Megathread for Reddit Blackouts and News - Day 3
Megathread for Reddit Blackouts and News - Day 3
hey everyone. if you want to post links or discuss the Reddit blackout today, please localize it to this thread in order to keep things tidy! Thanks!
Advertisers are starting to take notice, it seems. Gotta keep the blackout running longer to hit em in their pocketbooks - 2 days they can weather out, indefinite dark they cannot. It's what I've been saying from the beginning, a protest with a clearly defined end date has no teeth.
I don't know how to make this not about me. So, I'm just going to say it. Friday I closed a 13 year old Reddit account. Saturday and Sunday I brought up multiple Fediverse servers. I now have Mastodon, Lemmy, PixelFed, Owncast, and NextCloud working. I have yet to get Element Chat and PeerTube running. They will happen by Friday. When I opened my Owncast I killed my Twitch account. When PeerTube is up and running I drop YouTube. My point is, I want to thank Reddit for providing me the motivation to leave corporate social media and switch to my own platform. I'm not going back... I'm going forward.
It's disappointing to see some of the larger subreddits going public with a 'what's the point?' tone. Most are staying private, but some aren't. As if Reddit doesn't exist solely because of its user generated content. If enough subs permanently shut down they'll have to reconsider their API position.
I decided to write a letter contacting the subreddits I've been lurking for years saying how vitally important it is for subreddits to protest right now, at this critical time, before it's too late. I've politely implored them to continue the protest saying how these API changes with have a long-lasting, permanent impact on Reddit as a platform for the worse. I'd suggest you guys come up with your own letter template and message the mods of those subreddits in polite form. It'd be great if we can convince these exceptions to go private again.
I used Reddark to determine which subreddits to contact. I'd say only contact hobbyist ones such as sports rather than more politically-inclined ones like Ukraine that have a fair reason to stay open. Also some subreddits have made poll posts asking their users if they should go private like Gaming and NotTheOnion, so please don't message those ones.
I just posted this in response to a frenetic YouTube video that claimed that the Reddit protest "failed":
Get serious. It was NEVER going to stop the IPO. But it has accomplished something even more important: it has decapitated Reddit. A lot of the most passionate and involved users are gone, and more of them have at least tried Fediverse alternatives like Lemmy and kbin. Have you checked those sites out? They're FLOODED with Reddit refugees, and the communities there are booming! They're active and vibrant, with great discussions and content.
What's more, they have hope. The members there aren't subject to some psychotic money-grubbing corporation; if any one server goes authoritarian, there's nothing stopping the users there from just moving to another. They'll have the same access and functionality. And frankly, the odds of a Fediverse server going corporate and having an IPO are infinitesimal. It simply wouldn't be worth it, particularly since there's no way they could stop other instances from defederating with them.
So the outcome of the blackout has been twofold: First, Reddit has lost some of it's best. The quality of content there is diminished, and will continue to diminish as poor quality drives users away. And second, the Fediverse alternatives have been given a huge boost. Almost all users of Reddit are now aware of the ugly truths that underlie that service, and that there are alternatives out there.
That's not failure. That's the seeds of success.
And by the way, I think that's one thing we can all do to help bring down Reddit: mention the great alternatives out there as much as possible to spread the word. The more Redditors who learn that they don't have to be a product to be sold by the pound for the stockholder class, the quicker Reddit will fall!
I am fascinated by how the experience of other people can be completely different from mine, alien even. We can look at the same situation and come up with exactly opposite conclusions. I keep trying to put myself in the shoes of the other, figure out how they think. The behavior of u/spez is abhorent to me, but here's how I would imagine he thinks about the community list of demands:
<AH mode>
Bringing the API pricing down to the point ads/subscriptions could realistically cover the costs.
The costs are reasonable and down to earth! We've been extremely generous. Our prices are in line with industry standards. The app devs are greedy and do not want to pay. In fact they are so greedy they are choosing to shut down and go out of business rather than pay their fair share! Also some apps are ahem inefficient. Those devs could stay profitable if they just code their apps better.
Reddit gives the apps time to make whatever adjustments are necessary
The apps had plenty of time. We've been perfectly transparent. The API changes were announced months in advance. The first bills do not arrive until months from now in August, and are not due for another month after that. The apps have enough time if they are serious about working with us.
Rate limits would need to be per user+appkey, not just per key.
Rate limits are for the free tier. The paid tier is a flat fee per 1000 API calls without rate limit.
