If you go to Reddit, you will still see their ads, be they obvious or hidden through disguising as user interaction (bots are more or less obvious, AI is at the stage where they can fake users). You drive engagement and site traffic. The only way to do anything disadvantegous to Reddit is to stop going to Reddit (if you also delete all your content they have less things to put inbetween ads for the remaining users). You are the product they offer to advertisers, be it through being the buyer for advertised things or providing content to put between the ads so the users who may buy those things don’t only see ads. Your enjoyment of the platform is largely if not completely irrelevant from the corporate standpoint. If anything, your disgruntlement can make you engage more providing them with more content to put between ads.
Yes and no. It is true that going to reddit to troll reddit benefits reddit in the short term, but I think it’s harmful in the long term. By making /r/pics, /r/gifs, and /r/aww John Oliver themed, /r/wellthatsucks becoming vacuum themed, and /r/interestingasfuck and /r/iOS becoming essentially unmoderated, it is making those communities ultimately pointless, irritating users away from the site, and raising awareness. John Oliver even tweeted about it and provided dozens of pictures for their use, and it’s likely at this point that LWT will do something on the situation when the writer’s strike is over. I’ve only gone to reddit to vote in the troll polls- I don’t think that’s the kind of engagement reddit actually wants at this point.
