Comment by [deleted] on 18/07/2019 at 18:25 UTC

388 upvotes, 8 direct replies (showing 8)

View submission: Update regarding user profile transparency

Looks like the overwhelming response is, please don't force this on those of us who don't want it. Does that factor in to your thinking on the process at all? Or do you think they're a minority you can afford to lose?

Is there a reason for having this feature? How does it benefit Reddit? You already have a decent platform as is, why change it? Do you think being more like Instagram will make more money?

Asking out of curiosity, not rhetorical.

Replies

Comment by temidamaf at 18/07/2019 at 19:06 UTC

54 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Obviously they will enable it by default so they have tons of data on who follows who and it will be up to the user to disable it, most of which won't bother.

And obviously, they'll still track who tried to follow you, it just won't be publicly facing information.

Comment by Apollo_Wolfe at 18/07/2019 at 20:39 UTC

21 upvotes, 0 direct replies

It *is* a minority.

People who comment are already the minority of users.

Reddit has become a social media. Or did /pics turning into “whoa look at my family member who did <banal accomplishment>” Facebook content not give that away?

Reddit already basically tricks you into using an email to sign up. You can skip it but it doesn’t tell you, it pretends like it’s required.

Reddit wants to be a social network too. They’re desperate for money, and that kind of personal data social networks has is a massive cash cow.

Comment by mjmayank at 19/07/2019 at 18:48 UTC

6 upvotes, 4 direct replies

Thanks for the question. To clarify, we’re not changing anything regarding who can follow or who has profiles with this announcement. Currently, any user can follow any other user, and it happens anonymously. For example, I have 84 followers. I have no idea who they are and I find that to be a little bit creepy. Having this transparency let’s me know if they are people I have interacted with before on Reddit.

That being said, we’re still planning to continue to iterate on this to build some of the other features we received feedback on and address those concerns.

Does that factor in to your thinking on the process at all?

Part of why we announce changes like this ahead of time is so that we can hear user feedback before the changes are actually made. We do update our roadmap based on what we hear from you all.

Or do you think they're a minority you can afford to lose? Is there a reason for having this feature? How does it benefit Reddit? You already have a decent platform as is, why change it?

Redditors have come together to create many wonderful communities. We’ve seen a desire from redditors to connect with the other humans that are in the communities they participate in, and we think the profile and chat features help in that endeavor. We’re not trying to take away pseudonymity, anonymity, or community on reddit. We just want to give redditors more ways to connect with each other and have better transparency/privacy controls at the same time.

Comment by Captain___Obvious at 18/07/2019 at 21:53 UTC

6 upvotes, 0 direct replies

An example: New reddit versus old.reddit.com

There is your answer

Comment by nihilset at 18/07/2019 at 19:45 UTC

6 upvotes, 2 direct replies

From what i gathered from the discussion, to deal with stalking

Comment by 1randomperson at 19/07/2019 at 14:19 UTC

1 upvotes, 1 direct replies

You might be asking out of curiosity but the answer is so clear the question can't be taken as anything but rhetorical. Of course they ONLY want to make more money. The only question they are asking themselves is how far they can push things to get the most money out of it and not lose a significant amout of ~~users~~ product.