8 ms·

Hundreds of subreddits plan to go dark indefinitely after Reddit CEO's memo

101 points by de6u99er 3y ago

Kiro 3y ago
I see a lot of backlash on reddit right now. A few of the top voted comments in a couple of the threads on my current frontpage: https://old.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/149cq9f/comment/jo4fs7t/ https://old.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/149cq9f/comment/jo4... https://old.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/149cq9f/comment/jo4gy94/ https://old.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/149cq9f/comment/jo4... https://old.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/148xygd/comment/jo2h5hp/ https://old.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/148xygd/comment/j... https://old.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/148xygd/comment/jo2g0k3/ https://old.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/148xygd/comment/j...
- hn_thrwn 3y ago
  [flagged]
- cmdli 3y ago
  In most of the polls that I have seen, people are supporting an indefinite blackout. There is definitely some backlash, but overall it seems like people support the protest.
  - Kiro 3y ago
    Can you link any of those polls? I saw a lot of polls with a vast majority voting for the initial blackout but the tone of the response to this indefinite blackout feels way different.
    - cmdli 3y ago
      https://www.reddit.com/r/cremposting/comments/149a7ge/poll_should_we_continue_to_stay_dark/ https://www.reddit.com/r/cremposting/comments/149a7ge/poll_s... https://www.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/comments/148w58w/vote_shall_we_blackout_again_or_remain_open/ https://www.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/comments/148w58w/vote_s... https://reddit.com/r/tennis/comments/148suem/rtennis_blackout_stay_private_or_open_up/ https://reddit.com/r/tennis/comments/148suem/rtennis_blackou... https://reddit.com/r/SipsTea/comments/148sk76/further_protests/ https://reddit.com/r/SipsTea/comments/148sk76/further_protes... https://strawpoll.com/polls/e7ZJGVOXBy3 https://strawpoll.com/polls/e7ZJGVOXBy3 (/r/stardewvalley) A decent number of them show that people support an indefinite blackout, though there are some exceptions (like /r/tennis), where there is more support for opening back up. It's not universal, but generally people seem to be in favor of keeping the pressure on Reddit this way.
    - Izkata 3y ago
      Only today did I spot any poll in the ones I visit regularly, and they voted to stay open for even the initial blackout. Seems like it was mostly mod decisions in the first place.
    - heyheyhey 3y ago
      > I saw a lot of polls with a vast majority voting for the initial blackout but the tone of the response to this indefinite blackout feels way different. It's selection bias. The average user didn't care or know about the initial blackout. Now that they're affected, they're more likely to vote in these polls.
  - vladsiv 3y ago
    As they should. As far as I can see, the second they ban the third party services, they will start pushing ads, hard. You'll be stuck with their official app and their website will use anti ad-blocking tech like YT is testing right now. So at the end, it's all about getting more money on the back of the community.
- xanderstrike 3y ago
  By definition anyone posting/commenting/upvoting right now doesn't support the blackout. I don't think it's fair to say these comments represent the opinions of those communities.
  - hackerlight 3y ago
    > I don't think it's fair to say these comments represent the opinions of those communities. The gaming subreddit, relative to other subreddits, is going to be demographically tilted towards the "anti-SJW" types who find collective action intrinsically distaseful regardless of the validity of the cause.
    - hgsgm 3y ago
      anti-SJW love collective action like vandalizing stores and bridgading forums.
    - danudey 3y ago
      I've noticed that the "anti-SJW" types are inherently opposed to anything that inconveniences them even slightly, no matter how beneficial it is to anyone else (including themselves). If the entire world isn't focused entirely on them they throw a fit.
- EscapeFromNY 3y ago
  I mean, you linked a comment with 700 votes in a thread where the top comment has over 9000 votes. Maybe read through the thread without cherry picking comments: https://old.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/149cq9f/reddit_were_sorry/ https://old.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/149cq9f/reddit_were...
  - Kiro 3y ago
    > A few of the top voted comments Not the top comment. My point was to show that the threads now have highly upvoted comments like that, which was not the case for the initial blackout. And how is it possible not to cherry pick when picking examples? Would you rather have me pick completely random comments and say "one of these may show what I'm talking about but I don't know"?
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
- InCityDreams 3y ago
