Thousands of Reddit forums are going dark Monday in one of the largest user-driven protests ever to hit the social media platform.
The voluntary blackouts, which restrict groups’ content from being publicly visible, affect Reddit’s largest online communities, including popular groups devoted to music, history, sports, and video games. The protests include more than two dozen subreddits with at least 10 million subscribers, as well as thousands of smaller networks.
Monday’s protests reflect widespread outrage over a Reddit plan to charge millions of dollars in fees for some third-party apps to continue accessing the platform. The plan has already forced several of Reddit’s top app-makers to announce they are shutting down because they cannot afford the new costs, which are set to begin as soon as next month.
The confrontation between Reddit’s corporate management and its users and developers marks a turning point for the platform as it reportedly looks to go public later this year. For years, Reddit users could browse posts, write comments and share pictures and video on Reddit from third-party apps.
Reddit further inflamed tensions with some in its developer community by appearing to misrepresent the details of its private conversation with Selig to suggest he had blackmailed the company. Selig, however, recorded his phone call with the company, a fact Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman later acknowledged in a Q&A with users.
Selig’s app is just one casualty of the coming changes. Critics of Reddit say the platform’s steep fees will kill off all third-party competition against Reddit’s proprietary app, which many users have derided as slow, buggy and inferior. They also fear the moves will decimate a volunteer community that relies on third-party tools to do the critical work of moderating Reddit forums — responsibility Reddit delegates to users of the site rather than to its own paid employees or to contractors, unlike some other large social networks.
Reddit’s defenders, including some users, have said it is Reddit’s right to set its own prices for API access, and that it is a business entitled to control how users access the data on the platform it provides. Some users have said they were not even aware it is possible to access Reddit from third-party apps.
“Reddit needs to be a self-sustaining business, and to do that, we can no longer subsidize commercial entities that require large-scale data use,” Huffman wrote in a Q&A with users Friday.
The battle echoes how Twitter, under its new owner Elon Musk, recently announced its own paywall for data in a bid to develop new revenue sources and to shore up the company’s struggling finances. Twitter’s move prompted an outcry from third-party app makers, misinformation researchers and public service account-holders who said the move would harm transparency and accessibility. Twitter has responded to the criticism by adding a new tier to its paid plan, but the move was instantly blasted as too little, too late.
Now Reddit faces a similar revolt, one that may prove even more effective in light of its greater reliance on community members for the site’s basic upkeep.
The stakes of the fight are not limited to Reddit alone. It takes place against the backdrop of a wider debate about who creates the value in social networks, and who gets to reap the rewards. And it reflects years of mounting public skepticism of large technology platforms that became economically dominant through the collection and exploitation of vast troves of other people’s personal information.
For Reddit and its future shareholders, the company’s value derives from the infrastructure the site provides for conversation. Operating that infrastructure, safeguarding what is stored there and charging for access to that proprietary data generates value that Reddit believes it should be able to keep.
For Reddit’s developers and moderators, however, the platform’s value derives not just from the company’s operation of the platform but also in the user-led moderation of the site’s countless forums, as well as the various tools and features that others have created to make Reddit more useable — for example, for the blind and visually impaired. Those solutions may not have been built by Reddit itself, but the company benefited from them in that they helped the site grow and reach wider audiences.
To a degree unlike Instagram or YouTube, Reddit owes its rise to the volunteer work of many of its users who bore the costs of developing features that the company did not see fit to invest in. In that respect, Reddit more closely resembles Wikipedia, the crowd-sourced digital encyclopedia whose volunteer editors are viewed as a vital resource.
Now, though, many users feel betrayed.
“If they’re going to start charging for API calls, [moderators] should start charging reddit for their time keeping the website functioning,” one user wrote. “This site ONLY functions on the backs of free labor from mods.”
Some have vowed to stop using Reddit, and others have suggested they may even scrub their entire account so that the company cannot monetize their historical activity.
“For a large number of Apollos users, it’s existence is the only reason we’re still using the platform,” another user wrote. “I’ve been here 15+ years, but have no intention of sticking around once Apollo goes dark.”
Most job search advice is cookie-cutter. The advice you’re following is almost certainly the same advice other job seekers follow, making you just another candidate following the same script.
In today’s hyper-competitive job market, standing out is critical, a challenge most job seekers struggle with. Instead of relying on generic questions recommended by self-proclaimed career coaches, which often lead to a forgettable interview, ask unique, thought-provoking questions that’ll spark engaging conversations and leave a lasting impression.
Your level of interest in the company and the role.
Contributing to your employer’s success is essential.
You desire a cultural fit.
Here are the top four questions experts recommend candidates ask; hence, they’ve become cliché questions you should avoid asking:
“What are the key responsibilities of this position?”
