I think we should (politely) message major hobby subreddits that went public to go private again. It's important to continue the protest.
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 be forced to reconsider their API position. Social media can't run without social media.
I decided to write a message to subreddits I’ve been lurking for years via messaging the mods 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 also understand some moderators may be afraid Reddit will just replace them with mods willing to reopen the sub, so I added a section saying it they’re treated like that, Reddit don’t deserve their time and maybe they should consider spending their time elsewhere if that happens. This is their prime chance to stand up for the right thing right now for the future of Reddit.
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 personally think you should message them if you think it will make you feel better, but I wouldn't expect anything to come of it. I assume the mods are aware of the implications of their actions and are choosing to reopen with that impact in mind.
In my opinion, reddit was an interesting experiment 10-15 years ago that grew stagnant and somewhat boring. The people running it have chosen, with intention, to make the site as suitable as possible for their financial goals. I don't like it, but it's their right to do so. The issues which have recently boiled over were always present, and I just don't think you can put the Shit Genie back in the bottle RandyBoBandy.
Reddit will lumber on, it will probably go right behind Facebook and many users will continue to use it. The more creative users will likely flock to platforms like this and create something new that will take a longer period of time to go through a similar cycle.
I may leave my account intact over there. Maybe I'll occasionally pop over to see if it still works like I do on fark.
“I think the fun part of reddit is over.” Upvoted until I saw this, and had to comment to say you are absolutely right. Reddit will live on for now but the fun times feel over.
I agree man. I don't think it'll make much of a difference. It's just a shame to see how rapidly the platform is dying overnight due to greed and I want to know as a long time user, at least I did everything I could on my part to protest it's changes. Onto greener pastures we go.
Does it really matter? I feel like as long as we have a good community here or somewhere else in the fediverse, what Reddit does or does not do is irrelevant. The main problem was we didn’t like their policies and there wasn’t anywhere else to go with a decent sized community.
I think one of the big problems is that the mods are just as 'addicted' to reddit as the users are. The mods don't want to lose their community. If it's not for all the work that went into it and the joy they get out of it or for providing a community for a niche group, it's for the 'powertrip' of being a mod.
So it's also a case of selfdiscipline. Are they able to restrict themselves.
If you have to ask then you're probably fighting a losing battle. I'd focus more energy on making kbin (or Lemmy) a viable alternative. Post content that people want to see. If you are a dev contribute to open source.
I'm sure the potential users who are on the fence would be more likely to move over if the platform was in the best shape it can be. It needs an actual community of users and content for that to happen.
I think the next move is to direct communities to a new platform, and get the mods on board with it.
Right now I think fediverse is the new platform. The infrastructure needs to be ready to scale though.
Kbin needs to get baseline hardware in place and auto-scaling cloud hardware to deal with the rush and day-to-day fluctuations. This requires money and engineers.
Kbin needs a way to generate some income to help pay for these things. The easiest to sell is ads. If ads don’t show up soon I don’t see this project succeeding. If Kbin can’t scale automatically then it’s going to fail.
Once these issues are addressed then convincing a few large subreddits to redirect their community to fediverse will make it easier to redirect smaller subreddits. It will also make it possible for mobile devs to do their thing.
I think mobile apps should decide if they want to be free and not show ads, or get a cut of ad revenue if they do show kbins ads to their users. People should be compensated for their work.
Isn't the biggest hurdle in Reddit that they're killing API mod support? If the mods are okay enough with the changes to continue on Reddit just let them?
I cannot believe these neanderthal mods went public lmao that is the STUPIDEST decision they could make. I thought everyone was agreeing to go longer than two days. What a joke.
Some have also polled their userbase elsewhere, the Retro Gaming Network, which represents about 70 subs, polled on Discord - they're currently 492 to 55 to extend the blackout indefinitely. I've just looked at Reddark now and the only sub that's included from those 70 is r/retrogaming, so add 69 more to the 6250 currently dark.
r/Switzerland also polled its users to see what they wanted, in a typical Swiss way (we Swiss people get to vote on various subjects 4 times a year, including changes to the constitution, new laws and many other things)
The problem is that people on here are complaining about people creating alternatives to their old subreddits so people either stay on Reddit or miss out. Make up your mind, peeps.
At least some of Aquariums made it over here. Shrimptank not so much. Neither did Plantedtank. Those last two are pretty niche so that'd be a hard sell.
I could not agree with you more. I don’t feel like 48 hours is long enough. I woke up this morning and thought, “I can use Reddit again…wait why? Fuck Reddit they’re assholes.” And then proceeded to jump onto Lemmy and kBin hahaha. Peace out Reddit.
FYI - don't message /r/food. I had a brief browse and saw absolutely no posts whatsoever about the blackout. Very much business as usual as if nothing happened. So I messaged them, their response was "Thank you for your unsolicited message shitting on our protest." and banned me lol. So leave them to it. I was pretty careful to word my message maturely (the first paragraph said 'I hope I’m not coming off as unreasonable, but I do think it’s vitally important for this protest to continue for it to have any real impact.'), but I guess some just really can't live without their Reddit addiction.
Right? And don’t they get mad when people ask for recipes? I swear I’ve seen tons of “This isn’t /r/cooking!” posts there, even when it’s clearly homemade. Seems like it’s just a bunch of low effort pics with no context. I could just do an image search on google for “food” if I wanted that.
It is honestly not, and it's concerning to continue to see people that think it is.
We have to let go of this notion that for kbin to win, Reddit has to lose. We have to embrace a notion that for kbin to win, kbin has to do a really good job.
If the best we can be is the only alternative left, that's pretty weak.
You're essentially asking people to brigade. It doesn't matter if it's 'politely' or not. You're asking people in one area to go to another website and start contacting people there for an agenda. This really isn't what Kbin should be about.
It's unreasonable to coordinate an effort and ask other people to do it against another site/sub/community/magazine/etc. As someone who modded one of the top subs on Reddit, this is exactly the kind of thing that leads to excessive moderator and sub harassment. If you think you want to do it on your own, go ahead and do it. Making a post asking others to isn't okay.