There was an earlier thread talking about Letterboxd looking to sell, but it seems like they have entered formal negotiations with the New York Times now.
Letterboxd is probably the only social media site I use on a regular basis (and have even been a paying Pro member for a number of years), even though it's mostly just for posting one-liner reviews to keep track of which movies I've watched.
I have no hope that it won't be enshittified beyond usability if NYT ends up buying it. Starting to look around for self-hosted alternatives once that happens.
Have there been a lot of acquisitions? The two I know of are Audm (they killed it entirely) and Wordle (I think they moved it behind their games subscription?).
But beyond that, I've read that they're looking at spending a lot more than what Letterboxd should be worth, so they must have some kind of eye towards monetizing it in ways it's not currently being monetized.
I used to be a huge NYT crosswords junkie, but I had to drop it when they stopped publishing their puzzles in across lite format and forced you to use their app (I was using a de-googled android with no Play Store at the time). I did manage to scrape every single .puz from 1995 until they stopped in 2021 before my subscription ended though, so I've got a backlog big enough that I'll never finish in my lifetime.
so they must have some kind of eye towards monetizing it in ways it's not currently being monetized.
Letterboxd is synergistic with the Times' culture and movie reporting. Chrome loses Google a lot of money, but it's nonetheless an important cornerstone of the rest of their business.
I guess I would see Chrome as an example that fuels my worry... Google makes all kinds of anti-user/enshittifying decisions (killing uBlock, for example).
Maybe they'll just make a new version the way the creator of TV Time made Bingers after the original was sold. Hopefully a remake would have a better name than Bingers...
Time will of course tell what it will mean for the platform, but currently not concerned. I consider NYT the better case scenario, at least compared to a streaming service or movie studio.
Just seem a tad high price with like around 20 times its annual earnings. I would think Letterboxd already has most of the cinephile userbase, so they would need expansion into tv if they are looking to really expand the userbase.
It's kind of weird we can't just have a simple CRUD website for tracking movies without it having paywalled features. It should cost basically nothing to run, so you'd think basic ad monetization would be enough.
I'm disappointed to hear this. I've been really enjoying Letterboxd for the last few years now but if it's bought by the genocidal maniacs at the NYT then I'll be deleting my account.
[OP] Rudism | a day ago
There was an earlier thread talking about Letterboxd looking to sell, but it seems like they have entered formal negotiations with the New York Times now.
Letterboxd is probably the only social media site I use on a regular basis (and have even been a paying Pro member for a number of years), even though it's mostly just for posting one-liner reviews to keep track of which movies I've watched.
I have no hope that it won't be enshittified beyond usability if NYT ends up buying it. Starting to look around for self-hosted alternatives once that happens.
stu2b50 | a day ago
Why? The other NYT acquisitions are doing fine.
[OP] Rudism | 23 hours ago
Have there been a lot of acquisitions? The two I know of are Audm (they killed it entirely) and Wordle (I think they moved it behind their games subscription?).
But beyond that, I've read that they're looking at spending a lot more than what Letterboxd should be worth, so they must have some kind of eye towards monetizing it in ways it's not currently being monetized.
AugustusFerdinand | 23 hours ago
Wirecutter is another acquisition.
The_Schield | 23 hours ago
Wordle is free, but you're probably actually thinking of the Crossword Mini which was paywalled and a got a big frown from me.
Crosshare and Uppercase are my new dailies
[OP] Rudism | 21 hours ago
I used to be a huge NYT crosswords junkie, but I had to drop it when they stopped publishing their puzzles in across lite format and forced you to use their app (I was using a de-googled android with no Play Store at the time). I did manage to scrape every single .puz from 1995 until they stopped in 2021 before my subscription ended though, so I've got a backlog big enough that I'll never finish in my lifetime.
stu2b50 | 23 hours ago
Wordle is still up and playable by anyone https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html
Letterboxd is synergistic with the Times' culture and movie reporting. Chrome loses Google a lot of money, but it's nonetheless an important cornerstone of the rest of their business.
[OP] Rudism | 23 hours ago
I guess I would see Chrome as an example that fuels my worry... Google makes all kinds of anti-user/enshittifying decisions (killing uBlock, for example).
benpocalypse | 15 hours ago
Wirecutter has entered the chat.
updawg | a day ago
Maybe they'll just make a new version the way the creator of TV Time made Bingers after the original was sold. Hopefully a remake would have a better name than Bingers...
winther | a day ago
Time will of course tell what it will mean for the platform, but currently not concerned. I consider NYT the better case scenario, at least compared to a streaming service or movie studio.
Just seem a tad high price with like around 20 times its annual earnings. I would think Letterboxd already has most of the cinephile userbase, so they would need expansion into tv if they are looking to really expand the userbase.
Rocket_Man | 18 hours ago
It's kind of weird we can't just have a simple CRUD website for tracking movies without it having paywalled features. It should cost basically nothing to run, so you'd think basic ad monetization would be enough.
fidwell | 2 hours ago
rateyourmusic does movies and is free to use.
tachyon | 18 hours ago
It's so, so over.
IudexMiku | 4 hours ago
I'm disappointed to hear this. I've been really enjoying Letterboxd for the last few years now but if it's bought by the genocidal maniacs at the NYT then I'll be deleting my account.