this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2023
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[–] iamsgod 9 points 1 year ago (3 children)

dunno, but third party usage were never that high IIRC. that's why them targeting third party apps is a weird decision

[–] riodoro1 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It’s not weird at all. The traffic is low so they don’t give a shit and by killing them third party apps they avoid questions from investors about loopholes in their ad feeding platform. Reddit wants to go public now so they have to be big boys, and we all know what it means under ripe capitalism. No mission, only revenue

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

by killing them third party apps they avoid questions from investors about loopholes in their ad feeding platform

No mission, only revenue... and smoke and mirrors? A bait-and-switch to fool investors?
Because if third-party app usage really is that low, and Reddit is losing money regardless, you're describing putting a Band-aid on a hemorrhage and declaring the patient cured.

Are investors really that stupid? Just another meaningless ritualistic sacrifice at the altar of investment capitalism? "Show them that you're doing something. Just do something, make a splash, whatever it is, I don't care. Act like you're REALLY busy. Enough sucker investors won't look into the numbers." And how is this any different from incompetent russian generals invading Ukraine? They look to me like mirror images of each other.

Then again, there's greed, the impulse for total control, biting off more than you can chew then not being able to back down because of pride and arrogance, emotional incompetence, and damn the consequences, both short and long term, the collateral damage. And here the Ukraine analogy is once again wafting across my mind.
EDIT: After all, so many of these corporate assholes - Walmart, Home Depot, Nestlé, and yes, Twitter and Reddit - they DO lean right wing.

[–] alpacapone 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

don't more people use third party apps than the official app?

[–] iamsgod 1 points 1 year ago

i mean, on the context of overall traffic

[–] Naryn 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Apollo has 25m downloads, I can't imagine that the various Android 3rd party apps are any lower than that in total, if not individually.

Officially they make up a small amount of traffic, but amongst power users who both create and comment significantly is much more commonly done through 3rd party apps.

[–] kofe 2 points 1 year ago

I'm guessing they'll continue with bots to cross or repost. I usually checked comment sections for users to point them out, but it seems like they're trying their best to just encourage people to scroll without much engagement now.