Mastodawn

Jun 15, 2023

Reddit is now the perfect example of Crab Mentality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipg4EL_JUyE

The Boondocks Hateocracy - Crabs

YouTube

This guy is really unhinged.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/15/23762868/reddit-ceo-steve-huffman-interview

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman isn’t backing down: our full interview

We interviewed Reddit CEO Steve Huffman about the widespread unrest on the platform in response to its forthcoming API changes.

The Verge

These statements are contradictory to me. You can't say you are charging what it costs and you are trying to only charge $1/user. Doesn't add up.

"What they didn’t like is the price, but the price is the price. It just happens to be expensive to run an app like Reddit.”

"Like we try to charge so it works out to about $1 per user per month for reasonable API usage”

But hey they are willing to work with developers as long as there are no changes to the pricing or arbitary deadline.

Huffman is right, no one should subsidize a business for free. Weird though I can't seem to find the statement where Reddit announced that they are going to start paying moderator and content creators…

Reddit is working hard with them 3rd party developers just don’t know why they don’t want to work with Reddit.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/16/23763661/reddit-rif-is-fun-developer-ceo-steve-huffman

RIF developer counters Reddit CEO’s claims that he didn’t want to work with Reddit

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said that the developer of rif is fun for Reddit (RIF) did not want to work with Reddit on the company’s planned API pricing changes. However, the developer, Andrew Shu, tells me that’s not the case.

The Verge

Imagine looking at Twitter as an example of what to do.
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/reddit-blackout-protest-private-ceo-elon-musk-huffman-rcna89700

Reddit CEO praises Elon Musk as protests rock platform

Twitter owner Elon Musk may have had an influence on Reddit’s CEO ahead of changes to the website that have resulted in a user-led rebellion on the platform.

NBC News

I've read this bit a few times. It sounds to me like Huffman thinks individual Reddit 3rd party clients are making millions a year. That's absolutely not the case. Is anyone else parsing his comments the same way?

Here's what I think is happening. Christian has stated about 50k subscribers. I 100% believe this, its right in the range I'd expect.

Huffman is probably looking at the MAU figures for Apollo users, which is I'd guess in the ~700k range. Probably also taking the most recent subscription price and straight up multiplying (ignoring Apple fees and foreign taxes). Just sitting there assuming that Apollo's profit is $7-9M/year which is easily 10x what it probably is.