"Reddit represents one of the largest data sets of just human beings talking about interesting things," Huffman said. "We are not in the business of giving that away for free."
You and me, we're just data sets. Years of interaction with fellow human beings, building community, sharing insight and creativity…it’s all just data. Data to be mined and monetized.
Huffman's not mad Reddit was scraped for a chatbot. He's mad he wasn't paid for the privilege. It's his data, you see. His. Not yours.
"We're 18 years old," Huffman said. "I think it's time we grow up and behave like an adult company."
Says the guy who's behaving like a petulant 5-year old.
Does Reddit's TOS grant them the right to sell the dataset? Because if not, a pre-emptive cease-and-desist from the user base as a class would probably do wonders for their IPO.
Did I say "for"? I meant " to".
People keep seeing things backwards. We're not the clients of free software or apps, we are the product being sold.
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.
@jaredwhite
He really is the epitome of everything that's wrong with the Internet.
Possibly even society.
@bitcrush_io
That's not true under European law.
@jaredwhite @mannix @nic nobody ever said that it isn't, but that it shouldn't
everyone knows that it works that way; the point is that it shouldn't work like that
@mannix @jaredwhite
The lesson to be learned is that all the political opinions and consumer preferences are data to be sold.
And people love giving their opinions.
And trusting some law that "forces" to delete the data after the profits is naive.
@mannix @Theriac @jaredwhite I do feel a little defensive. Not for me, but for my parents, children, and anyone else who isn't as brilliant as you are.
Because of their ignorance, it sounds like you would just write off anything bad that happens to them on the Internet.
It sounds like blaming the victim, honestly.
@jaredwhite it’s fucked that Reddit exists because of the hard labor of UNPAID mods! It should be illegal to have people preform labor, to contribute value to a company, without paying them.
If it’s legally possible, the mods should unionize.
It’s HIS data, you see. His. Not yours.
Great summation to help common (non-techie) folk understand it.
@jaredwhite this is how the whole "ai tools were trained on data without compensation" turns into chaos.
Never will the people who wrote the text, the code, or made the image will be compensated for the AI training. But the places they chose to host their text or images will be.
Seems like it actually was a really bad idea that we centralize the web on a few select websites..
@jaredwhite it’s also a lesson in reading the TOS (and demanding readABLE TOSs).
Huffman’s being an arrogant arse, but he’s not technically wrong :-/
It *is* his data as we freely gave it to him “in return” for using the site.
I agree his attitude stinks & lacks any ethics, but it’s also on all of us to learn from this. To consider where we pour our conversations and creative endeavours. To vote with our digital feet for social-good spaces over for-profit.
@jaredwhite I don't believe there is anything wrong with wanting to get paid. After all, Reddit provides a service and there is a cost to everything.
However, the exorbitant prices and lack of consideration for their community (including third-party developers) are real problems.
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