Mastodawn

Clive Thompson Jun 17, 2023

Reddit's CEO is attacking Reddit moderators, calling them spoiled "landed gentry" who are messing up his service ...

... when in reality Reddit mods do over $3.4 million in free labor annually, as per a recent scholarly estimate

And that's a lowballed, conservative estimate

My essay on it here: https://clivethompson.medium.com/reddit-moderators-do-over-3-4-million-in-free-labor-every-year-d3571235c32c

A "friend" link in case you're not a Medium subscriber: https://clivethompson.medium.com/reddit-moderators-do-over-3-4-million-in-free-labor-every-year-d3571235c32c?sk=8526a9c3671885cce45a2bd3d1e36b82

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yoasif Jun 17, 2023

@clive I've got an essay on this too, and I'd be floored if you read it (long, unfortunately).

PS: I'm also a moderator of a 150k+ subscriber subreddit.

https://www.quippd.com/writing/2023/05/03/with-its-API-update-reddit-should-start-paying-its-users.html

With its API Update, Reddit Should Start Paying its Users (Or They Should Leave)

Reddit is one of the most popular social media sites on the web, with millions of users and communities dedicated to every topic imaginable. The platform is known for its user-generated content, with people sharing their thoughts, opinions, and experiences with the world. However, despite the value that user-generated content brings to Reddit, the platform does not currently compensate users for their contributions.

Youssuff Quips

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Clive Thompson Jun 17, 2023

@yoasif

Great essay!

It really wouldn’t be hard for Reddit to implement those opt-in/opt-out options you spec out later in the piece ….

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yoasif

@clive ❤️ Thank you for reading!

It wouldn't be hard, but I am not getting a good feeling about the way they are handling the API rollout for app developers - I'm not holding my breath for LLM options.