"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.
Funny coming from a techbro that thought to farm out getting site content from that userbase he's now wanting money from.
Like I get it if he's wanting to not go into debt, but at the same time he's shot any chance at user good will and assistance in the face with a cluster fat man.
Generic CEOs wouldn't do a catastrophic AMA like he did. They would stay out of it and let PR or somethind handle the situation. He puts his face out there, I suppose, particularly because he looks up to Elon Musk and wants to emulate him.
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.
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
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;
::: spoiler test post, please ignore //><; the narwhal bacons at midnight //><; :::
I hope the inconsistent escape character behavior doesn't break anything. Also, it would be nice to have some way to start a new paragraph after a spoiler with a blank line between them.
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.
Also, as a disabled internet user, those APIs are of value for the sake of accessability. Given Reddi'ts own app is, and forgive me to use technical jargon here, steaming pile of bullshit even for those with perfect vision?
their app is so ass and the response is to kill all other apps rather than improve their own
I mean, they could have just stolen the good designs from other apps and made theirs more user friendly, but fuck that, better to scorched earth the motherfucker
honestly, I was going to stick around reddit but after seeing all the bullshit he's spewing in these tech interviews I don't want to give him a penny of my time/data
That's why this whole debacle is so mystifying to me. If they would have tried to monetize the 3rd party space by way of charging a reasonable API price to the devs, it's not hard to imagine that most serious Reddit users wouldn't have any qualms with parting with a few bucks here and there to keep the status quo. I can't imagine that Reddit is able to create a situation where they earn more from their advertising platform per user than having users simply pay to maintain the existing experience.
The only theory I've heard that makes a lick of sense is that if Reddit fundamentally changes the site experience to pursue other monetization options (Hello Reddit NFTs), then 3rd party apps would've been able to just ignore implementing those features entirely.
My speculation is that they want to charge LLMs like ChatGPT, especially for training. Those devs basically want to access every conversation on Reddit.
What's weird, it doesn't make sense even then. I feel like it started as a simple miscalculation by Spez which he took personally. I mean, the part he insulted the Apollo dev is clearly that, but maybe the whole thing as well?
My "make it make sense" theory is--this is entirely about the IPO and we need to look at the biggest issue from last years social media sale.
Musk sued Twitter for obfuscating/failing to disclose how much of it's activity was bots during negotiations. It was a legit point of contention. These social media services are incentivized to turn a blind eye to the problem. (eg The "impressions" number that Facebook and Google sell advertisers is all malarkey) You'll notice that now that Musk owns twitter he doesn't say a word about bots other than occationally patting himself on the back for shutting bots down (ok yeah sure elon).
I think reddit is in a similar predicament where they really want to inflate their user stats with bot activity for the IPO, but they can't because the app stores provide solid stats on users and user activity and they don't control that flow of information, the 3rd party developers do.
If they think 15%-30% of the sites activity is repost bots, they really don't care about alienating the 5% of users using third-party apps.
The AI learning angle is all smoke-and-mirrors.
And in reddit's case, rather than someone like Elon buying/fact checking the terms of purchase, for IPOs you have to get your disclosure documents past the SEC. Smart people, but hardly experts at how social media companies run.
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.
Yeah. It's the paying a lot for considerably less since NSFW makes up a huge proportion of the content. I don't think (all) users would have balked at $5/mo for unrestricted content access. $10/mo with restricted access, though? Some people have a problem paying that for streaming which has real costs. It's just not happening to get access to half of a text based platform which barely hosts videos.
I think there's a little more to it. If they're trying to go the Meta way where dwell times and other such evil metrics are used, they need to have their own app for that level of info. It might be a requirement for their IPO or requested by their advertisers.
Seems like those kinds of metrics could be collected by the 3rd party devs if Reddit requires them to include a bit of code in their 3rd party apps as a condition for API access.
