• SamC@lemmy.nz
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    1 year ago

    Some people have been saying a 2-day blackout isn’t going to do much. But if they’re struggling financially it will most likely really hurt them.

    • arctic pie (he/him)@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      They’re not doing this because they are struggling. Its a common tactic for shitty corporations to do so it looks like they made a shit ton more money and can claim losses on their taxes

    • Liz@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Hopefully if the 2-day blackout is unsuccessful they’ll extend it or plan more blackouts.

      • SamC@lemmy.nz
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        1 year ago

        I’d imagine so… it makes sense to me to start with 2 days, and then go from there, rather than starting with the “nuclear” option.

        • Ilikemoney@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          Does Reddit have the power to un-blackout the subreddits? I.e. Overrule the mods and open things up? I feel like, as in most cases, there are a modest sized group of high caring individuals that will reject/boycott/cancel reddit, but the majority of users, casual and the ones that make reddit their life, will just continue on, only slightly inconvenienced.

          • SamC@lemmy.nz
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            1 year ago

            Yes Reddit could do that… but mods are extremely valuable, and a lot of subs would stop working without them. Reddit has already been moving to big subs being moderated by Reddit employees, and it generally kills the sub.

            Reddit is big enough that it probably won’t die quickly (e.g. like Digg did), but my guess is that this kind of policy shows that the best days of Reddit are in the past.

            • alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgM
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              1 year ago

              Reddit is big enough that it probably won’t die quickly (e.g. like Digg did), but my guess is that this kind of policy shows that the best days of Reddit are in the past.

              i think twitter is a good model for how we might expect this to go: a slow but undeniable decay into a worse, less functional, generally more miserable site to be on. when the decay will end? who knows. but there’ll likely be an obvious before and after, and an equally obvious point where the site goes from a vanguard of influence online to a social media backwater.

              • SamC@lemmy.nz
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                1 year ago

                Agree, although it could happen even slower than Twitter. Musk taking over has been a huge shock to the community, and killing off third party apps is only one of the many changes he’s made in a few months. Even if Reddit sticks of their guns on API charges (which they might not), I doubt they’ll do anything as drastic again for a while.

              • alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgM
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                1 year ago

                in fact a good metric for this might be when reddit stops contributing anywhere near as many productive search results as it currently does. that’s undeniably a big use of the site for people so it’d be noteworthy for that to disappear (and despite itself being a symptom of bad things it’d probably be quite bad overall, given the state of online generally right now.)

              • AnagrammadiCodeina@feddit.it
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                1 year ago

                While i basically never used twitter, i dont see it dying. Some sources post decresing userbase some are saying that after the big hit things started to go back to normal People forgets. Today they protest, tomorrow they bend.

          • The Cuuuuube@beehaw.org
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            1 year ago

            If that’s true, it’s even more asinine. A small number of users make numerous API calls from third-party apps, and in doing so, create all the content that the majority of users are perusing with ads? The quest for short-term gains so often harms long-term viability in corporate America, and I truly just don’t understand how we keep hiring C-level people that keep making the same mistakes over and over

            • m_talon@beehaw.org
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              1 year ago

              Because C-Level people are more about “how can this company make money” and less about “how can this company treat its workers/customers well” (unless the latter leads to the former).

              They are told that increasing value for the investors is the thing that matters. If you have to make “tough choices” that abuse the workers or destroy the brand, oh well. It’s worth it if that revenue number keeps going up. To them, it’s an acceptable loss to keep the board happy.

              Every company that has VC, investors, or stock is going to be like this at one point or another. It’s just getting more blatant and obvious now. Disney, WB, Netflix, Twitter, Reddit…it’s a list that just keeps growing.

              • The Cuuuuube@beehaw.org
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                1 year ago

                For sure it’s unconfirmed. The only things we really know for sure are:

                1. Reddit wants money for API calls
                2. Their monetization structure is unreasonable
                3. The only possible outcome of their monetization structure is the death of third party apps
                4. Reddit is an American company and conducts itself with the same grace and farsightedness as most of them

                Which leads be to the conclusion that the thing you’ve said is quite possible

            • M. Orange@beehaw.org
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              1 year ago

              I remember seeing someone say that it’s possible they want to monetize using their APIs to train AI on user content. Currently it’s basically free for someone like OpenAI to do it.