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Reddit subs with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely

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Re: Reddit subs with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely

#171

Post by hmsimha »

RivieraKid wrote: post #52

To make this work, the protest needs one additional ingredient: create a Reddit clone and move the subreddits there while the blackout lasts. This will increase the pressure 10x. By a Reddit clone I mean something pixel-perfect (except the branding) because users hate changes.

I think it'd be better to create an open-source platform to power one "subreddit" that can be hosted and deployed by the mods.

Then the content can be exported from reddit into each of those platforms.

The instances could be federated. Reddit users could redeem their account across the federated network by proving they control the same account on reddit (either send a message to a bot on reddit, or by generating a one-time password then posting its hash to reddit)

Re: Reddit subs with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely

#172

Post by predictabl3 »

Alupis wrote: post #86
dybber wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven’t been in a situation like this. I think they should call it off, and announce that they will go back to the drawing board. Then restart talks with the API users and third party app developers. What if they reduced the price of Reddit premium to $3/month and made API and third party apps only available for Reddit premium subscribers? - Reddit would get many more premium subscribers - App developers would be a…

I've gotta tell you - in 6-12 months nobody will even care anymore - and Reddit will still be used en masse like before. Talking with regular non-techy people who use reddit regularly - nobody outside our bubble even knows about or cares about the whole API fiasco. Most people I've talked with shrug and say they'll just use the official app if that's what it all means. The others asked if they can just pay and use th…

-- Kevin Rose, circa Aug 2010.

Re: Reddit subs with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely

#173

Post by thewataccount »

wvenable wrote: post #133
thewataccount wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

r/aww is literally just cute animals. Most of the others are just memes/reposts of their respective topic. There's plenty of mods from subreddits that didn't go dark and have 20m+, reddit can just put them in charge. I highly doubt the specific mods matter that much on these "fluff" subreddits. Subreddits like r/apple I could see it mattering a lot more, but most of the top ones aren't exactly complex topics.

> r/aww is literally just cute animals. There is a social contract and moderator effort to make that happen. When that contract is broken and moderators are stretched thin, how long is that subreddit still going to be just cute animals?

I appreciate the current mod's efforts.

And I completely agree with you on 95%+ of subs.

But I think there's enough active, and willing mods who already manage several large subreddits (10m+) capable of managing the half a dozen or so subs that I mentioned.

And I'm only talking about 6 subs, not even 10's of subs.

I just don't think theres enough ambiguity/complexity with moderating those in regards to choosing what content is or isn't appropriate for that sub.

But either way I truly hope we can get old reddit back, api, third party clients, and all :(

Re: Reddit subs with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely

#174

Post by Zamiel_Snawley »

tedivm wrote: post #95
gumballindie wrote: post #30

Expect more sealed off content. Thanks to ai scrapers more companies will want to close their apis or charge a fee. Heck even openai, the main leech want to prevent others from “training” their bots against their ai that has been trained on other people’s work, bandwidth and ip. Mods closing subreddits are just a symptom.

Removing the APIs, or gatekeeping them, will do absolutely nothing to prevent the publicly exposed data from being collected.

Agreed, writing a scraper is simply worth the cost to get the training data.

Re: Reddit subs with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely

#175

Post by Tangurena2 »

rurp wrote: post #94
xyst wrote: post #50

Good. This works out for everybody except the brain dead C-level executives that tried to bully indie app developers. - regular people get a break from their echo chambers - VOLUNTEER mods get a break - journalists get their news article The only loser here is the corporation side. Significant loss of value from decreased user activity. Subsequent loss of revenue. Inability to extract as much value from the users dat…

> Although I do foresee Reddit “super mods” forcibly removing the blackout through their backend, removing mod status from the “rebels” and inserting their own friendly mods until they can find replacements. I agree this is likely, which will extend the negative reactions further and alienate even more users. Unless Reddit execs do a 180 in the very near future I think the platform will be forever crippled. Large net…

There are not enough volunteers to handle the load. Companies depend on free labor to moderate things and will never be able to afford the actual cost of doing business without that free labor.

