I'm not the type to hate on capitalism but Reddit's management is truly capitalism gone wrong. Ruining a public service for the profits of a few. What a waste.
I'm not sure that is the case. Reddit's problem is that they have consistently used up more value to run the service than they have been able to deliver in return. Now they are running around like chickens with their heads cut off desperately trying to find some way to increase the value provided/decrease the value needed to stave off certain death.
A socially owned organization operated in the same manner would be suffering the same fate right now. The idea that exchanging parties expect trade of equal value is not a feature of capitalism. It is the basis of all economic systems; at least those which do not depend on an imagined post-scarcity world.
> A socially owned organization operated in the same manner would be suffering the same fate right now.
The thing is I don’t think a socially owned organization would have operated the same way. The core Reddit product of Reddit, text and links to images, is still valid today and what the long time users want. The expensive part: development/maintenance of new features like live streaming, mobile apps, recommendations algorithms, etc are all driven by profits and IPO hopes.
>Now they are running around like chickens with their heads cut off desperately trying to find some way to increase the value provided/decrease the value needed to stave off certain death.
Problem is who they are appealing to has different "value" than the actual users of the website. A classic problem of shareholder funded business. This is inevitable for stuff like ads but there are definitely ways to increase value that actual users would appreciate and at the very least shareholders would be neutral towards. Better moderation tools, for instance.
Theyre not trying to be profitable, theyre trying to grow and earn a high company valuation. I agree that they have not done well on that front either, relative to the size of their user base.
This is a prime example of why capitalism is good. If Reddit was state owned or equivalent with regulatory capture, then nothing could be done about it. Doesn’t matter how bad it is. Like the DMV.
Now since Reddit is determined to shoot itself in the foot, new competitors can rise up and replace them. Reddit did the same to its predecessors.
Capitalism punishes harshly companies that decide to be stupid.
The second MD started doing appointments it was 100x better. Even before appointments for simple things like returning plates there were people with ipads you could just checkout with.
Purely anecdotal, but I’ve already started to see noticeably less activity in a few of the subs I follow. It’s still a long way from dying, but it’s a promising start.
That's a fair point about allowing competition. But frankly, it just sucks that Reddit choses to purposefully hurt its service. With social media, there's also a strong moating effect that is fundamentally anti-competitive.
"If x was state owned... nothing could be done about it." Is this fatalism or is the American disease truly that your democracy has inexorably evaporated? Theoretically you have much more input over state-owned functions than private ones. However that assumes you don't live in a dystopian oligarchy ruled by capital that has completely supplanted the function of your government. If that was the case though, surely that'd be a prime example of why capitalism is NOT good?
If Reddit was state-owned, they wouldn't be desperately scrabbling for profitability and none of these problems would have happened in the first place.
That's not to say they wouldn't have other problems, or that state-owned social media is a good idea at all, but this particular argument doesn't work.
randomdata|2 years ago
A socially owned organization operated in the same manner would be suffering the same fate right now. The idea that exchanging parties expect trade of equal value is not a feature of capitalism. It is the basis of all economic systems; at least those which do not depend on an imagined post-scarcity world.
lotsoweiners|2 years ago
The thing is I don’t think a socially owned organization would have operated the same way. The core Reddit product of Reddit, text and links to images, is still valid today and what the long time users want. The expensive part: development/maintenance of new features like live streaming, mobile apps, recommendations algorithms, etc are all driven by profits and IPO hopes.
johnnyanmac|2 years ago
Problem is who they are appealing to has different "value" than the actual users of the website. A classic problem of shareholder funded business. This is inevitable for stuff like ads but there are definitely ways to increase value that actual users would appreciate and at the very least shareholders would be neutral towards. Better moderation tools, for instance.
saiojd|2 years ago
WatchDog|2 years ago
rchaud|2 years ago
treeman79|2 years ago
Now since Reddit is determined to shoot itself in the foot, new competitors can rise up and replace them. Reddit did the same to its predecessors.
Capitalism punishes harshly companies that decide to be stupid.
lesuorac|2 years ago
Whens the last time you've been to the DMV?
The second MD started doing appointments it was 100x better. Even before appointments for simple things like returning plates there were people with ipads you could just checkout with.
lockhouse|2 years ago
saiojd|2 years ago
rainonmoon|2 years ago
PhasmaFelis|2 years ago
That's not to say they wouldn't have other problems, or that state-owned social media is a good idea at all, but this particular argument doesn't work.
unknown|2 years ago
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dopidopHN|2 years ago