Reddit CEO slams protesters, says he'll change site rules
www.nbcnews.com
Steve Huffman, the Reddit CEO, told NBC News in an interview that a user protest on the site this week is led by a minority of moderators and doesn’t have wide support.
  • NewEnglandRedshirt@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    History teacher here. I find it incredibly ironic that a guy whose entire livelihood depends on unpaid workers to generate profits for him while he sits on his porch drinking sweet tea comfortable desk chair describes those workers as the “landed gentry.”

  • penguin_ex_machina@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    If you’re a politician or a business owner, you are accountable to your constituents. So a politician needs to be elected, and a business owner can be fired by its shareholders,” he said.

    Someone get this man a hearing aid, because he’s gone completely tone deaf.

  • nodsocket@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    He is trying to divide users by claiming that a nebulous group is controlling the rest against their will. Classic protest mitigation tactic

  • LUHG@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    Maybe if they introduced this in good faith months ago people would think it’s a good idea. They reason now is just power hungry admins trying to get their way. Fuck this guy so much.

    • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Honestly, the core point made originally, and that he stated again in this article, makes perfect sense to me: it costs money to run Reddit, which they pay for with ads, and the third party apps make the content available without ads or with ads that go to the app developers. It’s completely reasonable that Reddit would want to get paid for people using their content.

      But the way they rolled it out, the slandering of one of the developers, the ridiculously short time for it, the removal of NSFW content, and especially the draconian prices are just unacceptable.

    • emptyother@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      I’m curious as to how much money Reddit are spending on their attempts to change the narrative with articles like this.

        • penguin_ex_machina@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          1 year ago

          This is the thing that gets me. I’m fine if Reddit wants to diversify revenue, or ask developers to pay a fair share. But the callous disregard for developers, users, moderators, and communities they built is beyond the pale. I don’t know how someone can look at the timeline of events and how Reddit has handled this and think, “this is a company that deserves my money”. Huffman’s comments in the press alone, leaked or not, make him look like a giant d*uche canoe. The moment my saved posts are transferred out I’m gone.

  • Barbarian@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    With bigger subs, this strategy may actually work. A lot of Redditors just want to scroll, and they want their content. They don’t care how it gets there.

    • RamesesKnibs@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Yeah I’m seeing that a lot. Floods of comments about how dumb the blackout was and that they just want to browse Reddit. I know r/SquaredCircle pledged to go dark indefinitely and there was a lot of outrage about it. I’ll be very interested to see if it comes back as that was a sizeable subreddit

      • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        I’ve read that, at times in the past, Reddit has used bots or plants in comment threads to stear the conversation. It makes me wonder if any of that is happening now. I’m not much of a conspiracy theorist, but at this point I have very little trust in the Reddit staff.