I was actually somewhat ok with going back to certain Reddit communities (although NOT just mindless scrolling) after the blackout. There’s a lot of communities where (I thought) there’s literally no alternatives.
Then came his latest wave of interviews attacking people that did their jobs for them (mods, Devs making a usable mobile app) and making insane hypocritical statements about “democracy” (everyone would gladly kick you out given the chance) and “landed gentry” (dude, if the mods are the out of touch landed gentry, that would make you the out of touch king, right?)
Why is he still giving interviews? Not like I even care about the company but seriously what good can he possibly do at this point, every day thousands more people leave for good.
Anyway, I seriously don’t think I can use Reddit with a clear conscience, at all, anymore, at least for now. Every time I interact with the site (even with adblock) I can’t help but think the entire time I am helping this millionaire megalomaniac’s company keep continuing on.
I guess there’s always the chance the board is letting him self destruct to offer him as the sacrificial lamb.
I honestly don’t know if this will last in terms of me not using reddit at all, but every day this idiot opens his mouth is another day I’m not using reddit and another day I’m searching for and interacting with alternatives.
There is a lot of doublespeak going on, if you pay attention. He keeps referring to 3rd party apps as “competitors” where they really are alternate paths to interact with the platform and provide the content he relies on to sell ads over. He keeps referring to the protesting mods as “not wanting to moderate” when really they are trying to make known how much they rely on third-party tools and how difficult he is making their volunteer job.
It’s like he’s forgotten why they started the site in the first place. I wonder what Aaron would have thought of all this?
Even if he hasn’t forgotten why they started reddit initially, the priority now is clearly to find out how much money they can squeeze out of our freely provided content, while guilting the volunteer moderators into keeping the site usable.
Spez started the site to make money. This was always true - a completely typical reason to start a company. When there was no community in the early days - he made fake accounts, and fake conversations to generate traffic to attract attention. So Spez is someone that’s always used dishonesty to get what he wants.
Aaron joined the site because he saw it’s potential as a tool for civic engagement and political awareness. He left when he saw what Reddit was becoming… or really - what it always had been: a tool to extract wealth from its unknowing volunteers.
Aaron and Spez weren’t friends. They were business partners for a very short period of time. To the best of my knowledge, that’s all there is to it.
I speculate that Aaron would feel unfazed by what Reddit looks like today… because it’s expected. The founders are people that make the Forbes 30 Under 30, marry world famous pro athletes, and are worth tens of millions of dollars. They’re divorced from reality.
I would hope that open and decentralized online spaces like Lemmy reflect the sort of values & ideas Aaron spent his life advocating for.