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The Reddit Blackout Is Breaking Reddit
(www.wired.com)
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this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2023
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Technology
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It's seriously hilarious that the "damage control" has been more damaging than the blackout itself
Ironically, if Reddit has been up front and said they were killing third party apps, and kept their mouths shut they would have faired better. For a stupid play like this, speaking only makes it worse. This is going to be taught in business school on how to kill a business.
They could have even gotten third party apps to pay for API access. They just needed to set a fair rate and a workable timeline for the change.
Instead, they said "we're charging $20 million starting next month. Good luck trying to stay afloat with those sudden costs!"
Reddit could have increased their profits and kept users/moderators happy, but they chose Burn It All Down instead.
BIAD.
I like it.
Either way, I'd be preferring alternatives. On desktop, old.reddit.com plus RES (which is not entirely clear if they will be effected, though it looks like it will not be), but the mobile experience is not good on a mobile browser and I really don't like the official app. Without RiF, I would not be participating much even without a direct alternative.
Definitely I would have gone back if not for the complete and total disrespect spez has shown towards the community
Honestly I think every time spez says something stupid it convinces another wave of Redditors to check out Lemmy
The exit didn't start with the API announcement, just gained steam. What's truly baffling is that Reddit seems to want data on where users' final straw is.
Who knew the best "celebrity" endorsement for the fediverse comes from the CEO of Reddit...
I would have checked out Tildes as well if it wasn’t invite only
*Opens jacket
"Hey kid, you want some invites?"
That's in the same vein as "it's not the crime it's the cover-up"
There’s a term for that. The Streisand Effect, I think.
Haha yeah well I didn't say they were doing a good job of it!
"Damaging, controlling" behavior.
I don't usually fault companies for messing up if they own up to their mistakes and make it right. Everyone is going to make mistakes and things will go wrong at times. It's how a company handles events when everything goes sideways that shows whether they are good or bad.
In Reddit's case, they could have acknowledged that their API plans were too aggressive and overpriced. They could have paused any API pricing changes and worked with third party developers to come to a solution where Reddit is paid, but third party developers don't have to shut down due to immediate and insanely high costs being demanded. Everyone could have walked away benefiting and Reddit's reputation (in my eyes) would have been intact. I'd likely be posting there right now instead of here on Lemmy.
Instead, Reddit decided to double and triple down. Their CEO decided to accuse the developer of Apollo of threatening Reddit and, when phone call audio proved this was a lie, blamed the developer for "leaking personal phone calls." Then, that same CEO claimed that the API was never meant for third party apps (ignoring and trying to rewrite history) and said that any moderators who kept their subreddits blacked out would be replaced. All while claiming that the moderators should rest easy because Reddit would definitely provide tool themselves to replace lost third party tools despite no sign of this happening and trust being totally shattered. (And so much more that I'm not including because this comment is too long already.)
So Reddit messing up? That could have been forgiven had they done the right thing afterwards. But now, after completely botching the response? I hope Reddit withers away to nothing and the CEO's IPO dreams die on the vine.