I currently moderate 2 subs (down from 5). I'm looking to offload those 2 without having them get banned for being unmoderated (again).

Re: Reddit subs with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely

#176

Post by lom »

6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #126
xyst wrote: post #50

Good. This works out for everybody except the brain dead C-level executives that tried to bully indie app developers. - regular people get a break from their echo chambers - VOLUNTEER mods get a break - journalists get their news article The only loser here is the corporation side. Significant loss of value from decreased user activity. Subsequent loss of revenue. Inability to extract as much value from the users dat…

> The only loser here is the corporation side. I'm not convinced they lose out either. The front page doesn't really feel different than it did before. There are a handful of "Reddit is killing third-party applications (and itself). Read more in the comments" posts, but I'm kinda blind to them the same way I'm blind to ads as I scroll past. Otherwise it just feels like any other day on reddit.

Completely disagree, my homepage is almost empty.

I was looking at tents earlier and wanted to see reddit reviews but literally every single link was private. Reddit has to be noticing this.

Re: Reddit subs with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely

#177

Post by scohesc »

Probably a very _very_ controversial and unpopular opinion - though I welcome any insight or opinions from others.

Reddit is fully within their rights to seize the subreddits from their unpaid moderators and I would expect them to if they're gearing up for an IPO. They're fully within their rights to change how people access their website, how people interact with it, and limit who has access to the data on the website.

When I clicked on a reddit result on Google to find some information, only to find it has been closed down in protest after trying to find something on Google, I was frustrated - not at Reddit, but the unpaid moderators who believe they have some sort of self-ordained right to manipulate a company (granted, I guess they do have some power as Reddit is relying on these unpaid moderators to do Reddits job.)

I highly, highly doubt that Reddit will change their tune - they might lower the API costs, they might capitulate in some capacity in some regards to accessibility, but they'll still work towards an IPO and will harm their website as a result.

Their CEO is a scumbag and both their paid and unpaid moderators/admins have strong biases in any subreddits that aren't niche hobbies and meant for wider audiences. Great for those who wish to follow the echo chambers, but not so great for others who don't _really_ have alternatives.

I'll be happy if Reddit disappears off the planet, but I fear what will replace it will be even more restrictive - the internet needs decentralization of social media and communication.

Re: Reddit subs with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely

#178

Post by mark_l_watson »

Reddit is free to tweak their monitization any way they like. I am curious how this will turn out, when we look back on this a year from now.

This is an opportunity for new moderators to start new subreddits. Conversely Reddit management may back down.

Re: Reddit subs with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely

#179

Post by plorkyeran »

6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #126
xyst wrote: post #50

Good. This works out for everybody except the brain dead C-level executives that tried to bully indie app developers. - regular people get a break from their echo chambers - VOLUNTEER mods get a break - journalists get their news article The only loser here is the corporation side. Significant loss of value from decreased user activity. Subsequent loss of revenue. Inability to extract as much value from the users dat…

> The only loser here is the corporation side. I'm not convinced they lose out either. The front page doesn't really feel different than it did before. There are a handful of "Reddit is killing third-party applications (and itself). Read more in the comments" posts, but I'm kinda blind to them the same way I'm blind to ads as I scroll past. Otherwise it just feels like any other day on reddit.

The top ten things on /r/all is currently two articles about Trump and "Reddit is killing third party applications (and itself). Read more in the comments." from eight different subreddits.

Re: Reddit subs with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely

#180

Post by paganel »

Good, I do hope they remain closed indefinitely. Nothing is stopping people from creating a /nba2 sub-reddit or something in order to get rid of this power-hungry mods. It was hilarious how the /nba users congregated on /denvernuggets/ in order to make a game thread last night.
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