Commitment to adding features to the API; image uploads/chat/notifications.
We are always working on new and exciting features! We have so many mod tools in the pipeline. All the hottest features will appear in our native app first, which is where we can best ensure everything stays compatible. Have you tried using that?
Lack of communication. Why were disabled communities not contacted to gauge the impact of these API changes?
We are always in communication with our communities! We've been discussing these API changes for months, collecting community input, and interacting with our users in AMAs!
You say you've offered exemptions for "non-commercial" and "accessibility apps." Despite r/blind's best efforts, you have not stated how they are selected.
We communicate with developers on an app-by-app basis. We have already confirmed the inclusion of two accessibility apps! We support accessibility for blind people!
Parity in access to NSFW content
Cannot be done for lawyercat reasons.
Now that we have addressed all of the listed community concerns, we are looking forward to welcoming all of you back to reddit!
</AH mode>
P.S. the fact that u/spez specifically stated that "old.reddit.com isn’t going anywhere" confirms in my mind that old.reddit will be gone within 9 months. Screenshot this.
There are over 6000 subreddits that still aren't public. Like looks like Reddit is over waiting for them to come back online. https://famichiki.jp/@Tsutsuku/110537730270070245
https://blackout.photon-reddit.com/
There's a bit of a gap in the data but despite some subs coming back online, it seems the number of comments has more or less stayed at the levels of the last 2 days.
I accidentally posted this outside the megathread — reposting here to help make life easier for the mods:
https://mods.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/16693988535309
Reddit attempting to offer free API usage for moderator tools (but not 3rd Party Apps)
I couldn’t agree more. This situation made very clear what writing is on the wall for reddit. I don’t care if people go back, it hasn’t been the reddit I knew and cared about for a long time.
To all the people saying “oh well this won’t replace reddit,” I wouldn’t want it to. Reddit has changed.
Here’s to new beginnings
The way Reddit has handled this has been so disappointing. Aaron Swartz been rolling over but man look what Reddit has become. I believe now more than ever that any site that revolves around a community should be in the hands of said community and not corporations or else this eventually happens. Corporations need to produce profit to survive, but when we're talking spaces for open discussion that need more often than not works against the very community that makes up the content.
I do not cross picket lines. Later this week, once the protest is officially over, I plan on going on Reddit, backing up my data using the PowerDeleteSuite another user posted about, and then overwriting and deleting my comments and posts with a message about the protest, before closing my account entirely.
Lemmy has already grown a nice community of people, and I'll be glad to contribute and watch it grow over time!
I think I'm happy with the outcome. People were always looking for an alternative to Reddit and all that was missing was critical mass. Now the alternatives are totally usable outside of small niches which will catch up eventually.
Reddit is definitely shitting its pants. They used to have zero direct competitors.
I went back into Reddit a couple times during the blackout as it's so easy to click the Infinity icon on my homescreen. And I've got to say, the quality of posts on my feed were so much worse. Zero text posts, only images. I started unsubscribing from a bunch of those subreddits. Starting to realize how little value most of Reddit gives me. The only things of actual value are behind subreddits that have gone dark. I've been enjoying Lemmy so much more and having more meaningful conversation. It's so much better
I visited Reddit for the first time in two days and had a thought that has occurred to me constantly for years, "I hate this site." It's still the same alienating crap and it will never change. I glanced over my home page, made a comment about the fediverse being a better alternative in a blackout thread for one of my subs that came back, and popped back here.
Looking at the tracker comments seem to reaching parity with posts again, as they were pre-blackout. For the two days of the protest 67% of subs were private, yet posts hardly deviated from the norm - and comments only slightly below. Is the implication that people in subs that didn't join in like r/news etc just posted/commented that much more in a show of support ha ha ha, or is this a defacto admission that much of the site's traffic is just bots? Are investors down with that? I haven't seen this actually hashed out in discussions much.
Holding strong on not returning to reddit. Using Jeroba for Lemmy for any free time I get, been enjoying it
I like reddit. I want its fun little spaces to thrive.
Reddit is making this really difficult.
The suits are all about their metrics and engagement and clicks and they don't care about the user. They don't even care about the peeps they hire to talk to the user.
I'm told sometimes admin employees find out they're fired because they can't log in to workspaces anymore.
I dunno.
Maybe this space is better. :)
If you're considering leaving Reddit, consider also salting the earth on your way out.
