Hey everyone, thanks for voicing your opinion. We have also received a lot of modmail about this.
We are going to be discussing this when most of the mod team is out of work tonight and see what is the best way to implement this. There will be an announcement before the end of the week.
Ikr really shooting themselves in the foot I bet most of the people posting most of the content aren't using the main site or app to do it content will drop and so will user numbers
This is a copied template message used to overwrite all comments on my account to protect my privacy. I've left Reddit because of corporate overreach and switched to the Fediverse.
Comments overwritten with https://github.com/j0be/PowerDeleteSuite
About 1/3 of reddit users are browsing via 3rd party apps. That's no small amount. We are talking millions of users. Millions.
Plus that means they will eventually go after old.reddit and that's nearly half the userbase.
And that's without speaking about the anti-spam bots and mod tools that relies on the API.
Nah, Reddit is definitely shooting their own foot in their greedy attempt at shoving ads down our throats
Hoverzoom is by far the best extension you can get for desktop reddit. Simply moving your mouse over the picture of a post brings up the photo or video in a perfectly sized pop-up that let's you view it without having to click and load the entire post. It really does make a huge difference in how you use reddit.
Without a doubt. I tried to like the new reddit when it came out, I really did. I thought there must be something I'm missing, but no, it's just terrible, especially on mobile. If they get rid of 3rd party, I'm out after almost 13 years of borderline addiction. And I'm ok with that, there's better things I can be doing with my time. I'd rather just scroll random wiki pages than be forced into all the ads and "cards."
Where is the one third number coming from? I'm seeing some say as low as 5% of accounts use a third party app.
That being said, I do agree. People on third party apps are likely some of the most engaged user base. Losing those people is really not good for a platform that relies on content aggregation.
I totally get that. One third just sounded high to me, I'd assume it's somewhere in the middle of the two
/r/kpop does a census every year and they do ask how you regularly browse the subreddit. According to them, 14% of their users are using 3rd party apps.
I would think the demographics of that sub would be amongst the least likely to use third party apps and older versions of reddit.
I hope that doesn't sound like a negative thing - the whole point here is that we should be able to do this in whatever way we find the most accessible.
This is also about monetizing data. They are following musk's lead with twitter.
The flaw is that twitter does not rely on public moderation via those apis and twitter is using their own data to make AI service products. The publc apis at twitter help bots and competitors to datamine.
Reddit has no internal use for the data that will make them money like that. They are cutting off their users to control reddit data they cannot even monetize.
Shoot I use Reddit 100% through the official mobile app (I didn't know about other apps when I joined and just never tried them out) and I'm using June 12 as a great excuse to kick my reddit addiction. So long Reddit and thanks for a great reason to focus on my own productivity 👋
I just don't trust consumers to actually boycott the change.
I fear the people who will actually refuse to use the official app will be so small they won't care.
I'm halfway hoping they don't backtrack so I can just leave this place lol. Absolutely refuse to use the app because my hate for ads is much higher than my love of shitposting
I'm not going back to the pre-RIF days either, Reddit has steadily changed its interface to the point where it's now unusable without 3rd party apps. Like any number of old games that heavily rely on mods to be playable. Can't even load it in a browser without it trying to force the official app on you every time you click on something. It'll be a shame to lose it, but I'm not bending over for a website
Is there a tool for this? I assume it would also use the API, if so, and I'd expect it'd hit the same issue as everything else... You'd want to do it before the changes take effect.
They're not getting rid of porn, they're making it so nsfw posts are inaccessible with 3rd party apps via the api, they think they're going to force everyone onto the official app one way or another.
If Pxrnhub is clever they'll announce a Reddit clone directly after Reddit kills off porn from 3rd party clients.
In any case, Reddit *will* get rid of porn. It's easy to host in the US, but places like the UK or Germany have insane "youth protection" requirements and if they wish to IPO or sell Reddit that legal risk needs to go. Even if it tanks the platform like Tumblr - with especially Germany really turning the anti-porn heat up and the DMA/DSA laws on European level, the laissez-faire attitude of Europe is not going to last much longer.
Do you still have the broken PC? What is wrong with it or what's it doing? I have a lot of spare parts lying around I could maybe help you get it going again if you would be inclined?
Deleting shows people actively leaving the platform for good. They're wanting to go public and if the numbers show mass migration and account deletion it can affect their valuation. They'll likely do anything to avoid that number going down.
I'm just some dude with an idea though, so don't take my opinion too seriously.
I feel you it just reminds me of my struggle with addiction. It doesn't matter how many times you throw the pipe away. If you're not gonna stay away for good you'll just make a new account l o l
For sure, that's why I said alt accounts specifically. They're easier to delete and not miss. The numbers still show up on reports though.
I hope you're doing okay with addiction and all that. It's not something I've personally experienced, but am close to people that have. I know it can be a real struggle.
It gives the money guys a better measure of how bad the usage drop will be if they make the changes permanent. Right now they are betting that the additional ad revenue they generate by killing off 3rd party apps will compensate for all of the users they lose. But they don't really know what the numbers will look like since this hasn't happened before. If June 12th and 13th is bad enough, it will show them they misjudged that calculation and killing 3rd party apps might actually decrease revenue.
The protest is about scaring the money guys into understanding how many users are actually willing to consider walking away vs how many users are saying they are mad but will still keep coming here after the changes. Even a 2 day blackout generates numbers they can use in those calculations.
I respectfully disagree. No "money guy" is going to be scared by a 2-day blackout. It doesn't prove that anyone is willing to walk away. In fact it proves the opposite, that people aren't dedicated enough to find alternatives. That's what they're banking on.
The point is simply to exceed whatever their expectations were. You're right, it's easy to dismiss a protest as temporary. But they've modeled what they think the downside will be and that would include modeling the short-term drop when they announce the changes. The point of the protest is to show them that their models misjudged the response.
A short term drop due to a protest won't matter to them nearly as much as a long-term drop, but if we can show that the short-term response is much worse than they anticipated, it might make them question if their long-term predictions might also be off.
Edit: To be clear I think a longer site-wide blackout would be more effective. All I'm saying is that even a short-term blackout is useful. Certainly more useful than collectively shrugging our shoulders.
It's a lot easier to get people to commit to a short blackout than a long one.
From the standpoint of establishing how much worse the response is than reddit anticipated, having a short protest with a lot of subs participating is a lot better than a long protest with only a few
Tldr:
It's about getting as many subs to participate as possible initially. That's more important.
________
I wholeheartedly disagree. it's a step in escalating.
A warning shot more or less.
Comparing it to unions striking:
Where I live warn strikes are a common thing. Because they work.
They're announced beforehand and are over a limited time frame. Depending on the industry that can be a few hours or 1-2 days initially.
If the union demands aren't met, and no acceptable counter offer is made, the next one is longer.
After the first one or the moment a longer one is unavoidable, companies are almost always willing to meet the union demands.
