I can’t wrap my head around this, it seems so bizarre. The only reason I’m here now is because I joined Apollo right after Reddit changed its app to remove the sort by rising feature. It completely changed my experience on the app for the worse and I sought out an alternative, and I know I’m not the only one that had this complaint. I was a faithful Reddit user/poster on the official app for 6 years until just a few months ago. Why would they make their app less user friendly a few months before announcing the crazy API changes. They drove me away from their app and then drove me away from the site altogether.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? It just makes no sense to me

  • I really just think they didn’t want the API user base anymore. They want a tightly controlled ecosystem of vanilla content by vanilla users to sell to vanilla investors. TLDR they sold out, and the fact that we’ve moved on so quickly means we were ready to move on anyway.

  • Zaphodquixote@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Spez wants to be facebook. That’s what it comes down to.

    You can’t be facebook if your mods are engaged and dedicated. You can’t be facebook if the user base is doing more than scrolling brainlessly and hitting vote buttons.

    Why do you think that the first targets are image based subs?

  • spaceribs@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It’s probably pretty straightforward, if clicks are what they’re looking to increase as a metric, then sorting by rising was probably not meeting their expectations in terms of clickrate.

  • MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    As breathtakingly stupid as what spez has been doing appears to be, I thinkthat the short term plan is a fast cash out, and the long term plan is to coast on the brand name while simultaneously stifling the reddit experience. Coasting, like Tim Horton’s, licensing out names and logos like Playboy, Harley Davidson, Schwinn. Sure, the product might be shit, but Facebook seems to be able to retain enough dipshits, so…

    • Kichae@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Bingo.

      spez is acting non-sensical because his investors are done with the company. The era of free money is over, and there’s no more waiting for something like Reddit to turn the ship around and become profitable. His hansd are tied: It’s just job to see that the board of director’s wishes are enacted, and the VCs are pulling the plug, and demanding their money back.

      And they want it back several times over. The AI hype has those investors seeing more than just Reddit gold in the company’s database. All of our posts and comments from the past 15 years is valuable right now in the light of the LLM buzz, but given the lifespan of recent Silicon Valley fads, they could be in the pile next to NFTs by Christmas. So, they need to sell the company now on the promise of limitless ChatGPT dollars before everyone stops giving a shit.

      They acted in a hurry, and they didn’t think this API issue would set fire to anything. They thought they could paint Selig as a greedy and entitled nobody who was just trying to piggyback off of their success, but they didn’t seem to realize that no one actually likes Reddit: The Company. So, they were caught flat footed. They figured the protests would come and go, as they have before, and then it would be back to business as usual.

      But then Selig spoke up, the faithful doubled down, and then the media took notice. Now, they have no plan, I’m sure the investors are getting fed up, and they’re just trying to force everything back to normal however they can so they can sell this bridge to some lucky tourists, but nothing’s actually working. So, it’ll just be an endless stream of nonsense while the engagement and ad numbers continue to slowly shrink, presenting an unpalatable downward trend leading up to their yet-to-be-announced IPO.

      In short, they have their marching orders, but their platoon captain doesn’t have a fucking clue which way is up, let alone North.

  • Bizarroland@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    My guess is that they know they will lose their DieHard users that cost them the most money even though they produce the most content.

    What will happen in the vacuum is that other users will rise up to fill in the gap that are more in line with modern Reddit and will make Reddit more money in the long term.

    I mean of course they are selling their soul to their venture capitalists (or at least whatever remains of it) in the process but I guess as long as their primary shareholders go home with a fat wallet they’re okay with whatever happens.

  • Sedorner@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Stove Hortman is arrogant and not as smart as he thinks. Plus he’s a Peter Thiel acolyte.

  • ConTheLibrarian@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Because reddit is run by a bunch of greedy losers who want to go public, pump, dump, and fuck off to wherever the next Little Saint James is.

    • Alice@exploding-heads.com
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      1 year ago

      🤣 the fuck? You mad for a very specific reason lol like that shit happened to you personally lol 😆