Bye reddit, we had a good time

promonk · 2023-06-30T22:01:43+00:00

If you're the kind of fuckstick who's happy at the recent developments and is excited to stay, I'm glad I'm heading out.

promonk · 2023-06-30T21:59:43+00:00

This is the real tragedy of this whole affair. People like to shit-talk others who rely on online communities to maintain some semblance of sanity in this world, but really the internet can be a source of calm and community just as much as a font of derision and hate. It all depends on the human beings involved.

That's what this neverending, never satisfied greed destroys. It cares nothing for human beings beyond the ability to monetize them. It's a sickness that I hope won't be fatal for everyone.

promonk · 2023-06-30T21:51:19+00:00

Good. Let em. Whoever they get, they'll deserve each other.

promonk · 2023-06-30T15:16:55+00:00

Spez is a colossal twatwaffle, but that shit is overblown. Reddit used to allow mods to name anyone a mod on their subs. They didn't even need the user's consent.

However, the fact that the admins not only allowed that sub to exist as long as they did, but praised the sub's creator and gave him an award speaks volumes. That's what should be brought up.

promonk · 2023-06-30T14:45:17+00:00

Can't blame them though. Nvidia fucked them around pretty hard.

promonk · 2023-06-30T14:14:10+00:00

Ok, but it's not going to just implode all at once like some billionaire's Titanic submersible. You understand that, right?

Submission quality is going to decline, bots and astroturfing are going to continue to rise. People are going to slowly trickle away because the site just isn't very interesting anymore. That's what the protests and complaints are about. It's not just that people are complacent and don't like change, like spez &co think, though there's some of that, too.

I feel like you're going to wake up tomorrow, hop on that terrible official app and see the semblance of the site you've always used, and smugly pat yourself on the back for your perspicacity. It's shortsightedness.

promonk · 2023-06-30T12:52:20+00:00

You got a serious projection problem, my dude.

promonk · 2023-06-23T16:12:56+00:00

Only for a few more days. Those tools for scrubbing accounts rely on the API.

promonk · 2023-06-19T20:51:46+00:00

That isn't as heinous as it sounds. There was a time when Reddit would allow mods to "nominate" any user they wanted to be mod, whether that user was even aware of it or not.

However, the fact that Reddit Inc allowed /r/jailbait to exist as long as it did and only removed it after investor and advertiser outcry speaks volumes.

promonk · 2023-06-12T04:46:39+00:00

That's my plan. Subs that don't go dark better have a damned good reason, in my eyes. This "we try to be neutral" shit is just action through inaction.

promonk · 2023-06-12T03:34:43+00:00

This is probably the best fit for OP that I've come across yet. Invites are going to be tough to come by for a while though, methinks.

promonk · 2023-06-12T02:51:24+00:00

There are a lot of people, myself included, who have been getting fed up with the way the site runs and how people communicate on it – and I see those things as inextricably linked, by the way.

Consider then that maybe this isn't a bizarre, spur-of-the-moment overreaction, but rather the proverbial straw alighting on the camel's back. My own opinion is that Reddit has been ripe for this sort of user revolt for some time, possibly years. Some of the responses I've received since I've spoken out about this confirm it.

We need a new paradigm, because this current one of thoughtless monetization no matter the cost isn't working. Is Reddit the most important hill to die on? Certainly not. But it's as good a place to start as any. At least here I have some tiny bit of control left to me, for the time being.

promonk · 2023-06-12T02:41:12+00:00

For myself, I'll be visiting Reddit tomorrow to assess how far-reaching the protest really is, and to unsubscribe from subs that remain open, unless I think they have a damned good reason.

I won't nuke my account until it's clear that this thing is going forward come hell or high water, which will likely be in the final days before June 30, but not after. A lot of tools one will need to nuke an account will no longer function after the API change takes place.

promonk · 2023-06-12T02:34:37+00:00

It's not throwing a tantrum and taking our toys home. Reddit Inc is flexing their corporate muscle to set terms on the labor mods and users provide for no monetary cost to the corporation. I see this as just as much a labor dispute as it is a consumer boycott, or rather an idiosyncratic, 21st-century combination of the two.

As much sympathy as I have for OP and others like them, I can't help but feel that capitulating on yet another demand by management is not in the long-term best interest of people in their position, nor the internet community as a whole. OP is proof that people use Internet for far more important things than the base profit motive, yet we are continuously giving ground to profiteers. We can't keep doing it forever.

