Boz (he/him)

Yeah, I think a lot of people who would be interested in moderating have taken a good look at how Reddit is treating existing mods, and gone, “nahhh.”

I love the Gangnam Style reference, lol.

I don’t know, I think Musk might actually have an inferiority complex. He’s obsessed with himself, but he puts an awful lot of effort into trying to prove that he’s cool. But yeah, they’re both terrible, it doesn’t really matter who’s worse.

Probably the shirtless pic was a carefully calculated move to short-circuit theories about his lack of humanity, by showing that he has a navel. [/s]

…for real, though, at least the man utilizes his paid PR staff.

Yes, the quality can be garbage, but I think a lot of the automatic scrollers require both quantity and low repost rate so they don’t run into stale content while they’re having their daily scroll. I think quality will go first, then the repost level will rise (and I know, it’s already high, lol, but it’ll get worse), and eventually either the quantity overall will go, or all the content will be created by bots, which will eventually drive off even the casual users. And when enough users go, the advertisers will go, and that is what will actually put Reddit on the rocks. It might take several years to happen, based on the changes they have already made, but they have the power to accelerate it if they fail hard enough.

What really creates train wreck appeal for me is how hard they are deliberately failing. I agree with the general sentiment that it’s profit-motivated, and they have to do something to get profits, but they are missing a lot of sane, likely-to-work options in favor of pipe dreams and emotional abuse.

The “posts that look like ads” thing almost caused me to quit the site years ago.

The cost of participating is that you have to give Reddit your identity, complete with bank account and tax information.

…you laugh, but there are people whose entire career is based on creating that scenario.

I think “there’s no viable business model “ is where they are, yeah. I think if they had taken a different path… I don’t know, several years ago… they might have found one, but they just keep throwing away their assets.

I would be extremely surprised if it goes well, if they do. Huffman said something in an interview suggesting that they are no longer in any hurry, and investors are likely to recognize this particular dumpster fire for what it is. The financial community has its delusions, but they’re usually not the ones techbros like Huffman have.

Regarding the new rule against abuse content, I suspect they’re either trying to boost their wholesome image to advertisers, or it’s in response to complaints about specific things on the site. I don’t think they’d prohibit content unless someone is posting it, horrible as that sounds.

To put it in your terms: they’re trying to drive away some creeps that might scare advertisers.

Regarding allowing AI porn… since advertisers don’t like porn, these new policies should cancel each other out, lol. I suspect neither of these changes is directly related to any of the recent drama.

…lolwat. I am suddenly about 800% less worried about Threads siphoning action from the non-commercial part of the fediverse. It’s not going to be a better user experience.

Fair point. To the extent that a ToS is legally binding, then yeah, it should be illegal to make it deceptive. But my understanding is that a lot of what’s in a ToS policy has no legal force, and taking steps to regulate certain aspects of a ToS might have the unwanted effect of giving a ToS more legal recognition overall. It is possible to sign over certain rights to a company, but that doesn’t mean the company can sue a customer for breaking the ToS when the customer isn’t breaking any laws. So, Reddit can write all the menacing emails they like, but if someone feels like posting a bunch of softcore porn in a large subreddit, all Reddit can actually do is ban them, and if they go too hard on the threatening emails, they could get sued for harassment.

I love that. Decreasing the overall number of posts also decreases the number of places ads can appear in that sub, and the number of eyeballs available to see the ads, since no one is going to spend as long on a less-active sub as they would on an active one.

To be (un)fair, the ToS is toilet paper on most for-profit websites.

…I am concerned about that. I would expect player handbooks to be the last thing you’d want exclusively digital, since most of them are hard to read on a cheap e-reader, and they’re already expensive. Does WotC think people are going to buy the book and a tablet or laptop to view it? And then bring said hardware to a session? Does WotC not understand that some people like to play outdoors?

I guess, as the article says, it’s their push to make everyone play online, but I feel like it’s not a good move for them to try to compete with the kind of online RPGs that have always been digital. That’s not an easy market to get into, and it doesn’t matter how much money is in a market if your company isn’t equipped to succeed there.

In case you thought Google was doing this for users, you should know that this “Perspectives” thing has been in the works for months, they just thought now was a good time to bring it out. Unlike Reddit, Google has a really good PR team.

I had a similar approach for most purposes, though I am too lazy to block sites that way. But I did use to go to Reddit specifically for skincare product reviews, because there are things I like to know before I buy that are not easy to find elsewhere. (And I don’t mean honesty, just a few details that aren’t necessarily on the label).

That’s true, Reddit has its hands full with red pandas and John Oliver pics. They’ll probably let gradual rule changes slide for a while. Forbidding brand mentions might actually kill r/SkincareAddiction, since it’s mostly product reviews and people posting blurry pictures of gnarly abscesses they believe are pimples.

I like this. It’ll probably be declared “vandalism” of the community, and they’ll try to ban mods, but it would affect the community’s usefulness to advertisers if it becomes annoying for users, or specialized in a way that makes it unsuitable for the companies who are currently in there. Brands choose Reddit because they think they can reach exactly the people who are likely to want their products by targeting the right subreddits. Change the type of conversation in those subreddits to something that no longer attracts the audience advertisers want, and advertisers will be less interested. Forbidding brand mentions is good, too.