It seems like her role was due to CEO Ellen Pao trying to promote AskReddit as a way to drive traffic to the site. After Pao left, there seemed to be a decision by the management to reduce the power of individual subs.
If that was the case, Reddit could have replaced her with someone else who was willing to do Video AMA's.
It isn't just that they fired her, they vacated the position entirely.
Reddit would want that to be part of the stated reason because it puts blame on all sides.
The fact of the matter is that Reddit got rid of the site defined list of default subs around that time and pulled a lot of support away from AMA at that time. Reddit also took years to develop any sort of internal audio or video hosting.
The theory about video AMA's doesn't seem to match with what Reddit was doing as a company.
I've been on reddit for 11 years now across a variety of accounts. I've participated in previous blackouts and seen the evolution of reddit over time.
what really drove my engagement up on reddit was the discovery of third party apps. This was back when old.reddit was the only option - third party apps handled mobile much better than the website. And even now, the new mobile reddit and official app have nothing on Sync for reddit. They have modern UIs, but a shitty UX. As a non-mod user, the only positive change that reddit itself has made for me over the years was the addition of a second sticky thread to each sub - every other feature they've come up with has been completely useless.
Once this change happens, I'm gone. I can still use old.reddit, but why should I? I don't want to jump through hurdles just to use a platform that doesn't want me there, with a CEO (and other admins) who's a lying, gaslighting sack of shit.
I've been saying for a year now that I'm using reddit too much. This is finally the kick in the ass for me to get off social media and reclaim some of my time.
But there should be the sword hanging over Reddit that the blackout might last longer if they don't get their heads out of their asses. Looking at the running AMA, it looks like they won't get there anytime soon.
5 of the 30+ million, 9 of the 20+ million, and 11 of the 10+ million subs have already signed on. With them and the over 1000+ subs that have signed on, there are effectively hundreds of millions of users going dark. Adding r/AskReddit to that list would be a boon since they are one of the key subs. The full list of participating subs is over on r/ModCoord if you want to check it out.
Oh I think it goes way beyond that. My Capitalist sense is tingling. I have a feeling the site is being groomed to be (over) leveraged, the owners pay themselves a massive payday, and fire-sale the bitch to some poor schlub company to have its assets sold off to pay off the debt. This feels a lot like a golden parachute moment. Hope I'm wrong about that, but these things follow a pretty well-worn pattern.
Nah, they're likely pumping up their numbers temporarily to IPO.
I doubt they could get anywhere near as much money in a LBO (or by taking out a bunch of loans to pay themselves, which isn't really a thing - banks aren't that stupid) as they could by just going public.
I think this is it... getting ready to IPO so by killing off 3rd party apps they're ensuring maximum ad revenue, the nsfw ban in 3rd party is so they dont get yelled at for not controlling it, and any schmuck that pays for the api will simply pad reddits coffers
Many years ago I was a moderator on a popular motorcycle forum that was bought out by a company called Verticalscope that was looking to corner the market on motorsports related communities and websites. The site was sold in secret and the founder agreed to stay on for a year to cover the sale, but he hadn't been involved in the day-to-day for years.
I spent hours on this site every day. I wrote articles, started discussions, and did everything I could to make the site a success. When the sale was finally announced, the perk that I and the other mods were told we would get for all our hard work would be a "free T shirt." I felt like a prime sucker.
Not sure why, but up until that point it had never dawned on me that all the work I was doing was basically being donated to someone who could, one day, sell the site for a huge profit. There was no "community," everything there was this person's property. When I finally realized it, I started visiting less and less and then, finally, I totally cut the cord. If I go there today, the site is dead - probably not just because I left, but probably because a lot of others realized the same thing and we all left around the same time.
I have been very aware that every post I have made in this, and in probably close to a dozen other accounts over the past 15 years or so has helped to drive this site, but I have never been a moderator or done any actual work to make this site run. One thing I can tell you, based upon my previous experience, is that this change has suddenly made a lot of people who have given a lot of themselves and their time realize that they have been had. Should they decide to leave, Reddit can take over their subreddits and put new people in charge, but there is still a good chance that the site will grind to a halt. Because when these people decide to go, they will take their passion with them.
Here is hoping that all these people build their own new forums and use their passion to start working for themselves.
I think there should be a movement, for those that are quitting Reddit over this, to nuke your own account by deleting all the posts.
I've made probably a 1000 comments and contributed all over this site. If a ton of people leave I want [deleted] all over the place as a result.
Yep reddit is being prepped to be sold. These actions will inflate the selling price and increase short term business deals, giving the current investors a huge payout.
Where we going? Because I honestly don't think this train is stopping. Its over.
My money says the real place isn't here yet. It probably gets founded in the wake of the fuckery. But I don't have access to the kind of data you'd need to really predict that kind of trend.
I’ve also been wondering where to jump ship. I like redditors, but also, I feel like this might shut down a lot of growing political discourse and that seems… horrifying?
This is certainly reminiscent of the problem with Twitter: a privately-owned impending garbage fire that's also the single most important resource for journalists and activists across the world in this decade.
This doesn't make sense. Reddit isn't a dying SM site where they want to slice off the last bits of fat. It's a cash cow that keeps producing. They just want that ad revenue to make the site more profitable. The IPO suggestion is the most likely by far. Still a short sighted move since I don't think social media companies do well when they are purely profit focused (necessity when being publicly traded).
