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.
I don’t believe it was the size either despite what many in the comments state. I believe it’s been several compounding factors. For me it’s karma and karma farming. People only do things for attention when they have reason to believe it will provide benefits for them. People do what they are allowed to do. When you go to an establishment where the cultures and rules are set people are unlikely to deviate. I couldn’t reasonably get upset at an establishment that requires certain attire, no loud voices, limited alcoholic beverages and believe I can and should do the opposite. If more subreddits operated like such then Reddit would be very different. Unfortunately, that doesn’t align with Reddits goals of content and users pretty much at any cost to make the money go up.