Dave, knowing you left Twitter this past year, I’d imagine you’ll likely decrease your Reddit activity as well. What website/apps have you been using to fill the void of dialogue surrounding current events and niche interests?
I keep holding out hope that Post.news will hang in there and keep growing and evolving in a positive way, because thus far the leaders there (Noam Bardin and others) have exercised care and caution, and solicited a lot of advice and opinions from both creators and readers (or “content consumers” though I hate that phrasing). I also wonder if the micro-payments model that Post uses will ever work...it’s been tried before but has never solidified into a long-term success. I haven’t gotten on Bluesky yet, but of course I’m more skeptical of Jack than ever after his embrace of RFK Jr. Ugh. Thanks for your thoughts, Dave...you always keep my own mind active and engaged.
Nice article. This was very helpful to me—not being a regular Reddit user. BTW: I too have been thinking about Doctorow's enshittification model lately but you're more optimistic that it spells doom for these platforms. Maybe eventually? Still waiting on that fate for Facebook (which I left in 2019) and Twitter (2022). Too many stick around. Don't know how you get to a tipping point.
I think it's actually a really great working model, but it's unclear if such a model:
-would allow companies to reach the kind of scale they have in the past (which are primarily driven by free content, lots of ads)
-would work for sites that have previously been free. I think the toothpaste is already out of the tube for sites like Reddit and Twitter.
But one great example of a paid social media network (with a free component) is LinkedIn. It's not my favorite website to visit but it seems to largely work for what they're trying to accomplish!
The issue here I think is that Reddit is not currently profitable, so they're doing whatever they can to change that. Don't get me wrong, I don't think their approach is right, and alienating your own community is always a bad idea (see: Digg). But it also seems unrealistic to expect a platform to exist forever in service to its community without being able to financially sustain itself. At some point, the money will run out.
I think platforms like Reddit establish an unspoken contract with their community: you provide the content, and we'll take care of the rest. The problem is that it's never clear what "taking care of the rest" actually means, and when it turns out that involves showing more ads or turning off third-party API access, users feel betrayed.
Dave, knowing you left Twitter this past year, I’d imagine you’ll likely decrease your Reddit activity as well. What website/apps have you been using to fill the void of dialogue surrounding current events and niche interests?
Great article Dave- and thanks for teaching me a new word.
I keep holding out hope that Post.news will hang in there and keep growing and evolving in a positive way, because thus far the leaders there (Noam Bardin and others) have exercised care and caution, and solicited a lot of advice and opinions from both creators and readers (or “content consumers” though I hate that phrasing). I also wonder if the micro-payments model that Post uses will ever work...it’s been tried before but has never solidified into a long-term success. I haven’t gotten on Bluesky yet, but of course I’m more skeptical of Jack than ever after his embrace of RFK Jr. Ugh. Thanks for your thoughts, Dave...you always keep my own mind active and engaged.
I love seeing consequence in action - especially these days.
Nice article. This was very helpful to me—not being a regular Reddit user. BTW: I too have been thinking about Doctorow's enshittification model lately but you're more optimistic that it spells doom for these platforms. Maybe eventually? Still waiting on that fate for Facebook (which I left in 2019) and Twitter (2022). Too many stick around. Don't know how you get to a tipping point.
How might social media positively or negatively change if we had to pay a subscription fee to participate?
I think it's actually a really great working model, but it's unclear if such a model:
-would allow companies to reach the kind of scale they have in the past (which are primarily driven by free content, lots of ads)
-would work for sites that have previously been free. I think the toothpaste is already out of the tube for sites like Reddit and Twitter.
But one great example of a paid social media network (with a free component) is LinkedIn. It's not my favorite website to visit but it seems to largely work for what they're trying to accomplish!
I don't have a real job so I've never been on linked-in but my friends speak of it such pedestrian terms that it must work well!
The issue here I think is that Reddit is not currently profitable, so they're doing whatever they can to change that. Don't get me wrong, I don't think their approach is right, and alienating your own community is always a bad idea (see: Digg). But it also seems unrealistic to expect a platform to exist forever in service to its community without being able to financially sustain itself. At some point, the money will run out.
I think platforms like Reddit establish an unspoken contract with their community: you provide the content, and we'll take care of the rest. The problem is that it's never clear what "taking care of the rest" actually means, and when it turns out that involves showing more ads or turning off third-party API access, users feel betrayed.
Quite!
That’s interesting - I persist with Twitter - the one thing it has helped me with is finding great freelancers when I’m on a project.