There’s a lot of points that he brings up that touch broader topics:
Landed Gentry
He’s not wrong on the premise here. He’s wrong with the solution and the why. A community should dictate their terms, if landed gentry is what the community wants, so be it. If the community wants democracy so be it. In the later, that democracy doesn’t need a “company” to be the ultimate arbitrator of democracy, which is what he is pitching. That whole latter is just “corporate control with a democracy label slapped on it.”
Profit
We all do need to remember that running something on the Internet is NOT cheap. Anything that gets popular becomes a quick target for “other nations” (US, Russia, China…) to start putting garbage into and eating bandwidth. Reddit has been running on the techbro funding which has recently ran dry. So this day was always coming. The free cash isn’t there so the cracking of the whip begins.
This is going to happen with anything that isn’t purely community ran. So all those other things like Bluesky that are being tossed, they’ll have the same trouble eventually. Kbin and Lemmy are slightly different in that it is purely community ran. But we the community need to support our admins with cash to keep the server fans turning. Otherwise, even community ran projects can become coporate controlled.
3rd Party Apps
This is the biggest thing for me. We’re either an open web or we’re not. I was on the Internet back in the 1980s when it was very open. It is pros and cons for open vs closed. If Reddit doesn’t want 3rd Party Apps, that makes them closed, that makes them less Democratic. There’s nothing wrong with being closed, McDonald’s likely doesn’t want me eating my Taco Bell in their building. But the CEO keeps trying to say “Democracy” while actually just “trying to run a business”. I don’t go to the Costco to fill up on gas and think the other people there are my “community”, they’re folks from my community but the Costco doesn’t make them my community. Reddit is a business where a community can go to, Reddit IS NOT the community itself.
perfectly willing to work with the folks who want to work with us
With all the leverage in Reddit’s hands, which that’s fine whatever, working with Reddit is going to be one of those sisyphean kinds of tasks. Pray they do not alter the terms futher.
the extent that they were profiting off of our API
And to me that’s the tell. Every other word out of the guy’s mouth is “profit”. And that’s fine, it is his site. But someone putting profit first is going to be hard pressed to focus on Democracy and community. And everyone should at least keep that in mind.
Ownership
And I think that’s the ultimate thing for everyone else. In an open Internet, you the creator own your content. And everything Reddit is saying takes the ownership away from you. Running sites like Reddit, Kbin, Mastodon, and so on are non-zero costs. So I get the desire to make money “somewhere”. And the CEO of Reddit honestly believes that “running ads” defers the costs that would have been otherwise passed on to the users and mods to pay in cash or work. Maybe that’s true, maybe it isn’t, but a community should get to have say on it. A democracy also gets to vote on if this is their ship to wreck.
And that’s the big underlying thing. The CEO tosses community/democracy and other words to make folks think “they’re a part of this thing” but they are not. Or at least no more part of this thing in the same nature that someone walking into a local hospital is part of the medical community. And in all of those words, the CEO is indicating that he is taking all ownership from the users and presenting something that has the veneer of community and you having ownership of your content.
Live and let live
Some people want that which Reddit offers. So be it. I think I’ve had enough of it, but that’s just me. But the Redditors that are staying ought to know the cart they’ve hitched their horse to. But ultimately, nothing but love for everyone. Reddit has stopped being a good fit for me and I’ve gone elsewhere, but everyone should just use what’s a good fit/feel for them. Except Twitter. The people who enjoy Twitter are a breed of people that defies what I would consider “enjoyable company.”
There’s a lot of points that he brings up that touch broader topics:
Landed Gentry
He’s not wrong on the premise here. He’s wrong with the solution and the why. A community should dictate their terms, if landed gentry is what the community wants, so be it. If the community wants democracy so be it. In the later, that democracy doesn’t need a “company” to be the ultimate arbitrator of democracy, which is what he is pitching. That whole latter is just “corporate control with a democracy label slapped on it.”
Profit
We all do need to remember that running something on the Internet is NOT cheap. Anything that gets popular becomes a quick target for “other nations” (US, Russia, China…) to start putting garbage into and eating bandwidth. Reddit has been running on the techbro funding which has recently ran dry. So this day was always coming. The free cash isn’t there so the cracking of the whip begins.
This is going to happen with anything that isn’t purely community ran. So all those other things like Bluesky that are being tossed, they’ll have the same trouble eventually. Kbin and Lemmy are slightly different in that it is purely community ran. But we the community need to support our admins with cash to keep the server fans turning. Otherwise, even community ran projects can become coporate controlled.
3rd Party Apps
This is the biggest thing for me. We’re either an open web or we’re not. I was on the Internet back in the 1980s when it was very open. It is pros and cons for open vs closed. If Reddit doesn’t want 3rd Party Apps, that makes them closed, that makes them less Democratic. There’s nothing wrong with being closed, McDonald’s likely doesn’t want me eating my Taco Bell in their building. But the CEO keeps trying to say “Democracy” while actually just “trying to run a business”. I don’t go to the Costco to fill up on gas and think the other people there are my “community”, they’re folks from my community but the Costco doesn’t make them my community. Reddit is a business where a community can go to, Reddit IS NOT the community itself.
With all the leverage in Reddit’s hands, which that’s fine whatever, working with Reddit is going to be one of those sisyphean kinds of tasks. Pray they do not alter the terms futher.
And to me that’s the tell. Every other word out of the guy’s mouth is “profit”. And that’s fine, it is his site. But someone putting profit first is going to be hard pressed to focus on Democracy and community. And everyone should at least keep that in mind.
Ownership
And I think that’s the ultimate thing for everyone else. In an open Internet, you the creator own your content. And everything Reddit is saying takes the ownership away from you. Running sites like Reddit, Kbin, Mastodon, and so on are non-zero costs. So I get the desire to make money “somewhere”. And the CEO of Reddit honestly believes that “running ads” defers the costs that would have been otherwise passed on to the users and mods to pay in cash or work. Maybe that’s true, maybe it isn’t, but a community should get to have say on it. A democracy also gets to vote on if this is their ship to wreck.
And that’s the big underlying thing. The CEO tosses community/democracy and other words to make folks think “they’re a part of this thing” but they are not. Or at least no more part of this thing in the same nature that someone walking into a local hospital is part of the medical community. And in all of those words, the CEO is indicating that he is taking all ownership from the users and presenting something that has the veneer of community and you having ownership of your content.
Live and let live
Some people want that which Reddit offers. So be it. I think I’ve had enough of it, but that’s just me. But the Redditors that are staying ought to know the cart they’ve hitched their horse to. But ultimately, nothing but love for everyone. Reddit has stopped being a good fit for me and I’ve gone elsewhere, but everyone should just use what’s a good fit/feel for them. Except Twitter. The people who enjoy Twitter are a breed of people that defies what I would consider “enjoyable company.”
what a brilliant write up. Really neutral, but straight to the point.
I would give you reddit gold, but… reasons…
Well said!