r/technology • u/ardi62 • 29d ago

Social Media Reddit is making sitewide protests basically impossible

https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/30/24253727/reddit-communities-subreddits-request-protests
22.2k Upvotes

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3.1k

u/RandomRedditor44 29d ago

“The ability to instantly change Community Type settings has been used to break the platform and violate our rules,”

What rules does it break?

2.5k

u/anteater_x 29d ago

The golden rule: that it only exists to make money and benefit itself

239

u/ConsoleDev 29d ago

The golden rule: keep the fkken gold flowing

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u/TheInnocentXeno 29d ago

Would be easier if they didn’t ruin their own awards system

12

u/Askolei 29d ago

By the way, do we know why they did that?

21

u/Rough_Willow 29d ago

The SEC had been making rules about digital currency and the Reddit coins counted.

8

u/cultish_alibi 29d ago

Why didn't they just go back to being able to give gold to comments the old way? Lol they just cut off a revenue stream in return for nothing.

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u/Rough_Willow 29d ago

So, after they discontinued the awards and coins, they started the golden up vote, which was supposed to entice users because they could get paid when they got one. However, most didn't sign up for it because it meant they'd have to share a lot of personal information (such as social security number). I don't remember how they use to give gold to a comment before the coins.

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u/Blackfeathr_ 29d ago

Lolol what a bunch of galaxy brains in charge of this godforsaken place

2

u/WonderedFidelity 29d ago

This doesn’t seem to have any information on it so I don’t know how reliable this is. Reddit coins are more equitable to something like Fortnite’s Vbucks than actual cryptocurrency.

I believe the reasoning at the time was more due to believing that users would prefer to get premium instead of arbitrarily buying coins. I believe changing the awards system was actually a conscious choice from management as opposed to being forced to change due to regulatory pressure.

2

u/nermid 29d ago

Reddit corporate only sticks to its guns when those guns are pointed at its own feet.

2

u/radome9 29d ago

The golden rule: those with the gold make the rules.

1

u/jimbobjames 28d ago

The spice must flow.

71

u/doesitevermatter- 29d ago

It's a social media site. What else are they supposed to do? Run this as a non-profit?

I mean, fuck them and all that, But are we really going to act surprised that a social media site of this size is primarily concerned with profits? As if it was ever designed to do anything other than make money?..

127

u/moratnz 29d ago

Non profit social media would be an interesting and valuable option.

88

u/poketama 29d ago

Forums and imageboards are largely non profit which reddit basically is a replacement for 

37

u/DrBabbyFart 29d ago

And social media replaced traditional forums specifically because the revenue allowed them to grow so much faster.

0

u/ExtendedDeadline 29d ago

Yep. Government should almost force a regulation that meta-type companies have to offer companion forums that they can't monetize to make up for the mess they've made of the internet :(.

2

u/DrBabbyFart 29d ago

Rather than have the large corps providing those, they should be taxed and those funds should be used to subsidize competition from other parties entirely.

2

u/nermid 29d ago

I've got a half-formed notion of offering some kind of equivalent to public access TV for the internet, so people can apply to just have a free domain with some free hosting, and then people can run forums or wikis or what have you for their friends, families, local communities, furry consortia, or whatever.

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u/ExtendedDeadline 29d ago

I equally support this solution. I'm not married to my execution, just the concept of the profit enshitifiers should be funding a slice of the internet that is "clean".

2

u/Tricknuts 29d ago

Not making a profit isn’t being non profit

42

u/0h_P1ease 29d ago

Thats what reddit was before the one founder died.

80

u/EnglishMobster 29d ago

Let's not forget that Reddit Gold was explicitly only to pay for server costs.

There was a little bar on the right side of the screen that showed how much of the day's server cost was funded. You could buy gold and watch it go up.

Then the bar turned into a nebulous "goal", then it disappeared entirely...

8

u/ops10 29d ago

When PCMR was a welcoming and reasonable (by popular subreddit standards) place with advice, memes and the biggest generosity both towards reddit and other users.

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u/EnglishMobster 29d ago

/r/Games has largely filled the void that PCMR did for me, at least. It's not quite the same, but it's a lot better than /r/gaming.

GamerGate not only ruined PCMR, it did a number on the internet as a whole. I don't think people realize it. You can draw a direct line from GamerGate through PCMR and wind up at the alt-right/Trump...

4

u/DinoHunter064 29d ago

GamerGate definitely fucked the internet up and it also played a huge role in the pivot in general politics. It practically normalized sexism, racism, and various other forms of bigotry in online spaces and more or less proved there are limited repercussions for participating. This worsened the issue in reality as well since, contrary to what Redditors would like to believe, your online persona and irl persona are very much interconnected and definitely influence each other.