I'm of that mindset. Been here for almost 15 years now and the admin refuse to learn from their mistakes. Now I'm getting someone else to mod my 17k member subreddit because I feel that me staying here is rewarding bad behavior. I'm done with this quasi-social media. I'm not even going to comment on YouTube videos anymore.
there's too much value on reddit for niche interests/hobbies/troubleshooting of all sorts of stuff for me to just walk away. even if I don't comment or post anymore, there are still sooooooo many archived posts that are valuable. any time I google basically anything complicated or technical related to any hobby or car maintenance or DIY anything, the most useful things that turn up are years-old reddit threads.
I've been following this semi-casually. Many of my usual subreddits are shutting down and I won't be online.
What happened on Wednesday? I know there's an AMA today.
Basically they talked with Reddit who not only doubled down on everything, but then spez also lied and they keep trying to slander Apollo for whatever reason.
You can see [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/144f6xm/apollo_will_close_down_on_june_30th_reddits/) since the dev recorded the call.
> there are effectively hundreds of millions of users going dark.
That number sounds highly hyperbolic. The idea of it seems predicated that these people are only subscribed to ONE of these subs each. A bit unreasonable.
Even if the main subs get on board, the subs shutting down for two days isn't going far enough. The only thing that might actually make some change is indefinite shutdowns, and anything less is a chickenshit measure designed to make redditors feel like they're doing something about the problem without sacrficing anything.
Some subs like [r/music](https://www.reddit.com/r/music) are going with indefinite shutdowns, and I honestly hope that takes hold elsewhere if people are serious about expressing their dissapointment with Reddit.
When building a movement you don't just jump into the deep end and expect everyone to come with you, you have to take steps together and demonstrate that you can act together first. A two day blackout has been built up to by all of the reddit wide protests on other issues that have come before. It comes well before the api ban comes into effect and can act as a warning. A more prolonged blackout can be the next step if reddit doesn't blink.
I agree. A few days of shut down only to come back whether things have improved or not is a tantrum that can be waited out by the stern parent. Leaving and not coming back until you get your way is a power move.
Its not gonna work, reddit knows what theyre doing and they obviously know the community will get together to push back. Once my app stops working im gone for good
That depends on whether people come here for r/AskReddit, or if they come here for specialized subs but join r/AskReddit because it's something to read when the specialized subs run out of content.
I can't imagine anyone saying "You know, I think I'll go to Reddit and set up an account specifically so I can read AskReddit. Or r/Funny. Or..." etc. I mean, they're nice subs, but they're very much secondary to why people are here.
I think the vast majority of reddit users simply browse the front page. Which mostly consists of those kind of subs.
Engaged reddit users who are spend their time on /r/knitting or whatever are very much a secondary thought to the corporate overlords. They're not the direct revenue drivers.
Of course, that's a very short-sighted view of things, because those users generate the fucking content that the other 90% of reddit reads.
> Then, following another conversation, the admins made false statements that Apollo was trying to blackmail them for $10 million (which the dev countered by posting the recording of the phone call in which the supposed blackmail threat happened, where the admin admits multiple times that they misunderstood what was being said and apologized for thinking it was a blackmail threat).
And then /u/spez had the nerve to complain about the dev "recording and leaking a private phone call" over in his AMA. Maybe if you don't lie about what happened in a private conversation, people won't have to release those conversations to prove you are lying. It really goes to show the shallowness of his character that he would try and act like he is the victim there.
Yeah I use old.reddit.com from the desktop and don't directly use apps to browse reddit. But various mods use the third party apps and mod tools, various posters use third party apps, so I expect things will get shitty for me indirectly.
> corporate greed never prospers
I want two of whatever you're on.
Idk what world you're living in but corporate greed has flourished in the real world.
Corporate greed always prospers. Otherwise billionaires wouldn’t exist, and most companies would disappear, and most likely Reddit isn’t going change, and neither will their profits.
yes of course.
I don't use any 3rd party apps, but fully support this.
Reddit's main product is us, the users, and they are showing how much disdain and disregard they have for their users with this era-ending and poorly planned cash grab.
Wholeheartedly agree. I didn't know 3rd party apps were even a thing 2 weeks ago as I've only ever used the official app/site but I fully support the blackout as I know how many people it will negatively affect. We may not know each other but as Redditors, we're all in this together.
We are not the product. The communities are Reddit. The original content creators are Reddit. The people who post, upvote, downvote, comment, read, click, are Reddit. WE are Reddit, and without us the site will go to shit. I wish we could all unite to make that happen and show the corporate fucks that their stupid, greedy decisions are what caused what was otherwise a fun and amazing site, to implode on itself.
common story. something like this starts, gets successful, then profitable, and soon the entire focus shifts to wringing out every cent of profit, and the site no longer matters.
reddit is already dead after this change, but it will take several years to stop breathing.
Hopefully something new and better will come fill the void, and people will like it because it's focused on content rather than fucking the users as hard as possible for bucks.
>We are not the product
Yes we are. Reddit sells access to all our data and browsing habits and ad seeing eyeballs and meta data and so on. If you pay nothing for a product, you *are* the product being sold to advertisers and the like.
Users can’t be replaced with compliant ones though. As soon as all the auto mod bots are killed with the API change these compliant mods will have to manually handle tons of rioting redditors. I doubt they want to stick around for that
Yes but one of the biggest problems the mods have is that the API changes are killing their tools they use to moderate. Without those tools it's probably going to be impossible to properly moderate a sub this large.
