this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2023
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I wonder if the comments about no significant revenue drop still holds true today. I was quite surprised to see that there doesn't seem to be too big a drop in posts & comments (~1k) aside from the crash yesterday. https://blackout.photon-reddit.com/
I think that's kind of proof-positive for just how much content on Reddit is now controlled and pushed by Reddit itself in some way. If 75-80% of the subs where content gets hosted are not adding content, but there hasn't been a meaningful dip in content, it's because Reddit is the one controlling the content.
It's also part of why this API change is so important for them. Have you ever wondered why certain links/stories/things get posted to like 20+ subreddits seemingly all at once? Or no matter how many times you refresh, or which sub you visit it's the same 3-5 links at the top? It's because Reddit is being paid to push people to those links. They are getting click share revenue each time someone follows that link from their service. It's not banner ads they're worried about, it's the links themselves. That's a MASSIVE amount of revenue they're not getting because if you click it from outside their environment, they get zero money. You can't ad block the content itself, but make no mistake it is an ad.
I really want to see what these numbers look like on the 1st after all the 3rd party clients are dead. Presumably that will also kill most of the bots as well. I suspect the numbers don't look worse because a significant chunk of the post and comment traffic is automated which will stop working at the end of the month.