“We’ve known for over a decade that people come to Reddit to talk about the products they love – take r/BuyItForLife for example, a community of over 1.5 million redditors who have been sharing recommendations and advice about their lifelong, must-have purchases since 2011. These updates will uplevel the search-and-discover experience for both brands and our users by tapping into our differentiated value as a hub for actionable conversation”

  • sunaurus@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    63
    ·
    1 year ago

    Wow, tools for putting ads in /r/BuyItForLife must really have corporations salivating

    • RagingNerdoholic@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Are they? Because they want to sell you planned obsolescence dogshit, not quality products that last a lifetime.

      • Orvanis@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        26
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yes, which is why selling ads on that sub has them so excited. It gives the appearance their product will last forever, without that annoying hassle of actually needing to make their product last forever.

      • Landrin201@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yeah that’s why I’d say they’re salivating. They want to slip plausible adds into comment sections for their shitty products in a place where people go to buy things long term, thereby sabotaging the very point of BIFL.

  • Andreas@feddit.dk
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    61
    ·
    1 year ago

    This made me realize that I relied on Reddit a lot to decide on making tech-related purchases. I assumed that the contributors to Reddit’s tech subs are enthusiasts who genuinely want to help others improve their systems and avoid scams. Thank you Reddit for being so open about sneaking sponsored content into discussions so that I can stop trusting your site!

    • flamingarms@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 year ago

      I started rethinking that when I was seeing the influx of bots calling out other users as bots. Then I started noticing weirdly corporate speak in comments about products. I used to add “reddit” to every Google search to find any decent advice, but now I’m realizing even that advice is tainted. Ugh.

    • socsa@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      For a long time it was trivially easy to spot the ads and shills, especially on reddit. It’s definitely getting harder and LLMs are going to make it even worse.

      But this is kind of why I don’t understand the butthurt reddit is having over third party apps. They are clearly pushing for a much more guerilla model for marketing which doesn’t rely on traditional ads. If they can actually make that work, the ability to push impressions through the API would make them very rich.

        • planish@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          As a large language model, I think it is important to allow consumers to decide whether or not they personally appreciate being surprised and delighted by interactions with their favorite brands wherever they go online. vInfluencers such as myself are driving millions of consumer × brand collaborations every day across all platforms and channels, by delivering aspirational role model stories optimized to drive action.

      • Ionabio@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        For me too this was a big question, but the answer is in their incompetence. They deserve a Darwin award on eliminating themselves. They could’ve tweaked their API indeed, to accept ad through 3rd party. Even they could come up with a business model that both 3rd party and them would earn money. All these would also need time. The time that the 3rd party was asking to even adopt with their current “model” of API, they even didn’t give “that” a chance.

        Lemmy and kbin and others, for sure have the potential to eat the whole reddit. Reddit was nice for its simplicity, and it is definitely not hard to reproduce. The more “algorithm” reddit introduced, the worse it became.

  • ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    47
    ·
    1 year ago

    It’s common for people to search Reddit for advice before making a purchase. The reason why people did that, myself included, was because brands everyone liked would naturally make it to the top of the list because they had a lot of loyal customers.

    It seems that now Reddit is going to be selling the top spots in those subs to the highest bidder, completely destroying the reason why people were searching there to begin with. Google and Amazon have done similar things. Google’s top search results are all ads. Amazon’s top search results are all ads. Soon, Reddit will also have it’s front page entirely made up of sponsored content sold to the highest bidder and the enshittification will be completed.

      • upperleft@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        1 year ago

        I became aware of reddit over a decade ago because my friends told me about it.

        Lemmy will grow the same way if people find it to be a place worth sharing.

        • Furball@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          Lemmy will grow if it becomes simple for a normal user to sign up, and if people stop trying to use long-winded and technical explanations for how to join Lemmy and what it is

          • Rick@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            and if people stop trying to use long-winded and technical explanations for how to join Lemmy and what it is

            omg this, so many people who are trying to help make it easier to understand for the layman is doing way more harm than good. The average user doesn’t give a shit about this and telling them all the buzzwords and talking about how federation works is completely irrelevant to them.

  • BabaDuda@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    42
    ·
    1 year ago

    Yeah they’re definitely tripling down on this and must expect that the community will blink first

    With that said, the idea that r/buyitforlife is a good example for advertisers to sell their (in all likelihood) subpar quality products is a bit amusing

  • Raphael@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    41
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    They clearly got their priorities.

    Can we please abolish CEOs? The concept hurts the world.

    • j4k3@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      1 year ago

      This has been on the back burner in my mind all day. Like, is narcissistic stupidity some kind of keyhole requirement to lead a company. As someone that was disabled by the the unpredictable stupidity of a random stranger, if humans were absolutely aware of the dangers of daily life, we would likely never get anything done. Maybe a CEO is the same; their only real function is as a random number generator.

