Unfortuanately, we are going to see this happening to a lot of businesses. Covid caused a massive disruption, which led to a bunch of inflation, which has led to world banks raising interest rates on debt. It ends up a lot of companies (especially holding companies) were relying on cheap debt to leverage doing very little actual work into paying the bills, and now that it is harder to get a loan, they are going to have to be more profitable.
It will be up to companies to do this through doing their job, increasing the value they offer their customers, and make more profit in good faith. But, of course, many are trying to chisel more money out of their existing customer base. It's their right to do what they feel they have to do to protect their business. But generally, things have a way of working out - when you make your product worse and charge more for it, things don't really go in your favor, and your once loyal customers will start doing something else with their time and money. Life finds a way.
Has anyone noticed any parallels between this Reddit situation and what the Wizards of the Coast tried to do with their Dungeons and Dragons franchise? In both cases, a lot of the value to the business is brought about by community contributions. In both cases, the companies try to spring surprise charges on other businesses working within the ecosystem with a ridiculous fee structure couched in very strong language, making those businesses completely non-viable. In both cases, the user base ends up revolting and moving towards alternative "platforms". How did it work out for WoTC in the end?
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