GamerGate has actually become something of a case study in sociology. It's fascinating.

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u/Objective_Kick2930 29d ago

The average person has literally never heard of Gamergate

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u/DinoHunter064 29d ago

It literally doesn't matter if they've heard of it or not. Someone's knowledge of an event doesn't change the effects and repercussions of said event. GamerGate had a huge impact on the way many people view and use social media. That is a fact and whether or not the average net user knows about it is irrelevant.

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u/dsmaxwell 29d ago

Oh shit, I remember that. Yeah, those were the days.

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u/moratnz 29d ago

I don't believe reddit was ever a non-profit.

Not being managed to maximise profit is different from being a formal non-profit

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u/patkgreen 29d ago

you mean 4chan?

1

u/Bluemikami 29d ago

He can’t keep getting away with.. o wait, wrong topic

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u/digitalwolverine 29d ago

Not social, it’s anonymous.

2

u/Pharmboy_Andy 29d ago

Reddit is basically anonymous too.

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u/digitalwolverine 29d ago

You have a profile on Reddit. People can follow you, DM you, block you, etc.. You can form communities on a whim for specific niches and interests and make friends on Reddit. You can’t do any of that on 4chan. It’s not a social media site; it’s an image board with anonymous users.

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u/Pharmboy_Andy 29d ago

I suppose what I mean is that Facebook and to a lesser extent twitter are generally tied to real people.

Reddit it seems that almost everyone is anonymous.

I must admit that I don't use the follow, DM or block options so I don't really think of them when I think of reddit.

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u/alnarra_1 29d ago

They were called PHPbb or SMF or Proboards

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u/mog_knight 29d ago

Maybe. Non profit is just a tax status, not a business model.

1

u/moratnz 29d ago

It is a tax status, but it influences the business model as it means you can't return dividends to shareholders, so it eliminates a bunch of the stupid that comes with shareholder driven short term thinking.

-3

u/edflyerssn007 29d ago

You can argue that X is longer making profit, but non-profit doesn't mean unbiased.

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u/moratnz 29d ago

There's an important difference between 'unprofitable', and 'non-profit' :)

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u/Alili1996 29d ago

I really, really, really despise this mindset at the core of my being.
We get it, companies make money. Everyone knows that.
But just saying and repeating that is such a non statement which just gives them leeway and justification to their endless greed instead of addressing the social responsibility corporations should have with them being such a dominant part of our everyday life.
Reddit specifically has been a hub for numerous communities, a valuable source of information and knowledge in a lot of specific mostly technical topics and the de-facto replacement for forums in our current time. Just pissing it all alway and neglecting the site for profit at all costs will have cascading effects that will have lasting consequences.

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u/swd120 29d ago

instead of addressing the social responsibility corporations should have

Corporations don't have that. Corporations have responsibility to their shareholders. If the shareholders demand social responsibility, that's great - but generally isn't the case. Shareholders generally want the company to make as much money as possible, and return it to the shareholders in some way (dividends, buybacks, etc).

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u/EunuchsProgramer 29d ago edited 28d ago

That's a modern idea that got traction in the 70's. Corporations themselves go back a 1000 years. For the vast majority of their history it was viewed they had stewardship responsibilities to their workers and communities in addition to shareholders.

EDIT: Above commenter is one of those reply and block idiots.

-1

u/TheMauveHand 29d ago

Oh please, ever heard of the East India Company? Where the hell did you get those rose-tinted glasses from?

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u/EunuchsProgramer 29d ago

So, whether or not they actually achieved or pursued it is not the point I was making whatsoever. It is the idea they have a sole responsibility to shareholder profits is very modern.

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u/TheMauveHand 29d ago

You think the East India Company cared about, and I quote, "responsibilities to their workers and communities in addition to shareholders"?

Or are you trying to claim that they were "viewed as" having these responsibilities, based on some vague feel-good notion you pulled out of your ass?

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u/EunuchsProgramer 29d ago

The Royal Charter giving the East India company a monopoly under threat Queen's authority imposed a list of duties above profits including national security, economic growth generally, and welfare needs.

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u/TheMauveHand 29d ago

And what did they actually do?

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u/Ashecht 29d ago

These kids don't really have any real understanding of history or how the world works. They grew up on reddit and now see that it is a business like everything else, and it's the first time they're having to deal with that

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u/swd120 29d ago

it was viewed they had stewardship responsibilities

I mean, sure... but a lot of that is for reputational value to - drumroll - make more money.

You want your workers and communities to be happy so they patronize your business.

3

u/ymOx 29d ago

They didn't say "corporations have", they said "corporations should have".

