Louis Rossmann is a bit of a provocateur, but what he’s saying in this video is the bare and unvarnished truth. If Reddit cared about its users and its moderators, the CEO’s internal messaging would be less like “this will blow over” and more like “what should we do to meet these people in the middle?”
There is no meeting in the middle when you’re up against institutional investors who have put literally hundreds of millions of dollars on the line to fund your operation. I almost feel bad for Steve, he really has no choice, it’s just a shame to see him falling into line and reciting exactly what the board wants him to say.
And by the way, this is why Beehaw has so much promise. The incentives of the operators and the users are aligned. There is no third party with outsized power waiting for the chance to pull the rip cord and enshittify the whole thing.
Rossman only hit my radar in the past week, but that can be said of a shitton of things at this point. Having no history with his work, I’m currently impressed with the level-headed descriptions of the situation with Reddit he’s been posting.
Beehaw has provided the bridge from “I hope something can be a suitable replacement for Reddit” to “Wait, why the fuck would I want to go back to that?” and has made me realize I need to closely examine more defaults in my life.
Used to be a fan of Louis back on my days of computer repair shop. Nice to see he is still going strong!
But yeah, the writing on the wall is clear, and it’s not just Reddit. Imho, this situation emphasizes the importance of smaller, connected communities rather than massive social media platforms. We came to love massive social networks, but didn’t realize the consequences of getting lost in the crowd and becoming mere data points for profit. Small, connected communities offer a more personal and respectful alternative.
What we have here with the Fediverse is a gold mine. Picture 00’s phpbb forums, but all with access to each other. That just sound like a good time to me. It’s rough around the edges, sure, but it’s our own corner of web.
That’s how I’ve been starting to see this all as well. The seperate, smaller instances remind me a lot of 00’s phpbb forum, but it’s with the UX of Reddit. Lastly the intercompatibility feels comparable to e-mail: It doesn’t matter that I use gmail and you use Outlook, we can still send eachother an e-mail and both servers will talk to eachother without any issue. It’s the some of the best of many worlds and I’m feeling Lemmy and Kbin are here to stay for me.
What’s sad is that the 00s phpbb were a step back from Usenet and BBSs that federated in the 80s.
Louis is great. He’s a big advocate for the end user in all sorts of situations from right to repair, smart/cloud tech, to pretty much any issue where a big business screws over their users. Been watching him for years. I totally agree, keep the blackout ongoing and move away from Reddit. Fuck /u/spez.
