Reddit acquires ML startup Spell

[ydnaclementine]

Imagine how easy it would be to sell ads on reddit, the users self select topics. If I subscribed to r/koreancosmetics and r/makeup, do you really need ML to figure out which ads to show?

[bombcar]

There's an old saying goes something like this "if you go to the car dealership, and all they have are station wagons, they're gonna sell you a station wagon". The ads you see on Reddit say much more about who is willing to advertise with them than anything about you. And so if you're seeing low-value ads, it's because they can't sell any high-value ones.

[RosanaAnaDana]

I desperately wish they would have IPO'd last may so I could short the ever living shit out of them.

[TheCapn]

Yeah, but what about scraping the entirety of a user's comment history to drive it through the algorithm to advertise to the things they aren't explicitly showing interest in?

[wodenokoto]

Well, they still need to advertise makeup and cosmetics that you can buy where you live for starters.

[barbecue_sauce]

I have a Reddit account, but I've never subscribed to any subreddits.

[silicon2401]

Having been a long-time user of Wikia (now Fandom) as well as Reddit, it's been interesting to see Reddit go down the same path Wikia did. In my opinion, both websites started out similarly: somewhat simply designed, focused on content, and with room for communities to form themselves. Over time, both websites started pushing harder for monetization and in the process, made changes to prioritize advertising over content, and started pressuring communities to behave and interact in approved ways. It doesn't look like either website is struggling or likely to go under financially, but the charm and community of their younger iterations is definitely gone.

[qualudeheart]

Reddit needs a new way to monetize. I’d even put up with crypto bullshit if they just stopped the ads.

[celim307]

I thought the whole appeal of Reddit was community moderation and escape from algorithms.

[ptmcc]

It used to be, but the push for monetization has poisoned that well. I don't know what comes after reddit but I'm keeping my eyes and ears open.

Had a reddit recruiter reach out to me recently looking for engineering leadership for their upcoming product road map. What's in: ads, influencers, crypto, NFTs. What's not in: improving the core feature set of reddit like community management, curation, search, or user interface/experience.

Hard pass, and a bad sign of what's to come.

[stagger87]

Primarily for ads I would guess.

[TameAntelope]

The problem is the community moderation is terrible, and the only viable alternative to support Reddit's recent explosive growth is algorithmic.

[jwilber]

Reddit should prioritize their site working on the browser.

Clicking a nested thread seems to crash whatever browser I use 1/10th of the time, the videos never work, and the time it takes to open a thread is almost unbelievable in 2022.

(Never mind the times it won’t let me view content without the app.)

[sumy23]

Reddit has an odd strategy. I have Apollo on my phone, which is a great Reddit app that doesn’t have ads. Sometimes, I go to Reddit in Safari out of habit. The experience is so terrible, that it forces me to go from the website, which has ads, to Apollo, which doesn’t. The performance of the mobile website is absolutely terrible as well. It’s like they’re trying to make a garbage website.

[pier25]

old.reddit.com + RES is still the best Reddit experience

[jjice]

It's absurd how poorly the new reddit runs on a decent machine. Old reddit is smooth and still a fine experience, but new reddit turns my old laptop into a space heater.

[jklinger410]

They probably hate maintaining desktop. They are essentially a data farm at this point. They just want that sweet sweet device id and location data from the app.

[minimaxir]

This acquisition is...unusual. I strongly suspect it's not a 10x exit. (last raised $15M in 2019: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/spell )

Reddit obviously has the data for robust machine learning, but not sure how an experiments-management startup aligns with it unless it's an acquihire.

[phphphphp]

Acquihire.

"Our next challenge is to apply what we’ve built to improve the user experience for redditors"

"we’ll no longer be signing up new commercial customers to the Spell service"

https://spell.ml/blog/spell-joins-reddit-YqtKRhEAACMAgbU9

[PhoenixReborn]

Disclosure: former Reddit employee

It's definitely an acquihire. MLOps has been one of Reddit's weaker areas historically, so this acquisition makes sense to get a talented team in with a clear understanding of the space.

[agnos]

This is the only explanation that makes sense. This strategy in general seems a bit short-sighted though. I suspect engineer retention is going to drop off a cliff after whatever acquisition bonuses have paid off.

[mountainriver]

Reddit should focus on making their community less toxic, it’s hands down one of the most toxic places on the internet. These problems don’t need ML

[memish]

The level of enforced groupthink there is unbearable.

[meowtimemania]

How do you make it less toxic?

[colinmhayes]

that's a feature

[stathibus]

It's plainly obvious that reddit does not need ML to do what it needs to do.

Their investors are being taken on a wild ride.

[april_22]

Whatever they acquire, I just hope they make their search better

[aerostable_slug]

Video player fixes? Nope.

Search being an open joke? Not going to even look at it.

Purchase a few ML people? Oh that will surely increase our valuation.

Do something about toxic supermods? That's a feature.

[0xBABAD00C]

> Do something about toxic supermods

I got banned for a year from Armenia sub for criticizing an Armenian politician from the ruling party (who has been involved in a bunch of corruption scandals, including fake companies winning tenders under his grandma's name). The country subs, especially in post-USSR space, are run by ruling party representatives who tolerate zero dissent.

[arsome]

They somehow managed to make the video player worse recently by removing quality selection and having only "auto" that drops down to 1 FPS 240p on a gigabit pipe with no issues anywhere else. Pretty impressive.

[barbecue_sauce]

Reddit is a private subsidiary of a large private company, so I'm not sure why their valuation matters.

[RosanaAnaDana]

I mean, when they dropped the tagline "The front page of the internet", for the committee engineered "Dive into anything", you knew it was going down.

Reddit is a walking corpse and I'm happy to participate in the monthly "Reddit is shit" punching bag thread.

[jklinger410]

Right now they are floating on viral momentum. They are a few stupid decisions and one neat alternative away from going the way of Digg.

[aneil]

Maybe if they can just focus on making their video servers work sometime in the next decade.

[n00bface]

For everyone nodding in agreement with this post I have a treat for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99cVnYY9Iqs

[TameAntelope]

It must feel very good to sell your startup right now, congrats to the team.