Beautiful doggo!

I’m excited to see what new and interesting features will be implemented that we never could have gotten on Reddit. FOSS (free and open source software) has a history of being an environment where innovation can be fostered, unrestrained by the whims of the market.

Welcome!

I feel like this is their reaction to the feeling that (1) frontiers are not as wide as they used to be in the younger days of the internet and (2) economic undercurrents driving them to put the clamps on, locking in their user base and trying to squeeze every dime they can before things go tits-up.

As with all innovation that was started at the behest of public (taxpayer) initiatives, companies are initially greeted with wide open frontiers - new horizons to exploit, extract, and dominate.

In the fledging stages of a startup, they will sing praises of openness and public good and the importance of community. However, once they have reached a certain point they pull the ladder up behind them, close the door, and claim they did it all based on their own ingenuity and merit.

Were it not for the effort of the public - through the creation of the internet, and the average person putting into making content and value on the internet - these companies would not exists. Don’t forget that. People; regular people, are what make the internet a place worth visiting and using. These companies are just extracting from the richness that we generate.