Technology

The question is about the short run on sites like this, which will lead to medium run problems over on Reddit.

We have already seen many mods and power users leave Reddit for federated alternatives. They're bringing their content with them. That in itself does not upset Reddit, because the initial number of users is relatively low.

But losing the content effects Reddit because it becomes less interesting to browse. As you realize that the site is just going to be worse than it was last week, you lose motivation to log in. That happens on a content level, but it's also going to happen on an advertising level. One of the goals of cutting off the API is to get rid of third-party clients, many of which didn't show advertising. The Reddit admins have said they want to make more money which means they're going to introduce more and more advertisements. And it's just anecdotal, but the increase in ads over on Instagram in the past 2 years means I don't look at it much anymore because it's just a waste of my time. That's where Reddit's going very soon.

Of course users are willing to deal with some advertisement if the high quality content is available and especially if the high quality content isn't available anywhere else. Unfortunately for Reddit, and fortunately for all of us, that's not true anymore.

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