Mods made a poll to ask whether to extend the blackout or re-open. After accusations of brigading, mods created a second, more secure poll. The option to extend the blackout wins by a 18% margin. However, the top mod changes his mind, unilaterally decides that the sub should open, and threatens the rest of the mods with contacting the admins to reopen and depose them if they follow through the results of the vote.
I'm surprised by a lot of the comments. It's frustrating that so many people just want their entertainment. They don't seem to care that Reddit is making it harder or even impossible for the people that use their personal time to keep the sub moving. It reeks of entitlement.
I'm not surprised. It was only a matter of time before users decided the protest was too inconvenient and getting in the way. They see the short-term impact of the protest more than they see the long-term repercussions of Reddit Inc.
It's amazing seeing this all happen in realtime. I was on the fence about deleting my reddit account in order to keep participating in the small communities that decide to stay on reddit, but I'm just how aggressive reddit admins have been with treating people who actively engage with the site.
Subreddits protesting are trying to get the message to reddit management that they don't agree. Instead of having a discussion, reddit management is just forcing their will on everyone, which causes the discenters to leave the proverbial table as they realize any there will be no discussion.
At this point, anyone who still wants to use reddit is just enabling this behavior.
18% is a huge margin when it comes to a yes or no question. The last US presidential election to have such a margin was Reagan's 2nd term almost 40 years ago, which was seen as a complete blow out.
Edit: Especially since another 5% votes to keep restricted, which is a 2nd option of not returning to business as normal. So I'd say it was more like a 23% margin, which is enormous.