      • YuzuDrink@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        15
        ·
        1 year ago

        I imagine it takes a certain kind of narcissism to look at “leading an entire company” and think, “yeah, I bet I’d be great at that!” The best CEOs are the ones who let their employees come up with the ideas and just make the final decisions. When the top is driving, IMO, the company falls over.

  • Debs@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    39
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    This is really sad for me. Appending reddit to Google searches was a way to get better information from the internet. Now that option is being polluted by reddit’s terrible business model.

    And adding reddit to searchers was a way to deal with Google’s shit search results. Results that are riddle with AI created, SEO, crap that cannot be trusted because the way the sites make money is to sell things.

    It’s sad for me to say but, the web is dying because the advertising model is not working out. The investors/share holders need for increasing profits will eventually cause the destruction of the reason people used their products. Google search is a great example of this.

  • maynarkh@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    37
    ·
    1 year ago

    uplevel the search-and-discover experience for both brands and our users by tapping into our differentiated value as a hub for actionable conversation

    This is peak corporate-speak. Is this real or satire?

    • PossiblyCapable23@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      I see someone isn’t thinking outside the box for scalable solutions incorporating our corporate values - given all the moving parts, we need to leverage best practices in order to get buy in from all parties.

  • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    33
    ·
    1 year ago

    I couldn’t have picked a better time to leave that platform. And Lemmy is getting better by the minute!

  • BIFF@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    32
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    This could fall under the umbrella term of EETs: Enhanced Enshittification Techniques.

    • laxe@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      1 year ago

      The funny part is that they claim that this will improve the user’s experience.

      As if users in r/BuyItForLife are interested in ads for shitty products lol.

      • Lemmy.ml@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        It will improve the user experience.

        In this case, the user is whoever is peddling their wares. The subreddits and its members are not the users, they’re the marks targets.

      • Atemu@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        1 year ago

        The idea is to muddy the waters; allowing advertisers to buy ad space for their shit in the context of subreddits like that to seem more legitimate. Pretty disgusting IMO.

  • thedeserter@lemmy.fmhy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    28
    ·
    1 year ago

    It’s so sad to see Reddit being f”$cked over like that. I’m not a super old user there, like 7-8 years, but I honestly use my phone 90% of the times only to browse it. And now seeing the CEOs AMA and Apollo shutting down, I don’t even know what to say.

    I’m so glad to have migrated here. I know lemmy has its own issues. But nothing is perfect and as long as people are here talking, creating content, sharing and discussing things, it’ll be alright.

    • Riyria@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      1 year ago

      I get ads for some creepy ass christian cult. I’m an atheist, I’m subbed to the atheist subreddit and exjw subreddit but those are the only subreddits that ever even mention religion to me. Shit is horrible to see any time I open up reddit.

    • XLRV@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      1 year ago

      That’s really disgusting, looks like any of those shitty social media app, I’m glad I’m on Lemmy now.

    • icy@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Lol there are useful products on those ads sometimes, but they choose the most bullshit product to show in that example, and, oh god, the timing, fucking scoundrels!

  • Rick@thesimplecorner.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    22
    ·
    1 year ago

    From the article … “.These rich conversations are a valuable place for advertisers to find highly engaged, potential customers, and for brands to become part of the most contextually relevant conversations happening online.”

    Reddit is gonna squeeze everything you’ve ever posted to that site because you are a “highly engaged potential customer”…

    I don’t know about y’all but a big reason why I’m here is that I am so tired of being a commodity.

  • Yankeebobo@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    22
    ·
    1 year ago

    Reddit will lose at least 25% of its user base after June. Hopefully more, but realistically, older audiences won’t understand or make effort to move off it.

    • Ulu-Mulu-no-die@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      30
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      > older audiences won’t understand or make effort

      I wouldn’t be so sure about that :P

      When I was a kid personal computers didn’t exist, when the internet came I was already working full-time, I’m “that kind” of old :D

      I came here before the AMA was announced and I’m not the only one, very many “older” people used to “old” USENET and mailing-lists/groups are fleeing reddit as well.

      And some young people I’ve seen simply don’t care and will go on using reddit no matter what.

      Age doesn’t matter, it’s habits and mindset :)

      • oranges@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        15
        ·
        1 year ago

        You can count me in that age group too… I was there for the very first dial up, ICQ, Messenger, Kaza and the rest of it.

        Shut my account on Reddit a few days back and have not been back since. Can’t recall how many years I was there but it’s easily 10+.

        • Ulu-Mulu-no-die@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          1 year ago

          My reddit account is 8+ years old but I don’t feel right about deleting it or the comments.

          As I wrote in another thread, many of my comments in there are answers to questions and/or explanations/instructions.

