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
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.
I think you hit the nail on the head. I can understand this position from the investor’s perspective. From a lean-startup mentality you toss what doesn’t make money, even if you don’t want to.
Spez is acting like he has no choice to ignore his marching orders, but he’s not a crowd pleaser. He can’t execute this strategy.
I’m guessing we’ll hear from a new reddit CEO not too long from now, who’ll dial things back, calm the seas, and then do the same thing but more quietly.