Most likely, the job description answers this question. Therefore, asking this question indicates you didn’t read the job description. If you require clarification, ask, “How many outbound calls will I be required to make daily?” “What will be my monthly revenue target?”
“What does a typical day look like?”
Although it’s important to understand day-to-day expectations, this question tends to elicit vague responses and rarely leads to a deeper conversation. Don’t focus on what your day will look like; instead, focus on being clear on the results you need to deliver. Nobody I know has ever been fired for not following a “typical day.” However, I know several people who were fired for failing to meet expectations. Before accepting a job offer, ensure you’re capable of meeting the employer’s expectations.
“How would you describe the company culture?”
Asking this question screams, “I read somewhere to ask this question.” There are much better ways to research a company’s culture, such as speaking to current and former employees, reading online reviews and news articles. Furthermore, since your interviewer works for the company, they’re presumably comfortable with the culture. Do you expect your interviewer to give you the brutal truth? “Be careful of Craig; get on his bad side, and he’ll make your life miserable.” “Bob is close to retirement. I give him lots of slack, which the rest of the team needs to pick up.”
Truism: No matter how much due diligence you do, only when you start working for the employer will you experience and, therefore, know their culture firsthand.
“What opportunities are there for professional development?”
When asked this question, I immediately think the candidate cares more about gaining than contributing, a showstopper. Managing your career is your responsibility, not your employer’s.
Cliché questions don’t impress hiring managers, nor will they differentiate you from your competition. To transform your interaction with your interviewer from a Q&A session into a dynamic discussion, ask unique, insightful questions.
Here are my four go-to questions—I have many more—to accomplish this:
“Describe your management style. How will you manage me?”
This question gives your interviewer the opportunity to talk about themselves, which we all love doing. As well, being in sync with my boss is extremely important to me. The management style of who’ll be my boss is a determining factor in whether or not I’ll accept the job.
“What is the one thing I should never do that’ll piss you off and possibly damage our working relationship beyond repair?”
This question also allows me to determine whether I and my to-be boss would be in sync. Sometimes I ask, “What are your pet peeves?”
“When I join the team, what would be the most important contribution you’d want to see from me in the first six months?”
Setting myself up for failure is the last thing I want. As I mentioned, focus on the results you need to produce and timelines. How realistic are the expectations? It’s never about the question; it’s about what you want to know. It’s important to know whether you’ll be able to meet or even exceed your new boss’s expectations.
“If I wanted to sell you on an idea or suggestion, what do you need to know?”
Years ago, a candidate asked me this question. I was impressed he wasn’t looking just to put in time; he was looking for how he could be a contributing employee. Every time I ask this question, it leads to an in-depth discussion.
Other questions I’ve asked:
“What keeps you up at night?”
“If you were to leave this company, who would follow?”
“How do you handle an employee making a mistake?”
“If you were to give a Ted Talk, what topic would you talk about?”
“What are three highly valued skills at [company] that I should master to advance?”
“What are the informal expectations of the role?”
“What is one misconception people have about you [or the company]?”
Your questions reveal a great deal about your motivations, drive to make a meaningful impact on the business, and a chance to morph the questioning into a conversation. Cliché questions don’t lead to meaningful discussions, whereas unique, thought-provoking questions do and, in turn, make you memorable.
Nick Kossovan, a well-seasoned veteran of the corporate landscape, offers “unsweetened” job search advice. You can send Nick your questions to artoffindingwork@gmail.com.
CALGARY – Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. reported a third-quarter profit of $2.27 billion, down from $2.34 billion in the same quarter last year.
The company says the profit amounted to $1.06 per diluted share for the quarter that ended Sept. 30 compared with $1.06 per diluted share a year earlier.
Product sales totalled $10.40 billion, down from $11.76 billion in the same quarter last year.
Daily production for the quarter averaged 1,363,086 barrels of oil equivalent per day, down from 1,393,614 a year ago.
On an adjusted basis, Canadian Natural says it earned 97 cents per diluted share for the quarter, down from an adjusted profit of $1.30 per diluted share in the same quarter last year.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 90 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2024.
CALGARY – Cenovus Energy Inc. reported its third-quarter profit fell compared with a year as its revenue edged lower.
The company says it earned $820 million or 42 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, down from $1.86 billion or 97 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue for the quarter totalled $14.25 billion, down from $14.58 billion in the same quarter last year.
Total upstream production in the quarter amounted to 771,300 barrels of oil equivalent per day, down from 797,000 a year earlier.
Total downstream throughput was 642,900 barrels per day compared with 664,300 in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Cenovus says its funds flow amounted to $1.05 per diluted share in its latest quarter, down from adjusted funds flow of $1.81 per diluted share a year earlier.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2024.
