It looks like my timing for jumping ship was impeccable. Given that I originally arrived to Reddit just ahead of the Great Digg Exodus, I'm two for two. Whoo!

However, Reddit executives have noticed that traffic coming from Google has limited value, as users seeking answers to a specific question often don't convert into becoming active Redditors, the people said. Now, Reddit is engaging with product teams at Google in hopes of finding ways to send more of its users deeper into its ecosystem of community forums, according to the executives.

What does this even mean (I'm afraid to know their suggestions)? So I check reddit for an answer if web search is failing me, and they're going to somehow trap me there? Tease an answer and not show anything until I sign in? Idk but sounds like I'll be using "-site:reddit.com" more and more, or realizing I dont care enough to get the answer!

When the APIcalypse happened and spez was whining about how much data everyone was taking from reddit, and when everyone was suffixing their search terms with "reddit", I Said I honestly didn't understand why Google just didn't buy reddit. spez has no vision for the company and is constantly distracted by the latest shiny - NFTs, crypto, AI. And Google needs that data, both for their search results and their AI effort. And I still don't understand why that hasn't happened, but I guess this is a step in that direction.

Oh boy, do 4chan next.

I don't understand the basic mental model people deeply invested in trying to profit off Reddit have about this, if they think Reddit comments are valuable enough to make Google bargain with them doesn't that mean they acknowledge that it is the users not the company that creates the value? Do the current owners seriously think that a totally adhoc system of unpaid subreddit moderators moderating communities of content solely provided by users who are NOT employees, communities which sprung up around different topics organically from the contributions of users who are NOT employees can be misconstrued as somehow a product of value created and maintained by the current management of Reddit?

Reddit is valuable because of the things said on it, not because Reddit is a particularly well designed business, nor even a remotely sustainable one longterm at least in terms of the immense magnitudes of profits that larger investors demand.

I suppose Discord killed off so many independent, open niche communities that Reddit thinks they can really get away with it, but the problem for Reddit is that the best parts of Reddit don't need a corporation to muddle with them, introducing a corporation just makes it worse in every way...