That’s the most bizarre thing to me. Without knowing Reddit’s financials, it seemed like everyone could have their cake and eat it too. We could get a UX catered to how we choose to interact with Reddit and Reddit could make money hand over fist. We all knew the totally free experience wouldn’t last. Reddit very easily could have been like “ok guys, party’s over. We need to force ads on 3rd party apps”. We’d bitch about it, but it’d ultimately be fine. This scorched earth approach to how they handled it is just so out of left field.
That’s the most bizarre thing to me. Without knowing Reddit’s financials, it seemed like everyone could have their cake and eat it too. We could get a UX catered to how we choose to interact with Reddit and Reddit could make money hand over fist. We all knew the totally free experience wouldn’t last. Reddit very easily could have been like “ok guys, party’s over. We need to force ads on 3rd party apps”. We’d bitch about it, but it’d ultimately be fine. This scorched earth approach to how they handled it is just so out of left field.