Rob CReddit CEO: We're committed to burning this shit to the ground.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/reddit-ceo-were-sticking-with-api-changes-despite-subreddits-going-dark #reddit #redditblackout
Joshua Lee@robcee To be fair, with the past few years to look at its pretty obvious its time to stop relying on VC funding and just be profitable.
@10leej sure. VC money goes away in a high interest environment. Monetizing through advertising is not a great solution for profitability though. It creates decisions that look like what they've proposed:
Price the heavy API consumers out of the system, force users to be subjected to ads through their own unpleasant front ends.
Conde Nast and Reddit make for a funny combo. I'm fine if it just goes away.
theOmegabit@robcee the real headline right there
old_tootbrute@robcee the AMA with the spaz CEO guy is comedy gold
https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/
🇳𝗮ꜟ𝖼𝘩
jawny
kelce
Aaron Longchamps@robcee so…about that whole valuation thing
Cassandrich@robcee I love how he got sniped into saying the magic words "not profitable" and tanking the IPO. Should be fired for that alone.
Soheb
Lotus@robcee The article misrepresents the situation from what I understand. Its not just that the API will become paid, its specifically the excessive price thats causing the storm.
@LotusHopper it’s accurate. They state the facts without offering opinions on them. We’ve all formed our own opinions, but to be clear: $0.24 / 1000 API calls is ridiculous.
@robcee I meant to say that reading, for example, the announcements on going private, moderators cited the excessive price and not just the API being paid. So the article doesnt do well representing the motives, I dont mean their judgement on the reasonableness of the pricing was wrong.
Iron@robcee
Its weird, while i disagree with the cost i dont actually blame them, reddit costs money to keep going if what they were doing before stopped being enough with how many people use reddit i can see why.
Do i think its the right model of payment? No but i can understand the cause. Not here to start an argument just sharing an alternative view
HammerHeadSharksIt’s the extreme fees that are the issue. $5-10m for server costs, $5-10m in staff expenses and let’s say $10m in profits. At $30m a year, it’s absurd to charge one small third party app $20m.
@HammerHeadSharks @Ironbatman12 I think you missed a decimal point on your staffing costs. At $150k / year * 2k employees, we have ~$300m. Server/cloud costs are likely similar if not more.
Still, a lot to ask a 3rd party app IMO.
Half my point is that there is no need for so many employees and so many other costs, except for the IPO. This is a case of people not being satisfied with enough. That is the core issue.
Why accept their bad business decisions as valid in the first place? Why accept the excess costs as reasonable costs reasonably needing to be covered?
As for server costs, I’ve not seen estimates above $9m. If you’ve got better numbers, it would be interesting to look at.
I agree and am hopeful that Reddit comes back from this but only time will tell
brandon@robcee Huffman: Selig tried to blackmail us! … Selig posts the recording and shows he didn’t try to blackmail. Huffman: We can’t work with someone that would record a phone conversation!
Pigeon@robcee there goes literally half of all subreddits...
PewPewMiau@robcee good day to delete the app and account. I just did
@robcee It’s inevitable that Reddit would try to become profitable. It’s bizarre that they insist on going about it in the most self-destructive way possible.
Sean@robcee Getting strong Dr Strangelove vibes from Spez lately
ABT554No surprise?
He just has to wait 48h and almost everything will be back to normal with him having more cash in his pockets.
If there is one thing the musk takeover of Twitter has taught us it's that most users will endure almost any abuse of that means they don't have to move platforms.
Jacob Smith@robcee well goodbye Reddit, it’s been really fun, I’m going to miss the people :(
lyrokain 
@robcee I guess the CEO expects hardly anyone will care. Regarding what is going on at Twitter, I am afraid he is perfectly right.
@robcee show them who is the boss
TurboQuokka@robcee Lol, of fucking course Spez would double down when things aren’t actually going his way. He’s always been that kind of asshole.
Scott.@robcee Reddit is also forcing some users to the app by blocking website access on mobile devices. This is something they are slowly rolling out, this was discussed on HN.
Melissa Dimock / refashionista@robcee This whole thing is wild to me, TBH.
And then, on the other hand, there is Twitter -- a bigger, more public, flaming trash heap than ever!
@refashionista 2023, the year centrally governed / owned social media died in the tire fire.
It’s been enlightening for sure.
I’m still happy Mastodon and emerging alternatives like Kbin exist.
@robcee I am hearing echoes of "the beatings will continue until morale improves"