[mpfh]

I get that. All the stupid things that Reddit did along the way, the redesign, the login/app wall, the Pao thing, now requiring login when using ‘old.’, and the lack of the actual community standing up, points to the leadership that it is acceptable to do these things if it means more money for shareholders. So did they torch it if everyone stayed and continued? Hard to say.

Having said that, let’s suppose Reddit did everything right. They would still be overwhelmed by bots. Their inventory of comments and threads would still be copied over to LLMs just like how all the books and movies and music has been copied over. So ultimately this call that occurred where they cite numbers are down would still happen. Not 100% guaranteed of course, but highly likely.

This was flagrant disregard for copyright by all these AI firms, done much around the same time. It was a coordinated move in private, meanwhile the public face they give of being competitors, not speaking to each other, not shaking hands, is pure play. It’s theatrics because it helps them as a group if they’re seen to be enemies.