585 upvotes, 10 direct replies (showing 10)
View submission: Introducing Collectible Avatars
One day there will be a post here that will make me say, "oh good, I can see me actually using this new feature ever."
That day is not today.
Every reddit development post for *years* has been made up entirely of stuff I will not ever use, and in fact a lot of it has made the site worse to use.
The big problem here is that despite virtually everyone in the thread talking about how this is a stupid, worthless idea, that doesn't matter. Because reddit is not after us. We, the common users, are the drain. They just need to get a handful of people with too much money and too little sense interested, and then they have something to add to their bottom line.
Comment by FlameDragoon933 at 07/07/2022 at 17:12 UTC
100 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Every reddit development post for years has been made up entirely of stuff I will not ever use, and in fact a lot of it has made the site worse to use.
They even "fixed" what's not broken, and made blocking feature worse.
Comment by Kaladin-of-Gilead at 07/07/2022 at 16:10 UTC
131 upvotes, 5 direct replies
Hey they brought place back, that was fun
but thats litterally it lol
Comment by BenevolentCheese at 07/07/2022 at 18:29 UTC
18 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Yep, this site is basically permanently in 2015 for me. At least it's easy to add things via user scripts on old reddit. Reddit has been sending me constant recruiting emails for the past few weeks (five, at last count), as a software engineer, and I laugh every time one shows up in my inbox. Despite my being a 15 year vet, why would I ever dream of working at this flailing mess of a website? Nearly every decision they've made since the dawn of New Reddit has been a step backwards. I guess the one thing I'll give them credit for is site stability, because it used to be an absolute mess and now it's quite stable. Outside of that, forget it, just a total trainwreck.
Comment by Madame_President_ at 07/07/2022 at 17:53 UTC
2 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Has Reddit gone public yet? I imagine it's very difficult to put a valuation on Reddit.
I wouldn't want to be in the positions of either a) trying to determined the money value of anonymous influence or b) trying to monetize anonymous users' transactions.
"Reddit, how much money did you make from each user?" [Basically nothing.]
"Reddit, how much money did your ads generate?" [Redditors don't click on in-feed ads, so basically nothing. And no one cares about impressions anymore.]
"Reddit, how much money did you LOSE because your ads suck and companies found it better and cheaper to hire writers to write content for Reddit?" [Please don't ask that question.]
I imagine there's a bunch of execs in a room scratching their heads wondering how this IPO thing is gonna work if Reddit doesn't actually make any money with its product.
Comment by Extrabytes at 07/07/2022 at 20:21 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Because reddit is not after us. We, the common users, are the drain.
People that read announcements and actually post comments of any substance are not common anymore, the common reddit user welcomes any change that makes reddit look more like social media. Just like lootboxes are bought in small quantities by a majority of users in many videogames. These collectible avatars will be purchased by much more people than we, users from before 2019, would expect, mostly because we tend to forget that the reddit user demographic has drastically changed the past couple of years.
Comment by VictoryNapping at 08/07/2022 at 01:20 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
It's because they're preparing to go public. Now they're just another tech/social media company that spends every day thinking up new ways to push people into more and more monetization tactics.
Comment by Amlethus at 08/07/2022 at 15:05 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I suspect the investors think that reddit could replace something like Facebook or even Twitter, when reddit has a different culture and different reasons that people come here.
Comment by jmerridew124 at 08/07/2022 at 17:13 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
They almost had a neat idea with /r/place.
You know. Until they got caught drawing over other art with no cooldown.
Comment by eando9745 at 07/07/2022 at 19:24 UTC
-5 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Totally understand where you're coming from. As one of the artists that participated in this project, I think that how great this is for myself and the other artists could stand to be clarified.
Essentially all of the purchase goes to us, the artists, and allows us to (hopefully) see our work out there in the world. This is less a means for Reddit to profit as it is a means of getting artists' names and work out there in a way that could also support them.
As you've pointed out, this project won't be for everyone but will be for others. I'm happy to be part of this project and to hopefully see my work across the platform.
Comment by UpTheAssNoBabies at 07/07/2022 at 20:35 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
The wealthy can be there to fund the free experience for the rest? But I'm trying hard to find a positive I must admit.