Passing semi-obvious thought: it’s not really Reddit leadership the Reddit community needs to scare; it’s investors.
It seems to me that has tactical implications.
1/4
In particular, browbeating the CEO isn’t going to accomplish that much. He doesn’t have to care if people on the Internet are mad at him.
He •does• have to care if his precious IPO goes down the toilet.
2/4
It would be marvelous if one result of the Twitter and Reddit fiascos were online communities acquiring both willingness and organizing capacity to burn online spaces to the ground when they go bad.
Today, if tech execs worry about users, it's losing market share, competitive edge, lock-in. But I don’t think they worry about their users organizing to actively destroy their product in response to their decisions. Imagine if they did.
3/4
We online communities have the power to tell tech companies, “You exist at our pleasure.”
It’s time we figured out how to use it.
4/4
Addendum to the above:
Reddit executives are reading this action as grumpy people chucking little pebbles at their windows.
And if the blackout ends after 2 days with no concessions from Reddit and no further action from the community…that’s all it is.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/13/23759559/reddit-internal-memo-api-pricing-changes-steve-huffman
Redditors need to ask themselves: How far are they willing to go? Because none of this means a damn thing to Reddit execs until they believe it impacts their IPO valuation.
Just re-re-repeating this, lest it get buried:
The question for Reddit communities is, ️“What power do we have to damage the Reddit IPO?”
️
That’s it. That’s the game right there. The IPO valuation.
Not “how do we shame them.” Not even “how do we take a bite of their revenue.” Threaten the IPO. That’s the whole impetus behind the API pricing fiasco. Reddit will listen only when they believe they’re in danger of ending up a damaged property.
I’m fairly sure @davealvarado is being sarcastic, but what he’s getting at is in fact correct:
•Mutually assured destruction• is the strategic structure here. That’s the threat the Reddit community needs to be prepared to make against the Reddit corporation.
Are they? That’s the question.
Because in a mutually assured destruction scenario, •reaching• the point of destruction is failure — but the •credible threat• to follow through on it is a requirement of success.
@inthehands indeed. And importantly, the difference between "the Reddit community wants..." and "the Reddit moderator community wants..." gets highlighted when you start talking MAD.