Reddit power users balk at chance to participate in IPO | Hacker News Reader

Reddit power users balk at chance to participate in IPO

cnbc.com

12 pointsbubblehack3r5 comments

As a (former) Reddit power user and moderator, I was among the first invited to participate, but passed. There was a time that Reddit actually planned to give away 10% of its stock to power users[1]. As a power user back then (in 2014), I was happy to keep the site's best interests in mind because it was a two-way street. Most of Reddit's success is attributable to power users like me who built mod tools and third-party apps. In return Reddit helped us build and maintain a cool community, sent us free swag, invited us to dinners, ran the Secret Santa, etc.

They really took a series of wrong turns since then, and today there's a hostility between power users and Reddit inc. They took advantage of the power users that built Reddit into what it is and closed it off - no more stock for you, we're closing off our API, disabling the apps you built, selling your data to Google, etc. Actually, instead of giving you stock, we're giving you the "opportunity" to buy stock from us and give our investors some exit liquidity so they can get rich!

Oh well. At least I have HN where the admin's values feel aligned with my own. If HN didn't exist I would probably be starting my own Reddit competitor.

1. https://techcrunch.com/2014/09/30/reddit-fundraising/

Reddit is a lemon.

"Some invitees say they’re worried about the company’s financial situation. Reddit recorded a net loss of $90.8 million last year, an improvement from 2022, when its deficit came it at $158.6 million. The company said in its prospectus that it’s racked up a cumulative loss of $716.6 million."

Reddit's CEO and COO made $193M and $93M in 2023 but their CFO "only" made $6.6M

So if you eliminate the CEO and COO, they have a profitable business. Given those two have tried to kill the community over and again, why keep them?

I think it's also just a bit too obvious, even for the slower members of the pack, that this is nothing more or less than an attempted exit with a big payday. I suspect that Reddit has no real answer to the problems of how to be ad-friendly with a hostile user-base. I suspect that Reddit is aware it has no profitability in its future, and with the rising number of bots and bad actors dominating the place, it may not even have a future.

Calling it a lemon is right on the nose, and no one is more aware of what a barely-polished turd Reddit has become than its power users.

Exactly, the founders/investors are trying to bleed it dry. Just like We Work, hopefully reddit gets slapped just as hard, they deserve it.

After Reddit threatening to take my own (personal, bloggy) sub from me,[1] the firm gaslighted me with an IPO offer.

Hard pass.

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Notes:

1. <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36434885>

Reply on news.ycombinator.com