Reddit announces Digg-like sponsored headline tests and their users hate it
Most of development lately has been focused on injecting ads and referral links rather than user experience, and users are getting fed up. It will be interesting to see how Reddit handles the negative reaction.
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Reddit's desperation to make money is seemingly clouding their judgement. Just a few short weeks ago Reddit founder and CEO Steve Huffman, during an interview at the The Next Web conference, said "we know your dark secrets, we know everything". It caused a bit of a stir, but life went on. A week or so later, they started injecting referral ads into regular posts. Some cared, others didn't, and again, life went on.
Today they announced a test to inject paid advertisements within their lists. This is a rather peculiar move by Reddit, since this exact thinking on Digg's part (remember them!?) was what caused Reddit's popularity to soar essentially overnight. The initial reaction from the majority of their comments has been extremely negative. Has Reddit forgotten about Digg already? What are your thoughts?
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+12Submitted 8 years ago by 8mm
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+10Submitted 8 years ago by drunkenninja
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Major advice to the Snapzu owners: start buying some servers. :-)
These changes certainly got me to come back and see what's up here
It's like they are trying to see exactly how much they can abuse their user base.
Well it's a business after all, they are walking on thin ice, but I bet their investors are pushing harder than ever.
I'm thinking so. I read the this is what we plan to do,like it or lump it thread last night.. Well, most of it. Reddit has turned into such a drama fest of late. It will be interesting to see if they nose dive like Digg did. I'd not be the least bit surprised if we don't see a huge upswing in members within the next six months,or thereabouts.
Reddit is on a roll! Downhill.
They are indeed.
Couldn't happen to a more deserving website.
The odd thing from my point of view is the more they push ads/sales the more features of the site I disable locallly. At one point reddit was one of the places I allowed advert code to run because it was unobtrusive and I liked the general direction of the site. Now neither are true, so they go back to having everything blocked that isn't neccesary.
I just hope that Snapzu doesn't have a mass immigration from any one subreddit migrating here alone. The best thing about this site is that each user is unique and interesting, we don't need 10,000 robot zombies spewing the same talking points over and over again, while manipulating my front page.
I said it a week or two ago. Reddit will be the next Digg. Next step: obscurity.
I have to agree. But with companies always wanting more and more money and never feeling that they have enough, how will Snapzu escape the same fate?
I don't know, but that is absolutely a huge problem. I don't know what the organizational structure is at Snapzu, but if the founders don't have to bow to shareholders, it's a lot easier. The insane demand from stockholders that a company constantly be growing is shortsighted and unsustainable. I've never understood why people don't see that.