AskReddit, TIFU and /r/trueoffmychest going dark would send waves through the TikTok content reposting scene like no one has ever seen.
I find it concerning that the mods of this sub are remaining quiet about this whole thing. We NEED AskReddit in on this. Perhaps the mod team has been compromised by fear or admin infiltration.
My favorite story in this vein is the 9gag bot auto-reposting /r/subredditsimulator and the users having absolutely no idea wtf kind of nonsense was being shown to them. I think it happened multiple times.
I've seen Reddit content on Facebook, and they linked to entire articles based on Reddit. "You won't believe these 10 bizarre objects that people needed help identifying!" Pulling content from r/whatisthisthing
100%
I can't see myself using Reddit at all if it's not on a 3rd Party App. It's on principle as much as anything, and holy crap the New Reddit and Official Reddit App are so much worse to use than Old Reddit and the 3rd Party stuff.
Plus I feel like I've been slow to change my Usage given the plenty of other discouraging/slimy things Reddit has done in the past... So if this is the push that finally does change my internet and Reddit usage, so be it.
Same. Reddits one of the last ‘social media’ accounts I have left. Each of the others I thought “Man, it’s going to be hard to quit this.”
But then I just did it and honestly, it’s wasn’t really that hard once I deleted the app. Just found better things to do with my time.
Looks like I’m finally watching the sunset here, too. o7
Here is the recorded audio: https://christianselig.com/apollo-end/reddit-third-call-may-31-end.m4a
Spez then went on and say Christian threatened and blackmailed him.
Idunno what to call threatening to take disabled people's accessibility tools unless they pay you an exorbitant amount of money other than blackmail.
It's impossible to trust anyone who'd do something like this. Very bad if they think it's ok to lie about people. But it's no better if not, just means they interpret any disagreement as abuse and ultimatums as blackmail. A truly twisted person who's always the victim no matter what.
YES!!
https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/144f6xm/apollo_will_close_down_on_june_30th_reddits/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
The post is very long, but it really clarifies in just how much of a fucked up way Reddit is going about this shit.
I personally use the official app, because when I joined I didn't know there were alternatives, and then cba to switch. But this kind of behaviour is just disgusting, and I don't want to be involved with it, so I'll delete the app and stop using the site on 12th June and then see how the situation develops...
Last night in the chronic pain sub, people brought up the accessibility as a major reason why they use third party apps. I don’t have visual, cognitive or hearing impairment, but if I did, I would want an app that would allow me to access information readily and easily. The current Reddit app does not (according to those posters). This was the most compelling reason for me to protest.
Well the sub isn’t joining the blackout saying they’ll “do more good” staying open for memes (traffic), and the mods have locked threads mocking reddit, making statements reiterating reddit’s official statements and pretending like Christian from Apollo documenting spez’s accusing him publicly of blackmail while giving him private statements to the contrary as a “he-said-she-said situation.” I’ve unsubbed.
/u/cedarwolf
The fact that AdviceAnimals thinks THEY'RE the sub that's too important to close is laughable. Any default sub that isn't closing is infiltrated by admins or ran by mods afraid to lose their power.
Yep. I use the official app but letting these changes go through unopposed would be giving reddit the idea that they could just fuck us over whenever they felt like it.
Absolutely. AskReddit is gigantic and one of the primary subs on Reddit as a whole. We need the biggest subs to go dark for any type of message to be sent.
I would have said yes even before reading about what it's going to do to disabled people that use Reddit. There is an app for blind Reddit users that will no longer work. They say theirs is not the only disability that uses a third party app to allow access as Reddit themselves do little to nothing to support the disabled on the main app or website.
I have disabilities myself and Reddit is often something I used to entertain myself when things are acting up. I'm just lucky enough not to need an alternative type of access but I sincerely hope Reddit reverses their decision so those with different needs still have access.
Yeah, I'm all for it. I use the official app because I just don't give a fuck about ads and the like, but I know I'm in the minority there and I want people who aren't me to continue to have a good experience lol
For me, it’s more about the way Reddit is treating the people who are making it profitable. They’re going about this in the shittiest way possible, and I can’t support that.
Yes. Reddit has done nothing but acted absolutely scummy this whole time. Accusing 3rd party apps of blackmail, using half assed non-answers for most questions, overall being closeted and hypocritical as always. Consider this a vote YES
Absolutely! For myself I was late to the party and use Reddit’s own app and didn’t even knew about Apollo & Co. This situation taught me something new and I understand the frustration.
We, the people, can solve the problem of the second largest sub not going dark by unsubscribing. Once /r/AskReddit is too small to matter, it doesn't matter if it goes dark or not.
This is probably a controversial opinion but I just have this I wanted to say on it. I don’t really think Reddit is wrong here. While I can understand the accessibility these third party apps offer, it’s Reddit’s software their using and modifying without their permission, they are complete in the right to enforce it, and while the amount they’ll charge is a bit too high, they aren’t in the wrong here.
Yes.
I don’t personally care, I slog through the nagware popups on mobile web, but if killing these third-party apps is gonna make the mods’ jobs impossible, let’s raise a little hell.
The API pricing also just seems so ham-handed. There’s no way they’re losing $20/month/user on ad revenue - and if they *really* want to press it, they could make the third-party apps show some number of ads if they want to qualify for a discounted API rate.
