86
Reddit's Aggressive User Bans, Superficial Engagement and Monetization at any Cost (znetwork.org)
submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by to c/reddit@lemmy.world
37 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

This article looks at Reddit as a "comment economy." Beneath the rhetoric of community and information sharing, the platform's economic incentives favor conformity, reaction, endless engagement, and compulsive commenting over independent thought, meaningful discourse, and the exchange of knowledge.

Reddit’s revenue ultimately depends upon the creation of, extended attention to and the scrolling through of massive amounts of comments. This produces advertising opportunities, data value, repeat visits and valuable user engagement metrics.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [S] 2 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Yep, what they are doing is crazy. I was actually a member of the "front page" club - meaning I once posted something that received over 3 million views (an article about an ex-prostitute in Vietnam who had dramatically escaped from sex-traffickers and was now running a free program for orphans to keep them away from traffickers, but she was dying of cancer etc., etc.,). I think I helped that lady raise money because commentors were sharing her website and ways to send donations to her.

I received so many views for that article (from a Vietnamese-American website) in TIL that my article was literally on the front page of Reddit and I was entered into the 'front page club' that allowed me to post in the 'front page' subreddit with other front pagers and a few other benefits. And they permanently banned me! A front pager! :P I have no idea why. I am guessing that I posted too many articles and did not make enough comments. Who knows.

I'm convinced that the owners of Reddit really don't know their butts from holes in the ground and I am also convinced that once advertisers realize that people are just scrolling past their ads without looking, Reddit will tank. Let it tank.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

    The good news is that reddit's growth in the US has slowed, while growth globally has climbed. That's good because US traffic is the most valuable, while overseas traffic, is often effectively worthless, like you can't sell anything to a lot of global traffic. This means reddits operating costs are increasing due to that higher overall site usage, while the rates of monetizable English speaking users is going flat.

    I've seen some mention that reddit is embracing non English speaking users to acquire more users and content, but I can tell you as an Internet marketer, this move in general, among all who do it, is like trying to squeeze blood from a turnip, both because they're not valuable to advertisers, and users in places like Japan, Thailand, East Europe have already established usage patterns with LINE, Facebook, WhatsApp, Wykop, etc. The same network effect that keeps people like us stuck to reddit, keeps what little valuable international traffic there is, stuck to whatever they were already using.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] [S] 2 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    The article I posted actually documents how corrupt Reddit is. For example, the two founders faked profiles and postings on a massive scale to make the site seem viable when it first started. It's a site with no integrity and social vison. I think other countries should just do what China did - major American sites are blocked so that Chinese sites can dominate in China. Why should the Japanese or Koreans use American sites? They can create their own and generate wealth for their own economy. Google and Zuckerberg and the rest do not care about Japan or Thailand or China...

    Anyway, thanks for the feedback. The guys who run Reddit are such screw-ups I have no doubt they will destroy the site.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 1 point 2 days ago*

    The article I posted actually documents how corrupt Reddit is. For example, the two founders faked profiles and postings on a massive scale to make the site seem viable when it first started.

    That's pretty standard for an internet startup for that time. That's a "we'll worry about the consequences later" SOP that has only become stronger in the current climate.

    It’s a site with no integrity and social vison

    They still allow some disgusting shit in the name of free speech, on the adult content side of things. As a public company, a lot of that is likely to be done away with in the coming few years.

    Why should the Japanese or Koreans use American sites? They can create their own and generate wealth for their own economy. Google and Zuckerberg and the rest do not care about Japan or Thailand or China…

    No idea, but the nature of reddit makes it hard to monetize. I don't think there's a financial case for all those countries to have their own link aggregation type social media sites.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent