With the twitter and reddit uproar and other rumbling I found this article to be correct and applicable to both twitter and reddit. It's written to site owners but the list helps conceptualize the mistakes some sites make:
first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves.
Tell your investors that you’re in this for the long haul and they need to be too. This was a key part of Jeff Bezos’ success with Amazon...
Your community is everything. This is too easily forgotten, but your users are everything if you run an internet business. They’re not “the product.” They’re what makes your site useful and valuable...
Create more value than you capture. This one is not mine, but Tim O’Reilly’s, and it’s one that constantly sticks with me. As you’re developing a business model, the best way to make sure that you’re serving your users best, and not en****tifying everything, is to constantly make sure that you’re only capturing some of the value you’re creating, and are instead putting much more out into the world, especially for your community....
Empower your community, and then trust them. This may sound similar to rule number two, but it’s more about how you make the first rule a reality. Again, your own community is what’s making your service even more valuable, and helping to attract new users. So, make it easier for them to do that. Push the power to make your service better out from the service to the users themselves and watch what they do. Let them build. Let them improve your service. Let them make it work better for you....
Find ways to make money that don’t undermine the community or the experience...
Never charge for what was once free. This is a corollary to rule number five. If you’re charging for something that was once free, you’re taking away value from your community. You’re changing the nature of the bargain, and ripping away the trust that your community put in you...
Don’t insult the intelligence of your users. All too often, this is what it comes down to. When investors get on your case about how you have to squeeze more money out of each user, bad CEOs start trying to justify the clearly “bad for users” decisions that they’re making as actually being good for the users. Some, like Reddit’s Huffman, are so far gone that he just assumes that Reddit’s userbase wants him to make more money, rather than even trying to couch the borked API plans in some “it’s better for users” language...
https://www.techdirt.com/2023/06/21/seven-rules-for-internet-ceos-to-avoid-en****tification/
(to click on the link copy/paste and replace the asterisks with the 4-letter s-word.first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves.
Tell your investors that you’re in this for the long haul and they need to be too. This was a key part of Jeff Bezos’ success with Amazon...
Your community is everything. This is too easily forgotten, but your users are everything if you run an internet business. They’re not “the product.” They’re what makes your site useful and valuable...
Create more value than you capture. This one is not mine, but Tim O’Reilly’s, and it’s one that constantly sticks with me. As you’re developing a business model, the best way to make sure that you’re serving your users best, and not en****tifying everything, is to constantly make sure that you’re only capturing some of the value you’re creating, and are instead putting much more out into the world, especially for your community....
Empower your community, and then trust them. This may sound similar to rule number two, but it’s more about how you make the first rule a reality. Again, your own community is what’s making your service even more valuable, and helping to attract new users. So, make it easier for them to do that. Push the power to make your service better out from the service to the users themselves and watch what they do. Let them build. Let them improve your service. Let them make it work better for you....
Find ways to make money that don’t undermine the community or the experience...
Never charge for what was once free. This is a corollary to rule number five. If you’re charging for something that was once free, you’re taking away value from your community. You’re changing the nature of the bargain, and ripping away the trust that your community put in you...
Don’t insult the intelligence of your users. All too often, this is what it comes down to. When investors get on your case about how you have to squeeze more money out of each user, bad CEOs start trying to justify the clearly “bad for users” decisions that they’re making as actually being good for the users. Some, like Reddit’s Huffman, are so far gone that he just assumes that Reddit’s userbase wants him to make more money, rather than even trying to couch the borked API plans in some “it’s better for users” language...