  Thanks, but not going there. The reddit break has been great for me, apart from agreeing with 'the cause'. As much as I will miss the content, I will now do other things. I never saw it as an addiction, but a pleasant habit, and a very easy one to break. Bye, bye 5k+ points (in about c4 months). I was actually quite proud of that. Now, it can all rot in hell.
  - worrycue 3y ago
    Reddit has been kind of bad for my mental health. Like many I refresh the various front pages hoping for my next dopamine fix - addicted to the low commitment required and instant gratification. I let the little karma number affect me way too much - I have started to hate such gamification of forums. Guess I will get my fix elsewhere now and hopefully someday I will stop altogether and make better use of my time. Reddit going bad just makes it a tad easier.
- Whatarethese 3y ago
  These people strike me as those who will just take everything lying down. Just because it doesn't impact them it's a lost cause. The reason reddit works like it does today is because of some of those protests.
  - gremlinsinc 3y ago
    Reddit was born from protests and seems it could die by them. Digg users protested and migrated enmasse to Reddit. It might happen again.
agilecobol 3y ago
Based on the interview Christian Selig gave, Apollo has enough active and paying users, that he could continue to make this work with adjustments to the backend code as well as paid products offered by Apollo. Understandably, it seems there is little will after the relationship between Christian and Reddit soured. My guess is, Christian is content that he can now fully focus on Pixel Pals.
- briffle 3y ago
  In the interview, he said his biggest problems are timing, and annual plans. 1. He has 30 days from the announcement of what the price was going to be, to implement new paid only plans, that follow some new rules. When the app store can take days to approve a new build, that is not much time to re-iterate and test something that being wrong could be very, very costly. 2. He has many people who paid literally a few dollars a year for apollo, and have months left on their subscription. He can give up $250k refunding their money, or spend a few millionn paying the API fees for them until its renewal time, and hope they renew.
timeagain 3y ago
I’ma lurker on Reddit. No account, I just browse the top threads to kill time on the bus. From my perspective absolutely nothing has changed other than some new subreddits hitting the front page. The topics are the same. Maybe a little more international content——I can’t recall “ich_iel” ever making it to the top before. I understand most users are lurkers like me. With that in mind, I don’t believe these blackouts will accomplish much. They’ll probably accelerate the homogenization of the platform and the race to the bottom in terms of quality, but that is happening anyway. I already know Reddit is mind-numbing days-old TikTok memes, I use it anyway because I like the interface more. Edit: it isn’t that I am against the blackout, I just think in realpolitik terms it is not effective since most people are really not that invested or interested in participating in activism for their memes.
- baby 3y ago
  Reddit is not alienating the lurkers. It’s much worse, it’s alienating the power users, the content creators, the sub moderators, etc.
  - timeagain 3y ago
    Right. And my point is that it won’t affect their bottom line at all. The power users think they have “communities” but they do not. To us plebs it is mostly an afterthought that there are different subreddits at all. Reddits front page could be totally AI-generated and i bet most users wouldn’t notice. Another day, another “what’s something underrated you think everyone should know” thread. The power users probably have a higher rate of block installed anyhow, so maybe Reddit will see a little uptick in “engagement”
    - edgyquant 3y ago
      Exactly. The people generating revenue for Reddit would probably have their mind blown knowing their are other apps and wonder why Reddit ever allowed such a thing.
    - baby 3y ago
      I think you're misunderstanding how Reddit works. Without the 2% contributors and the moderators there's nothing. There's three hard things about community-based platforms: moderation, content creation, users. Reddit has all three, but it's about to lose the first two, in which case it won't work.
vinayan3 3y ago
How are the reddit mods communicating and coordinating? Is it on Discord?
- dsir 3y ago
  Ironically using a sub-reddit created for this
  - realitythreek 3y ago
    That makes sense though. Realistically it’s more important that they can communicate and there wasn’t time to set up an alternate channel.
    - dsir 3y ago
      Yeah fair enough. It definitely was the quickest and easiest approach to organizing fast given the circumstances
monero-xmr 3y ago
I mean they can just force reopen them and new moderators who don’t care about API stuff will take over.
- hombre_fatal 3y ago
  My friend shut down his subreddit and a mod complained to Reddit admins that my friend wasn’t even active, and Reddit admins gave that mod the subreddit. Great system.
  - sshine 3y ago
