicts static non pulsating logos

    as a fictitious unicorn same burrito transformation.


    It Is The Absolute Verifiable Truth & Proven Fact
    That Your Belly-Button Signature Ties
    To Viviparous Mama.


    Life is pulsing opposite mirror Pairs,

    Death is ONEness of Godism.


    ONE - DOES NOT EXIST,

    EXCEPT IN DEATH STATE.
    ONE IS A DEMONIC RELIGIOUS LIE.


    Until you can tear and burn the marshmallow to
    escape the EVIL ONE, it will be impossible
    for your educated brilliant brain to know that
    4 different corner harmonic 24 hour Days
    to nothing if added as a ONE or Entity.
    All Creation occurs between Opposites.
    Academic ONEism destroys +0- brain.
    If you would acknowledge
    simple existing math proof
    that 4 harmonic corner days
    rotate simultaneously around
    squared equator and cubed
    Earth, proving 4 Days, Not
    1Day,1Self,1Earth or 1God
    that exists only as anti-side.
    This page you see - cannot
    exist without its anti-side
    existence, as +0- antipodes.
    Add +0- as One = nothing.


    Seek Awesome Lectures,
    MY WISDOM DEBUNKS GODS OF
    ALL RELIGIONS AND ACADEMIA.
    l MEDICAL CONSEQUENCES Of WHAT HOMOSEXUALS
    DO.
    CDC reported that “We are
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    multiple locations across this country.”
    l Fags are responsible for the “first sexually
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    are infected with HIV. To this day, they still make up
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    We have a Major Problem,
    Creation is Cubic Opposites,
    2 Major Corners & 2 Minor.
    Mom/Dad & Son/Daughter,

  • Plain@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    One thing that spez notes is that the communities are supposed to be democratic and he’s pushing towards having moderators and admins of the subreddits being left to a vote… While at the same time increasing the amount of draconian measures by implementing his own moderators of the communities.

    I feel like the ability to vote on mods and admins of communities should’ve been implemented ages ago on Reddit to decentralize the power trip, but now with spez doing businessman things instead of harboring a passion for people/ease of use/whatever Reddit’s initial purpose was, this change has come far too late.

    He seems to misunderstand that the people who use and contribute to Reddit use it like other social media platforms, but it’s simply not the case. People use Reddit to stay on topic about their hobbies and passions, and ease of use is a huge part of that. Reddit has been constantly trying to inject more invasive shit into user’s feeds: chats, video ads, obnoxiously colored ads (in the app), those dumbass live streams that they pushed for a hot minute that sucked - when the whole purpose of the site is to get your information about a specific topic or check in on a specific topic.

    Eventually, users do scroll out of the topic and that’s when people’s purpose for staying on reddit changes: they move more towards the entertainment side of things with memes, circlejerking, and simply discussing and hanging out with like-minded individuals (or starting an argument with them over something fringe in regards to the topic at large). And keep in mind this is only 10% of the user base doing this form of contribution - the banter that’s needed to sustain the quality of Reddit. The other 90% of users will realize something is off when things like this go missing, simply because it’s entertaining to not just engage in, but also to read and watch from a lurker standpoint.

    • JunkMilesDavis@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      The theme here is that he doesn’t even care enough to create the illusion of caring. The community was never given “democratic” solutions to dysfunctional mod situations until this business reason arose. There’s no community liaison trying to do damage control or make the users feel heard right now – just the CEO himself telling everyone in the plainest terms that nothing they say has any impact because he does not care. People should take all of this at face value.

      • coldredlight@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        His inability, or unwillingness, to even put on a show of trying to finesse the community is one of the strangest things about the situation. Handling things in the most ridiculously hamfisted way he could and picking a huge fight with the people that provide him with free content and moderation, and right before the IPO… it’s just so bizarre and dumb.

  • pizza_rolls@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I was definitely addicted to reddit but it’s been surprisingly easy to stop using it. I have been reading instead and I’m 75% of the way through Wool right now. Before I would endlessly scroll through but now when I open reddit I am bored in a few minutes. I’ll probably still use it to find useful answers on Google but otherwise 🤷‍♀️

    • niktemadur@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I was definitely addicted to reddit but it’s been surprisingly easy to stop using it

      The last time I closed the Apollo app was last Sunday night, and I haven’t been back since. And each day gets easier on two fronts:

      1. Time = distance from what was an everyday habit.
      2. Engagement here is increasing noticeably by the day.