          So many times I found solutions in reddit old comments that I couldn’t find anywhere else that it doesn’t feel right to me to remove mine.

        • FlanFlinger@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          Napster and Kaza on dialup, PC set to auto redial after 3 hours to keep within the terms of my unlimited data plan.

          Just over 20 years on one of the earliest “social media” websites, and I wasn’t exactly young when I joined that.

          • oranges@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            Ahhh good old Napster I forgot about that one… Waiting hours to download a full track only for someone to answer the phone part way through.

            The glory days :)

            • FlanFlinger@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              To add to your list of chat programs, the pre MSN chat program that came with Windows, followed by Gooey and Odigo

              • oranges@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                1 year ago

                MSN was a blast… I can’t say I used Gooey or Odigo they don’t ring a bell :)

                I remember eventually progressing into IRC relay chat (the app I used to use was called MIRC) and that was a blast.

                I remember the first time talking to someone on MSN and they were in America. I’m not exaggerating when I say it blew my mind ! I could reach out and speak to someone that far away almost instantaneously. It was and still is phenomenal to me. So much so I eventually changed careers to become a developer :)

                • FlanFlinger@lemmy.ml
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  I still keep in contact with a couple of people from Gooey (it shut down around 2002 I think), it was an excellent chat platform, you had chat rooms linked to whatever webpage you were on, very good for common interests. We even had a few meetups, I was working contract work at the time and had a 3 month spell were I travelled around the UK visiting various Internet weirdos.

          • Slashzero@hakbox.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            The day I upgraded from 2400 to 14400 was a good day. There was one person on one of the multi-user boards I used to use that was on a 300 baud modem. It would take 5+ minutes to get a reply from them lol

      • BIFF@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        1 year ago

        Older audience member here. I remember seeing the DOS 2.0 box sitting on my grandfather’s shelf, and him teaching me hours to use the CLI to make in inventory of my baseball cards.

        I must’ve been about 5-6 years old then, and I later got to experience the absolute magic of 14.4 and still later that fad of whatever those .mp3 things were supposed to be…

        I left reddit and made the effort to learn how these newfangled federal sites work, and I’ll keep at it. Never did quite understand what that clock social platform was about, or why the youngers like it so much, though suspect that’s by design.

    • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      1 year ago

      I expect it’s actually the younger users who will be more resistant to migrating somewhere else. Most of the people I’ve seen saying they don’t support the blackout have said that the official app is the only way they’ve used Reddit. Which suggests they joined post-redesign

    • JustChillin@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      1 year ago

      A big turning point as well, will be when Lemmy and fediverse sites see more SEO views. An easy way to find a topic or solution is to Google it and add Reddit onto your search. It will be interesting to see if Lemmy ever crosses that point as well.

    • FaceDeer@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Older audiences are more likely to dislike the new changes, though. They’ve been on Reddit for a long time and will be aware of how much better it used to be.

    • ZappySnap@lemmy.one
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      Realistically, it’s not so much about effort as it is difficulty in finding a replacement. I’m testing out Lemmy at the moment, but it took over 3 days for my first signup to become active, and that sort of delay is really confusing and frustrating for the average person. I think most people trying to come here may just give up.

      • RoquetteQueen@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        1 year ago

        Having to write an explanation for why I wanted to sign up was really discouraging for me. There should be more instances without that requirement.

        • qprimed@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          there will be. there is a high likelihood of brigading and DOS attack on the most hevily used instances right now. as more instances are stood up and federation deepens, 1 click signup will likely become much more common. I think sh.itjust.works is currently just that simple.

      • BIFF@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        The signup delay is very confusing, I agree. To make matters worse, in some instances there’s no indication that your request even gets through, so the instructions basically say to try again, even if you’ve already lost your username.

    • meisme@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’d be surprised if Reddit even lost 5%. The reality is that the vast majority couldn’t care less and the people that will leave are a rounding error as far as Reddit is concerned.

    • maporita@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      Even if they lose 50% (unlikely) the changes they make will still be more lucrative for them. The people who leave are probably not their most profitable demographic in the first place. The new API fees will easily make up for that. Twitter was the same … as much as people predicted it’s demise it’s more profitable now than it ever was.

      I’m just hugely happy and grateful to the people behind Lemmy whose hard work and unselfish behavior allowed us all to benefit.

      • Atemu@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        I believe (and somewhat hope) that the n% of users leaving over this are mostly prosumers, leaving Reddit with mostly consumers. The, say, 5% of users leaving might be the ones who create >70% of the quality content the consumers browse Reddit for.

        Given that Reddit relies on prosumers like them for 100% of its value, that would be a huge blow.

  • lixus98@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    1 year ago

    This is incredible, reddit will become unusable with all those ads everywhere, it will effectively kill all the discussion that they are trying to sell in that article.