<![CDATA[size is not what made reddit bad. commercialization is.]]>cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/37870004

reddit got bad because spez (the reddit admin) restricted API access to the platform for third-party apps, such that people would be forced to use the official app or web UI, both of which display advertisement and collect user data (e.g. scroll behavior).

the reason why this happened is because reddit is a for-profit company and tries to extract money out of the userbase, at the expense of the users.

another example of a bad decision that reddit made was to push a lot of ragebait ("Am I The Asshole?") because company shareholders want to see "engagement numbers" go up, and if somebody writes an angry reply to a post, that's "engagement". but it makes you angry at the stupidity of the "Asshole", so it makes your day worse. that is another example how reddit makes money at the expense of the users.

size (number of monthly active users) is not what made reddit bad. commercialization is.

we should probably get rid of the "don't make lemmy grow, it will ruin the platform if we grow" idea.

]]>https://citiverse.it/topic/bdfa183a-aa5d-431f-a68f-023974183d49/size-is-not-what-made-reddit-bad.-commercialization-is.RSS for NodeWed, 11 Nov 2026 01:27:34 GMTWed, 11 Nov 2026 00:37:40 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to size is not what made reddit bad. commercialization is. on Wed, 11 Nov 2026 01:05:58 GMT]]>I don't disagree, but I think the heavy-handed moderation was often in service of "cleaning up" to make the website more commercially palatable. Like when they pulled r/atheism as a front-page reddit.

For me, the out of control engagement bots constantly commenting on my comments was the last straw that made me leave.

]]>https://citiverse.it/post/https://lemmy.world/comment/26802064https://citiverse.it/post/https://lemmy.world/comment/26802064Wed, 11 Nov 2026 01:05:58 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to size is not what made reddit bad. commercialization is. on Wed, 11 Nov 2026 00:56:25 GMT]]>Brute force moderation is what killed it IMHO. Same shit that as happening to .world

]]>https://citiverse.it/post/https://piefed.ca/comment/7032137https://citiverse.it/post/https://piefed.ca/comment/7032137Wed, 11 Nov 2026 00:56:25 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to size is not what made reddit bad. commercialization is. on Wed, 11 Nov 2026 00:49:12 GMT]]>Size and commercialisation generally go hand in hand. After all, how do you keep something running with infinite users submitting infinite content for free?

This is a big issue for everyone, it's important that the fediverse understands that size might some day increase the importance of sensible business models or proactive funding initiatives to counter the growth. This doesn't mean harmful profit models necessarily, but it does mean keeping revenues under control for individually run nodes or for archiving services for old fediverse domains that might not exist forever.

]]>https://citiverse.it/post/https://lemmy.zip/comment/30071201https://citiverse.it/post/https://lemmy.zip/comment/30071201Wed, 11 Nov 2026 00:49:12 GMT