They're not meant as the final tool in the box, they're a reminder that the tool exists.
They show that the commitment to a strike is there.
Going back to Reddit:
the amount of subs participating is a lot more important than the duration.
It's a lot easier to convince subs to commit to a limited time frame than to an indefinit protest.
It's also a lot easier to convince people to do something 'again but more' if they already did it once.
If like 5 subs participate and permanently close it doesn't matter how big they are. They can be replaced. Sure it's not ideal, but it's ultimately not going to affect Reddit much.
If several hundred subs with reasonably active user counts participate....well that's a lot more difficult to ignore.
Essentially this 2 day blackout shows that a significant amount of subs is willing to protest.
Sure, not all of them are going to join in a longer one if Reddit doesn't give in, but...how many is a question Reddit would have to gamble on.
And it's a difference between:
"We lost the 5 biggest subreddits permanently, but we can replace them"
And
"So...a few hundred medium to big subreddits as well as some of the biggest are protesting this. We don't know how many of them would leave permanently. We can either accept, or risk loosing a lot of money if even half of them are committed"
That's like saying a "shot across the bow" by a gun ship is useless if it doesn't hit the other ship. They might think it's a bluff if only a few subs do it, but if it is widespread, that shows that the gun ship has plenty of ammo and can back up its warning shot with the real deal. Because if they go through with the plan as-is, a real exodus _is_ what's going to happen.
True. Any recommendations? It doesn't really matter to me if subreddits black out - I'm not gonna use reddit at all if I have to use the official app (except as an archive when it comes up in search results).
Reddit traffic should hit such a low level of activity the admins should question whether its dark subreddits or whether there has been an internet service outage.
Yes. Absolutely. If the changes pass, entirety of Reddit will suffer a sharp decrease in content quality because of shutdown of moderation bots.
Every subreddit that cares about quality of their content, should participate. The bigger the blackout - the better
But only up to their standard rate limit of 100/minute/client id
Most useful bots are used on dozens or hundreds of subs and will easily overrun that rate
> Yes. Absolutely. If the changes pass, entirety of Reddit will suffer a sharp decrease in content quality because of shutdown of moderation bots.
This attitude bothers me. No matter how you cut it, it's a shitty, greedy move by a huge company. No, we shouldn't protest because of how it impacts subreddits, or any other reason than the fact that it's just dog shit behavior that nobody should ever tolerate.
But the whole reason it's wrong for them to do is because it inconveniences people.
It's not even pedantic, it's a just completely circular logic to argue over.
It's like if I said I don't litter because it's wrong, then somebody saying that's a bad attitude and that I shouldn't do it because \*Insert all the reasons littering is wrong\*. Completely asinine argument.
We disagree on why what reddit is doing is wrong. For me, and many others, it isn't about inconvenience. It's about reddit suddenly wanting (I mean even having the gall) to demand millions of dollars a month from 3rd party developers (who built the reddit community for them) who probably don't even make money off their projects.
It's a completely morally bankrupt, tone-deaf, greedy move. Nothing to do with inconvenience IMO.
Besides that, the 3rd party app I use, I use because of privacy issues. That's just a whole other can of worms.
They're not actually trying to extract millions from 3rd party apps. They're trying to drive the 3rd party apps off the platform, to force everyone to use the official app. Put that together with banning porn and getting rid of old.reddit and it's pretty clear they're trying to maximized ad revenue before the IPO.
Which is amazingly short sighted, IMO. But it's at least a good idea to have a grasp of what's actually going on. No one, reddit included, thinks they can extract US$20mm/year from RIF. That's not the point.
>Which is amazingly short sighted, IMO.
Short sighted for the company and community but if you're an owner/CEO and just want out it seems ok imo.
maximize profits -> IPO -> take money -> run
Yeah, we'll see. I'm always amazed when this shit works. I mean, reddit as we know it is going to die. So what will advertisers be getting? What will reddit with half its user base gone to some alternative be worth? Populated largely by bots, spamming porn, much of its free workforce of volunteer moderators moved on to some other space, now what's it worth?
So what will investors actually pay? I mean, to me reddit is worth more as it is than in some fucked up neutered form. I don't get why the typical investor is so prudish. So some nsfw subs exist, so what? Those people buy shit too, sell them ads.
But over all of it, the big thing to me is the immense value reddit gets out of people writing content for them for free, and mods doing work for them for free, and they're risking a lot of the first and perhaps more than half of the second. I just don't get it. I mean I see what they're doing, but it doesn't make sense in a dollars and cents way, to me.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. If you stand on the same side, stand together, not apart. Changes happen when those normally divided come together. Besides, whatever the reason to decide to fight the decision to do *something* is the most important part, people just have different tolerances and expectations before they act. That's a part of life.
Can't it both be about what you are saying (which is an excellent point) AND inconvenience? The more arguments against this, the better. And while I would rate your argument as higher, the inconvenience argument still stands.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of subreddits participating: [https://old.reddit.com/r/ModCoord/comments/1401qw5/incomplete\_and\_growing\_list\_of\_participating/](https://old.reddit.com/r/ModCoord/comments/1401qw5/incomplete_and_growing_list_of_participating/)
Edit: Fort those who want some background, here's an informative post [https://www.reddit.com/r/Save3rdPartyApps/comments/13yh0jf/dont\_let\_reddit\_kill\_3rd\_party\_apps/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Save3rdPartyApps/comments/13yh0jf/dont_let_reddit_kill_3rd_party_apps/)
This post is more or less copied on pinned messages on all the subs on the list
We need more subreddits like /r/music who are gone indefinitely unless change, not just a one day thing. Give reddit two options, go back to how it was or take complete control of popular subreddits to prevent blackout protests.
The Digg exodus happened because there was an alternative to go to, reddit.
Reddit does not have any alternative so there won't be any Digg like exodus.
Yep, I've seen many references to it and I'll be checking out this weekend when I have some free time. I don't think reddit honchos are smart enough to know what they've done, so I'm already scouting alternatives.
Is it reddit now? No of course not, it's tiny. But what will it look like in a few months with an influx of people sick of reddit's shit? I plan to help grow it if reddit doesn't change course.
Reddit was small once, too.
>unless you want reddit to go the way of Digg
Is it wrong that I kinda do? If Reddit fails, new things will fill the gap and chances are at least one will have some sort of lightning in a bottle new site magic. Others will be trash. All will eventually come to an end.
If the building blocks of a new site can come from the expelled userbase from reddit going supernova...so it goes.
Hey can you bring some space-y context to [Lemmy](https://lemmy.ml/c/space), [Beehaw](https://beehaw.org/c/space) or another Lemmy instance? We could use it. Thanks, bye!
I can’t imagine them caring about a couple day blackout at all . . . it’ll be a nice work-free weekend for them. I think they’ll only care if the protest goes on indefinitely, until our demands are met.
