This is one of the more scathing pieces to come out on Ars about Reddit. As the site did not respond to inquiries, all that was available to report on was profoundly negative statements that Advance is unlikely to enjoy seeing.

  • henfredemars@infosec.pub
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    8 months ago

    Is this an attempt at locking in users because now they have financial incentive to prop up the platform?

    • admiralteal@kbin.social
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      8 months ago

      The most charitable read is that it’s an attempt to build hype among powerusers by letting them own a piece of it.

      In a vacuum, that’s actually kind of nice.

      A less charitable reading is that they’re targeting the users who have flukes and blowholes to try and get even more money from them as part of a media campaign to make it seem like they truly value those users.

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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      8 months ago

      I kind of doubt they expect it to make that much of a difference in whether people stay. Rather, I suspect it’s mainly an attempt to make a buck selling overvalued shares, and maybe drive up their stock price a bit in the process. They can also try and spin it as a gift, which they clearly are already.

      It’s actually a pretty good evil idea.

      • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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        8 months ago

        And their target is specifically people who likely can’t think about Reddit, the company, objectively because being on Reddit, the website, is such a large part of their personality.