Reddit CEO Defends His Absurdly High Pay While Not Paying Mods

Fuck spez

I genuinely don't understand how we, as a society, reached a point where delusional businessmen like this exist. What can he possible do, to justify earning this much money, while his company is literally failing in real time

The best thing about his deeply fuckheaded comments is that it's a perfect example of the sick way the ultra wealthy operate, presented in a way reddit users can absolutely understand.

The act of building early reddit was a group effort. I have no idea how much Spez contributed to the concept, but he did code it -- a task that realistically millions of people also would have been able to do.

But a platform without users is nothing. It was the users creating content that truly built reddit and the unpaid moderators who stopped it collapsing under the weight of spam and extremism.

While that was happening, spez shit the bed over and over again. He sold out too early. He openly advocated platforming extremists. He got called out for the bigotry he tolerated in his company. He alienated his most important users so he could sell their content to AI companies.

And now here we are. He makes an absurd amount of money, despite being shit at his job, despite being a clearly bad person and despite his accomplishments being ordinary. Meanwhile, the people he needs, who are critical to his business, are paid nothing.

This is the same setup as Amazon, Walmart, Uber and a million other businesses, distilled down to its very essence.

The mods who stayed after the API desaster are lost.

Did anyone catch this at the top of the article:

I think he's the real reason the punchablefaces subreddit got neutered, because he's sure got one.

Don't worry, friends. As a mod of Ten Forward, Star Trek and Lemmy Shitpost, I would never expect a salary.

I do accept bribes.

In 2017, there were 74,260 moderators of active subreddits on the site.. We can only assume that number has gone up over time.

If they were to pay each of those moderators $50 a week, or $2600 a year (which is probably generous for the kind of work they've already been doing for free), it would almost exactly match the amount of Spez's pay package ($193 mil). And they actually keep the site RUNNING. Spez is literally just a leech.

During a recent Q&A video, Huffman argued that he was totally justified in paying himself more than the CEOs of Meta, Pinterest and Snap combined.

"If the company does well, I will do well," he said. "If the company does not do well, I don’t either."

Motherfucker is saying NOTHING. Generic ass, MEANINGLESS STATEMENT

He gifted himself a ludicrous $193 million compensation package.

Reddit, a 20-year-old company, has yet to turn a profit. In 2023, the platform lost a whopping $90.8 million.

Can someone explain to me how reddit can make a loss, while he pays himself MORE than the loss? Does that not mean that reddit would have made a 113 Million profit before his $193 million compensation package? What kind of business-algebra-gymnastics is at work here?

At the end of the day, the reddit mods had all the opportunities to once again, protest their working conditions and leave reddit today. But I see no evidence that an organized effort took place.

It's unfair, and spez isn't thinking any further than the moment he can sell his comp and move on. But they have all the stakes in this matter and nothing is happening. I know there are efforts on reddit's part to squelch the moderators, but at some point they have to make clear this isn't going to work the way it is.

The CEO of the company I work at proudly tells us that his compensation is mostly stock, so if we’re not doing well as a company, he will not get paid.

He thinks this will sound like he’s got skin in the game and is making some kind of sacrifice.

What it actually tells me is that he is aligned to shareholders, not customers or staff. And that he cares about the stock price, which is not at all the same things as whether we are doing well as a company.

Tax these mother fuckers. He probably paid next to no tax on that wage. Instead he should have paid 70% in taxes at least

Tim Cook makes 1/3 of that and Apple is worth about 2-300 times what reddit is.

https://appleworld.today/ceo-tim-cook-takes-a-pay-cut-in-apples-latest-fiscal-year/

https://www.reuters.com/technology/global-markets-apple-2023-07-03/

Yeah. You'd have to be an idiot to work for that guy for free at this point, unfortunately.

If only there were an alternative platform to Reddit that we could use instead.

You gotta be dumb as fuck to work for free at a profit company

How are mods landed gentry? I spent my time as a Reddit mod with Nazis trying to dox me and threaten me, before Reddit banned me for making fun of Nazis.

The moderator culture in America and probably abroad relies on unemployed people living in their relatives house who get paid nothing but lame perks here and there. That is the bulk of it.

Some people moderate 5+ chat rooms daily without pay.

They are digital slaves. Make no mistake about it. And they somehow have been conditioned to believe it will pay off when it rarely does.

Spez is a shitbag who never did anything but be in the same room with actual important people.

Hopefully EU and US regulators will stomp that site to the ground as selling user generated data for AI companies sounds like something most people on Reddit did not sign in to.

Since he took back over, Spez has been making reddit an objectively worse experience. Doesn’t deserve that pay.

Nobody's making them be mods. I'm not pro reddit at all, but a tool is a tool, do what you want with it.

Mods should stop working as mods. But they don't. 193 million maybe sounds fair for a person able to convince people to volunteer to free, and not quit despite this being obvious.

I've said it before and I'll say it again (not on Reddit): Fuck Spez.

Controversial take, I don't think mods need to be paid. You don't have to be a mod, you're actively choosing to be a moderator. If you aren't getting paid for your work and dislike that, then don't do it. There's always going to be someone willing to do it for free, like a hobby.

Let's hope wallstreetbets crashes and burns the damn hurensohn's "IPO".

Who the fuck made Tintin CEO of Reddit?

Reddit founder and CEO Steve Huffman gifted himself a stunning $193 million compensation package — while mods get nothing.

Reddit CEO: Suck it plebs.

Probably.

Someone tell those Reddit mods they could earn double on Lemmy.

