There are so many ways they could have made it viable. Like comically easy. But that was never what they were interested in. The thing that they aren't willing to just come out and say, is that their own app is built to generate advertising revenue. They have absolutely zero interest in fostering a 3rd party community, and the only concessions they are going to make are for things that actually have a chance at saving the spending money (i.e. make sure the free labor they get from moderators stays and make sure other people deal with questions like accessibility).
There are so many ways they could have made it viable. Like comically easy. But that was never what they were interested in. The thing that they aren't willing to just come out and say, is that their own app is built to generate advertising revenue. They have absolutely zero interest in fostering a 3rd party community, and the only concessions they are going to make are for things that actually have a chance at saving the spending money (i.e. make sure the free labor they get from moderators stays and make sure other people deal with questions like accessibility).
Can't shake the feeling it'll be a pump & dump. It would be truly poetic for Reddit to be pumped up with bot content, IPO, then dumped.