cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/37870004
reddit got bad because spez (the reddit admin) restricted API access to the platform for third-party apps, such that people would be forced to use the official app or web UI, both of which display advertisement and collect user data (e.g. scroll behavior).
the reason why this happened is because reddit is a for-profit company and tries to extract money out of the userbase, at the expense of the users.
another example of a bad decision that reddit made was to push a lot of ragebait (“Am I The Asshole?”) because company shareholders want to see “engagement numbers” go up, and if somebody writes an angry reply to a post, that’s “engagement”. but it makes you angry at the stupidity of the “Asshole”, so it makes your day worse. that is another example how reddit makes money at the expense of the users.
size (number of monthly active users) is not what made reddit bad. commercialization is.
we should probably get rid of the “don’t make lemmy grow, it will ruin the platform if we grow” idea.
We know… we were there.
Just amused by the juxtaposition, obviously they weren’t contradicting you (or replying to you). lol.
I’m easily amused. :)
Hehe
reddit is still great
what did you get ejected for?
My Reddit account is 18 years old and I can tell you that Reddit hasn’t been “great” since 2013; the year of Drumpf vs HIllDawg for US President. Heck I still have over 2 years of “Reddit Premium” from the zillions of tokens I got back when they gave those away.
I was never ejected, still haven’t been, and I moderated some noteable subs. The API debacle and the shutdown of unofficial apps was my last straw. I removed myself from all the mod teams I was on and bailed over to Lemmy.
Reddit still has some cool communities but as a platform it’s best days are long gone. At this point its coasting on inertia just like Facebook.
“Sad”
:::shrug:::
Reddit is genuinely terrible now. Have you visited recently? All is removed, posts and comments default to sorting by best instead of hot (which mixes minutes-old posts with week-old posts), there’s an algorithmic For You feed, there are constant popups to log in or use the app…
And after all that, the content you’re looking at was probably posted by a bot.
The amount of AI generated content on Reddit is egregious.
I never got ejected and afaict I was never banned from any communities - I left voluntarily during the Rexodus, back in the before-times, prior to most AI moderation and posting.
When someone (Huffman) tells you who they are, it’s best to believe them the first time.