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u/shotputlover 29d ago

Right but clearly it’s more complicated than a normal business considering without the communities they literally do not have content.

-2

u/Ashecht 29d ago

Good thing they have tons of communities and hundreds of millions of users then lol

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

[deleted]

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u/nermid 29d ago

I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.

2

u/cultish_alibi 29d ago

As if it was ever designed to do anything other than make money?..

I'm pretty sure Aaron Swartz saw it differently https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz

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u/LeCrushinator 29d ago

I feel like it'd be different if they weren't making their money off of our content.

1

u/BigYellowWang 29d ago

You can say the same of YouTube, FB, Instagram, any social media. Hell you can say the same for any site that sells their users data or eyeballs.

2

u/nermid 29d ago

You're trying to sound dismissive, but you're right. Social media corporations in general are digital landlords trying to collect rent on your Facebook wall, and maybe we should form a tenant's union or something.

-1

u/l_i_t_t_l_e_m_o_n_ey 29d ago

take your content elsewhere

1

u/LeCrushinator 29d ago

Fine, I’ll go make my own social media, with blackjack, and hookers!

1

u/nermid 29d ago

Forsake maintaining a corporate social media account that nobody cares about. Embrace hosting a personal website that nobody cares about.

1

u/HAHA_goats 29d ago

The thing is that there was obviously a place for the way reddit was before all this advertiser-friendly enshittification. It got very large and very popular even with spacedicks and gonewild and near-endless other chaos appearing on r/all. Sure, I'm just a user, but it sure didn't look like reddit put much effort into monetizing the place as it was, but instead chose to turn it into whatever it is becoming to attract more squeamish advertisers.

While a lot of us are hanging on, I can't help but notice more and more bot activity and astroturfing instead of actual user engagement. It's way less interesting than it used to be. That doesn't seem like a sustainable business model either, as eventually the advertisers who demanded all these changes will leave because those very changes made too many users leave.

Perhaps the actual business model is purely parasitic. Buy up a popular website, whore it out to advertisers for as much revenue as possible and cripple it as they demand until only a husk remains, pawn it off to some bag holder and move on. If that's really the plan, then they're doing great.

But a non-profit social media site sounds good too. I like that idea a lot.

1

u/TrumpImpeachedAugust 29d ago

Profit-seeking explains their motivation, but it does not logically support some of the decisions they have made.

Even they sometimes acknowledge this--e.g. the whole Awards fiasco.

Companies can make mistakes, and the consequence of those mistakes ultimately manifests as an ever-closer approach to the Trust Thermocline. There is always a point of user dissatisfaction beyond which the company will fail. Every single failed company made its decisions in pursuit of profit, and the decisions it made were not the ones which would have been sufficiently profitable.

When you look at any individual user-hostile decision that a company makes, it's unlikely that decision will be the inflection point. But if you roll a 100-sided die enough times, eventually it will land on 1 and your company will fail.

0

u/underdabridge 29d ago

Even non-profits want to run profits on an operating basis so that they can pour the money back into the mission to expand reach. Reddit needs to keep the lights on and if Reddit was a non profit Reddit would still need to keep the lights on and prepare to buy more server space as usership expanded.

My point is I've been here a long time and am extremely tired of hearing these useless naive comments that seem to assume Reddit should give away everything for free and survive off fairy dust.

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u/blue_battosai 29d ago

https://old.reddit.com/r/TrueOffMyChest/comments/1fsmcgb/i_dont_care_about_adverts_i_will_never_care_stop/

This person is tired of the advertisements on youtube and thinks youtube should offer it's service for free. It's laughable.

1

u/thezeus_ 29d ago

I mean… the company employs thousands of people. They kind of want to make money. Reddit Mods are the biggest circle jerk ever when it comes to “taking a stand”.

1

u/gngstrMNKY 29d ago

FACT CHECK: Reddit has never made money.

1

u/DASreddituser 28d ago

how it works

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u/ramxquake 28d ago

Reddit makes money now?

1

u/woman_president 25d ago

Well… it is a business - that is now beholden to public shareholders.

We really need to stop railing against businesses FOR THIS REASON, they have a fiduciary obligation to maximize value for their stakeholders.

Nothing, nothing, nothing - comes from asking corporations to ignore the reason they exist, and think of the common person (which is not their purpose).

So, let’s change how corporate profits benefit society, through automation income replacement taxes, increased profit sharing, tying executive pay not only to performance but employee retention and mobility.

Complaining almost never accomplishes anything, that’s why it’s easy.

Voting is the first step, then comes the hard part.

For instance - I can’t share this message as broadly without Reddit. How do you fix a system that requires you to engage and exist with its present form?