And no small number of supposed leftists found in all this cause for celebration. Others, meanwhile, loudly refused to condemn Hamas’s atrocities, insisting it was not their place to decry the “military strategy” or “violent resistance” of oppressed Palestinians.
Whom? I want names or at least hard numbers. Too many people throw around these nebulous quantities like it is self-apparent support for their claims. You know who else uses that tactic? Dishonest politicians (it’s a favorite of right-wing politicians stoking fear or feigning support).
This reads like someone with confirmation bias and no real data to back it up.
Israel doesn’t get a “Get Out of Warcrimes Free” card just because they had warcrimes committed against them. Fuck Israel, fuck the Hamas. I stand with the citizens on both sides caught in the middle.
Republicans Started a Civil War They Don’t Know How to End
Anybody with a tiny knowledge of American history will know how to end it. Just look at how we ended the American Civil War, and then do the same to MAGA. Appeasing them doesn’t work. Fight them directly. Eject them from the GOP and force them to start their own party. Find your own people to run against them in their districts and campaign hard. Get rid of MAGA like the plague it is.
I’m sure they’re afraid that Democrats will take advantage of the situation and gain more power. During the American Civil War, France invaded Mexico because it had the opportunity while the US was distracted. But the US had no choice but to focus on our own issues. All that other stuff had to wait while we sorted our own shit out.
The same thing goes for the GOP. They’ll have to work with the Democrats to get anything done at least until they can sort their shit out. This is one of those situations where the moral solution aligns very well with the practical solution.
this would require republicans to grow a spine (not likely given their opposition to stem cell treatments) or have a sense of basic decency, love for their country, all things we know the GOP will not manage any time soon.
We should reanimate Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt and just turn them loose on the caucus.
I mean I get what you’re saying, but this was their solution. They aligned themselves with these nutjobs precisely because they saw the demographic shift in the US and feared they would never win another election. There is no second-place, as far as they’re concerned. This is what ‘at-all-costs’ looks like. It was this or political irrelevance. Changing their values meant losing their identity, which would be equivalant to death.
Russia stopped pushing Jill Stein quite so hard once they compromised the major parties (democrats by releasing their emails, republicans by using their email trove as kompromat.)
Presuming whatever party emerges from the ashes doesn't manage to still be worse. Which... gestures vaguely at the kind of humanity that gains and keeps power
It's interesting to watch people claim that all the Republicans care about is owning the libs, then simultaneously hear that those same people are voting entirely to "fuck the Republicans."
I mean his initial comment says replublicans are essentially the neo-nazi party now. Which I agree with. The key term is now. If the republicans somehow got back to being a more centerist conservative party I might vote for them again but boy they would have to show it across the party at this point and show they mean it with their votes and it would take awhile. The democrats passed a republican think tank healthcare bill and they (the republicans) are rabidly against it????
Example 2 on Hannity
Hannity (18:33): “We almost have to go to a break. I want to go back to this one issue, though, because the media has been focused on this and attacking you. Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody.”
Trump (18:51): Except for day one.
Hannity (18:53):
Except for?
Trump (18:54): He’s going crazy. Except for day one.
Hannity (18:55): Meaning?
Trump (18:56):
I want to close the border and I want to drill.
Hannity (18:59):
That’s not retribution.
Trump (19:05):
I’m going to be… He keeps… We love this guy. He says you’re not going to be a dictator, are you? I said, no, no, no. Other than day one. We’re closing the border and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator. Okay?
i don’t see how there’s any other topic in the discussion at this point
“well moving on from the plan of a brutal, unending dictatorship, what’s your position on corn subsidies?”
It is not. Conservatives are gaslighting you, and the media is trying to sell their clickbait. Possibly unpopular thought: at some point it becomes our own fault for choosing to engage? Like the big bad wolf asks “are you home right now?”, where even if you answer “no!” then you have still fallen for the trick? (i.e., of COURSE he would be a dictator, that’s not even a point, but why allow them to control the conversation to switch to the talking points that they choose, rather than driving our own points that we would rather be discussed, like what to do about school shootings or climate change and such?)
