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If the blackout is only for two days then they're right, but if they continue indefinitely it could force a change (reddit is currently unusable since all but o
by TheFreim 3y ago
If the blackout is only for two days then they're right, but if they continue indefinitely it could force a change (reddit is currently unusable since all but one sub I enjoy is gone, if it was gone indefinitely then reddit would be indefinitely out of the picture for me).
- adrr 3y agoThey’ll just replace the mods if the popular subreddits go longer than 2 days.
- FranzFerdiNaN 3y agoGood luck finding hundreds of new mods.
- MuffinFlavored 3y agoThey can pay for it with their increased revenue from the new API pricing /s
- lambdas 3y agoI don’t doubt they’ll have people lining up out the door to be mods… whether someone you picked with zero vetting because you’re in dire straits is going to be a good mod though is very doubtful. I can see things going very sour if they choose to replace long standing mods.
- fknorangesite 3y ago> someone you picked with zero vetting As opposed to the current state of affairs, where it is someone you didn't pick, also with zero vetting.
- zamalek 3y agoReddit mods are causally picked by the users. If they don't tow the users' line you're looking at even more drama (there has already been tons of mod drama in the past). The slightest hint of power hungering is enough to set off a wildfire across the site, so anyone that is lining up is probably unqualified to begin with. The current set of volunteer mods are by far Reddit's largest asset - especially on the major subs.
- SkyPuncher 3y agoI suspect they're already moderating more subs than they lead on publicly. I see no way the big subs that have remained open aren't being moderated by someone on Reddit's payroll. That means they'll let these subs go dark, claim they're unmoderated (even though they could take over them right now), and expand their internal moderation team.
- predictabl3 3y agoI keep seeing this sentiment everywhere. There's absolutely zero support for it, whatsoever, other than that folks can't possibly imagine that most of reddit's value is built on the back of volunteers.
- George83728 3y agoAre you kidding? There's no shortage of would-be petty tyrants willing to work for free to get a little taste of power. Insofar as the current mods think they're better than this, they're just getting high off their own farts.
- thegreatdukd 3y agoCheering for them to do that for r/nba already. Mods blacked out the sub on the last day of the NBA finals. Zero common sense.
- TheFreim 3y agoThis is the entire point of the blackout, make reddit unusable to demonstrate that damage to reddit can be done if they don't change their plans.
- thegreatdukd 3y agoI care about basketball, not about API costs and I don't find mod's job that much useful for aggregating daily threads on results and most recent NBA relevant tweets.
- randomdata 3y agoIf basketball discussion is what you care about, then who cares if the discussion takes place on Reddit? Forums are a dime a dozen.
- rizzaxc 3y agoso you care about having a place to gather, to talk about your hobby and usually at the mods' effort to aggregate content (I assume since these are always the most upvoted and most commented threads on match day), but you don't find their job "that much useful"?
- danaris 3y ago"I care about getting my $2 T-shirts, not about whether Walmart's employees can afford to pay for rent, food, and heat in the same week without relying on public assistance!" Just because you don't appreciate the work that other human beings do doesn't mean that they deserve to be treated like shit, nor does it mean that when they stand up against greedy bastards who care neither about them, you, nor the product or service they're selling you should throw them to the wolves just because it inconveniences your life.
- samwillis 3y agoAt some point, if they remain closed, Reddit will just take ownership of them, suspend the mods and reopen the reddits. They will however need to do it carefully, probably after most others have folded and reopened, so as not to cause another blackout. But ultimately it's their platform, they can do what they want. Maybe they will just have to start actually employing the mods, which may actually end up a net positive from this fiasco.
- wellthisisgreat 3y agothe unmotivated mods will tank the subreddits and Reddit doesn't seem to be in a position to pay the mods
- zamalek 3y agoEven worse if the mods just walked away. Reddit is completely beholden to them, but the mods aren't beholden to Reddit at all (except for imaginary internet points). The likes of Voat are a good example of what happens with lax moderation.
- copperx 3y agoThey can just disable the private subreddit feature without changing absolutely anything else.
