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Ask HN: Who Started the Reddit Blackout?

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Re: Ask HN: Who Started the Reddit Blackout?

#11

Post by mostlysimilar »

pyeri wrote: post #9
mostlysimilar wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now apply the skepticism you feel from this hopelessly devoid of context answer to other questions you ask generative AI.

This "hopelessly devoid" answer has this interesting nugget at the end which I didn't knew earlier (and I strongly suspect many people here also don't know!): - Use a third-party Reddit app. If this is indeed true, it means the "dark" or gone under subs are still accessible using third party apps. I haven't tried that because I don't use any but can someone here confirm it?

It is not true. Private is private regardless of client.

Re: Ask HN: Who Started the Reddit Blackout?

#12

Post by lm28469 »

pyeri wrote: post #9
mostlysimilar wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now apply the skepticism you feel from this hopelessly devoid of context answer to other questions you ask generative AI.

This "hopelessly devoid" answer has this interesting nugget at the end which I didn't knew earlier (and I strongly suspect many people here also don't know!): - Use a third-party Reddit app. If this is indeed true, it means the "dark" or gone under subs are still accessible using third party apps. I haven't tried that because I don't use any but can someone here confirm it?

Nobody knows about it because it's false...

Re: Ask HN: Who Started the Reddit Blackout?

#13

Post by klik99 »

el_hacker wrote: post #10

I think the first one who talked about it was Christian Selig the developer of the popular third-party Reddit app Apollo. He said that it would cost him $20 million per year to keep his Apollo app running if he had to pay Reddit's new API pricing structure.

I don't remember seeing him post anything about calling for a blackout, but his posts definitely kicked off my awareness and I think many others as well. I'd be very interested to see if he mentioned it before the 10th, which IIRC (probably not - it may have been 8th or something) is when there was a tipping point and a bunch of mods announced they'd be going black. It seems against his personality, he doesn't seem like the type to call for action like that. Tried googling it but didn't find anything during a quick search

Re: Ask HN: Who Started the Reddit Blackout?

#14

Post by klik99 »

circuit10 wrote: post #5
pyeri wrote: post #3

It grew organically to the best of my knowledge. But the extent and addiction of various mods' dependency on these third party apps was something that came as a surprise to me. Didn't knew they actually depended so much more for moderation tools on these 3rd parties than the official reddit platform itself.

Someone must have been the first to suggest it

If I had to guess it would be on some private mod chat like discord or something, and probably more than one subreddit mod group decided independently since it's a known way to protest. I am curious too, but it grew so quickly that establishing the origin would be difficult

Re: Ask HN: Who Started the Reddit Blackout?

#15

Post by KeepFlying »

el_hacker wrote: post #10

I think the first one who talked about it was Christian Selig the developer of the popular third-party Reddit app Apollo. He said that it would cost him $20 million per year to keep his Apollo app running if he had to pay Reddit's new API pricing structure.

He specifically disavowed (but supported, indirectly) the blackouts at first. He initially didn't want to risk Reddit retaliating at him for calling for a blackout when (at the time) communication was still somewhat positive.

But he did acknowledge the protest, which I'm sure gave it a lot of attention it didn't have before.

Re: Ask HN: Who Started the Reddit Blackout?

#16

Post by seattle_spring »

circuit10 wrote: post #5
pyeri wrote: post #3

It grew organically to the best of my knowledge. But the extent and addiction of various mods' dependency on these third party apps was something that came as a surprise to me. Didn't knew they actually depended so much more for moderation tools on these 3rd parties than the official reddit platform itself.

Someone must have been the first to suggest it

Sure maybe by a few milliseconds, but I guarantee "boycott" jumped into thousands of people's heads the immediate moment they read about the pricing changes.

Re: Ask HN: Who Started the Reddit Blackout?

#17

Post by runjake »

circuit10 wrote: post #5
pyeri wrote: post #3

It grew organically to the best of my knowledge. But the extent and addiction of various mods' dependency on these third party apps was something that came as a surprise to me. Didn't knew they actually depended so much more for moderation tools on these 3rd parties than the official reddit platform itself.

Someone must have been the first to suggest it

It's pretty common for subreddits to do the blackout thing for various causes (eg. net neutrality) and has been for years.

Re: Ask HN: Who Started the Reddit Blackout?

#20

Post by Zetobal »

pyeri wrote: post #9
mostlysimilar wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now apply the skepticism you feel from this hopelessly devoid of context answer to other questions you ask generative AI.

This "hopelessly devoid" answer has this interesting nugget at the end which I didn't knew earlier (and I strongly suspect many people here also don't know!): - Use a third-party Reddit app. If this is indeed true, it means the "dark" or gone under subs are still accessible using third party apps. I haven't tried that because I don't use any but can someone here confirm it?

way to gaslight yourself.
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