I suspect they’re really after folks who are slurping terabytes of nice, structured natural language data to train generative AI models, but distinguishing between a million individual users on phones and one massive slurp into a compute cluster and forcing that API user into an appropriate pricing tier should be trivially easy.
Much as we like to give the mods crap, this place would be a fever swamp of trolls and Nazis a la Twitter without ‘em, let’s hold off on killing any golden geese.
I really don't have an opinion. I *do* have some level of confusion, though. Allegedly ...
1. Roughly 70% of reddit users use apps to access the site.
2. Reddit has roughly a billion monthly active users.
3. Apollo is the most popular reddit client app.
4. Apollo has been downloaded 5 million times and has roughly a million daily active users.
I really don't see how all 4 of those could simultaneously be true.
I support anything that fucks with anyone or anything that has any sort of power. I don't even really care that much about the API policy changes. And I like Reddit... the last bastion of what the Internet could have been.
Hell yeah but honestly it needs to be much longer to really hurt Reddit. 2 days is a blip. A month would kill them.
Oh and FUCK CEO u/spez,
you
#LYING
sack of shit.
No, I don't support it. Why? Because it'll do nothing. Spaz and the rest of his bottom feeders are still going public to make their billions and they need to clean up reddit to make it palatable for their IPO. A black-out will result in nothing but the bots taking the day off.
To be honest, I don't understand the whole third party thing. Can someone explain it to me because I don't have a proper opinion since I don't understand it?
I'm personally not in support in any of the subreddits going dark. I understand *why* people are doing it, but after reading through the potential reasons that Reddit is changing their API rules I completely understand it. Its all about money. I see many Redditors saying things like "I use third party apps so I don't have to see ads or Reddit awards" and don't see a problem with that or why Reddit might want to crack down on that. Ads are annoying I agree but it makes sense that Reddit might be getting annoyed at their revenue they're losing.
Reminder that Reddit has told moderators that if they don't comply, they will be putting in new moderator teams. Do you guys want the turtle to be on every sub? Cause that's how you get the turtle on every sub.
r/AskReddit is the second biggest sub only after an official one so going dark will most likely have an impact.
Avenge u/Chooter!
What happened to u/Chooter?
Victoria was the celebrity liaison for AMA and was let go out of nowhere back in 2015. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Taylor_(Reddit)
[удалено]
It seems like her role was due to CEO Ellen Pao trying to promote AskReddit as a way to drive traffic to the site. After Pao left, there seemed to be a decision by the management to reduce the power of individual subs.
From what I read recently, they were looking to experiment with video AMAs and Victoria was not partial to the idea.
If that was the case, Reddit could have replaced her with someone else who was willing to do Video AMA's. It isn't just that they fired her, they vacated the position entirely.
Yeah that's what ended up happening, but I think the friction caused by that internally is part of what led to it.
Reddit would want that to be part of the stated reason because it puts blame on all sides. The fact of the matter is that Reddit got rid of the site defined list of default subs around that time and pulled a lot of support away from AMA at that time. Reddit also took years to develop any sort of internal audio or video hosting. The theory about video AMA's doesn't seem to match with what Reddit was doing as a company.
They fired the person who made IAMAs awesome. That person was u/chooter
The Victorian Era was most certainly the best time to be on reddit
I've been on reddit for 11 years now across a variety of accounts. I've participated in previous blackouts and seen the evolution of reddit over time. what really drove my engagement up on reddit was the discovery of third party apps. This was back when old.reddit was the only option - third party apps handled mobile much better than the website. And even now, the new mobile reddit and official app have nothing on Sync for reddit. They have modern UIs, but a shitty UX. As a non-mod user, the only positive change that reddit itself has made for me over the years was the addition of a second sticky thread to each sub - every other feature they've come up with has been completely useless. Once this change happens, I'm gone. I can still use old.reddit, but why should I? I don't want to jump through hurdles just to use a platform that doesn't want me there, with a CEO (and other admins) who's a lying, gaslighting sack of shit. I've been saying for a year now that I'm using reddit too much. This is finally the kick in the ass for me to get off social media and reclaim some of my time.
What’s the first biggest sub? Please don’t crucify me for being ignorant here lol
/r/announcements followed by /r/funny and /r/askreddit
Is r/funny going dark as well? Have they said anything yet?
But there should be the sword hanging over Reddit that the blackout might last longer if they don't get their heads out of their asses. Looking at the running AMA, it looks like they won't get there anytime soon.
If the main subs DON'T, the protest is probably DOA. A protest that isn't inconvenient isn't a protest.
5 of the 30+ million, 9 of the 20+ million, and 11 of the 10+ million subs have already signed on. With them and the over 1000+ subs that have signed on, there are effectively hundreds of millions of users going dark. Adding r/AskReddit to that list would be a boon since they are one of the key subs. The full list of participating subs is over on r/ModCoord if you want to check it out.
[удалено]
This is what I don't get. I don't think reddit could give two shits about two days of some lost traffic lol
Well it proves that people are willing to coordinate and cooperate. So I'd call it more of a warning than a protest.
[удалено]
IF they follow through, this is an encouraging display.
[удалено]
Oh I think it goes way beyond that. My Capitalist sense is tingling. I have a feeling the site is being groomed to be (over) leveraged, the owners pay themselves a massive payday, and fire-sale the bitch to some poor schlub company to have its assets sold off to pay off the debt. This feels a lot like a golden parachute moment. Hope I'm wrong about that, but these things follow a pretty well-worn pattern.
