• mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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    9 months ago

    Narwhal made a small amount of profit before, thanks to a small ad at the bottom of the app. Narwhal 2 “barely” makes a small profit, too. However, most of the money from Narwhal 2’s subscription fees goes to either Apple or Reddit.

    This makes me irrationally angry. The dude was making something people wanted to use, without getting much of anything from it, and now the men upstairs have decided they’re not happy with that situation unless they can force him to squeeze his users for a little bit, so that they can keep it, and leave him still with pretty much nothing.

  • Xavier@lemmy.ca
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    9 months ago

    The essential part at the end:

    “ When reached for comment, Reddit spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt directed me to Reddit’s API FAQ page and said the company couldn’t comment further because it’s in a quiet period and doesn’t “comment on confidential business conversations and/or agreements.” ”

    We can infer that it was not the fountain of money they thought it would become.

    More telling is their silence. Who doesn’t want to promote and advertise how profitable they are to potential shareholders just before an IPO.

    • abhibeckert@beehaw.org
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      9 months ago

      Who doesn’t want to promote and advertise how profitable they are to potential shareholders just before an IPO.

      They might want to, but it’s illegal.

      The “quiet period” is a reference to an SEC law that forces any company to be radio silent for a strict 40 day period during the IPO process. Reddit is in that period now and therefore they cannot say a word.

      JPMorgan was fined almost a billion dollars for answering questions on a phone call during their quiet period.

    • Moira_Mayhem@beehaw.org
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      9 months ago

      I love this personally. The admins had a vision for the future that was not based in any form of reality, but rather the same wealth extraction tactics that have collapsed so many other services.

      Anyone who remembers the Digg exodus, there are reflections of that in reddit’s stittastic new policies.

      Just more proof that enshittification isn’t a slow erosion of quality over time but rather direct actions taken by a profit-seeking leadership.

      If you go back now and look in older technically complex threads it is a wasteland of [Deleted] and various account scrubber script Lorem Ipsum as a good chunk of decent contributors have left and burned their accounts.

      Good.

      Looking forward to the day that they don’t prop up google anymore.

  • Fizz@lemmy.nz
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    9 months ago

    I no longer have a reddit account I’m often I search and a reddit thread comes as a result but I can’t read it because you have to sign in to view “18+” content. So annoying.

  • Kruulos@sopuli.xyz
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    9 months ago

    I have an old iPad on my nightstand and I paid for Narwhal. I have no idea why I can still use it like the ‘old times’ but I’m grateful that I can still browse Reddit.

    It’s a husk of the former site I loved but the niche communities I care are still there. I wish for and 2nd and 3rd, 4th etc dramas on Reddit to get people here but sadly it’s a numbers matter game.

    • Uranium3006@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      Once we reach critical mass it’s all over for reddit. Federation is so much better at a fundamental level

      • DaleGribble88@programming.dev
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        9 months ago

        Community isolation is still a big problem. Federated services like lemmy will never reach critical mass until owners start limited communities to force more user interaction, and cross posting becomes more streamlined. My favorite proposal as a solution is to allow mods of a community to subscribe to another community, and allows it to synchronize posts and comments.

  • zzzzz@beehaw.org
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    9 months ago

    I’m amazed RedReader doesn’t get more love. It was my chosen third-party app before the API changes and it continues to function flawlessly (with the exception of NSFW content) after the changes. I have stopped browsing Reddit at this point, but feel that a list like this really should celebrate RedReader more…