    It just means: if you create a subreddit, you don’t own it in any way. You’re granted permission to be its custodian. If your behaviour does not create value / if you anger the Reddit gods, you will be replaced.
- xanderstrike 3y ago
  This assumes there's an army of competent mods in waiting that the admins can tap into, who could take over (without many of the tools the previous mods used) and effectively run some of the largest communities on the internet. This strikes me as unlikely.
  - key8chev 3y ago
    This assumes there isnt an army of unemployed people with a power fetish using reddit willing to lord over top subs that would be brought back by force. Aside from deleting bad words and over the top vulgar opinions in clean subs what does a mod do besides sit around staring at their screen?
    - pokerface_86 3y ago
      what does a software engineer do besides sitting around staring at a screen, typing and googling? anyone can be a reductive ass. not that i think reddit power mods are good but any forum’s moderators do more than that and you’re just being a dick in bad faith
weinzierl 3y ago
I support this, but as someone who doesn't have a Reddit account currently it also makes me want to create one again, just to be able to read threads that come up in my search results. But then again I would be supporting Reddit (the company, not the community), which would be counterproductive to the initiatives objective.
- IceWreck 3y ago
  Private subs are private for everyone, even members. Only sub moderators and admins can access private subs. You won't be able to see the threads that come up in your search results either way unless they become public again.
  - noahjk 3y ago
    There's a third tier, something like "approved submitters." Some subs, especially smaller ones, would randomly add users to the list based on some criteria. These people would be able to browse private subs as well. There's a way to see what subs you've been added to as an approved submitter, somewhere on old.Reddit under the subreddits page
  - x3n0ph3n3 3y ago
    This isn't true at all -- I can see content in all of the private subreddits that I am already subscribed to. It is only restricted to anonymous users or users who are not subscribed.
    - thecosmicfrog 3y ago
      Those are probably subs that are in read-only mode. Private subs are completely inaccessible.
    - tommit 3y ago
      > It is only restricted to anonymous users or users who are not subscribed. Those subreddits are restricted, not private.
jerdthenerd 3y ago
Reddit can always bring subs back online - the question is if they can find dedicated mods for those subs that were previously ran by volunteers.
dsir 3y ago
Just to add to the list of alternatives, I've been working on a platform with a bit of a different take on the online community space. It's sort of a Reddit/Discord/Patreon hybrid. We've built a place to monetarily incentivize ownership over the communities created on the platform. It feels like the people curating the communities should be rewarded for the work that they do. Here's an example community: https://sociables.com/community/Sports/board/trending https://sociables.com/community/Sports/board/trending
- danudey 3y ago
  I haven't dug into it too much, and the UI seems a bit cluttered and confusing (e.g. when I click into a community I get a huge amount of random information instead of just some posts), but in terms of structure this is the closest I've seen to something that actually understands what Reddit actually is (a community of communities) rather than just creating a huge bucket full of posts with hashtags and calling it a day. Good work!
  - dsir 3y ago
    Appreciate the feedback. There is definitely a bit of a learning curve to our platform coming from a place like reddit. It's intentionally not a 1-to-1 copy. We're kind of building a Discord/Reddit/Patreon hybrid that combines the best parts of each platform to try and bring a bit of innovation into the community platform space. A focus of ours is to help the community owners monetize.
mongol 3y ago
As a lowly redditor I feel this has become a fight between a nomenclatura of moderators and Reddit. The moderators believe they are taking the rightful fight, but as far as I am concerned, they they don't represent a community since they are not elected by it. They elect themselves, right? So this is less of a grass roots movement than it may appear.
- bbor 3y ago
  Many communities did hold votes on this issue. And it would be very very hard to organize a moderator election on a free online forums with hundreds of thousands of members…
  - mongol 3y ago
    It wouldn't be _that_ hard. It would not meet the bar for true democracy but accounts older than X months with a karma > Y and more than Z comments could be eligible to vote for example.
renewiltord 3y ago