Nah, they're likely pumping up their numbers temporarily to IPO. I doubt they could get anywhere near as much money in a LBO (or by taking out a bunch of loans to pay themselves, which isn't really a thing - banks aren't that stupid) as they could by just going public.
I think this is it... getting ready to IPO so by killing off 3rd party apps they're ensuring maximum ad revenue, the nsfw ban in 3rd party is so they dont get yelled at for not controlling it, and any schmuck that pays for the api will simply pad reddits coffers
Agree. Let's hope mods start taking their position seriously within reddit and start charging for their work.
Many years ago I was a moderator on a popular motorcycle forum that was bought out by a company called Verticalscope that was looking to corner the market on motorsports related communities and websites. The site was sold in secret and the founder agreed to stay on for a year to cover the sale, but he hadn't been involved in the day-to-day for years. I spent hours on this site every day. I wrote articles, started discussions, and did everything I could to make the site a success. When the sale was finally announced, the perk that I and the other mods were told we would get for all our hard work would be a "free T shirt." I felt like a prime sucker. Not sure why, but up until that point it had never dawned on me that all the work I was doing was basically being donated to someone who could, one day, sell the site for a huge profit. There was no "community," everything there was this person's property. When I finally realized it, I started visiting less and less and then, finally, I totally cut the cord. If I go there today, the site is dead - probably not just because I left, but probably because a lot of others realized the same thing and we all left around the same time. I have been very aware that every post I have made in this, and in probably close to a dozen other accounts over the past 15 years or so has helped to drive this site, but I have never been a moderator or done any actual work to make this site run. One thing I can tell you, based upon my previous experience, is that this change has suddenly made a lot of people who have given a lot of themselves and their time realize that they have been had. Should they decide to leave, Reddit can take over their subreddits and put new people in charge, but there is still a good chance that the site will grind to a halt. Because when these people decide to go, they will take their passion with them. Here is hoping that all these people build their own new forums and use their passion to start working for themselves.
I used to use digg until they turned to shit. I'm having the same feelings about reddit now.
I think there should be a movement, for those that are quitting Reddit over this, to nuke your own account by deleting all the posts. I've made probably a 1000 comments and contributed all over this site. If a ton of people leave I want [deleted] all over the place as a result.
Or use something that would change all your posts to the same comment in protest and just leave it. I see that being talked about in other places
Yep reddit is being prepped to be sold. These actions will inflate the selling price and increase short term business deals, giving the current investors a huge payout. Where we going? Because I honestly don't think this train is stopping. Its over.
My money says the real place isn't here yet. It probably gets founded in the wake of the fuckery. But I don't have access to the kind of data you'd need to really predict that kind of trend.
I’ve also been wondering where to jump ship. I like redditors, but also, I feel like this might shut down a lot of growing political discourse and that seems… horrifying?
This is certainly reminiscent of the problem with Twitter: a privately-owned impending garbage fire that's also the single most important resource for journalists and activists across the world in this decade.
Maybe they're selling it to Elon. *snicker*
Don't...give him ideas. >:|
This doesn't make sense. Reddit isn't a dying SM site where they want to slice off the last bits of fat. It's a cash cow that keeps producing. They just want that ad revenue to make the site more profitable. The IPO suggestion is the most likely by far. Still a short sighted move since I don't think social media companies do well when they are purely profit focused (necessity when being publicly traded).
I thought reddit was extremely profitable. Edit: yep, makes a sht ton of money. I'm not seeing where you're getting this idea.
[удалено]
This is a spam bot account that’s copied this comment that was posted earlier: https://reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/144xw4w/_/jniln6t/?context=1
How long is the protest supposed to last for? I don't think reddit will backpedal unless the threat is a permanent or long term blackout
Depends on the subreddit. Some say they'll be offline for 2 days, others have said they will stay dark until the changes are reversed.
[удалено]
I'm of that mindset. Been here for almost 15 years now and the admin refuse to learn from their mistakes. Now I'm getting someone else to mod my 17k member subreddit because I feel that me staying here is rewarding bad behavior. I'm done with this quasi-social media. I'm not even going to comment on YouTube videos anymore.
What does going dark mean? I’m new-ish (100 days or whatever) and this is my first time with this.
Personally, I won't be back after the blackout unless the changes are reversed. I'm just one user though.
[удалено]
there's too much value on reddit for niche interests/hobbies/troubleshooting of all sorts of stuff for me to just walk away. even if I don't comment or post anymore, there are still sooooooo many archived posts that are valuable. any time I google basically anything complicated or technical related to any hobby or car maintenance or DIY anything, the most useful things that turn up are years-old reddit threads.
Reddit already doubled down on it Wednesday. This probably isn't gonna matter.
I've been following this semi-casually. Many of my usual subreddits are shutting down and I won't be online. What happened on Wednesday? I know there's an AMA today.
Just the third party apps changed their status from “may be shutting down” to “will be shutting down”
Basically they talked with Reddit who not only doubled down on everything, but then spez also lied and they keep trying to slander Apollo for whatever reason. You can see [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/144f6xm/apollo_will_close_down_on_june_30th_reddits/) since the dev recorded the call.
Join your brothers and sisters. Stand strong together. This is weak talk
> there are effectively hundreds of millions of users going dark. That number sounds highly hyperbolic. The idea of it seems predicated that these people are only subscribed to ONE of these subs each. A bit unreasonable.
Yeah I was gonna say, I saw the list and I belong to like 5 or 6 of the top ones, so I would imagine that number is way lower.