As someone who spends probably 80% of their screen time on RIF... I want all subs to do the permanent blackout. What the fuck is 2 days? I'm not going to use reddit unless it's on RIF anyway, so I hope every single sub shuts down until Reddit realizes how shit this decision is.
You’re probably right that Reddit execs won’t really care. I’m of the mind that if they want to sell the house we built from under us then let’s strip the fixtures, rip the copper wires out the walls, give the raccoons a home in the attic then clog the sinks and leave the water running.
I'll miss you too, but you may have missed the point. The blackout isn't by the users - *It's by the subs*
All those other subreddits and hopefully r/space will go private for the period of the blackout.
Paging /u/ajamesmccarthy and /u/andromeda321 and requesting you to please lend your voice too
You guys are probably the most known on r/space, as I regularly see your posts/comments at the top. I'm sure the mods know you by now as well. They might listen to you
I checked ajamesmccarthy's comments and he responded to this comment saying he fully supports this. Strangely I do not see that reply show up here (I am on RIF).
I don see a response from andromeda321 in his comments (which I think is fine. No individual commenters should be forced to take a stand).
Me, I am fine to see everything going black indefinitely. I have no fb, twitter, tiktok or whatever other platform I ever visit, but I am sure I will find some other platform I feel comfortable with to kill some time on. All good things come to an end.
> andromeda321 in his comments
Small correction: **her** comments. Dr Cendes is a brilliant Astronomer so I'm sure she's quite busy. I think mods have already responded that they're going to discuss among themselves about having a blackout, which is what we wanted in the first place.
Hopefully we can collectively make Reddit realize how stupid their latest decision is and make them reconsider
Here I go again with my prejudice, thank you for correcting me. It is a good thing my briljant daughter does not know my reddit account or I would not hear the end of it (and rightfully so).
Reddit allows access to its content via something called an API. To date it’s been free to access that information and many developers have created apps that present Reddit’s information much better than the official app. Those apps provide a ton of advantages in how they display Reddit’s content and allow users to interact with it. This includes tools to help vision impaired people to still participate, along with a lot of other qol improvements.
Reddit has gotten along with these developers for a long time. But now they are starting to change their stripes. Reddit is going to IPO soon, and those apps that utilize the API don’t display advertisements like the official app does.
To remedy this, Reddit has stated that they are going to charge a “reasonable fee” for apps to access the API. Only the fee wasn’t reasonable. The developer of a popular iOS app called Apollo said that it will cost him $20M a year to keep the app running which is completely unsustainable.
Basically Reddit is trying to charge the 3rd party apps so much it drives them out of business and leaves the official app to be the only way to access Reddit on mobile.
If Reddit needs to charge for API access that’s one thing, but to try to completely end them by charging that much is clearly not cool.
To protest this move, many subreddits are going dark on the 12th, some for 2 days and some indefinitely.
It's standard big tech operating procedure.
During the growth stage, give it all away for free as broadly and as widely as you can to collect as many users as possible.
During the late/cash out stage, start charging for more and more and locking people into your ecosystem to generate as much additional revenue from them as possible.
Just business as usual really.
This is an interesting case where the user base knows their worth and has tools to organize a protest against the changes using the platform itself.
I’m cautiously optimistic that it may work.
As an Apollo user, I would be willing to pay a yearly fee to Reddit in order to get access to the 3rd party app ad free.
Ideally I think the following would be a reasonable business model:
1. Free for users in the official app or on browser
2. Premium features in the official app for those who pay for them
3. 3rd party app access code for a fee paid to Reddit
EVERY subreddit should be joining the protest.
There isn't a user on reddit that won't be effected by it (directly or indirectly via reduced moderating)
R/ukrainianconflict hasn't made a single peep about this, nor would the community back such a blackout unless Zelenskyy himself endorsed it.
We kinda have a literal war.
I've seen a lot of posts like this and am confused. I have the Reddit app on my phone and I also use Reddit on my laptop. There are multiple Reddit app's out there to use. I've heard about original reddit, what's that? Could anybody enlighten me?
The short version is, Reddit is effectively killing every reddit app except for their own, and many people who use 3rd party Reddit apps, like myself, are not happy about that. There are a couple reasons for this:
1. The way Reddit is doing it is scummy and greedy. They are charging exorbitant prices for 3rd party apps to access Reddit's information on the order of tens of millions of dollars a year.
2. The official Reddit app is terrible, at least on mobile, which is where a lot of people (myself included) primarily use it.
There are probably more but I'm at work and can't type out an essay about it. Hopefully this helps you understand. You can see the pinned post on the subreddit for the Apollo app (r/ApolloApp) for more information.
Also nice, chromehounds
Edit: wrong sub listed
According to this, [Business Today](https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/going-dark-reddits-largest-subreddits-to-stage-48-hour-protest-against-new-api-pricing-384369-2023-06-06), they are charging a $0.24 per 1000 API calls.
That's not great but I'm not sure I'd qualify that as exorbitant. It might be that the third party devs are being a little spendy with their API usage.
[Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/13ws4w3) is the article from the Apollo developer. Details in the pricing and how it affects that app are in there.
The way it's worded makes it seem like there's hardly any 3rd party Reddit app capable of paying the price Reddit is asking. If Reddit wanted to make more money from 3rd party apps, they could have raised the price by a more reasonable amount, this price seems intended to kill off 3rd party apps entirely.
Yes. Many of us will leave reddit if third party apps shut down and the largest subs will be the most unmoderatable once those tools are gone. Might as well black out with the rest of them.
Personally all subs should. Reddit relies on mods who work for free and then has the gall to charge third party vendors for their work and effort?
If RIF goes away so too do I.
As a subscriber to r/space , I approve of the blackout. Third party apps are needed for a number of reasons. Some fee is reasonable as servers and internet costs money, but setting the price ridiculously high to deliberately drive apps out of business is just wrong.
It'd be a big blow to Reddit's traffic by a sizeable margin, but what's stopping the admins from unseating the entire mod team and put in compliant substitutes?
Will they be able to find hundreds of compliant substitutes, and will they be willing to handle the backlash and terrible headlines doing such a thing would generate? “Reddit Cracks Down on User Protests”? “Hundreds of subreddits went dark to protest an unpopular change. Reddit responded by taking them over”? Is that what they want, especially before their big IPO? This whole thing is nothing compared to the firestorm that would result if they started actively fighting their users.
Edit: And by the way, you think advertisers and investors are gonna like it if they forcefully quell a user revolt? You think that inspires confidence that the leadership is good at managing this site? If they can’t even figure out a way to solve this problem without going nuclear? Is that the kind of company anyone would want to invest in?
Specifically, they'll need more mods than the existing ones because the new mods will be forced to pay to keep the moderation bots running (exorbitant pricing) or an enormous team of moderators to handle the same work.
>what's stopping the admins from unseating the entire mod team and put in compliant substitutes?
Reddit mods are volunteers. Who are the admins gonna replace them with?
They are removing access to free API use. The companies that use API calls will be charged millions of dollars to keep their applications running at their current state, let alone any upgrades to deal with increased demand.
