took a deep dive into how CEO Steve Huffman went from being Reddit’s co-founder to its much-needed savior at a difficult moment—and how he then became the villain at the center of Reddit’s still-raging protests: https://slate.com/technology/2023/06/reddit-protests-steve-huffman-api-chaos.html
All of this PR probably could have been fixed very easily if they gave a 6 months notice and were going to charge a reasonable fee. I would have paid 3rd party a small fee to use their app to not see ads, but spez had other IPO plans.
All they needed to do was change how they handled the API for third party apps. Charging for it isn’t the issue, it’s the prohibitive cost they decided to attach to essentially ALL API access regardless of use, as a response to Large Language Models scrapping the site.
They could have introduced separate pricing for confirmed 3rd party app usage for individuals. Or they could have introduced individual API tokens for 3rd party app use, and locked it behind something like a reddit gold subscription. Even that would be better than effectively killing all of it off.
It’s clear they did absolutely no brainstorming about other options before deciding to nuke it all.
Fully agree. I’m cautiously going to assume (they have 2000 employees) that they did enough analysis to assume that they would come out of this on the right side. The problem is, they didn’t expect spez to be a complete jack off and Apollo to release info that this whole thing was bullshit.
That’s what’s most mindblowing to me. Like, I would gladly (well, maybe not gladly. There would be grumbling, but still) pay for Reddit Premium if it meant I could still use third party apps. A LOT of people would, even if it’s a relatively small percent overall. And the rest would be in the exact situation they are now. Instead of the most dedicated users potentially leaving the platform entirely, they’d be earning Reddit wayyyyy more money than before.
Considering how hungry the industry is for recurring revenue, it’s mind boggling the reddit premium route wasn’t chosen. They’ve left so many opportunities to recoup some revenue I’m convinced this was just a ploy to kill of 3PA.
This might be Reddit’s argument, but it doesn’t hold much weight. You don’t need API access to read a website, a scrapper does that. The 3rd party apps were always the target, since 1) they attack their ad revenue and 2) show the lacks of the official app, which is a liability before the IPO. Also, don’t forget that spez went to the media with the “threats” of Selig before he made any public comment.
…and if they’d sent the CEO on a corporate-paid submarine trip to the Titanic wreckage. Seriously, I felt for the app developers a lot, but honestly, it was 100% Huffman’s interviews that pushed me to delete my account and bid reddit farewell. What an asshat.
The solution is right there in the article and in front of (fuck) /u/spez…make it a part of Reddit Premium. I was on Reddit almost every single day for a decade and not only did I never even think about subbing, most of the time I forgot it even existed. The ridiculously low number of subscribers is Reddit’s fault entirely. They could have killed two birds with one stone by saying “members will get an ad-free experience in our app and can try these other apps as well”. Win for Reddit (actually gaining subs for their Premium service), for the apps (they stay working), and the users (more options).
But I guess just destroying everything you spent your life building is a tempting option as well.
I really hope this drama tanks the ipo price, but I don’t have any faith in investor sanity