That douche can go fuck himself

If the company does well, I will do well

And if the company doesn't do well, he gets to fuck off and retire on more money than ten people can reasonably spend in a lifetime

Spez is such a fuckin tool

I mean i would do tht same thing if I were in his position. The mods are dumb as shit to do a job for free and the site has been astroturfed for over a decade. Just embrace the bullshit and get paid and laid and sail off into the sunset. Alternatively he's probably going to suck it dry and then sail off.

Christ, what an asshole.

Why does he need to?

He's made thousands of people work for him for free and contribute data for him to sell for free. By most business definitions he's a legend that all other ceos wish they could copy.

It's fucking hilarious how subs still have pinned "we're open under protest".

But anyway, I think now that his wage is out and soon enough we'll learn about the hundred of millions he has in stock, at least some mods will have had enough and leave.

Capitalism – in it's current form, a system where some exploit others in order to make profit.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Much-hated Reddit founder and CEO Steve Huffman gifted himself a stunning $193 million compensation package — while unpaid moderators on the platform have yet to see a single dollar, as Variety reports.

During a recent Q&A video posted to the subreddit named after the company's brand new New York stock exchange ticker RDDT, Huffman argued that he was totally justified in paying himself more than the CEOs of Meta, Pinterest and Snap combined.

"When your entire business model is one prick taking nearly everything," one user wrote in a discussion about the IPO on the subreddit r/wallstreetbets last month.

Not long after, Huffman accused moderators — volunteer power users who have historically kept many communities from melting down into a toxic cesspool — of being "landed gentry."

Instead of focusing on its users and the value of self-governance by volunteers, Reddit has agreed to hand over content they've generated to Google to train its AI models, in efforts that are now being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission.

One top-voted post claims Reddit's IPO is a "pump and dump" scheme, accusing the company of fraudulently inflating the value of its stock before cashing out.

The original article contains 621 words, the summary contains 193 words. Saved 69%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

FYI Spez is a pedophile piss-boy.

Yeah, the mods are the landed gentry

Fuck Spez. I left Reddit and I’m here now and happier for it.

He will continue unless he ran out of free labour force.

The Reddit mods and Spez deserve each other. Fuck em, I'm enjoying watching it all burn.

The problem were the mods who didn't know any better. Spez hid his intentions very well, and made all the mods look like fools working for free

I modded r/beholdthemasterrace, which was specifically for making fun of literal Nazi inbreds.

It's too early to see a face and get into a slapping mood.

Get fucked, u_spez

It doesn't matter what he says - it's pretty obviously just greed to any outside observer who doesn't think like greedy CEOs do.

“It’s my money and I want it now!”

Welcome all reddfugees!

Quick, contribute your $34 so he can get a raise next year.

I mean, it wasn't like I was expecting the guy who refused to take down a popular softcore CP sub until it got mainstream media attention to be morally upstanding.

The guy is just trying to cash out as much money out of Reddit as he can until people realize how overvalued the site really is.

While I don't want to support reddit or turbo capitalism, I think a viewpoint that is often missed here is the fact, that a fair share of those subreddits are created and moderated by people that create and hold together communities, especially in the beginning of the sub. There are also a lot of cases were the platform is used to cross link to other platforms and gain profits there.

This is the norm for any big business. The top dogs will be wildly paid even if the company is struggling. They'll get a big fat payday even if they get kicked out (golden parachute). Hell, even the bosses in the NYC Public Library system are pulling in close to a million bucks a year even as they talk about cutting services.

Look at that. Now there's a face who only cares about money. Kids, if you look into a mirror and have that kind of face, you may be an asshole. Just saying.

Just take some popcorn and watch their IPO crash spectacularly.

I wonder if people in r/wallstteetbets don't decide to short it out, but on the other hand, U/spez will do all in its power to block people calling for it.

Permanently Deleted

It’s easy to justify not paying bots. /s

This dude underestimates how fucking crazy people are. He keeps this kind of thing up, he's going to end up in the news for some nutter doing something unpleasant to him.

Honestly, you can barely see the gentle glow of the flames from way up here.

I do not miss reddit.

fuck that guy

"The intent is to provide mods with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different mod capabilities."

Tbh he should get the money if he somehow convinced all those mods to work for free

Lmao look at his big stupid mouth what’s the meme he looks like now it escapes me

SurprisedPikachuFace.jpeg

Reddit CEO is like. My family needs a 10-million dollar mansion and a 2 new Ferrari.

Instead of focusing on its users and the value of self-governance by volunteers, Reddit has agreed to hand over content they've generated to Google to train its AI models, in efforts that are now being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission.

Reddit users should now stop questioning themselves about who's more important than whom.

It's anybody's guess as to where Reddit's IPO will go. Its opening price at $34 a share is the top of the anticipated range, indicating that investors are excited. Following its debut, Reddit shares jumped as much as 70 percent, confirming this suspicion.

I must've not really looked, but this is quite the confirmation that Reddit finally pulled the trigger. The enshittification is due to come but we'll see it in time if it isn't here yet.

Reddit is dead. But is it truly spez's fault entirely? I reckon to margin that he is 90% of Reddit's problems. The other 10 is the users, because as we know, they complain more than do more.

I have no respect for Reddit mods

Just narcissistic idiots

Obviously that’s not about those who mod small subs

Being an actual cannibal is expensive. But really, Spez eats people.

How much does he make? I don't want to open the article

backpfeifengesicht

I heard their ipo went well and that the stock had some gains.

You know what? Good for them. I rather not be focusing on another company’s failure when in reality I just want lemmy to be how it is today or maybe a little better than today.

We have what we want, let them “succeed” all they want.

Somehow I misread "Not Paying Mods" as "Beating His Wife"

Idk that online forum moderators typically are doing work deserving of pay, and that includes me moderating c/politics