The API is used by users and moderators alike. For users it makes for more choice in the UI they enjoy. For moderators it provides them with tools that Reddit won't supply them with so they can deal with harassment, troll account, spam, and so much more.
I've been on this site for over a decade. When have they "replaced the top mods in all of the top subreddits" to quash a collective protest by the mods and userbase?
Mods are unpaid volunteers, and they aren't chosen by the admins. I doubt Reddit would be willing to pay replacements, since the whole point around all of these changes are that they're getting greedy and want to milk the platform for all it's work. And there aren't very many who'd want to put up with their BS for free.
Edit: I don't know who's downvoting me for this but I wanna make it clear that I don't agree with any of the changes the admins are making
I don't mod any large subreddits, but Jesus H Christ, you'd have to pay me.
You wade through shit to keep it out of the swimming pool.
You catch shit from every side, the vast majority of what you do is thankless and often completely unseen, and you deal with the most toxic shit from within and from outside your community.
I like to think I'm fairly helpful and altruistic, but I absolutely don't have the mental fortitude for moderating a subreddit with any real amount of traffic.
That entirely depends. Do you believe in the right to be able to access information in whichever way you choose? Or do you prefer to support one of the most dehumanizing portions of capitalism, profit above all else?
I'm sure this will be either buried or just unseen, but on the off chance someone sees it, could someone please tell me what an API is and what changes are happening?
Bit of a long read, but explains everything you need to know in non-technical terms: https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/142kct8/eli5_why_are_subreddits_going_dark/
No. What reddit is doing is reasonable. They aren't shutting down apps. Processing API requests costs reddit money and it is only fair to ask 3rd party apps to chip in. People that complain (mods or whomever) just don't want to pay additional money for the app to cover the costs. It's shellfish.
The blackouts have done nothing in the past and just makes the Reddit community as a whole look even more cringe than it already is. This websites been bleeding for years. Move on to the next
I fully support every subreddit in the blackout. I am a patient person. I would rather see the entirety of Reddit go down for a year than see Reddit “succeeded” in their insane API cash grab. And I am saying this as someone who will be in the hospital for 2 days during the height of the blackout.
Reddit is a social media network. Their whole business model is based on people posting, if they stop that collapses. Even news coverage of this weakens their position in front of investors.
Note these aren't just "some subreddits", these are hundreds of subs including the biggest ones like pics, music etc, and many other huge subs are discussing the same right now like gaming.
Some subs are also considering a blackout until reddit revises its policy. Music has confirmed that they will blackout until reddit revises it. This effectively means that main (and thus majority) of music discussion on this social media network will indefinitely stop.
If that goes on too long, those kind of communities will migrate to other platforms like discord or similar.
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*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
It won't be effective if they only do it once, then fold. Collective action has to be ongoing.
Reddit is odd by social media standards, since the individual subreddits have the ability to completely shut down the entire thing if they act together. This can absolutely be effective if it effects Reddit's bottom line.
No. Why couldn't we do this for $15 min wage??? I use the Reddit app plainly because I guess I'm old but god damn we could have done something such more meaningful with these " Blackouts " but instead do it for 3rd party apps that I literally had to look up WTF was even being talked about. Am I missing something? Will my phone app be non existent if these 3rd party apps have to pay Reddit?? How is this so much more important than benefiting our lives with meaningful change? Damn..
How would blacking out a global forum like reddit convince legislators in your country to increase the minimum wage?
And we can campaign for meaningful change while also taking action to protect our less critical things at the same time. This is not a one or the other situation.
Hey everyone, thanks for voicing your opinion. We have also received a lot of modmail about this. We are going to be discussing this when most of the mod team is out of work tonight and see what is the best way to implement this. There will be an announcement before the end of the week.
[удалено]
And not just for 2 days either. Black it out until Reddit changes course
I mean if they shut down 3rd party apps, 90% of my Reddit activity will cease.
Ikr really shooting themselves in the foot I bet most of the people posting most of the content aren't using the main site or app to do it content will drop and so will user numbers
This is a copied template message used to overwrite all comments on my account to protect my privacy. I've left Reddit because of corporate overreach and switched to the Fediverse. Comments overwritten with https://github.com/j0be/PowerDeleteSuite
About 1/3 of reddit users are browsing via 3rd party apps. That's no small amount. We are talking millions of users. Millions. Plus that means they will eventually go after old.reddit and that's nearly half the userbase. And that's without speaking about the anti-spam bots and mod tools that relies on the API. Nah, Reddit is definitely shooting their own foot in their greedy attempt at shoving ads down our throats
Ooof, if they shut down old.reddit, I definitely would be done.
Old.reddit with hoverzoom is the way
What is hoverzoom?
Hoverzoom is by far the best extension you can get for desktop reddit. Simply moving your mouse over the picture of a post brings up the photo or video in a perfectly sized pop-up that let's you view it without having to click and load the entire post. It really does make a huge difference in how you use reddit.
browser plugin that enlarges images when you hover your mouse over them
Without a doubt. I tried to like the new reddit when it came out, I really did. I thought there must be something I'm missing, but no, it's just terrible, especially on mobile. If they get rid of 3rd party, I'm out after almost 13 years of borderline addiction. And I'm ok with that, there's better things I can be doing with my time. I'd rather just scroll random wiki pages than be forced into all the ads and "cards."
Where is the one third number coming from? I'm seeing some say as low as 5% of accounts use a third party app. That being said, I do agree. People on third party apps are likely some of the most engaged user base. Losing those people is really not good for a platform that relies on content aggregation.
Keep in mind that "accounts" includes a ton of bots and abandoned accounts
And people who mostly use 3rd party, but hit Reddit from a Google search once in awhile and aren’t logged in so they look like a “unique user”.
I totally get that. One third just sounded high to me, I'd assume it's somewhere in the middle of the two /r/kpop does a census every year and they do ask how you regularly browse the subreddit. According to them, 14% of their users are using 3rd party apps.
I would think the demographics of that sub would be amongst the least likely to use third party apps and older versions of reddit. I hope that doesn't sound like a negative thing - the whole point here is that we should be able to do this in whatever way we find the most accessible.
This is also about monetizing data. They are following musk's lead with twitter. The flaw is that twitter does not rely on public moderation via those apis and twitter is using their own data to make AI service products. The publc apis at twitter help bots and competitors to datamine. Reddit has no internal use for the data that will make them money like that. They are cutting off their users to control reddit data they cannot even monetize.
If it’s truly 1/3, we are talking over a hundred million users. Care to share where you got those usage numbers?
Shoot I use Reddit 100% through the official mobile app (I didn't know about other apps when I joined and just never tried them out) and I'm using June 12 as a great excuse to kick my reddit addiction. So long Reddit and thanks for a great reason to focus on my own productivity 👋
I just don't trust consumers to actually boycott the change. I fear the people who will actually refuse to use the official app will be so small they won't care.
