[nindalf]

This news article boils down to "a few people on reddit did something", which is interesting. But we know reddit and HN are definitely not mainstream.

Is this hurting Amazon? No, it is not. As long as they're honouring return requests freely, you know that the number of returns is within their accepted levels of distressed inventory. If it's getting into uncomfortable territory, they'll start rate limiting people by saying they're past the return window, or they should try again after a week.

If Amazon's return policy changes, that'll be much more interesting to see. But chances are, people forget about this in a month and their sales are unaffected. This may go the way of #deleteUber, #deleteFacebook and similar boycott campaigns - minor blips at best.

[barumrho]

While I agree that the return numbers are probably very low, you may be underestimating Reddit's impact in terms of product recommendation. I noticed that Reddit results are often pretty prominent on Google search when product reviews are searched for. Security camera market is pretty competitive and a single factor like this could easily sway people to choose alternatives.

[zetanor]

I'd agree on /r/FlockSurveillance/ specifically, but if Reddit itself does not qualify as "mainstream", then what does? Just FANG?

[ViktorRay]

Reddit is filled with very vocal terminally online people. Their views and actions are not representative of normal human beings.

[friendzis]

Reddit is at the core forum platform, therefore it's as misleading to attribute whatever is happening at any one [group of] subreddit to the whole of Reddit as it is misleading to do the same with closed Facebook groups.

Remember forums of old. Larger sites with daily visitors in the thousands already had nearly isolated topic silos within the forum. The effect is even stronger here.

[philipallstar]

Facebook alone is far more mainstream than Reddit, I would say. Thousands of times more.

[nindalf]

You've identified the problem. It's never "reddit", it's a specific subreddit. It really depends on the size of the subreddit. Smaller subreddits can easily get riled up, and also create a sealed echo chamber by banning people left and right. But I wouldn't worry about a sub unless it was really big.

For example: I'd say HBO should worry about what the game of thrones related subs are saying about their latest show (which is good, shoutout) but only as a vibe check. The normies will always outnumber the kind of people who go to a subreddit to discuss their favourite show. Normal people just watch and forget.

[timmg]

My guess is that it is more: the people that are concerned are posting about it. And those that aren't, aren't.

So you are just seeing a biased subset of the (relatively) mainstream reddit.

[sigwinch]

It might be that the demographics of Reddit skew toward low economic relevance but high unique views.

[ajam1507]

> But we know reddit and HN are definitely not mainstream.

Reddit is one of the most visited websites on the planet, not sure how you can say it isn't mainstream.

> Is this hurting Amazon? No, it is not.

Depends on your definition of hurting Amazon, but regardless Ring is a tiny portion of Amazon's revenue so even if every single Ring owner returned it wouldn't "hurt Amazon"

> This may go the way of #deleteUber, #deleteFacebook and similar boycott campaigns - minor blips at best.

Not sure about Uber, but #deleteFacebook absolutely did have a long term impact in certain demographics.

[Sol-]

That was my immediate reaction as well. These things are never more than a storm in a teapot.

[deepsquirrelnet]

I’m not so sure. In terms of total revenue, yes probably insignificant. But in the world of subscriptions and a highly speculative market, I think declining subs can have an outsized impact on share prices.

[pimlottc]

Pretty much any time you see a headline like this, you should mentally add the word "Some" to the front of it.

[eulers_secret]

It’s interesting how internet backlashes can be large enough to move the needle: ring breaking with flock is evidence of this.

Yet simultaneously the internet represents the opinions of a very small and vocal minority.

I’ve never seen an internet boycott have an impact.

[NickDouglas]

You have now. "Ring cancels its partnership with Flock Safety after surveillance backlash" is literally on the front of Hacker News.

[buellerbueller]

>It’s interesting how internet backlashes can be large enough to move the needle:

Brexit.

[imperio59]

Bud Light's stock performance last year would like to have a word with you.