Reddit is going to have their IPO. Anybody can buy shares. With enough shares, a shareholder resolution could be proposed and passed. Similar shareholder activism has forced Fortune 500 companies to divest from fossil fuels. We could replace corporate execs at will and have major site changes be put to a site-wide vote. This is something that could stop eshitification dead in its tracks. What’s more, the improved user experience would make Reddit the #1 place for social media period, which means more user engagement, which means more ability to sell ads and keep the platform afloat.
Federation is great, and there should be many Lemmy instances, but it does not solve problems of funding and management. We need user-managed, user-owned platforms, or they will all suffer the same fates.
What am I missing here?
It’s going to be bought anyways by speculative investors. The only difference is who buys it. The market has an as-of-yet-unknown price it will buy those shares at. Even in the scenario you describe where demand from redditors drives up the price, if the end goal is achieved of having a user-owned platform, I’d still consider it a win.
No, the difference is how happy spez and the investors are with his decisions. If his decisions cause the share price to rise, then obviously (in their view), he’d be right.