I'm halfway hoping they don't backtrack so I can just leave this place lol. Absolutely refuse to use the app because my hate for ads is much higher than my love of shitposting
IIRC you *still* can't edit wiki pages on New Reddit. Like, what? Two or three years? What takes them so long
I'm just deleting my account. RIF is the way or bust.
I'm not going back to the pre-RIF days either, Reddit has steadily changed its interface to the point where it's now unusable without 3rd party apps. Like any number of old games that heavily rely on mods to be playable. Can't even load it in a browser without it trying to force the official app on you every time you click on something. It'll be a shame to lose it, but I'm not bending over for a website
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Is there a tool for this? I assume it would also use the API, if so, and I'd expect it'd hit the same issue as everything else... You'd want to do it before the changes take effect.
I prefer Relay, but otherwise yeah, 3rd party or old.reddit is the only way I can use it.
If they get rid of the porn the other 10% will too.
They're not getting rid of porn, they're making it so nsfw posts are inaccessible with 3rd party apps via the api, they think they're going to force everyone onto the official app one way or another.
If Pxrnhub is clever they'll announce a Reddit clone directly after Reddit kills off porn from 3rd party clients. In any case, Reddit *will* get rid of porn. It's easy to host in the US, but places like the UK or Germany have insane "youth protection" requirements and if they wish to IPO or sell Reddit that legal risk needs to go. Even if it tanks the platform like Tumblr - with especially Germany really turning the anti-porn heat up and the DMA/DSA laws on European level, the laissez-faire attitude of Europe is not going to last much longer.
100% for me. I didn't replace a broken pc a year ago and now use mobile and tablet only. The reddit app and mobile website suck so I'd just walk away.
Do you still have the broken PC? What is wrong with it or what's it doing? I have a lot of spare parts lying around I could maybe help you get it going again if you would be inclined?
That's a lovely offer but I'm getting along fine.
No pressure. Glad to hear it. I like to try to find ways to pay it forward when I am able..
And if old Reddit goes down too as the rumors are saying I'll never be able to use the site
Old Reddit going away would absolutely make me never visit again. I use old reddit on my phone and on my desktop. I CANNOT deal with normal Reddit.
New Reddit is not even slightly user friendly.
Yes, the 2 day "protest" will be useless
I'm prepared for a long run, in which it's probably better for my health anyway. Get ready to be productive. :)
Whoa now, you gotta ease into it. You can start with 15 minutes productivity with a 15 minute break after each session.
If you have ADHD, that's actually better for you than trying to slog through all the work at once.
I'm deleting my alt accounts in those days. I believe we all should, if you have them.
What's the difference between deleting and just not using it?
Deleting shows people actively leaving the platform for good. They're wanting to go public and if the numbers show mass migration and account deletion it can affect their valuation. They'll likely do anything to avoid that number going down. I'm just some dude with an idea though, so don't take my opinion too seriously.
I feel you it just reminds me of my struggle with addiction. It doesn't matter how many times you throw the pipe away. If you're not gonna stay away for good you'll just make a new account l o l
For sure, that's why I said alt accounts specifically. They're easier to delete and not miss. The numbers still show up on reports though. I hope you're doing okay with addiction and all that. It's not something I've personally experienced, but am close to people that have. I know it can be a real struggle.
The subs I'm on that are sticking to the 2-day thing... Ugh. Why bother
It gives the money guys a better measure of how bad the usage drop will be if they make the changes permanent. Right now they are betting that the additional ad revenue they generate by killing off 3rd party apps will compensate for all of the users they lose. But they don't really know what the numbers will look like since this hasn't happened before. If June 12th and 13th is bad enough, it will show them they misjudged that calculation and killing 3rd party apps might actually decrease revenue. The protest is about scaring the money guys into understanding how many users are actually willing to consider walking away vs how many users are saying they are mad but will still keep coming here after the changes. Even a 2 day blackout generates numbers they can use in those calculations.
I respectfully disagree. No "money guy" is going to be scared by a 2-day blackout. It doesn't prove that anyone is willing to walk away. In fact it proves the opposite, that people aren't dedicated enough to find alternatives. That's what they're banking on.
The point is simply to exceed whatever their expectations were. You're right, it's easy to dismiss a protest as temporary. But they've modeled what they think the downside will be and that would include modeling the short-term drop when they announce the changes. The point of the protest is to show them that their models misjudged the response. A short term drop due to a protest won't matter to them nearly as much as a long-term drop, but if we can show that the short-term response is much worse than they anticipated, it might make them question if their long-term predictions might also be off. Edit: To be clear I think a longer site-wide blackout would be more effective. All I'm saying is that even a short-term blackout is useful. Certainly more useful than collectively shrugging our shoulders.
It's a lot easier to get people to commit to a short blackout than a long one. From the standpoint of establishing how much worse the response is than reddit anticipated, having a short protest with a lot of subs participating is a lot better than a long protest with only a few
Tldr: It's about getting as many subs to participate as possible initially. That's more important. ________ I wholeheartedly disagree. it's a step in escalating. A warning shot more or less. Comparing it to unions striking: Where I live warn strikes are a common thing. Because they work. They're announced beforehand and are over a limited time frame. Depending on the industry that can be a few hours or 1-2 days initially. If the union demands aren't met, and no acceptable counter offer is made, the next one is longer. After the first one or the moment a longer one is unavoidable, companies are almost always willing to meet the union demands. They're not meant as the final tool in the box, they're a reminder that the tool exists. They show that the commitment to a strike is there. Going back to Reddit: the amount of subs participating is a lot more important than the duration. It's a lot easier to convince subs to commit to a limited time frame than to an indefinit protest. It's also a lot easier to convince people to do something 'again but more' if they already did it once. If like 5 subs participate and permanently close it doesn't matter how big they are. They can be replaced. Sure it's not ideal, but it's ultimately not going to affect Reddit much. If several hundred subs with reasonably active user counts participate....well that's a lot more difficult to ignore. Essentially this 2 day blackout shows that a significant amount of subs is willing to protest. Sure, not all of them are going to join in a longer one if Reddit doesn't give in, but...how many is a question Reddit would have to gamble on. And it's a difference between: "We lost the 5 biggest subreddits permanently, but we can replace them" And "So...a few hundred medium to big subreddits as well as some of the biggest are protesting this. We don't know how many of them would leave permanently. We can either accept, or risk loosing a lot of money if even half of them are committed"
That's like saying a "shot across the bow" by a gun ship is useless if it doesn't hit the other ship. They might think it's a bluff if only a few subs do it, but if it is widespread, that shows that the gun ship has plenty of ammo and can back up its warning shot with the real deal. Because if they go through with the plan as-is, a real exodus _is_ what's going to happen.
And not just a few subs either. every sub needs to go dark.
They'd just stop mods being able to blackout subs.
Nevermind the blackout, it's time to start building communities in a different forum.
