Reddit crashed because of the growing subreddit blackout

Post by EMCymatics » Mon, Jun 12, 2023, 11:52 PM UTC

cpncrunch wrote: post #97

EMCymatics wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is nice to see all of the toxic subreddits delete themseles.

I operate a certain health condition subreddit. The main subreddit for this condition is highly toxic (which is why I created an alternative a few years ago). Anyway, it turns out the primary (toxic) subreddit for this condition is taking part in the strike, so a lot of users have come over to my alternative subreddit, and they are glad to have found it because they were getting fed up with the toxicity of the other…

Post by faeriechangling » Tue, Jun 13, 2023, 12:23 AM UTC

chongli wrote: post #123

seydor wrote: post #91

I think reddit will never be the same after this, not because of the API thing (I dont agree with the blackouts), but because it shows how much they neglected their website. Over the years they have made it impossible to compete with the established subreddits. They have allowed a single uniform mob to take over the site, establish themselves as permanent tyrants and grow their ban lists to enormous scale. Even today…

This isn’t a unilateral move by a small group of moderators. Regular users support the blackout in droves. We don’t like Reddit corporate deciding to shut down 3rd party developers. Reddit is extremely entitled. They as a company create nothing. The users create everything and do all the work of moderation. Spitting in the eye of your all-volunteer staff on which you depend completely for your livelihood is corporate…

Post by zdimension » Tue, Jun 13, 2023, 12:40 AM UTC

seydor wrote: post #91

I think reddit will never be the same after this, not because of the API thing (I dont agree with the blackouts), but because it shows how much they neglected their website. Over the years they have made it impossible to compete with the established subreddits. They have allowed a single uniform mob to take over the site, establish themselves as permanent tyrants and grow their ban lists to enormous scale. Even today…

Post by cryptonector » Tue, Jun 13, 2023, 12:54 AM UTC

chx wrote: post #105

cryptonector wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the theory?

18 U.S.C. §§ 1030(a)(5)(B) > intentionally accesses a protected computer without authorization, and as a result of such conduct, recklessly causes damage; I would think it's reasonably easy to establish mens rea when someone switches their sub from public to private and back every few hours, even if manually done because what else would they want to do but take down Reddit? Not to mention the punishes much harshly "c…

Post by ramgine » Tue, Jun 13, 2023, 4:03 AM UTC

tester457 wrote: post #100

Capricorn2481 wrote: post #2

I have not read a reddit devblog or anything like that. My guess is they are doing some kind of caching of posts via elasticsearch/redis or something similar. It must depend on the privacy settings of a sub. So when 1000 subs go private, they potentially had to update hundreds of millions of comments. Anyone else have a theory?

Here's a guess from a former reddit dev. > (I used to work as a backend developer at Reddit - I left 6 years ago but I doubt the way things work has changed much) > I think it's extremely unlikely that this is deliberate. The way that Reddit builds "mixed" subreddit listings (where you see posts from multiple subreddits, like users' front pages) is inefficient and strange, and relies heavily on multiple layers of cac…