Innuendo Studios has a fascinating whole entire video series called “The Alt-Right Playbook” if anyone wants to learn more about their limited variety of tactics, that are nonetheless extremely effective for those who do not recognize them.
IRK? It totally changed my method of responding to the world… I used to painstakingly attempt to respond unless it was extremely obvious that someone was 110% a troll, but now I know that even halfway reasonable people simply cannot be “reasoned” with, if they have an entirely different worldview than me. i.e., don’t give someone a list of 100 reasons to not allow Trump to win - they don’t care (after the 1st impeachment, and the 2nd impeachment, and January 6, and everything else), nor are they looking for facts and willing to change their minds. I would change my mind in a heartbeat if the facts pointed in a different direction, but they will not, b/c it is not “facts” that are causing them to support him, even if for some people that once was true.
Ofc I still fall for the tricks, but like 90% less often now:-).
Hehe, what a fantastic story! It reminds me of The Cabin in the Woods, except that might have been nowhere near as successful (or… wasn’t it?), and others such as Addams Family and Bewitched that changed the course of television forever. I remember when I first watched Night of the Living Dead, multiple decades after it was released, and was just shocked - shocked I tell you, shocked! - that it broke the rules of always ensuring a happy ending. Somewhere along the way I also discovered anime e.g. Fullmetal Alchemist, which in some version or another (JP? EN sub or dub?) opened up with one of the very first scenes being the image of his dead mother crawling around after her corpse had been resurrected and everything was bloody from his limbs having been removed - but anyway: THAT’S NOT A CARTOON!?
I love insightful works like that (edit: I mean the video that you linked + Innuendo Studios, not necessarily all of those above), which see so much farther than the rest of us that they are able to complete the circle and wrap back around and parody it for us to see it also from their POV:-). It’s outright infectious, b/c once you outgrow something by seeing The Truth, you can literally never go back to the way things were before.
“Does he want to?” is not up for debate. “Can he?” is the question. People downplaying the danger he poses are pushing the needle towards “Yes, he can.”
They really don’t get it… They just can’t fathom that liberals are voting for Democrats to save democracy not because we have any interest in Joe Biden. We just don’t want to become North Korea. How hard is that to understand?
This is part of why the GOP has been manufacturing lies about Joe Biden being corrupt so urgently: They can't convince most people that Trump isn't a criminal so they're trying to convince them that both candidates are criminals so it doesn't matter.
Right, because Biden wasn’t involved and set up Hunter countless times with his backroom China deals right? Biden hasn’t been accused a dozen times long before he was POTUS of inapprotiate shit with women, Hillary wasn’t busted with her off the books shit with her home server and emails…RIGHT??? Don’t kid yourself.
The hyperbole isn’t helping you. You might have an argument if you actually stuck to one or two substantive examples, rather than throwing out ridiculous numbers.
I love how this is so patently obvious about Republican tactics, and just yesterday I had someone trying to argue that this isn’t an inherently Republican talking point. “They’re all crooks, so they’re both the same!”
You can’t convince me that some of them aren’t Russian trolls looking to stir dissent and destabilize the nation.
There’s obviously Russian troll farms but when researchers published their memes and other posts, they were often kind of weird and didn’t gain wide reach.
So, my theory is that we don’t need Russian trolls to destabilize the nation. We have plenty of political marketing firms right here in America that have a deeper cultural understanding and an equal amount of shamelessness.
I see no one celebrating the brutal killing of civilians except for the right wingers who are ok with killing Palestinian civilians in retribution for the killings of Israeli civilians. People should be allowed to live their lives in peace, period.
‘Pubs are an opposition party. They have no interest in leading or governing. Their only platform is “anti-lib.” Being unrepentant jackasses generally annoys the libs so they keep doing it.
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