Yes, but also ‘bringing back a classic’ and having it wash away the controversy would also suit Reddit’s goal. I assume they plan to spin it favorably in any case.
I personally think the better plan is to shift focus back to where it should be - the people. Making Reddit look the fool in the court of public opinion matters more to me than Reddit’s shareholders, present or future.
Perhaps it’s controversial, but I actually disagree. I think the fediverse protocol (ActivityPub) would be enriched by even some of the scum and the toxic people switching over.
Half the appeal of decentralization is different servers can cater to different demographics (at least that’s the goal as the project matures). While we both agree that we’d like our content to not be adulterated with garbage, having some unsavory people here will help us build the tools to deal with them effectively.
And at the end of the day, I have my suspicions that sometimes social media platforms with a profit motive may amplify the ‘controversial’ simply as a way to drive engagement. ActivityPub doesn’t do that, so those people might have less influence. Heck, is it too much to think that the environment change to Lemmy may snap some of them into healthier social habits (a stretch for sure, but I’m hopelessly optimistic).