The bad, although expected news is that according to Similarweb via Gizmodo Reddit traffic is back to pre-protest levels. The caveat is that some of the traffic might still indicate protests, (i.e. John Oliver pics). Most interesting:
However, Similarweb told Gizmodo traffic to the ads.reddit.com portal, where advertisers can buy ads and measure their impact, has dipped. Before the first blackout began, the ads site averaged about 14,900 visits per day. Beginning on June 13, though, the ads site averaged about 11,800 visits per day, a 20% decrease.
For June 20 and 21, the most recent days for which Similarweb has estimates, the ads site got in the range of 7,500 to 9,000 visits, Carr explained, meaning that ad-buying traffic has continued to drop.>>>
So is the traffic useful traffic, or is it people lurking on 3rd party apps while those work, commenting about alternatives and popping over to crosspost Reddit’s stuff?
This notes a chunk of the increase is the protest posts. What does interaction look like when you take away those and all the bots? Did they make a few more to make up the loss of several hundred thousands of their most invested users? Because bots can’t click ads.
I know nobody new is going to join reddit after seeing the headlines and, having joined, the progressively shitty atmosphere makes them less likely to stay
Posts are posts, clicks are clicks, all grist for the mill. From the article:
“traffic is up in subreddits expressing their discontent with photos of Oliver. Traffic to r/pics, for example, is up 564% compared with last month, while traffic to r/Aww is up 152%”
The question now becomes, what does traffic look like once everyone is burned out on Johnny O?
Dunno, but doubt users currently posting & clicking maymays of the now will get bored & come up with a new forms of ‘protest’ (which, you guessed it, will also involve posting, scrooling & clicking on reddit).
There’s probably some number of those users that 'll stop posting in a week when their apps stop working. I can only speak for me, but I probably won’t be bored of Mr. Oliver yet will definitely stop contributing to traffic.
Don’t you need a paid version of Apollo to create threads (honestly don’t know, never used it)? Users of 3rd party apps don’t see reddit’s ads (neither do i, old.reddit & adblocker), so aren’t high value users for reddit. Will see how this plays out, here’s hoping this place keeps growing.
But they are. That is, in fact, the whole point around the API issue. These are high value, but un-monetized users, and Reddit wants to monetize them.
I’m on Android using Sync, so I’m afraid I have no idea.
I’m going to have to disagree with that point. I don’t see ads, but I have disposable income and am willing to pay for a good experience. Unfortunately, reddit’s official app is miserable to use, and if I’m dealing with a buggy experience, I’d rather be here.
That’s the thing. Spez doesn’t give a shit what people post. He cares that people are interesting and ultimately being served ads.
Leaving is the only protest that the reddit overlords will care about.
It seems like the exact breakdown isn’t known but certainly without the protest traffic the traffic would be down by a significant chunk still.