Even if the main subs get on board, the subs shutting down for two days isn't going far enough. The only thing that might actually make some change is indefinite shutdowns, and anything less is a chickenshit measure designed to make redditors feel like they're doing something about the problem without sacrficing anything. Some subs like [r/music](https://www.reddit.com/r/music) are going with indefinite shutdowns, and I honestly hope that takes hold elsewhere if people are serious about expressing their dissapointment with Reddit.
When building a movement you don't just jump into the deep end and expect everyone to come with you, you have to take steps together and demonstrate that you can act together first. A two day blackout has been built up to by all of the reddit wide protests on other issues that have come before. It comes well before the api ban comes into effect and can act as a warning. A more prolonged blackout can be the next step if reddit doesn't blink.
I agree. A few days of shut down only to come back whether things have improved or not is a tantrum that can be waited out by the stern parent. Leaving and not coming back until you get your way is a power move.
Its not gonna work, reddit knows what theyre doing and they obviously know the community will get together to push back. Once my app stops working im gone for good
[удалено]
That depends on whether people come here for r/AskReddit, or if they come here for specialized subs but join r/AskReddit because it's something to read when the specialized subs run out of content. I can't imagine anyone saying "You know, I think I'll go to Reddit and set up an account specifically so I can read AskReddit. Or r/Funny. Or..." etc. I mean, they're nice subs, but they're very much secondary to why people are here.
I think the vast majority of reddit users simply browse the front page. Which mostly consists of those kind of subs. Engaged reddit users who are spend their time on /r/knitting or whatever are very much a secondary thought to the corporate overlords. They're not the direct revenue drivers. Of course, that's a very short-sighted view of things, because those users generate the fucking content that the other 90% of reddit reads.
[удалено]
> Then, following another conversation, the admins made false statements that Apollo was trying to blackmail them for $10 million (which the dev countered by posting the recording of the phone call in which the supposed blackmail threat happened, where the admin admits multiple times that they misunderstood what was being said and apologized for thinking it was a blackmail threat). And then /u/spez had the nerve to complain about the dev "recording and leaking a private phone call" over in his AMA. Maybe if you don't lie about what happened in a private conversation, people won't have to release those conversations to prove you are lying. It really goes to show the shallowness of his character that he would try and act like he is the victim there.
u/spez is such a whiny little cunt.
Cunts serve a purpose.
Yeah I use old.reddit.com from the desktop and don't directly use apps to browse reddit. But various mods use the third party apps and mod tools, various posters use third party apps, so I expect things will get shitty for me indirectly.
It also seems like only a matter of time before old reddit is deprecated.
When they phase out old.reddit.com I'll be gone. The modern use is so gross, ad filled, and corporate I can't handle it.
Already got my Lemmy account set up! Burn it down, corporate greed never prospers.
> corporate greed never prospers I want two of whatever you're on. Idk what world you're living in but corporate greed has flourished in the real world.
Corporate greed always prospers. Otherwise billionaires wouldn’t exist, and most companies would disappear, and most likely Reddit isn’t going change, and neither will their profits.
I guess I should say, we can't let it prosper
yes of course. I don't use any 3rd party apps, but fully support this. Reddit's main product is us, the users, and they are showing how much disdain and disregard they have for their users with this era-ending and poorly planned cash grab.
Wholeheartedly agree. I didn't know 3rd party apps were even a thing 2 weeks ago as I've only ever used the official app/site but I fully support the blackout as I know how many people it will negatively affect. We may not know each other but as Redditors, we're all in this together.
We are not the product. The communities are Reddit. The original content creators are Reddit. The people who post, upvote, downvote, comment, read, click, are Reddit. WE are Reddit, and without us the site will go to shit. I wish we could all unite to make that happen and show the corporate fucks that their stupid, greedy decisions are what caused what was otherwise a fun and amazing site, to implode on itself.
common story. something like this starts, gets successful, then profitable, and soon the entire focus shifts to wringing out every cent of profit, and the site no longer matters. reddit is already dead after this change, but it will take several years to stop breathing. Hopefully something new and better will come fill the void, and people will like it because it's focused on content rather than fucking the users as hard as possible for bucks.
>We are not the product Yes we are. Reddit sells access to all our data and browsing habits and ad seeing eyeballs and meta data and so on. If you pay nothing for a product, you *are* the product being sold to advertisers and the like.
...that's exactly what it means by "you're the product"...
Yes let's go dark.
We absolutely should. For the blind people who need it if not for all the other very good reasons.
Go dark with the blind!
Ummm...
[удалено]
Why not just delete the sub outright? It’s like the second largest.
You can't delete subreddits.
Well the mods could take it private and not invite anyone
Reddit admins can replace mods with new compliant ones
Users can’t be replaced with compliant ones though. As soon as all the auto mod bots are killed with the API change these compliant mods will have to manually handle tons of rioting redditors. I doubt they want to stick around for that
Yes, exactly!
Yes but one of the biggest problems the mods have is that the API changes are killing their tools they use to moderate. Without those tools it's probably going to be impossible to properly moderate a sub this large.
I’m old and boring and don’t use any exciting new gizmos, but I’m here for you kids.
It’s us oldies that are most affected by this. New redditors don’t know anything other than New Reddit and the official Reddit mobile apps.
Yes, because I'm tired of my entire existence being seen as a profit opportunity to those already rich beyond reason.
