this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2023
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Experimenting on their own users...
That's definitely not the crime here, loads of platforms AB test user reactions to changes
AB testing whether the site works at all is not the same as AB testing a new feature. It's a ridiculous thing to do.
No this is something big companies do all the time to test how well it does with a subset of customers before rolling it out fully.
They test new features on subsets of customers. "Blocking the entire web app" is not a feature.
You clearly are not /u/spez
Next up will be "buy our loot boxes to get awards, up votes, and down votes for the day! 🤑"
Micropayments to access individual subreddits?
Yeah, paywalls for all the popular stuff. "You've reached your limit of r/aww for the month. Please subscribe to see more soft, fuzzy animals. In the meantime, check out our free promoted subreddit of the month, r/NestleistheBest"
@flibbertigibbet @sentient_loom Companies often A/B test any changes, even if they're not a new feature
Shout-out to the 10+ ad test that yt did a few months ago
Rolling out a new feature to a subset of users is fine. This is removing basic functionality from those users
Testing changes on a few users is a common thing and a good practice to see the general acceptance of changes. Its what you should be doing.
What changes exactly were they testing?
How easy it is for users to circumvent their blocking most likely.
I wonder if the AB values are stored in a cookie...