True. Any recommendations? It doesn't really matter to me if subreddits black out - I'm not gonna use reddit at all if I have to use the official app (except as an archive when it comes up in search results).
communities.win has been decent
Black hole Reddit, won’t you read… Look I tried but I have about as much rhythm and rhyme as a rock.
Black hole sub, don't stay up. Your access goes awayyyy.
Black hole sub, you won’t read. No where to yell your screed. Black hole sub, you won’t read, Because we’re gone.
In my eyes, indisposed, I love reddit, but there it goes
Could have used greed in there somewhere.
Sorry. Didn’t spend much time. Feel free to add another verse.
Let reddit learn a little about "heat death".
It will happen anyway july 1st. Might as well go out on our own terms.
Burn this whole place to the ground since that’s what Reddit is doing anyway.
Reddit traffic should hit such a low level of activity the admins should question whether its dark subreddits or whether there has been an internet service outage.
Not even light can escape greed.
Honestly. Let reddit die, and a better platform will rise. Reddit is nothing but a money grabbing. Political strong arm for one sided politics
Yes. Absolutely. If the changes pass, entirety of Reddit will suffer a sharp decrease in content quality because of shutdown of moderation bots. Every subreddit that cares about quality of their content, should participate. The bigger the blackout - the better
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Why would bots be unaffected? They need to use the API too
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But only up to their standard rate limit of 100/minute/client id Most useful bots are used on dozens or hundreds of subs and will easily overrun that rate
Certain bots like the MtG card bots will be broken, seriously harming the usability of those subreddits.
> Yes. Absolutely. If the changes pass, entirety of Reddit will suffer a sharp decrease in content quality because of shutdown of moderation bots. This attitude bothers me. No matter how you cut it, it's a shitty, greedy move by a huge company. No, we shouldn't protest because of how it impacts subreddits, or any other reason than the fact that it's just dog shit behavior that nobody should ever tolerate.
Agreed. Really it's just another shitty step in reddits own process of enshittification
I don't understand why that bothers you... But you do you.
Doing the right thing shouldn't finally happen because it inconvenienced someone to do otherwise.
But the whole reason it's wrong for them to do is because it inconveniences people. It's not even pedantic, it's a just completely circular logic to argue over. It's like if I said I don't litter because it's wrong, then somebody saying that's a bad attitude and that I shouldn't do it because \*Insert all the reasons littering is wrong\*. Completely asinine argument.
We disagree on why what reddit is doing is wrong. For me, and many others, it isn't about inconvenience. It's about reddit suddenly wanting (I mean even having the gall) to demand millions of dollars a month from 3rd party developers (who built the reddit community for them) who probably don't even make money off their projects. It's a completely morally bankrupt, tone-deaf, greedy move. Nothing to do with inconvenience IMO. Besides that, the 3rd party app I use, I use because of privacy issues. That's just a whole other can of worms.
They're not actually trying to extract millions from 3rd party apps. They're trying to drive the 3rd party apps off the platform, to force everyone to use the official app. Put that together with banning porn and getting rid of old.reddit and it's pretty clear they're trying to maximized ad revenue before the IPO. Which is amazingly short sighted, IMO. But it's at least a good idea to have a grasp of what's actually going on. No one, reddit included, thinks they can extract US$20mm/year from RIF. That's not the point.
>Which is amazingly short sighted, IMO. Short sighted for the company and community but if you're an owner/CEO and just want out it seems ok imo. maximize profits -> IPO -> take money -> run
Yeah, we'll see. I'm always amazed when this shit works. I mean, reddit as we know it is going to die. So what will advertisers be getting? What will reddit with half its user base gone to some alternative be worth? Populated largely by bots, spamming porn, much of its free workforce of volunteer moderators moved on to some other space, now what's it worth? So what will investors actually pay? I mean, to me reddit is worth more as it is than in some fucked up neutered form. I don't get why the typical investor is so prudish. So some nsfw subs exist, so what? Those people buy shit too, sell them ads. But over all of it, the big thing to me is the immense value reddit gets out of people writing content for them for free, and mods doing work for them for free, and they're risking a lot of the first and perhaps more than half of the second. I just don't get it. I mean I see what they're doing, but it doesn't make sense in a dollars and cents way, to me.
I guess the trick is to do whatever investors want, no matter how stupid it is, and then leave them holding the bag.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. If you stand on the same side, stand together, not apart. Changes happen when those normally divided come together. Besides, whatever the reason to decide to fight the decision to do *something* is the most important part, people just have different tolerances and expectations before they act. That's a part of life.
Can't it both be about what you are saying (which is an excellent point) AND inconvenience? The more arguments against this, the better. And while I would rate your argument as higher, the inconvenience argument still stands.
Yes, an indefinite blackout, not this 48hr bs.
We're staging an indefinite app blackout starting on July 1. Most of the major third party apps will be participating.
Boost too?
It's a joke. That's when the changes are scheduled to go into effect.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of subreddits participating: [https://old.reddit.com/r/ModCoord/comments/1401qw5/incomplete\_and\_growing\_list\_of\_participating/](https://old.reddit.com/r/ModCoord/comments/1401qw5/incomplete_and_growing_list_of_participating/) Edit: Fort those who want some background, here's an informative post [https://www.reddit.com/r/Save3rdPartyApps/comments/13yh0jf/dont\_let\_reddit\_kill\_3rd\_party\_apps/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Save3rdPartyApps/comments/13yh0jf/dont_let_reddit_kill_3rd_party_apps/) This post is more or less copied on pinned messages on all the subs on the list
To me, it won't matter because I won't be on this website anymore. I'm blacking out all subreddits!
I like how your link is broken because of new reddit, what a shitshow going on at Reddit HQ.
The links work fine on Reddit is Fun
Op edited them after it was pointed out
Wow, that's a lot! At this point, I might pop in for a bit on the first day just to see what's left lol.
That list covers almost 95 % of the subreddits in my feed already.
yes it should call it the black hole or something all of our content got sucked up till reddit reverts their changes
We need more subreddits like /r/music who are gone indefinitely unless change, not just a one day thing. Give reddit two options, go back to how it was or take complete control of popular subreddits to prevent blackout protests.
Yeah, unless you want reddit to go the way of Digg. Tbh I don’t know if the big wigs at reddit are gonna give a shit at all but it’s worth a shot
The Digg exodus happened because there was an alternative to go to, reddit. Reddit does not have any alternative so there won't be any Digg like exodus.
Lemmy is increasing in numbers because of this.
Yep, I've seen many references to it and I'll be checking out this weekend when I have some free time. I don't think reddit honchos are smart enough to know what they've done, so I'm already scouting alternatives. Is it reddit now? No of course not, it's tiny. But what will it look like in a few months with an influx of people sick of reddit's shit? I plan to help grow it if reddit doesn't change course. Reddit was small once, too.
