this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2024
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This is one of the more scathing pieces to come out on Ars about Reddit. As the site did not respond to inquiries, all that was available to report on was profoundly negative statements that Advance is unlikely to enjoy seeing.

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[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 156 points 8 months ago (3 children)

The Journal reported that 75,000 of the “most prolific” Redditors will have an opportunity to buy “an as-yet-undetermined number of shares” before trading starts.

Emphasis own. So, basically, they're fishing for buy-in from people still addicted to Reddit. I wouldn't be surprised if the offered price is actually really bad.

[–] Skelectus@suppo.fi 72 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

They saw the wsb ape mentality and hope to leverage it.

[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub 21 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Is this an attempt at locking in users because now they have financial incentive to prop up the platform?

[–] admiralteal@kbin.social 38 points 8 months ago (2 children)

The most charitable read is that it's an attempt to build hype among powerusers by letting them own a piece of it.

In a vacuum, that's actually kind of nice.

A less charitable reading is that they're targeting the users who have flukes and blowholes to try and get even more money from them as part of a media campaign to make it seem like they truly value those users.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

users who have flukes and blowholes

I'd just like to say I love that wording.

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 8 points 8 months ago

They should offer people to buy 10 shares for every collected avatar NFT... 😈

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 16 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

I kind of doubt they expect it to make that much of a difference in whether people stay. Rather, I suspect it's mainly an attempt to make a buck selling overvalued shares, and maybe drive up their stock price a bit in the process. They can also try and spin it as a gift, which they clearly are already.

It's actually a pretty good evil idea.

[–] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 11 points 8 months ago

And their target is specifically people who likely can't think about Reddit, the company, objectively because being on Reddit, the website, is such a large part of their personality.

[–] GrindingGears@lemmy.ca 15 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Fishing for coverage for the people who pump and dump their shares after IPO day. Anyone internal with big holdings is going to just unload at first opportunity. This is their desperate attempt to provide coverage for it.

Hope some of the mods I ran into over the years are amongst the schmucks holding the bag with these shares for their first earnings report. It ain't gonna be good.

Fucking reddit, good riddance. Toxic shit hole needs to die, but now this is a golden opportunity for your grandma and her pension fund to be amongst its victims too.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Hope some of the mods I ran into over the years are amongst the schmucks holding the bag with these shares for their first earnings report. It ain’t gonna be good.

They would be a great target, at least. Big mods aren't driven by enjoyment or compensation, because they get neither. Users are dicks and everyone hates you no matter what. Either they really care about whatever sub, or they're big enough schmucks to do all that purely for imaginary authority and status (like this offer is presented as). Maybe 90% were in the latter category before I left in the exodus.