> oh cool so the contributors of the data are all getting paid?
If people on reddit wanted to get paid for their opinions, they wouldn't be posting them for free on a publicly accessible forum that does not even require an account to view...
This same sentiment came up when StackExchange started to use/sell StackOverflow posts for AI training too - yet everyone arguing that position failed to recognize StackExchange has been making money off their free contributions since day one. Like, how else would StackExchange even exist? They can sell job postings now because of all the free contributions and community built up over the past decade - same with Reddit...
> If people on reddit wanted to get paid for their opinions, they wouldn't be posting them for free on a publicly accessible forum that does not even require an account to view...
People post on the internet 'for free' with the expectation that they're discussing ideas which have their own value, not providing training data. Yeah yeah ToS blah blah blah, but the goodwill that sites have built – even ones like HN – is on the premise that we're participating in the marketplace of ideas, not enriching shareholders.
This will ultimately be bad for the open internet.
I was enriching them by agreeing to view ads – not granting unlimited and perpetual use of my intellectual labor. One is a fair exchange of value, the other is highly exploitative.
Reddit sells ads first-party. They have their own Advertising Account Team, Advertising Platform and more.
The only reason Reddit is interesting to advertisers is the community. You can select specific subs to advertise to, interest groups, demographics, etc. You can get "laser" focused on who you advertise to, and offer compelling adverts to people highly likely to engage with your products/brands and convert into sales.
The only reason this works is because people like you have built those communities on Reddit by contributing your thoughts, opinions, experiences, expertise, time and more for free.
I'm fine with that. That's a fair exchange of value.
I'm not fine with them using that intellectual labor for any purpose whatsoever, indefinitely, forever. The only way to win at this point will be not to play; the downstream consequences will be the death of the open internet.
Part of what makes hackernews worth participating in is that the owners are not profit-maximizing and trying to extract the maximum possible value from the site.
It's a trade: y-combinator, by cultivating a group of talented technical contributors, gets to advertise hiring posts for free and, in some ways, autistically contributes to the community.
In exchange, we all get a place for thoughtful discussion with reasonably fair moderation.
It's a fair trade for those involved and closer to a non-profit model than Reddit which is clearly trying to extract as much value as possible from the content creators on their platform in exchange for giving them community/platform.
> Part of what makes hackernews worth participating in is that the owners are not profit-maximizing and trying to extract the maximum possible value from the site.
How do you know? Just because there is no ads doesn't mean they don't have any benefits from keeping HN thriving.
Also for me I like HN because of the content, not because I care about YC's motive. You are obviously different.
All platforms are moving to monetize content contributors. It’s worked amazing for YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch. X is trying it slowly.
Reddit could potentially do this but I don’t think they have a solid business model to support it yet. They are scrambling for money streams, not content. Although high end supported content drives ad views so who knows.