This is unfortunate for the long tail of communities since places like /r/hardwareswap do rely on automation significantly to drive their functionality. Reddit is a little bit like a Craigslist in that sense: it is hard to unbundle, but also it is hard for the bundle to capitalize on the market flow through it. Interesting puzzle, for sure, and I will be curious to see if there will be a new meta-community that can create the wide range of communities like /r/tipofmytongue, /r/hardwareswap, /r/changemyview, etc. Reddit may be unable to justify its valuation without being able to drive more revenue but there is a place for a meta-community that is more focused like that without having any of the complex pieces of functionality like federation, etc.
CrossWired 3y ago
Something is afoot over there. I updated and then removed all comments, like, everything on my account, and then deleted the account a few days ago. And now its back with the previous comment I updated everything to intact. They did some form of rollback.
- willis936 3y ago
  Something similar happened to me during the great yahoo hack. My email stayed compromised even across password changes, so I deleted my account. So the person taking it over undid that then updated the recovery information. I was never able to regain control of that account that I'm certain spams my contact list to this day. After that I stopped deleting accounts. I maintain a firm grip on every one, even ones I never plan to use again (including facebook and reddit).
- jasonladuke0311 3y ago
  Wow you aren’t kidding, I did the same the other day and mine appear to be back as well.
- callalex 3y ago
  This sounds like a missive violation of EU laws.
- xwowsersx 3y ago
  Wow. I used a tool the other day to delete everything as well. I'll check my comments now. Be great if everyone else here could do so as well and report back. If they did, indeed, do a rollback that is serious malfeasance.
  - xwowsersx 3y ago
    My comments are all still deleted.
bacchusracine 3y ago
I'm doing my part! Just killed all my comments and then deleted the account, after over a decade on the site. Would have had to go in July any way once my RIF app quit working on me. So what's a few days? Gives me more time to find alternatives before the rush gets there. I remember digg. This is more of the same. Just history rhyming again.
- aerio 3y ago
  Other commenters on this post have experienced that their deleted accounts have seemingly had their content and themselves be restored by Reddit. I'd pay attention to yours.
  - bacchusracine 3y ago
    >Other commenters on this post have experienced that their deleted accounts have seemingly had their content and themselves be restored by Reddit. >I'd pay attention to yours. It says incorrect password and username when I try to log in and when I search for known text from previous comments.
  - EA-3167 3y ago
    As another person said, that sounds like a pretty significant violation of EU law? MAYBE Reddit could argue that self-deletion isn't a "request for removal," but I don't think that would stand for very long.
  - dsgnr 3y ago
    I just checked my account. I deleted all my comments yesterday and today they were all back. Crazy!
yoyonamite 3y ago
I think every subreddit should have created a community on a reddit alternative, like lemmy, kbin, etc. and actively promoted it as a "temporary" replacement. This way, Reddit waiting out the blackout risks losing marketshare to the alternative. Right now, that risk is very low because the alternatives didn't seem to have picked up enough critical mass, especially outside a few big topics like technology or news. Without an alternative picking up steam and stealing eyeballs, Reddit doesn't have an incentive to come to the table and can easily wait this out.
- EA-3167 3y ago
  https://reddark.untone.uk/ https://reddark.untone.uk/ At this point you have to wonder how much Reddit user traffic overall has cratered. That's a LOT of dark subs.
  - black_ram 3y ago
    Here's a view that includes the traffic. Looks like a 20-30% drop but it seems to be back to normal today. https://blackout.photon-reddit.com/ https://blackout.photon-reddit.com/
    - EA-3167 3y ago
      Interesting, I wonder if we're seeing an underlying Pareto distribution of "Redditors who engage with the community, moderate, or otherwise produce content" vs. the ~80% who just vote or lurk and nothing more.
      - variant 3y ago
        I've found replacement subs for those that went dark, which I expect will be back eventually.
- Seattle3503 3y ago
  Discord seems like a common subsititute. Anecdotally, I noticed an uptick in new Discord users in my small community.
busyant 3y ago
So, I briefly visited reddit twice over the past 2 days and I noticed something interesting. Each time I visited, I had a new reply to one of my recent posts. Each time, the reply was pretty obviously from a bot account (newly created username with a non-sensical reply). I'm speculating that reddit is being infiltrated by bots. Clearly, I only have 2 tiny data points to support this notion. But I wonder if an influx of bots, coupled with the loss of popular subreddits will be difficult for reddit to deal with. Basically, if reddit is suddenly filled with noise (bots) it may reduce the desire of real humans to return. </speculation>
Simulacra 3y ago
I'm starting to see sub Reddit's come back as "unblocked." People are creating r/subreditUnblocked communities and filling the void

