43 sats \ 5 replies \ @kr OP 29 Jan \ parent \ on: Reddit Advised to Target at Least $5 Billion Valuation in IPO tech
i wasn’t around on Reddit back then, what were the first signs of decay in your view?
They were incredibly late to develop their own mobile app (or even a functional mobile web view). The sign of rot to me was when this design came through, but not because it served users better - it was launched as a better interface for serving ad formats and avoiding ad blockers.
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i was surprised by how slowly they rolled that change out… if i recall correctly, for years Reddit allowed people to use either the new version or the old version of the UI.
to me the fact that their team couldn’t internally commit to picking just one design was a signal that the company wasn’t well aligned on a path forward.
I was pretty new to Reddit having joined back in 2014 so I didn’t really notice it at the time. Looking back I would say the first major sign was when interim CEO Ellen Pao fired a very popular employee that was responsible for organizing popular AMA’s. There was a huge community revolt and the CEO stepped down after only 8 months.