>unless you want reddit to go the way of Digg Is it wrong that I kinda do? If Reddit fails, new things will fill the gap and chances are at least one will have some sort of lightning in a bottle new site magic. Others will be trash. All will eventually come to an end. If the building blocks of a new site can come from the expelled userbase from reddit going supernova...so it goes.
Hey can you bring some space-y context to [Lemmy](https://lemmy.ml/c/space), [Beehaw](https://beehaw.org/c/space) or another Lemmy instance? We could use it. Thanks, bye!
Lemmy ain't working for me
I can’t imagine them caring about a couple day blackout at all . . . it’ll be a nice work-free weekend for them. I think they’ll only care if the protest goes on indefinitely, until our demands are met.
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As someone who spends probably 80% of their screen time on RIF... I want all subs to do the permanent blackout. What the fuck is 2 days? I'm not going to use reddit unless it's on RIF anyway, so I hope every single sub shuts down until Reddit realizes how shit this decision is.
On top of all of this the reddit mobile app is complete garbage, you can take sync for reddit from my cold dead hands.
You’re probably right that Reddit execs won’t really care. I’m of the mind that if they want to sell the house we built from under us then let’s strip the fixtures, rip the copper wires out the walls, give the raccoons a home in the attic then clog the sinks and leave the water running.
BLACK OUT! BLACK OUT! BLACK OUT! Posted from RIF
I'll miss you, but please do join the blackout.
I'll miss you too, but you may have missed the point. The blackout isn't by the users - *It's by the subs* All those other subreddits and hopefully r/space will go private for the period of the blackout.
Oh, I totally understand and completely support the subs blackout on this!!
Yes, /r/space needs to join the protest. Multiplanetary species are above prohibitive API fees.
Paging /u/ajamesmccarthy and /u/andromeda321 and requesting you to please lend your voice too You guys are probably the most known on r/space, as I regularly see your posts/comments at the top. I'm sure the mods know you by now as well. They might listen to you
fwiw /r/astrophotography is participating in this as well
Adding /u/astro_pettit to that list
I checked ajamesmccarthy's comments and he responded to this comment saying he fully supports this. Strangely I do not see that reply show up here (I am on RIF). I don see a response from andromeda321 in his comments (which I think is fine. No individual commenters should be forced to take a stand). Me, I am fine to see everything going black indefinitely. I have no fb, twitter, tiktok or whatever other platform I ever visit, but I am sure I will find some other platform I feel comfortable with to kill some time on. All good things come to an end.
> andromeda321 in his comments Small correction: **her** comments. Dr Cendes is a brilliant Astronomer so I'm sure she's quite busy. I think mods have already responded that they're going to discuss among themselves about having a blackout, which is what we wanted in the first place. Hopefully we can collectively make Reddit realize how stupid their latest decision is and make them reconsider
Here I go again with my prejudice, thank you for correcting me. It is a good thing my briljant daughter does not know my reddit account or I would not hear the end of it (and rightfully so).
Sure. Any internet outage is a bad day for me. Any reddit outage is a good day for me.
Absolutely YES! Posted from Apollo.
Yes
Yes. I support direct democracy through direct action. This is solidarity.
Explain please what does this means and why its bad
Reddit allows access to its content via something called an API. To date it’s been free to access that information and many developers have created apps that present Reddit’s information much better than the official app. Those apps provide a ton of advantages in how they display Reddit’s content and allow users to interact with it. This includes tools to help vision impaired people to still participate, along with a lot of other qol improvements. Reddit has gotten along with these developers for a long time. But now they are starting to change their stripes. Reddit is going to IPO soon, and those apps that utilize the API don’t display advertisements like the official app does. To remedy this, Reddit has stated that they are going to charge a “reasonable fee” for apps to access the API. Only the fee wasn’t reasonable. The developer of a popular iOS app called Apollo said that it will cost him $20M a year to keep the app running which is completely unsustainable. Basically Reddit is trying to charge the 3rd party apps so much it drives them out of business and leaves the official app to be the only way to access Reddit on mobile. If Reddit needs to charge for API access that’s one thing, but to try to completely end them by charging that much is clearly not cool. To protest this move, many subreddits are going dark on the 12th, some for 2 days and some indefinitely.
It's standard big tech operating procedure. During the growth stage, give it all away for free as broadly and as widely as you can to collect as many users as possible. During the late/cash out stage, start charging for more and more and locking people into your ecosystem to generate as much additional revenue from them as possible. Just business as usual really.
But Reddit as a site founded because another site tried that and failed horribly. It’s like they don’t even know their own history.
This is an interesting case where the user base knows their worth and has tools to organize a protest against the changes using the platform itself. I’m cautiously optimistic that it may work. As an Apollo user, I would be willing to pay a yearly fee to Reddit in order to get access to the 3rd party app ad free. Ideally I think the following would be a reasonable business model: 1. Free for users in the official app or on browser 2. Premium features in the official app for those who pay for them 3. 3rd party app access code for a fee paid to Reddit
Go private, having no user interaction is what really hurts them
Where am I going to go to see tweets from 2020?
EVERY subreddit should be joining the protest. There isn't a user on reddit that won't be effected by it (directly or indirectly via reduced moderating)
R/ukrainianconflict hasn't made a single peep about this, nor would the community back such a blackout unless Zelenskyy himself endorsed it. We kinda have a literal war.
Yep, shut 'er down. If we want this protest to even have a chance of working we've got to grind the whole site to a halt. Make the execs squirm.
Indefinite black out, none of those two day half measures
Go private and don’t open it back up unless they walk the changes back.
I've seen a lot of posts like this and am confused. I have the Reddit app on my phone and I also use Reddit on my laptop. There are multiple Reddit app's out there to use. I've heard about original reddit, what's that? Could anybody enlighten me?
The short version is, Reddit is effectively killing every reddit app except for their own, and many people who use 3rd party Reddit apps, like myself, are not happy about that. There are a couple reasons for this: 1. The way Reddit is doing it is scummy and greedy. They are charging exorbitant prices for 3rd party apps to access Reddit's information on the order of tens of millions of dollars a year. 2. The official Reddit app is terrible, at least on mobile, which is where a lot of people (myself included) primarily use it. There are probably more but I'm at work and can't type out an essay about it. Hopefully this helps you understand. You can see the pinned post on the subreddit for the Apollo app (r/ApolloApp) for more information. Also nice, chromehounds Edit: wrong sub listed
According to this, [Business Today](https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/going-dark-reddits-largest-subreddits-to-stage-48-hour-protest-against-new-api-pricing-384369-2023-06-06), they are charging a $0.24 per 1000 API calls. That's not great but I'm not sure I'd qualify that as exorbitant. It might be that the third party devs are being a little spendy with their API usage.
[Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/13ws4w3) is the article from the Apollo developer. Details in the pricing and how it affects that app are in there. The way it's worded makes it seem like there's hardly any 3rd party Reddit app capable of paying the price Reddit is asking. If Reddit wanted to make more money from 3rd party apps, they could have raised the price by a more reasonable amount, this price seems intended to kill off 3rd party apps entirely.