101 points by de6u99er 3y ago

Kiro 3y ago

I see a lot of backlash on reddit right now. A few of the top voted comments in a couple of the threads on my current frontpage: https://old.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/149cq9f/comment/jo4fs7t/ https://old.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/149cq9f/comment/jo4... https://old.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/149cq9f/comment/jo4gy94/ https://old.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/149cq9f/comment/jo4... https://old.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/148xygd/comment/jo2h5hp/ https://old.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/148xygd/comment/j... https://old.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/148xygd/comment/jo2g0k3/ https://old.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/148xygd/comment/j...

hn_thrwn 3y ago
[flagged]
cmdli 3y ago
In most of the polls that I have seen, people are supporting an indefinite blackout. There is definitely some backlash, but overall it seems like people support the protest.
- Kiro 3y ago
  Can you link any of those polls? I saw a lot of polls with a vast majority voting for the initial blackout but the tone of the response to this indefinite blackout feels way different.
  - cmdli 3y ago
    https://www.reddit.com/r/cremposting/comments/149a7ge/poll_should_we_continue_to_stay_dark/ https://www.reddit.com/r/cremposting/comments/149a7ge/poll_s... https://www.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/comments/148w58w/vote_shall_we_blackout_again_or_remain_open/ https://www.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/comments/148w58w/vote_s... https://reddit.com/r/tennis/comments/148suem/rtennis_blackout_stay_private_or_open_up/ https://reddit.com/r/tennis/comments/148suem/rtennis_blackou... https://reddit.com/r/SipsTea/comments/148sk76/further_protests/ https://reddit.com/r/SipsTea/comments/148sk76/further_protes... https://strawpoll.com/polls/e7ZJGVOXBy3 https://strawpoll.com/polls/e7ZJGVOXBy3 (/r/stardewvalley) A decent number of them show that people support an indefinite blackout, though there are some exceptions (like /r/tennis), where there is more support for opening back up. It's not universal, but generally people seem to be in favor of keeping the pressure on Reddit this way.
  - Izkata 3y ago
    Only today did I spot any poll in the ones I visit regularly, and they voted to stay open for even the initial blackout. Seems like it was mostly mod decisions in the first place.
  - heyheyhey 3y ago
    > I saw a lot of polls with a vast majority voting for the initial blackout but the tone of the response to this indefinite blackout feels way different. It's selection bias. The average user didn't care or know about the initial blackout. Now that they're affected, they're more likely to vote in these polls.
- vladsiv 3y ago
  As they should. As far as I can see, the second they ban the third party services, they will start pushing ads, hard. You'll be stuck with their official app and their website will use anti ad-blocking tech like YT is testing right now. So at the end, it's all about getting more money on the back of the community.
xanderstrike 3y ago
By definition anyone posting/commenting/upvoting right now doesn't support the blackout. I don't think it's fair to say these comments represent the opinions of those communities.
- hackerlight 3y ago
  > I don't think it's fair to say these comments represent the opinions of those communities. The gaming subreddit, relative to other subreddits, is going to be demographically tilted towards the "anti-SJW" types who find collective action intrinsically distaseful regardless of the validity of the cause.
  - hgsgm 3y ago
    anti-SJW love collective action like vandalizing stores and bridgading forums.
  - danudey 3y ago
    I've noticed that the "anti-SJW" types are inherently opposed to anything that inconveniences them even slightly, no matter how beneficial it is to anyone else (including themselves). If the entire world isn't focused entirely on them they throw a fit.
EscapeFromNY 3y ago
I mean, you linked a comment with 700 votes in a thread where the top comment has over 9000 votes. Maybe read through the thread without cherry picking comments: https://old.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/149cq9f/reddit_were_sorry/ https://old.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/149cq9f/reddit_were...
- Kiro 3y ago
  > A few of the top voted comments Not the top comment. My point was to show that the threads now have highly upvoted comments like that, which was not the case for the initial blackout. And how is it possible not to cherry pick when picking examples? Would you rather have me pick completely random comments and say "one of these may show what I'm talking about but I don't know"?
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
InCityDreams 3y ago
Thanks, but not going there. The reddit break has been great for me, apart from agreeing with 'the cause'. As much as I will miss the content, I will now do other things. I never saw it as an addiction, but a pleasant habit, and a very easy one to break. Bye, bye 5k+ points (in about c4 months). I was actually quite proud of that. Now, it can all rot in hell.
- worrycue 3y ago
  Reddit has been kind of bad for my mental health. Like many I refresh the various front pages hoping for my next dopamine fix - addicted to the low commitment required and instant gratification. I let the little karma number affect me way too much - I have started to hate such gamification of forums. Guess I will get my fix elsewhere now and hopefully someday I will stop altogether and make better use of my time. Reddit going bad just makes it a tad easier.
Whatarethese 3y ago
These people strike me as those who will just take everything lying down. Just because it doesn't impact them it's a lost cause. The reason reddit works like it does today is because of some of those protests.
- gremlinsinc 3y ago
  Reddit was born from protests and seems it could die by them. Digg users protested and migrated enmasse to Reddit. It might happen again.