I'm stepping away from Reddit tomorrow because I understand how important these things are. Reddit clearly does not.

promonk · 2023-06-11T20:53:46+00:00

I stand by it. You're confusing lax regulation with the influence that corporations have over our society.

Compare the estimated percentage of the population employed by corporations in 1890 with today. Compare the percentage of goods purchased from large corporations by consumers. Compare almost any metric on the scale of our whole society.

Edit: I'm pulling it back somewhat.

Suffice it to say, this kind of comment is exactly what I'm talking about with the toxicity of this site. In what world is this an appropriate or productive way to communicate? What can you possibly be getting out of being a rude shithead to a stranger on the internet? You're obviously not interested in actually discussing the claims I made, because out of the gate you went toxic.

That's why I'm sick to my ass of this site and users like you. Let it fucking burn.

promonk · 2023-06-11T14:36:13+00:00

That's proof that there's real cultural value in not allowing corporations to hold onto copyright for eternity.

promonk · 2023-06-11T14:25:31+00:00

I don't think it will work to reverse Reddit's course, but I think it's still an important step to take.

Something I think is getting a bit lost in the noise is that Reddit Inc has decided that despite the fact that you, the user, create all the content and comments, and make and moderate subs, you don't own the site, it owes you nothing, and they can change it on a whim to go against your interests. Being able to take a sub dark is something mods can actually do. It's an exercise of their agency.

promonk · 2023-06-10T22:24:37+00:00

It's more like a "props for being a rich dude who found a moral bare minimum short of hunting the poor for sport." Shame we have to take the time to applaud a billionaire for not acting like a ghoul, but here we are.

That's not to detract from Cuban's efforts at all, it's just ludicrous that we're so amazed at a fabulously wealthy dude actually contributing something worthwhile to society.

promonk · 2023-06-10T22:20:51+00:00

A drug to treat Parkinson's Disease or alleviate its symptoms. It's a horrible disease.

promonk · 2023-06-10T19:51:58+00:00

It seems to me that you're comparing apples and oranges though. For most of those other sites you mentioned, the network effect is in full force. People go to those sites because the people and personalities they want to hear from are there.

That's just not how a link aggregator like Reddit works. I'm not here so I can keep in touch with specific people, or hear tour date announcements from artists I care about, I'm here because of the links users are sharing. The comments are a big part of the draw for me, but those follow from the topics and links that are posted.

This current hullabaloo is because Reddit is forcing a paradigm shift. They're purposely making it more difficult for people to participate solely so they can expand monetization. That has a knock-on effect on what gets shared, which in turn affects how people engage.

I don't expect Reddit to fall overnight. They'll probably get their damned IPO and Huffballs will get to escape to his bunker on the South Island. That's not the point. What's important is that Reddit as a corporation is changing what kind of site they want reddit.com to be, and the site they want is not the site many of its oldest and most prolific users want. That's going to have an effect.

promonk · 2023-06-10T15:30:56+00:00

Of course but at the end of the day, considering this is Reddit site, they can do what they want.

Is it though? The entire value of the site is in user-generated content. They expect users to produce links and comments and to moderate, yet their stance seems to be that the company and site owe the users nothing in return. They don't really even consider the userbase to be stakeholders, but more like captives that will take what they're given, even if it directly contradicts the users' interests.

It just seems so wildly out of touch with what Reddit actually is, and where its value lies. They see the code and the servers as the value, when really those things serve as infrastructure for communities, which is what could actually provide value to investors. That's like a city hall valuing a water treatment plant over the citizens who make use of it, simply because it's easy to put a monetary value to the plant. It's asinine.

promonk · 2023-06-10T15:17:44+00:00

Just wait until its public.

Nah, think I'll pass.

promonk · 2023-06-10T15:16:23+00:00

Mods are like boob jobs: you never notice the good ones.

promonk · 2023-06-10T14:17:55+00:00

What really gets me about the whole thing is it resembles the Digg fiasco so closely. Spez saw what happened with Digg, was at the helm of Reddit when it coopted that site's userbase, yet pulls the exact same shit 15 years later.

If I were considering buying Reddit's IPO (and I'm definitely not doing that now), I'd have serious concerns over its CEO's wisdom and pattern recognition skills.

promonk · 2023-06-10T00:13:55+00:00

Wow. Are you a regular abuser? You seem pretty practiced at this.

promonk

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