I'm a Relay user. I found the amount of ads and pushed content/gimmicks on the official reddit app and 'new' mobile website (which is already straight up hostile to browser users, very intrusively pushing the app) aggravating and found old.reddit not super usable on mobile, where I spend most of my life (RIP).

I was hopeful the Relay dev could find a pricing mechanism which would enable him to continue, but to be honest, as long as I know where my main communities will migrate to I'm no longer broken-hearted that I wont be on reddit - although I feel for the devs who have had so much work ripped out from under them in this way. The direction of Reddit as a company is clearly laid out before us with spez's and admins' responses and what is looking to happen with piracy, NSFW etc content, and they do not want to support all the things that make it great. They seem to almost hate its whole raison d'etre - its widely open and extensive community forums, development/tech led userbase, its potential for a very easy-to-read but user-specific or incredibly niche experience if wanted.

I understand how this means they are not profitable like more algorithm-intensive and centralised social media companies with stronger ad platforms, and I would, like the devs, very much understand some sort of pricing for API access. But their aggression and lack of communication, the kind of PR- or IPO-led choices they're making and general 'snoo'tiness (sorry) makes it clear that they're a company I no longer really support. Especially if they're taking anything Elon says seriously, blimey.

I support the reddit userbase and community, I'm not loyal to a random brand - I've been on there for >10 years as well but only because it felt like the website was just the vehicle for the underlying communities, rather than the headline company plastering itself on everything (apart from the occasional r/place sort of event). Now they're pushing their branding over the content so much I'm glad to be rid of it, just like meta and twitter.