agilecobol 3y ago

Based on the interview Christian Selig gave, Apollo has enough active and paying users, that he could continue to make this work with adjustments to the backend code as well as paid products offered by Apollo. Understandably, it seems there is little will after the relationship between Christian and Reddit soured. My guess is, Christian is content that he can now fully focus on Pixel Pals.

briffle 3y ago
In the interview, he said his biggest problems are timing, and annual plans. 1. He has 30 days from the announcement of what the price was going to be, to implement new paid only plans, that follow some new rules. When the app store can take days to approve a new build, that is not much time to re-iterate and test something that being wrong could be very, very costly. 2. He has many people who paid literally a few dollars a year for apollo, and have months left on their subscription. He can give up $250k refunding their money, or spend a few millionn paying the API fees for them until its renewal time, and hope they renew.

timeagain 3y ago

I’ma lurker on Reddit. No account, I just browse the top threads to kill time on the bus. From my perspective absolutely nothing has changed other than some new subreddits hitting the front page. The topics are the same. Maybe a little more international content——I can’t recall “ich_iel” ever making it to the top before. I understand most users are lurkers like me. With that in mind, I don’t believe these blackouts will accomplish much. They’ll probably accelerate the homogenization of the platform and the race to the bottom in terms of quality, but that is happening anyway. I already know Reddit is mind-numbing days-old TikTok memes, I use it anyway because I like the interface more. Edit: it isn’t that I am against the blackout, I just think in realpolitik terms it is not effective since most people are really not that invested or interested in participating in activism for their memes.

baby 3y ago
Reddit is not alienating the lurkers. It’s much worse, it’s alienating the power users, the content creators, the sub moderators, etc.
- timeagain 3y ago
  Right. And my point is that it won’t affect their bottom line at all. The power users think they have “communities” but they do not. To us plebs it is mostly an afterthought that there are different subreddits at all. Reddits front page could be totally AI-generated and i bet most users wouldn’t notice. Another day, another “what’s something underrated you think everyone should know” thread. The power users probably have a higher rate of block installed anyhow, so maybe Reddit will see a little uptick in “engagement”
  - edgyquant 3y ago
    Exactly. The people generating revenue for Reddit would probably have their mind blown knowing their are other apps and wonder why Reddit ever allowed such a thing.
  - baby 3y ago
    I think you're misunderstanding how Reddit works. Without the 2% contributors and the moderators there's nothing. There's three hard things about community-based platforms: moderation, content creation, users. Reddit has all three, but it's about to lose the first two, in which case it won't work.

vinayan3 3y ago

How are the reddit mods communicating and coordinating? Is it on Discord?

dsir 3y ago
Ironically using a sub-reddit created for this
- realitythreek 3y ago
  That makes sense though. Realistically it’s more important that they can communicate and there wasn’t time to set up an alternate channel.
  - dsir 3y ago
    Yeah fair enough. It definitely was the quickest and easiest approach to organizing fast given the circumstances

monero-xmr 3y ago

I mean they can just force reopen them and new moderators who don’t care about API stuff will take over.

