Pushshift has zip files containing every post and comment on reddit in a given year
I do agree with most of your points, except for one.
Mastodon is not just run by a handful of people owned by a corporation, forced to work for them.
Yes, for now. What happens when it requires so much administration and development that someone needs to manage it? Eventually, it will get big enough that its required to be a company. You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
Have a phone call about how you're going to kill your nosey neighbour if he listens to your phone calls again
I think the idea of a massive instance is discouraged somewhat
All VC backed tech companies have been operating on the assumption that they can focus on growth and then make a profit later. That hasn't happened for most of these companies and VCs are starting to demand returns. It was always going to happen, I'm surprised it took this long.
Because thinking that we are here for no specific reason is scary
Stopped working for me on Friday. Was getting 429s, now I get "private subreddit" on eveything
And that's really the only sustainable way things like this can exist. The Internet has been having it's free lunch for so long we've forgotten how to buy our own.
This might work for now, but I'm skeptical how well this would work in the long run. Do those company pay a monthly fee to be there? What happens when there's a hundred companies on that list? What happens if a company pays a substantial amount to be there and threatens to stop paying if xyz doesn't happen?
It's more about the principal to me. Reddit was set apart from other social media because they allowed you to customise the experience so much. They weren't forcing you towards a "for you page" or "suggested content", there are no "stories" or "shorts". My reddit app has looked the same since 2011 and worked the same since. Reddit slowly stopped introducing new features to the api which sucked but it still worked. Killing off 3rd party apps is, for me, the begging of reddit becoming just another social media site that frustrates me.
Sponsors want something in return though, surely?
You could argue than anything could be sexual to someone. I think the intent behind it has to be provable as being sexual. And you'd struggle to do that.