this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2023
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Technology
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They don't need it to. They just need to have enough clueless investors for the IPO and snazzy graphics to mislead them enough so they aren't looking at what is actually happening that Reddit is actually imploding.
Being a realist, I wouldn't say Reddit will implode from this. A lot of people just come for the memes and don't really give a shit about BaconReader, Apollo, Reddit Is Fun, etc.
What it will do is drive far more people towards Reddit competitors. Lemmy instances in general have seen far more signups lately, and Tildes has exponentially increased in active users.
The part I'm worried about is what happens if Spez does the unthinkable and backs down.
Some of you may remember a Reddit clone called Voat that grew during Ellen Pao's brief tenure as Reddit's CEO. It was once poised to be the Reddit successor but was quickly abandoned due to server issues and Ellen later resigning. Voat nearly died, was resurrected by becoming a bastion for white supremacists when they were driven off of Reddit months later and survived for a few more years...
As for how Voat was near the end of its life, imagine nearly every comment being filled with offensive slurs...
I think it's a little more complicated than this: Reddit needs power users to make its ecosystem work. Mods of course, but also content creators and content, hem, reposters, who keep large communities active and interesting. If a significant enough fraction of these people give up on Reddit, the users who want funny memes will go get them from 9gag or wherever is most convenient for them.