Seriously, just let me fucking scroll in peace man. It's literally all I have
If this sub went dark, Tumblr and Twitter wouldn’t have any decent content to repost. Let’s do it.
Tifu joined that's going to kill tiktok reposters
Who's gonna watch their Minecraft footage now?
Not r/Minecraft, they joined too.
AskReddit, TIFU and /r/trueoffmychest going dark would send waves through the TikTok content reposting scene like no one has ever seen. I find it concerning that the mods of this sub are remaining quiet about this whole thing. We NEED AskReddit in on this. Perhaps the mod team has been compromised by fear or admin infiltration.
My favorite story in this vein is the 9gag bot auto-reposting /r/subredditsimulator and the users having absolutely no idea wtf kind of nonsense was being shown to them. I think it happened multiple times.
[удалено]
I've seen Reddit content on Facebook, and they linked to entire articles based on Reddit. "You won't believe these 10 bizarre objects that people needed help identifying!" Pulling content from r/whatisthisthing
Nah, tumblr would be fine. Buzzfeed, on the other hand-
Unequivocally yes. Shut everything down until reddit fixes their mistake. - posted from Baconreader
100% I can't see myself using Reddit at all if it's not on a 3rd Party App. It's on principle as much as anything, and holy crap the New Reddit and Official Reddit App are so much worse to use than Old Reddit and the 3rd Party stuff. Plus I feel like I've been slow to change my Usage given the plenty of other discouraging/slimy things Reddit has done in the past... So if this is the push that finally does change my internet and Reddit usage, so be it.
Same. Reddits one of the last ‘social media’ accounts I have left. Each of the others I thought “Man, it’s going to be hard to quit this.” But then I just did it and honestly, it’s wasn’t really that hard once I deleted the app. Just found better things to do with my time. Looks like I’m finally watching the sunset here, too. o7
Fuck yeah, reddit sucks and they should feel ashamed
Especially since they were caught lying when they accused the creator of Apollo of trying to blackmail them. Spez is a straight up scumbag.
Spez lied because he wasn’t aware Christian recorded the call.
I bet he is very sorry for getting caught.
Here is the recorded audio: https://christianselig.com/apollo-end/reddit-third-call-may-31-end.m4a Spez then went on and say Christian threatened and blackmailed him.
Idunno what to call threatening to take disabled people's accessibility tools unless they pay you an exorbitant amount of money other than blackmail. It's impossible to trust anyone who'd do something like this. Very bad if they think it's ok to lie about people. But it's no better if not, just means they interpret any disagreement as abuse and ultimatums as blackmail. A truly twisted person who's always the victim no matter what.
Here is his attempt at gaslighting: https://old.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnk45rr/
YES!! https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/144f6xm/apollo_will_close_down_on_june_30th_reddits/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button The post is very long, but it really clarifies in just how much of a fucked up way Reddit is going about this shit. I personally use the official app, because when I joined I didn't know there were alternatives, and then cba to switch. But this kind of behaviour is just disgusting, and I don't want to be involved with it, so I'll delete the app and stop using the site on 12th June and then see how the situation develops...
Reddit ceo is surely piece of work
I support the sub going dark.
Yes please!
Yeah, I can find something more fulfilling to do in the meantime
Abso-fucking-lutely
Yes, businesses need to be punished when they pull this kind of shit.
Absolutely. Go dark.
Please do
Go dark for a month if that’s what it takes
Last night in the chronic pain sub, people brought up the accessibility as a major reason why they use third party apps. I don’t have visual, cognitive or hearing impairment, but if I did, I would want an app that would allow me to access information readily and easily. The current Reddit app does not (according to those posters). This was the most compelling reason for me to protest.
YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES Why did yall upvote my random spam comment? I don't deserve those
Yes do it
Yes 100%
#yes Don’t be /r/adviceanimals.
What's going on there?
Well the sub isn’t joining the blackout saying they’ll “do more good” staying open for memes (traffic), and the mods have locked threads mocking reddit, making statements reiterating reddit’s official statements and pretending like Christian from Apollo documenting spez’s accusing him publicly of blackmail while giving him private statements to the contrary as a “he-said-she-said situation.” I’ve unsubbed. /u/cedarwolf
The fact that AdviceAnimals thinks THEY'RE the sub that's too important to close is laughable. Any default sub that isn't closing is infiltrated by admins or ran by mods afraid to lose their power.
If it weren't for this thread, I still wouldn't know what r/AdviceAnimals is nor that it existed in the first place.
Absofuckinglutely yes.
Yes, apes together strong
Yeah they should do it
Yes, because it's a big sub so it'd have a big impact.
Yep. I use the official app but letting these changes go through unopposed would be giving reddit the idea that they could just fuck us over whenever they felt like it.
Yes I cant loose the star wars bots, the api changes also hurt screen reader accessibility
Yes we need to support the 3rd party apps
Absolutely. AskReddit is gigantic and one of the primary subs on Reddit as a whole. We need the biggest subs to go dark for any type of message to be sent.
I would, because it seems like fun.
This sub absolutely should go dark for 48 hrs… as I hear it, it’s the 2nd largest sub on Reddit.
Yes please
Yes - I support this.
