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I've been among those users creating replacement communities. Mostly about topics that I wanted to speak about, even in Reddit, but prevented myself to do so to not feed that awful company and environment. It feels good - you feel yourself important (I'm not important though), contributing with something. I don't even use mobile, mind you. But I know that a company showing some users its middle finger will eventually show it to me. It did in the past, but sadly it was simply "casual abuse", not a big screwing up pissing multiple users at the same time. And while anecdotal, this highlights for me: 1. The importance to keep a good relationship with your users. Trust is hard to measure through A/B testing; people might tolerate some abuse, but they won't forget about it. And once you do something that might look inconsequential, but breaks that trust a tiny bit further, it's "just enough" to make them leave, or fight back. Perhaps if Reddit hasn't been so abusive towards its users, people would look at the third party apps dying and say "oh well, I'll install the official app". 2. That that trust is also broken if you tell people blatant lies. If Reddit Inc. was actually honest with their intentions ("we want 3rd party apps gone"), or said nothing at all, people wouldn't be as pissed. It shows that the company expects them to be stupid, and not even the stupid like to be treated as such. 3. That some users are more important to keep happy than others. You definitively don't want to piss off the users necessary for your business model. |