This is a fascinating way to follow the Reddit Dark Campaign

[Dellaster]

A future University textbook case of how not to do it.

[Marty]

@jhoff80

The majority of the fuss could have been avoided a thousand different ways if they communicated better.

People keep saying this, but I don’t see how simply “communicating better” a shi**y policy would have changed anything. Dressing it up in corporate speak would not take the sting out of the API fees, and thus the same result of 3rd party apps being forced out.

[jhoff80]

I mean, I still think people wouldn’t have liked the policy and may have protested for a couple days, but I don’t think it’d have had the longer tail it’s having now if they weren’t giving the awful statements like they’ve been doing. I’d be annoyed either way having had to stop using Sync on my phone, but it’s all the garbage coming from the CEO that makes me not want to go back again.

But then on a technical sense, there’s also other solutions they probably also could have incorporated to find a decent compromise… like requiring someone to have Reddit Premium to use a third-party app, working with developers to put the ads in the API, etc.

[Marty]

@jhoff80

there’s also other solutions they probably also could have incorporated to find a decent compromise… like requiring someone to have Reddit Premium to use a third-party app, working with developers to put the ads in the API, etc.

Ok now we’re talking, but this is compromise and negotiation—which what I think the end goal was regardless of the antics on display by Hoffman.

Better PR might have softened the initial reaction, but seeing as Reddit is committed to a stand-off, we’d still be where we are right now.