this post was submitted on 08 May 2024
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I can only really speak to reddit, but I think this applies to all of the user generated content websites. The original premise, that everyone agreed to, was the site provides a space and some tools and users provide content to fill it. As information gets added, it becomes a valuable resource for everyone. Ads and other revenue streams become a necessary evil in all this, but overall directly support the core use case.
Now that content is being packaged into large language models to be either put behind a paywall or packed into other non-freely available services. Since they no longer seem interested in supporting the model we all agreed on, I see no reason to continue adding value and since they provided tools to remove content I may as well use them.
But from the very beginning years ago, it was understood that when you post on these types of sites, the data is not yours, or at least you give them license to use it how they see fit. So for years people accepted that, but are now whining because they aren't getting paid for something they gave away.
This is legal vs rude. It certainly is legal and was in the terms of service for them to use the data in any way they see fit. But, also it's rude to bait and switch from being a message board to being an AI data source company. Users we led to believe they were entering into an agreement with one type of company and are now in an agreement with a totally different one.
You can smugly tell people they shouldn't have made that decision 15 years ago when they started, but a little empathy is also cool.
Additionally: When you owe your entire existence and value to user goodwill it might not be a great idea to be rude to them.