Doesn’t reddit not make money though? Like, if traffic resulted in them making money, I’d agree, but everything I’ve heard would indicate using reddit with an adblocker literally costs them money.
Exclusively using reddit to protest should be fine IMO, just don’t contribute anything that isn’t a protest (including voting)
The argument is that it drives the active users and engagement up which allows them to show off those numbers to investors and it looks great for the upcoming IPO.
IMO though, I do believe that Reddit was losing money from 3pa because they’ve refused to say just how many users were using those apps compared to theirs.
Playing devil’s advocate here - even if you use an ad blocker, Reddit may still benefit if you are contributing to the site with posts, comments, etc. because that helps draw other users in. Even if your traffic costs then money (as it does any site you visit without ads), the net gain might (I don’t know the actual numbers) still be worth it for them. I don’t know how well that math checks out (honestly it probably doesn’t), but that’s why a lot of companies will operate at an extreme loss for the potential to get money in the future (pre-musk Twitter, Uber, etc.)
To be clear I mostly disagree with that reasoning. I think running an ad blocker when you visit reddit and not providing any meaningful contribution (i.e. only protesting) could have an impact if it gains enough continuous traction.
Doesn’t reddit not make money though? Like, if traffic resulted in them making money, I’d agree, but everything I’ve heard would indicate using reddit with an adblocker literally costs them money.
Exclusively using reddit to protest should be fine IMO, just don’t contribute anything that isn’t a protest (including voting)
The argument is that it drives the active users and engagement up which allows them to show off those numbers to investors and it looks great for the upcoming IPO.
IMO though, I do believe that Reddit was losing money from 3pa because they’ve refused to say just how many users were using those apps compared to theirs.
Playing devil’s advocate here - even if you use an ad blocker, Reddit may still benefit if you are contributing to the site with posts, comments, etc. because that helps draw other users in. Even if your traffic costs then money (as it does any site you visit without ads), the net gain might (I don’t know the actual numbers) still be worth it for them. I don’t know how well that math checks out (honestly it probably doesn’t), but that’s why a lot of companies will operate at an extreme loss for the potential to get money in the future (pre-musk Twitter, Uber, etc.)
To be clear I mostly disagree with that reasoning. I think running an ad blocker when you visit reddit and not providing any meaningful contribution (i.e. only protesting) could have an impact if it gains enough continuous traction.