I can't believe they gave the job to such a clueless and arrogant leader. At this rate, it's not a matter of if, but when Reddit is going to crash and burn like Digg did.
Most likely reddit is holding out till the IPO. Getting a new CEO beforehand would cause some chaos. Stability is what saves valuation. Reddit's recent instability is what is messing with its worth.
Then reddit can blame everything on their scapegoat: spez. The old CEO gets a nice severance package for acting like the villain reddit needs till all the new changes are in place. Even if the CEO was not the only one making these decisions.
The new CEO will remove a few of the harsh changes reddit recently made; but not all of them. The people then rejoice as the new CEO is "nicer" than spez and the evil villain is gone.
It's not like reddit can ever go back to the way it was; it wasn't making enough money to please its stakeholders. The preceding sentence is why the fediverse is so important.
I can't believe Steve Huffman (u/spez) is acting like this before an IPO. An IPO usually means a board of directors. Usually, the CEO reports directly to the board of directors and serves until they decide they need a new CEO. Forget third-party apps for a second, Fidelity has further slashed the estimated worth Reddit. Users are protesting against the site's leadership. Porn bombing has brands concerned about advertising on Reddit; see https://techstory.in/advertisers-grapple-with-rising-brand-safety-concerns-as-reddit-protests-escalate-into-porn-bombing-campaigns/ He's tarnished Reddit's image. The sooner they do an IPO, the better as Huffman will become the artist formerly known as CEO.
I wish more people weren't waiting until June 30 to tentatively make a decision or leave. I have a feeling many of them aren't leaving if they haven't already.
I made my decision to leave as soon as I saw how the app devs were treated. Been back only to edit all my comments to state what I think about spez & co. I’ve simply been waiting to add my little weight to the end of month exodus.
I wonder if there are a lot of people, average users, that just aren’t in the know, and will only realize the third party apps are gone when they’re physically gone.
If they decapitated the management (not literally...well...no this is not constructive) and made the API cheap as balls, you might retain the existing users and pull half that are leaving back.
There's not 5B in advertising opportunity there. Any company that wanted to get out in front of their customers is already in there talking to them for free.
"Tomorrow is when the real shit hits the fan." I don't know about that. I think it'll take a while and there will be several stages. Tomorrow the power users leave, and moderators might either do a lot less or disappear completely.
Then would be a rise in bots (i saw an AITA post i thought might be bot generated as i couldnt possibly think how "OP" could be anything but an asshole) and spammers, people voting might help keep some of that at bay while the users who browse by hot might still get what they want. Then there would likely be migrations of users.
I think people who go to subs like funny and AITA could still be there for a while, but i think the content will degrade and some subs i think have taken permanent hits in viewership. 4 months ago i could think of some where i'd consider advertising a product to a niche, but there's zero chance i'd be parting with money today.
I think the effects of this will be large and far reaching, but those looking to cash out are still steaming ahead for their IPO payday, and whatever happens from there will be the new owners concern. It'd be different if i thought they wanted to IPO and still hold a large share of the company, but everything im seeing leads me to believe thats not the case.
We can already see lemmy.world has grown 15% or 8k users in half a day. If that's representative, the coming days will be worse for reddit than the blackout and protest period.
That was what I meant, that for reddit the shit hits the fan today for real, as in the consequences of their decision will hit harder when they are actually implemented.
That’s down 7.36% from the $16.6 million mark at April’s closure and altogether a slide of 45.4% since its investment in August 2021. The updated share value suggests a $5.5 billion valuation for Reddit.
I wanna see the current or former patrons of r/WallStreet short Reddit to oblivion on the IPO. Spez should realize that if you piss off a large group, they can hit back when you’re most vulnerable.