So, today Reddit API changes are officially implemented and 3rd party is dead.
Coincidentally, Twitter has implemented a read limit on non verified accounts.
And remember all through 2022 any article written about META was about how much money they spent and failed building a venture into Web3?
Ever since the takeover of the bird by Elon, the hair on the back of my neck rose up. I was taken back to the days of the old DD that spoke of total social media shutdown before MOASS. Back then, anytime Reddit servers burped you could rush to Gagnam Style on YouTube and see fresh comments screaming moass. Later WuTang C.R.E.A.M.
Point is, a picture was painted of immediate, total blackout. This isn't the case. Same with the process of MOASS altogether. It's slow. It's been happening, in fact, per continuous DD, we are in it right now. The argument can be made that it was begun as far back as 2020 with our favourite Not-A-Cat.
After Elon bought the bird, the walls between us all began to rise. Previously organic spread and engagement was penned into tiny echo chambers. And his continued promotion of DOGE, seems now like little more than a "Point and laugh at the clown" charade. What better way to discredit Web3 and drill the seed of "Fake silly money" than by having the worlds richest man touting the world's OG meme coin.
At the same time, META was being absolutely thrashed publicly over its venture into Web3 and the metaverse. And throughout 2022 the META ticker saw insane sell/short pressure to add impact to narrative. Now, I'm NO advocate for Meta and Zucc, but they are a massively influential platform with the potential to "Normalize" metaverses and NFTs and onboard millions of people globally. I believe this was a massive threat to those short GME and a way to tack on GameStops own venture into the NFT marketplace and have it dismissed by association.
Before the end of 2022 the rhetoric around NFT, and Crypto was now fully within the public sphere. And only fearful, or mocking mentions remained. CoughFTX
The only thing left was to stop the lightning rod of self and community education around the movements of TradFi institutions. Too many people were watching and learning and reporting. Social media has allowed us to communicate ideas and information, and for that information to spread rapidly. It gets broken down to understandable and transferrable slices even for the most lay minded of us.
There is no bone in my body that could believe that nearly all the biggest social platforms to ever exist would downturn so sharply, all within 18 months of each other, and all post sneeze.
They all shared a common thread: The masses were learning about Web3 and the ability to own your own digital identity, assets, and money. We were learning that we didn't need the middleman.
As soon as the Web3 hate wave simmered and the chatter waned a bit, BlackRock and Fidelity start fresh BTC ETFs and begin to buy up large amounts.
And here we are. At the precipice of it all. On a federated Chat board. Still buying. Still DRSing.
Can't Stop. Won't Stop.
Edit:Add-on
It's when you look at the business model of these companies that the point really sticks.
Users>Engagement>advertisement
Harvest data>Algo crunch>more engagment>More advertisement
They don't just want more engagment, they NEED engagement. It's their entire operation. These companies have spent BILLIONS developing and studying every possible way to keep you engaged. They need more users, spending more time, providing more data points, for deeper engagement, for more advertising.
Advertisers are the client, YOU are the product. They NEED product.
So why such insane moves to ACTIVELY drive product away? It's inherently opposite of their core models.
Now they seem to want less reach, they want a smaller pool, and tighter narrative moderation.
I believe for Reddit in particular, the moderators were the true targets. They will be replaced with new people willing to steer content their way. And if they lose users, there's that much less moderation that needs to be done.
In a cost>risk>reward equation, what can possibly be considered the lesser risk against losing a substantial crop of users?
I have considered something similar. I don't think it's conscious coordination. Because Musk tried to back out if buying the Bird and was blocked from doing so. And Reddit isn't losing all its users, just those who use better apps to engage with it.
I think your suspicion about the mods is closer to the target, but it's severe self-sabotage to wholesale remove/replace the people who make your site usable at no financial cost to the company.
More like, when the system encounters things beyond its control or understanding, its survival needs usually coincide with profit motive. Social media platforms with general pseudo-anonymity and broad public reach are a threat to the system, as evidenced by Superstonk, etc. As the economy turns and easy money is not so easy anymore, their profits dry up and now these companies have to slaughter the cow that gave milk if they want to survive. The incidental benefit is that our platform, that enabled communities to form spontaneously, now can destroy those communities and still make money (at least for a while). And if it's gone out of business, the system doesn't care. The system doesn't care about spez or Reddit or Twitter or even Musk.