Finally found a decent analysis of why Reddit should care very much about the blackout. Reddit CEO forgot how much money those pesky tire party apps saved him in free labor by mods and redditors. Time to go somewhere no one is looking just for his own pockets.
I’m convinced spez is almost in too deep at this point. No doubt he has extreme VC pressure on him for a successful IPO, and the worst thing that can happen to him if reddit suffers is a few million dollars and some extra free time.
Meanwhile, there could be actual money he misses out on making if he admits he’s screwing over his users. Money like that is difficult to resist, especially with the kind of executive power over reddit’s direction he has.
He said it himself. Reddit isn’t profitable. If the VC funding dries up, the company is done. Just goes to show the importance of finding an alternative way of funding the operating costs of online communities. Maybe we’ve got a good one here.
How does it actually work? Does the instance owner pay for the hosting or is it funded by donations?
It comes down to whoever is paying to host the software. Most seem to be funded by donations.
I like that, it’s better than ad.
He is running on ego at this point. And he let things get to the point of no return. People are moving away from Reddit, and even if the Spez guy undoes everything, third party apps won’t return, because they know they are one hissy fit, one stock offering, one bad CEO away from having to shut down again.
It may have started this way, but now we’ll have o see what Reddit will become. I have my Lemmy account and my popcorn ready.