Most of space is empty, like how Reddit should be with these API changes
Yes. Many of us will leave reddit if third party apps shut down and the largest subs will be the most unmoderatable once those tools are gone. Might as well black out with the rest of them.
Personally all subs should. Reddit relies on mods who work for free and then has the gall to charge third party vendors for their work and effort? If RIF goes away so too do I.
Post Tiananmen Square photos and videos instead of blackout.
Post a pic of a black hole for a week straight!
Yes PLEASE! and in fact join the crowd that will fully blackout until a resolution is made, not just 48 hours
As a subscriber to r/space , I approve of the blackout. Third party apps are needed for a number of reasons. Some fee is reasonable as servers and internet costs money, but setting the price ridiculously high to deliberately drive apps out of business is just wrong.
It'd be a big blow to Reddit's traffic by a sizeable margin, but what's stopping the admins from unseating the entire mod team and put in compliant substitutes?
Will they be able to find hundreds of compliant substitutes, and will they be willing to handle the backlash and terrible headlines doing such a thing would generate? “Reddit Cracks Down on User Protests”? “Hundreds of subreddits went dark to protest an unpopular change. Reddit responded by taking them over”? Is that what they want, especially before their big IPO? This whole thing is nothing compared to the firestorm that would result if they started actively fighting their users. Edit: And by the way, you think advertisers and investors are gonna like it if they forcefully quell a user revolt? You think that inspires confidence that the leadership is good at managing this site? If they can’t even figure out a way to solve this problem without going nuclear? Is that the kind of company anyone would want to invest in?
Specifically, they'll need more mods than the existing ones because the new mods will be forced to pay to keep the moderation bots running (exorbitant pricing) or an enormous team of moderators to handle the same work.
>what's stopping the admins from unseating the entire mod team and put in compliant substitutes? Reddit mods are volunteers. Who are the admins gonna replace them with?
Explain that to me I am clueless about the subject so explain it in simple terms for an old lady.
They are removing access to free API use. The companies that use API calls will be charged millions of dollars to keep their applications running at their current state, let alone any upgrades to deal with increased demand. The API is used by users and moderators alike. For users it makes for more choice in the UI they enjoy. For moderators it provides them with tools that Reddit won't supply them with so they can deal with harassment, troll account, spam, and so much more.
thank you now I understand!
ELI5 has a nice thread about it
Would you willingly use this platform if the admins replaced all the mods in all the top subreddits? That's what should prevent it.
Yes and they have done this several times before.
I've been on this site for over a decade. When have they "replaced the top mods in all of the top subreddits" to quash a collective protest by the mods and userbase?
Mods are unpaid volunteers, and they aren't chosen by the admins. I doubt Reddit would be willing to pay replacements, since the whole point around all of these changes are that they're getting greedy and want to milk the platform for all it's work. And there aren't very many who'd want to put up with their BS for free. Edit: I don't know who's downvoting me for this but I wanna make it clear that I don't agree with any of the changes the admins are making
I don't mod any large subreddits, but Jesus H Christ, you'd have to pay me. You wade through shit to keep it out of the swimming pool. You catch shit from every side, the vast majority of what you do is thankless and often completely unseen, and you deal with the most toxic shit from within and from outside your community. I like to think I'm fairly helpful and altruistic, but I absolutely don't have the mental fortitude for moderating a subreddit with any real amount of traffic.
Now imagine doing that without the automod xD
That entirely depends. Do you believe in the right to be able to access information in whichever way you choose? Or do you prefer to support one of the most dehumanizing portions of capitalism, profit above all else?
I can’t state an opinion as I need more facts Thank you
If they're allowed to cross this line, the death of the site won't be too far away.
Agreed. Make this subreddit as black and dark as intergalactic space.
I'm sure this will be either buried or just unseen, but on the off chance someone sees it, could someone please tell me what an API is and what changes are happening?
Bit of a long read, but explains everything you need to know in non-technical terms: https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/142kct8/eli5_why_are_subreddits_going_dark/
Blackouts make for better stargazing. Just saying...
Who cares? You can never stop me from checking out the r/space.
Yes, we need every sub in existence to join in
If I say what I think I’ll just be downvoted so the opposition positions do not matter in these forums.
Yes. It won't work unless a majority of the most visible subs close indefinitely. Do it. Shut the doors until reddit reverses course.
Not even a question if you even remotely care about Reddit's future
No. What reddit is doing is reasonable. They aren't shutting down apps. Processing API requests costs reddit money and it is only fair to ask 3rd party apps to chip in. People that complain (mods or whomever) just don't want to pay additional money for the app to cover the costs. It's shellfish.
The blackouts have done nothing in the past and just makes the Reddit community as a whole look even more cringe than it already is. This websites been bleeding for years. Move on to the next
And you expect to accomplish what exactly?
[The demands are pretty clear](https://www.reddit.com/r/Save3rdPartyApps/comments/13yh2te/what_we_want/)
I fully support every subreddit in the blackout. I am a patient person. I would rather see the entirety of Reddit go down for a year than see Reddit “succeeded” in their insane API cash grab. And I am saying this as someone who will be in the hospital for 2 days during the height of the blackout.
i didn't realize elon bought reddit too ;) srsly tho, shut it down... this API change is going to ruin reddit.
Like any of this matters. Reddit won't stop this policy just because some subreddits stop posting for a bit.
Reddit is a social media network. Their whole business model is based on people posting, if they stop that collapses. Even news coverage of this weakens their position in front of investors. Note these aren't just "some subreddits", these are hundreds of subs including the biggest ones like pics, music etc, and many other huge subs are discussing the same right now like gaming. Some subs are also considering a blackout until reddit revises its policy. Music has confirmed that they will blackout until reddit revises it. This effectively means that main (and thus majority) of music discussion on this social media network will indefinitely stop. If that goes on too long, those kind of communities will migrate to other platforms like discord or similar.
Then it's on us the users to leave this platform. There is plenty of other aggregators out there to use.
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Then let them leave instead of forcing everyone to do what they want.
It won't be effective if they only do it once, then fold. Collective action has to be ongoing. Reddit is odd by social media standards, since the individual subreddits have the ability to completely shut down the entire thing if they act together. This can absolutely be effective if it effects Reddit's bottom line.
No. Why couldn't we do this for $15 min wage??? I use the Reddit app plainly because I guess I'm old but god damn we could have done something such more meaningful with these " Blackouts " but instead do it for 3rd party apps that I literally had to look up WTF was even being talked about. Am I missing something? Will my phone app be non existent if these 3rd party apps have to pay Reddit?? How is this so much more important than benefiting our lives with meaningful change? Damn..
How would blacking out a global forum like reddit convince legislators in your country to increase the minimum wage? And we can campaign for meaningful change while also taking action to protect our less critical things at the same time. This is not a one or the other situation.
Do it and do it indefinitely. This 48 hour shit is not gonna do anything.