What’s with social media companies trying to destroy themselves recently? ( kbin.social )

It’s honestly really sad what’s been happening recently. Reddit with the API pricing on 3rd party apps, Discord with the new username change, Twitter with the rate limits, and Twitch with their new advertising rules (although that has been reverted because of backlash). Why does it seem like every company is collectively on a common mission of destroying themselves in the past few months?

I know the common answer is something around the lines of “because companies only care about making money”, but I still don’t get why it seems like all these social media companies have suddenly agreed to screw themselves during pretty much the period of March-June. One that sticks out to me especially is Reddit CEO, Huffman’s comment (u/spez), “We’ll continue to be profit-driven until profits arrive”. Like reading this literally pisses me off on so many levels. I wouldn’t even have to understand the context behind his comment to say, “I am DONE with you, and I am leaving your site”.

Why is it like this? Does everyone feel the same way? I’m not sure if it’s just me but everything seems to be going downhill these days. I really do hope there is a solution out of this mess.

Edwardo_Elric ,

It's called enshittification of platforms. The article is not about Reddit, but applies just as well.

IntendantTradwife ,

Simultanous enshittification. If they see that the competitors are enshittifying, then it's the perfect opportunity to enshittify themselves without the risk of losing significant market share to the competitors! Every gets worse; no one loses except the users, and who gives a shit about those poors? /s

chamim ,
@chamim@kbin.social avatar

Both Twitter and Reddit have failed to become profitable. And Twitter's in a far worse position right now than Reddit, because of its massive debt and lack of employees to fix or moderate issues. And since Reddit, who never had to pay for moderation, could not become profitable, it had to make some drastic changes toward that goal. Even if that dissatisfies users.

I was on Reddit for almost 10 years when I deleted my account. And while the platform will survive, it's difficult to say the same about Twitter. Not only was it a far worse experience to be on the platform after Musk acquired it, but now it's almost impossible to use it. People paying for the subscription have fewer issues, but I doubt that's going to drive up subscriptions, as Musk most probably expects.

ozmanthus ,

It’s advertising revenue collapsing and people realizing you can’t just run things for free. I am fine with not having these things if it means I get digital privacy

vtez44 ,

Most of them aren't profitable, especially twitter and reddit. YouTube is also doing it now, they're going after adblocks. They even threatened invidious recently.

But tbh discord change is for good. It's easier to invite someone, especially if they have special chars in nickname.

DooshDoosh ,

It seems as if there is a bubble about to pop tbh. Along with twitter/reddit, it seems that even youtube is desperately trying to squeeze profit from a dried lemon by testing to see if users will stop using adblockers.

Phanatik ,

I don't think Discord's username change is on the same level as what Twitter and Reddit have done. It's annoying for sure but it's not as harmful. It's not like the username change prevents you from using it.

fearout ,
@fearout@kbin.social avatar

Yeah, I missed out on that outrage. What are people disliking so much about that?

I remember seeing that pop up, realizing that all this time I just had some generic username with my name and numbers, and changing it to my usual username. Were there some negative consequences to the service in general?

Phanatik ,

I personally haven't seen anything negative apart from the same issue people would have on other platforms and that's running into the issue that the name you want has been taken and you have to keep changing it until you get the one you want.

Duskfox OP ,
@Duskfox@kbin.social avatar

Yea ik that, I still wanted to mention it though to get my point across that companies are simply deteriorating the user experiences of their own platforms. Even as a Discord user myself, it doesn't bother me that much but my point stands.

Phanatik ,

I guess my contention is what you mean by the username change deteriorating the user experience. How does it do that? It's the name you log in with and the default nickname you have until you change it for each server. I'm missing the part where the username change makes the discord experience worse.

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