- Ataraxic 3y agoReopening is one thing but moderating an internet forum for no pay is not universally appealing. Losing the most motivated mods may be a big loss, or extremely active users who post and/or make content. Hard to know right now but I think we'll get an early glimpse when some reopen.
- jtode 3y agoWho will they give the job to, and what will they pay them?
- fallinghawks 3y agoMost of the reason Reddit works at all is because of the huge number of volunteers doing moderation because they're passionate about their sub. If Reddit had to pay for moderators they would be bankrupt in a very short time. And even if it did replace mods with its own people (whether paid or not) the quality of the sub will drop.
- 98codes 3y agoThe only thing they care about is bottom line, and this, "Huffman says the blackout hasn’t had “significant revenue impact”," is key. To lose 95.8% of your site (judged by the 8467 out of 8838 subreddits gone dark) and not have a revenue impact at all raises some questions, primarily if there are any revenue streams based on usage, or only on monthly subscriptions and non-view-based ad contracts?
- oxygen_crisis 3y ago> To lose 95.8% of your site (judged by the 8467 out of 8838 subreddits gone dark) That's out of the 8838 that made a pledge to go dark. Those ~400 are just the ones that went "restricted" (read-only) instead of private, or flaked on the pledge. There are over a million subreddits, the blackout doesn't even reach one percent of them.
- Ataraxic 3y agoAnyone can make a subreddit if it's not been taken but you're right in that the real impact is by # of users affected. I think if what I read is true that ~ 1/2 of the top subreddits went dark that is a big outage. FWIW my reddit is not really usable except for 1 sub that I read.
- norgie 3y agoYour denominator is pretty much useless in terms of measuring user impact since subreddit subscriber size is not evenly distributed.
- graeme 3y agoIt's about 70% of the largest subreddits: https://blackout.photon-reddit.com/ https://blackout.photon-reddit.com/
- meepmorp 3y agoThere are plenty still open, but many of those million are dead anyway. I've made half dozen and abandoned them all.
- 3y ago
- MuffinFlavored 3y ago> If the blackout is only for two days then they're right Yeah... I don't know the tradeoffs at play but 2 days is... extremely insignificant / probably a bad decision by all of the moderators? It sends a message sure but, it's a bunch of "whiny reddit mods" versus C-level executives in a "help us make API more affordable versus help us not lose a ton of money offering generous free API hosting/usage" negotiation. How does the CEO + team not just ignore this two day spat? They are in the business of making money. Why should they foot the bill for the API calls? So they have to crack down on some 3rd party apps we all took for granted and kill a few apps off. Sucks but at the end of the day, will it really matter in 6 months? Now, blackout for a week or two weeks to really hurt their ad revenue traffic, sure But 2 days?... lol
- nequo 3y agoWhat the 2 day blackout does is it nudges people to explore alternatives. With this, Reddit management has lowered the barriers to exit. When the next boycott comes, migration for many subreddits will be easier.
- MuffinFlavored 3y ago> What the 2 day blackout does is it nudges people to explore alternatives I don't think 2 days is significant enough for that slash I don't think an alternative to reddit exists given the fact that it has millions of users and millions of different niche subreddits
- jamcrimer 3y agobut we're already commenting on the only good reddit alternative... :)
- MuffinFlavored 3y agoYou won't be talking about stocks or NBA / NFL / NHL on HackerNews (for good reason :))
- 3y ago
- ehutch79 3y agoIt'll only be for two days. Which means it's exactly as effective as gas boycotts.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- aeternum 3y agoI kind of like it, many of the large overpopulated subreddits are gone and more niche subreddits remain. Reddit may have found a way to end the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September
- fho 3y agoFor me it's the other way around ... A lot if the high volume subreddits are gone leaving only the small communities that I have actually subscribed to ... And honestly, I very much enjoy the current state of reddit :-/
- gremlinsinc 3y agoit's out indefinitely for me, the day I can no longer use relay for reddit on Android.
- jeeva 3y agoIt's amazing how my muscle memory reaches for the spot that it was on my homescreen in any spare moment, and also excellent that my doing that has faded hugely even in the last day.