hombre_fatal 3y ago
My friend shut down his subreddit and a mod complained to Reddit admins that my friend wasn’t even active, and Reddit admins gave that mod the subreddit. Great system.
- sshine 3y ago
  It just means: if you create a subreddit, you don’t own it in any way. You’re granted permission to be its custodian. If your behaviour does not create value / if you anger the Reddit gods, you will be replaced.
xanderstrike 3y ago
This assumes there's an army of competent mods in waiting that the admins can tap into, who could take over (without many of the tools the previous mods used) and effectively run some of the largest communities on the internet. This strikes me as unlikely.
- key8chev 3y ago
  This assumes there isnt an army of unemployed people with a power fetish using reddit willing to lord over top subs that would be brought back by force. Aside from deleting bad words and over the top vulgar opinions in clean subs what does a mod do besides sit around staring at their screen?
  - pokerface_86 3y ago
    what does a software engineer do besides sitting around staring at a screen, typing and googling? anyone can be a reductive ass. not that i think reddit power mods are good but any forum’s moderators do more than that and you’re just being a dick in bad faith

weinzierl 3y ago

I support this, but as someone who doesn't have a Reddit account currently it also makes me want to create one again, just to be able to read threads that come up in my search results. But then again I would be supporting Reddit (the company, not the community), which would be counterproductive to the initiatives objective.

IceWreck 3y ago
Private subs are private for everyone, even members. Only sub moderators and admins can access private subs. You won't be able to see the threads that come up in your search results either way unless they become public again.
- noahjk 3y ago
  There's a third tier, something like "approved submitters." Some subs, especially smaller ones, would randomly add users to the list based on some criteria. These people would be able to browse private subs as well. There's a way to see what subs you've been added to as an approved submitter, somewhere on old.Reddit under the subreddits page
- x3n0ph3n3 3y ago
  This isn't true at all -- I can see content in all of the private subreddits that I am already subscribed to. It is only restricted to anonymous users or users who are not subscribed.
  - thecosmicfrog 3y ago
    Those are probably subs that are in read-only mode. Private subs are completely inaccessible.
  - tommit 3y ago
    > It is only restricted to anonymous users or users who are not subscribed. Those subreddits are restricted, not private.

jerdthenerd 3y ago

Reddit can always bring subs back online - the question is if they can find dedicated mods for those subs that were previously ran by volunteers.

dsir 3y ago

Just to add to the list of alternatives, I've been working on a platform with a bit of a different take on the online community space. It's sort of a Reddit/Discord/Patreon hybrid. We've built a place to monetarily incentivize ownership over the communities created on the platform. It feels like the people curating the communities should be rewarded for the work that they do. Here's an example community: https://sociables.com/community/Sports/board/trending https://sociables.com/community/Sports/board/trending

danudey 3y ago
I haven't dug into it too much, and the UI seems a bit cluttered and confusing (e.g. when I click into a community I get a huge amount of random information instead of just some posts), but in terms of structure this is the closest I've seen to something that actually understands what Reddit actually is (a community of communities) rather than just creating a huge bucket full of posts with hashtags and calling it a day. Good work!
- dsir 3y ago
  Appreciate the feedback. There is definitely a bit of a learning curve to our platform coming from a place like reddit. It's intentionally not a 1-to-1 copy. We're kind of building a Discord/Reddit/Patreon hybrid that combines the best parts of each platform to try and bring a bit of innovation into the community platform space. A focus of ours is to help the community owners monetize.

mongol 3y ago

As a lowly redditor I feel this has become a fight between a nomenclatura of moderators and Reddit. The moderators believe they are taking the rightful fight, but as far as I am concerned, they they don't represent a community since they are not elected by it. They elect themselves, right? So this is less of a grass roots movement than it may appear.

bbor 3y ago
Many communities did hold votes on this issue. And it would be very very hard to organize a moderator election on a free online forums with hundreds of thousands of members…
- mongol 3y ago
  It wouldn't be _that_ hard. It would not meet the bar for true democracy but accounts older than X months with a karma > Y and more than Z comments could be eligible to vote for example.

renewiltord 3y ago

This is unfortunate for the long tail of communities since places like /r/hardwareswap do rely on automation significantly to drive their functionality. Reddit is a little bit like a Craigslist in that sense: it is hard to unbundle, but also it is hard for the bundle to capitalize on the market flow through it. Interesting puzzle, for sure, and I will be curious to see if there will be a new meta-community that can create the wide range of communities like /r/tipofmytongue, /r/hardwareswap, /r/changemyview, etc. Reddit may be unable to justify its valuation without being able to drive more revenue but there is a place for a meta-community that is more focused like that without having any of the complex pieces of functionality like federation, etc.

