this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2023
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[–] doctortofu@reddthat.com 47 points 1 year ago (21 children)

I just posted it elsewhere, but that's only the beginning. They also announced their intent to turn reddit into an even more ad-infested hellhole than it already is: https://www.redditinc.com/blog/investing-in-what-makes-reddit-unique-introducing-contextual-keyword-targeting-and-product-ads

This is the future of reddit everyone - abandon all hope ye who clicketh here: https://www.redditinc.com/assets/images/site/image2.gif

[–] artistan@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Unlike some of the 3P [third-party] apps, we are not profitable - Steve Huffman, Reddit CEO

Translation - we don't have control of the 3PA and they are getting in the way of moooore profit, so we want them gone.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What a shitty job at astroturphing there.

"Won't someone think of the corporations! The evil third party apps (that we admitted were less than 10% of our userbase) are (somehow) bankrupting us! They're using so much API (even though our website uses at least 5x the API calls)

[Translation: There's 10% of the people we could shove ads in front of who are getting around it and I want to sell this sucker so I can buy another vacation property]

[–] sWiggn@fedia.io 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They're using so much API

I’m 100% convinced the reason they think 3PA API usage is unusually high per user is because all the high engagement users use 3PA, because their app actively repulses people from wanting to spend time on it. It seems like such a classic product misinterpretation of the stats, I’ve seen this from the inside as a developer before, ironically also at a company trying to IPO and failing spectacularly by completely misreading the room and their users

I hadn't thought about this but it makes sense. It's widely known that their largest contributors are 3PA users, I wonder if they did take the bias into account

[–] Law@fedia.io 2 points 1 year ago

Greed destroys everything.and its jot even greed,im sure they were profitable before but they had to squeeze every ounce of dollar.fucking capitalism.

[–] jlh@lemmy.jlh.name 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm 90% certain that this whole thing is due to to Reddit's new marketing execs saying "we can't run ads on third party apps", and then deciding that third party apps need to pay up for their supposed "projected loss in ad revenue".

It's the piracy fallacy: "Somebody is using my service without giving ME profit, and so we're gonna go into a self-destructive tantrum". "Ignore the fact that nobody ever wanted to pay us for that anyways."

We don't need that kind of greed in control of our online communities, good riddance.

[–] mindfulzombie@indieweb.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@artistan It’s funny in a way that 3PA manage to monetize their business better than they are themselves.

[–] artistan@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Instead of working with the 3PA devs to come up with something that is a win-win for both parties, they’ve chosen self-destruct.

[–] Ilikemoney@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

Something like reddit doesn't long if it's not profitable. He's not in the same reality that we are

[–] MinekPo1@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

LMAO giving r/BuyItForLife as a good example of where to put ads.

[–] realslef@fedia.io 7 points 1 year ago

I know, right? I hope BIFL will rip advertisers there a new one by suggesting alternatives.

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[–] Klanky@sopuli.xyz 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah I’m done having ads shoved in my face constantly. Corporations ruin everything and this was just the push I needed to remove one more attack vector from my life.

[–] SeeJayEmm@lemmy.one 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How hard if it to offer a nominally feed as free experience?

[–] artistan@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There seems to be a misconception by a lot of corporates that shoving ads down users throats will make the users want what is advertised.

Personally, I go out of my way to avoid anything that are shown to me intrusively.

[–] eric3a@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

The reality is that ads work. That's why they even exist and companies pay so much for them. The safest way to not be influenced by them is to not see them.

Block them, skip them, use ad free media

[–] peanutyam@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well I just spent the last hour deleting all my old Reddit posts from the last 7 years or so and then deleted the account.

I will be no part of this continued data mining and making money off users hand over fist, making billions of dollars from data and the actual data source gets nothing.

#ragequitreddit

[–] rettetdemdativ@feddit.de 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I guess in your case it's already too late anyway, but if someone else reads this: you don't have to delete everything by hand. There are tools available like shreddit or Redact.

[–] JulietEcho@fedia.io 1 points 1 year ago

Can confirm, I used Redact and it was super easy.

[–] Xenxs@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Well ok then, fuck you and goodbye :D

[–] asqapro@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago

That sounds a lot like what happened to Google with SEO getting abused. I almost always append “reddit” to the end of my Google searches to find actual answers and discussions, but now that’s going to be ruined too. I don’t understand how they’ve taken what’s so valuable about reddit, honest and real discussions and answers, and decided to do the opposite of that. It doesn’t even seem financially smart, it will just drive more people away from their site.

[–] dingus@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

I would like to say that "future of reddit" image is really egregious, but I suppose its in line with other social media hell-holes.

The goggles, they do nothing.

[–] Scooter411@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

Well Spez is a greedy little pig boy, so I’m not surprised

[–] mo_lave@reddthat.com 3 points 1 year ago

They're free to shape Reddit as they see fit. Although I mourn the loss of the past states of Reddit, I'm also free to extract myself from that ecosystem.

[–] MiddleWeigh@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Ya that sounds fkn horrible.

[–] Derproid@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

The sad thing is there's a right way to do everything they want but this ain't it. Spez is litterally digging a hole using the bricks he could be building with.

[–] Lowbird@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Dang, after reading that, somehow I'm even more glad I overwrote all my past comments and posts with a protest message. You do not get to monetize my speech down to keyword targetting, reddit!

The way that's written is so blatantly and shamelessly "all these people volunteer and provide an amazing service for free! :D look how much money we can make off this free labor without giving any of those volunteers a single cent, and while sabotaging the service!"

If you want to auto-overwrite your comments and posts, or just delete them, check out Power Delete Suite or Redact by June 30th, before the API change breaks these tools.

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