Check out PowerDeleteSuite, a Chrome* plugin that can edit/delete posts in a user’s history. https://github.com/j0be/PowerDeleteSuite
Just follow the install instructions on the page and let it rip. You can act on or exempt specific subs, act on age, exempt by status, etc. It will also export deleted and modified comments to a CSV for your own use.
I nuked my accounts, editing all comments to “This comment has been deleted in protest of the Reddit API changes of June 2023. Consider visiting Lemmy.world or Kbin.social for an alternative news source.”
I’ll probably go back in on the 29th or 30th and delete everything before closing the accounts.
worked on Chromium for me. Never had success with Firefox, and I don’t touch Edge.(Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with this project)
Discussion: I arrived at posting this after some soul-searching about destroying inforamtion. In the end, my contributions were derivative from still-extant and viable sources, while I consider Reddit to be a lost cause. I decided it was more abhorrent to me that they continue to profit off the back of my freely-contributed content than to reclaim my contributions, and rehost those contributions at a later date under a more friendly banner.
That was my calculus. You, reader, are welcome respectfully to disagree.
I've been a lot more active on Beehaw over the past few days than on Reddit. Tried to get into Kbin but the servers have been remarkably unstable and I don't like the fact that you can only view 25 comments at once.
I think a lot of subreddits will fold. Your typical reddit moderator is hungry for power and having that power taken away from them is probably more terrifying to them than losing Apollo/RIF/BaconReader/Sync/Relay.
wonder if regular carpet bombing the open subs with a black "Reddit is killing third-party app (and itself)" might be effective? gives the mods an "out" because it's not against TOS - and if it were widespread enough eventually a few of them will hit front page
According to reddark, there were more than 7K subs closed this morning, right now there's a bit above 6300, with many opening as we speak. We'll see.
Just got a big blue headline on old.reddit.com, trying to negotiate their way out of the modtool API debacle
I went ahead and posted a goodbye message on my Reddit profile, linking to my Lemmy and Mastodon profiles.
Now we'll see if the Reddit admins have the audacity to ban me for “spam” over a single post on my own profile.
Decoupling from Reddit has been easier than I thought.
Am actually rotating between Lemmy instances and Kbin to read the articles and thoughts in between my workday and it works like a charm.
It also really helps that I pavlovd myself to associate Reddit with garbage and instantly make the connection to how they see and treat their userbase.
It made me open reddit only once during the last days.
- To run PDS after the blackout.
I've checked in on reddit a few time to see the chaos but otherwise I'm staying away, ain't giving them my traffic.
Big spike in comments/posts this AM :/
The sun rises, then sets.
Reddit's sunset appears nigh.
Thanks for the laughs.
This is my first day on beehaw, and I'm planning to shift as much of what I previously did on reddit to this platform or others. Hopefully that will allow me to abandon reddit completely. I'm looking forward to learning more about this place and seeing how it develops.
useful link: wired - How to Download Your Reddit Data
Was going to send someone at work an interesting article which was linked from Reddit but the subreddit was shutdown. I hate that reddit is doing this, and I hope more subs shut down permanently for protest so that reddit can't just "wait it out", but man is it inconvenient as hell.
So far the event went as expected. Reddit seems to be back and will continue to live on. It's really unfortunate. I was hoping that this event could the the catalyst to break the monopoly. A 2-day protest just doesn't cut it. And while I was keeping an eye on it a couple of really big subs were still "discussing" whether they'd got dark or not. If subs go dark one by one it just doesn't have the same effect as a concerted, well organised simultaneous blackout. Without a fixed time.
With that much impact all combined subs could have made a difference. But they botched it.
Before the subreddits went dark, I used a tool to see which subreddits I've posted to and commented on the most. Then, I added in a few subreddits that I had newly joined and so weren't represented in the data.
I had a list of 17 subreddits. I actually subscribe to over 30, but clearly the others weren't that important to me. I've replaced at least 7 of those (including the top 2) with Lemmy. Most of the others really need no replacement as they were just time killers.
About the only subreddit that I really care about that I haven't found a good Lemmy replacement for is r/LEGO. Yes, there's a Lemmy alternative and I've subscribed to it, but there are few people there.
So if I do return to Reddit, it will likely be for 1 subreddit only. I'll unsubscribe to everything else and deal with Reddit trying to push me into other discussions while I help the Lemmy LEGO community grow.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dN5sn37vNGs Doing my part.