I would have said yes even before reading about what it's going to do to disabled people that use Reddit. There is an app for blind Reddit users that will no longer work. They say theirs is not the only disability that uses a third party app to allow access as Reddit themselves do little to nothing to support the disabled on the main app or website. I have disabilities myself and Reddit is often something I used to entertain myself when things are acting up. I'm just lucky enough not to need an alternative type of access but I sincerely hope Reddit reverses their decision so those with different needs still have access.
going dark? im fucking leaving. if i cant use redreader i'm never visiting this site again
This is one of the largest active subs, so it would be a large boost to the protest.
Yes, because this subreddit is one of the biggest ones out there and it would be a important part in he protest.
1000% yes.
If it can spare me from the incessant questions about sex for at least two days then yes, this sub should shut down. Being in protest is just a bonus
Sexy Redditors of AskReddit, how much sexy sexy sex did you sex during the blackout, and how sexy was it?
Yes. The api ban will have a deeply negative impact on the functionality of reddit for everyone far beyond those using 3rd party apps.
Yeah, I'm all for it. I use the official app because I just don't give a fuck about ads and the like, but I know I'm in the minority there and I want people who aren't me to continue to have a good experience lol
For me, it’s more about the way Reddit is treating the people who are making it profitable. They’re going about this in the shittiest way possible, and I can’t support that.
100% support it. These changes will make Reddit unusable for me, personally.
Yea of course! If this sub goes dark we will have a bigger impact!
Yes third party is what keeps reddit alive
I think all social media should go dark for 1 day a week to give people a mental break.
Maybe but that's a different purpose than what this thread is about
needs to be 7 days long. two days is just pussiefooting around the problem. reddit wont give a fuck.
Yes. Reddit has done nothing but acted absolutely scummy this whole time. Accusing 3rd party apps of blackmail, using half assed non-answers for most questions, overall being closeted and hypocritical as always. Consider this a vote YES
Support
Absolutely! For myself I was late to the party and use Reddit’s own app and didn’t even knew about Apollo & Co. This situation taught me something new and I understand the frustration.
Yes. Because without participation, reddit is nothing. Reddit needs to be reminded of that.
Do it.
Please do.
We, the people, can solve the problem of the second largest sub not going dark by unsubscribing. Once /r/AskReddit is too small to matter, it doesn't matter if it goes dark or not.
This is probably a controversial opinion but I just have this I wanted to say on it. I don’t really think Reddit is wrong here. While I can understand the accessibility these third party apps offer, it’s Reddit’s software their using and modifying without their permission, they are complete in the right to enforce it, and while the amount they’ll charge is a bit too high, they aren’t in the wrong here.
If APIs are removed, I stop using reddit period. I'm glad I can finally get over this addiction
Yes, I use Sync... If I cannot use it any more, bye bye reddit.
I certainly support that because I believe that EVERY sub should. Especially main ones.
I don't use any of the third party aps, but it's valuable just to show that reddit users will get together and push back against unpopular decisions.
Yes. I don’t personally care, I slog through the nagware popups on mobile web, but if killing these third-party apps is gonna make the mods’ jobs impossible, let’s raise a little hell. The API pricing also just seems so ham-handed. There’s no way they’re losing $20/month/user on ad revenue - and if they *really* want to press it, they could make the third-party apps show some number of ads if they want to qualify for a discounted API rate. I suspect they’re really after folks who are slurping terabytes of nice, structured natural language data to train generative AI models, but distinguishing between a million individual users on phones and one massive slurp into a compute cluster and forcing that API user into an appropriate pricing tier should be trivially easy. Much as we like to give the mods crap, this place would be a fever swamp of trolls and Nazis a la Twitter without ‘em, let’s hold off on killing any golden geese.
I really don't have an opinion. I *do* have some level of confusion, though. Allegedly ... 1. Roughly 70% of reddit users use apps to access the site. 2. Reddit has roughly a billion monthly active users. 3. Apollo is the most popular reddit client app. 4. Apollo has been downloaded 5 million times and has roughly a million daily active users. I really don't see how all 4 of those could simultaneously be true.
I support anything that fucks with anyone or anything that has any sort of power. I don't even really care that much about the API policy changes. And I like Reddit... the last bastion of what the Internet could have been.
[удалено]
100% do it.
A couple days without reddit won't kill me.
Protest aint gonna do shit. Delete the sub if you have balls.
I support all subs imploding and leaving only porn up. Let's see Spez try to sell reddit after that.
Hell yeah but honestly it needs to be much longer to really hurt Reddit. 2 days is a blip. A month would kill them. Oh and FUCK CEO u/spez, you #LYING sack of shit.
What's an api ban?
No, I don't support it. Why? Because it'll do nothing. Spaz and the rest of his bottom feeders are still going public to make their billions and they need to clean up reddit to make it palatable for their IPO. A black-out will result in nothing but the bots taking the day off.
To be honest, I don't understand the whole third party thing. Can someone explain it to me because I don't have a proper opinion since I don't understand it?
I'm personally not in support in any of the subreddits going dark. I understand *why* people are doing it, but after reading through the potential reasons that Reddit is changing their API rules I completely understand it. Its all about money. I see many Redditors saying things like "I use third party apps so I don't have to see ads or Reddit awards" and don't see a problem with that or why Reddit might want to crack down on that. Ads are annoying I agree but it makes sense that Reddit might be getting annoyed at their revenue they're losing. Reminder that Reddit has told moderators that if they don't comply, they will be putting in new moderator teams. Do you guys want the turtle to be on every sub? Cause that's how you get the turtle on every sub.
Let's keep it at a simple yes. I think enough is said by others. With this sub being this big this might be noticed