CrossWired 3y ago

Something is afoot over there. I updated and then removed all comments, like, everything on my account, and then deleted the account a few days ago. And now its back with the previous comment I updated everything to intact. They did some form of rollback.

willis936 3y ago
Something similar happened to me during the great yahoo hack. My email stayed compromised even across password changes, so I deleted my account. So the person taking it over undid that then updated the recovery information. I was never able to regain control of that account that I'm certain spams my contact list to this day. After that I stopped deleting accounts. I maintain a firm grip on every one, even ones I never plan to use again (including facebook and reddit).
jasonladuke0311 3y ago
Wow you aren’t kidding, I did the same the other day and mine appear to be back as well.
callalex 3y ago
This sounds like a missive violation of EU laws.
xwowsersx 3y ago
Wow. I used a tool the other day to delete everything as well. I'll check my comments now. Be great if everyone else here could do so as well and report back. If they did, indeed, do a rollback that is serious malfeasance.
- xwowsersx 3y ago
  My comments are all still deleted.

bacchusracine 3y ago

I'm doing my part! Just killed all my comments and then deleted the account, after over a decade on the site. Would have had to go in July any way once my RIF app quit working on me. So what's a few days? Gives me more time to find alternatives before the rush gets there. I remember digg. This is more of the same. Just history rhyming again.

aerio 3y ago
Other commenters on this post have experienced that their deleted accounts have seemingly had their content and themselves be restored by Reddit. I'd pay attention to yours.
- bacchusracine 3y ago
  >Other commenters on this post have experienced that their deleted accounts have seemingly had their content and themselves be restored by Reddit. >I'd pay attention to yours. It says incorrect password and username when I try to log in and when I search for known text from previous comments.
- EA-3167 3y ago
  As another person said, that sounds like a pretty significant violation of EU law? MAYBE Reddit could argue that self-deletion isn't a "request for removal," but I don't think that would stand for very long.
- dsgnr 3y ago
  I just checked my account. I deleted all my comments yesterday and today they were all back. Crazy!

yoyonamite 3y ago

I think every subreddit should have created a community on a reddit alternative, like lemmy, kbin, etc. and actively promoted it as a "temporary" replacement. This way, Reddit waiting out the blackout risks losing marketshare to the alternative. Right now, that risk is very low because the alternatives didn't seem to have picked up enough critical mass, especially outside a few big topics like technology or news. Without an alternative picking up steam and stealing eyeballs, Reddit doesn't have an incentive to come to the table and can easily wait this out.

EA-3167 3y ago
https://reddark.untone.uk/ https://reddark.untone.uk/ At this point you have to wonder how much Reddit user traffic overall has cratered. That's a LOT of dark subs.
- black_ram 3y ago
  Here's a view that includes the traffic. Looks like a 20-30% drop but it seems to be back to normal today. https://blackout.photon-reddit.com/ https://blackout.photon-reddit.com/
  - EA-3167 3y ago
    Interesting, I wonder if we're seeing an underlying Pareto distribution of "Redditors who engage with the community, moderate, or otherwise produce content" vs. the ~80% who just vote or lurk and nothing more.
    - variant 3y ago
      I've found replacement subs for those that went dark, which I expect will be back eventually.
Seattle3503 3y ago
Discord seems like a common subsititute. Anecdotally, I noticed an uptick in new Discord users in my small community.

busyant 3y ago

So, I briefly visited reddit twice over the past 2 days and I noticed something interesting. Each time I visited, I had a new reply to one of my recent posts. Each time, the reply was pretty obviously from a bot account (newly created username with a non-sensical reply). I'm speculating that reddit is being infiltrated by bots. Clearly, I only have 2 tiny data points to support this notion. But I wonder if an influx of bots, coupled with the loss of popular subreddits will be difficult for reddit to deal with. Basically, if reddit is suddenly filled with noise (bots) it may reduce the desire of real humans to return. </speculation>

Simulacra 3y ago

I'm starting to see sub Reddit's come back as "unblocked." People are creating r/subreditUnblocked communities and filling the void