Current Events > Numerous subreddits are shutting down June 12th in protest of API changes

(+) Yeah! (+)

webpage that shows participating subs and their status
it's slow

https://reddark.netlify.app/

So a majority of these subreddits are only going down for two-three days? LMAO Reddit's just gonna weather the storm and nothing will happen. You want actual change? All particpating subreddits should go dark until they reverse the decision.

Apparently they are gonna kill old.reddit? Fuck that shit

I feel like this misrepresents the amount of support for the boycott. The moderators of most of the subreddits I go to just decided to join the boycott without any input from the regular users.

It's like if movie theaters were protesting the split with major studios of ticket sales so they refused to show [insert movies] but then said "Movie goers are telling you no!". Which isn't to say whether the boycott is valid or not, but I don't really think this puts the pressure on Reddit.

It's not really a money issue. If it was a money issue, then Reddit would be charging a reasonable amount of money, in-line with what other platforms cost (Imgur is on the high end, at about $200/50K requests; I believe I've heard Google Earth or something is even lower, closer to $90/50K). That's not what's happening.

They want $12,000/50K requests.

The pricing is so far outside the realm of reason that it's clear what this is actually about: their upcoming IPO. Reddit is planning on going public, and they need to demonstrate that they have fairly tight control over their userbase (that is, they have the ability to reliably monetize all their users through tracking and advertising) in order to appeal to investors. Third-party apps get in the way of that, because they can't track and advertise to users of third-party apps.

But they saw what happened with Twitter, when Twitter banned third-party apps, and they also need to avoid a PR disaster, so they didn't just outright ban third-party apps. Instead, they're telling a story publicly about third-party apps costing them too much money, one that they hope investors can read between the lines of: they're saying it's about the money, but to anyone in the know, it's about control. They've set the API price high enough that they know nobody will be able to keep running a third-party Reddit app, they just want you to think it's reasonable.

Avoiding a PR disaster is also why they're doing a lot of the other things they're doing right now, around this change. They recently announced that, after over a week of insisting that there would be no exceptions, apps designed specifically for accessibility would be exempt from the API costs. Spez is doing an AMA tomorrow about the changes (which we can be sure will result in exactly no meaningful answers). But most unacceptable among their moves to control the narrative here is they've been calling out Apollo, the app of choice for most power users on iOS, unprompted. They've said it's inefficient, they've said the dev doesn't want to work with them, they said he tried to blackmail them... you can read about how all of that is objectively false in Christian's post announcing the end of Apollo, but the point is they're attacking Apollo to try and paint themselves as the good guys, and third-party apps as evil leeches, profiting off your content without contributing anything back to the community.

So the issues here are... complex. Third-party apps would pay for the API if they had to (they do with Imgur) but the way this change is being rolled out, combined with the cost of the API, means that nobody can afford to continue their operations. It'd be one thing if they were just outright banning third-party apps, it would get a lot of the same backlash, but this is so much worse.

How do you suggest reddit monetize their service or should they just stop paying all their bills until the site closes?

How do you suggest reddit monetize their service or should they just stop paying all their bills until the site closes?

The reddit changes negatively effect all reddit users so yes, all sub reddits participating in this blackout fully 10000000% represents its users

Upon looking more into it, the only way this is affecting me is that several subs that I frequent have decided to arbitrarily not be available for a couple days. Reddit itself isn't negatively impacting me, but these "blackouts" are.

So no, I'm not feeling "represented" by the blackouts.

If they kill old reddit I'll wait for the replacement site, something will rise up.

The reddit changes negatively effect all reddit users so yes, all sub reddits participating in this blackout fully 10000000% represents its users

Reddit will one day go the way of Twitter and Facebook, consumed by soulless corporate greed.

That AMA was a shit show as expected.

got a link?

https://reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/ 145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/

https://reddit.com/r/ModCoord/comments/ 145l7wp/todays_ama_with_spez_did_nothing_to_alleviate/

Had to dust off this 21 year old account. The blackout brought me back :D.

So what have I missed?

got a list?

I've been looking for an organized list but can't find one out there yet.

I'm setting the 261 subreddit to private in solidarity with this protest.

Just as pointless as the twitter meltdown as the majority of those social butterflies lives depends on spewing their shit on the app/website.

So says the user spewing on a dying game forum.

Just as pointless as the twitter meltdown as the majority of those social butterflies lives depends on spewing their shit on the app/website.

And theyve already scheduled the end of it plus the CEO already confirmed he doesnt care at all. He wants Reddit to start making money. I bet they just replace many moderators since literally a tiny amount of Uber mods run all of the most popular subs.

If people really cared they would stop using reddit and not perform the worst wannabe boycott in history.

Something else will rise up if Reddit starts commandeering the subs.

CEO still isnt gonna change his mind dudes an asshole

I've heard that redditors possess a defense mechanism in which they will surround the hostile CEO and tip their fedoras at such a speed that heat goes up and oxygen goes down.

Just as pointless as the twitter meltdown as the majority of those social butterflies lives depends on spewing their shit on the app/website.

And theyve already scheduled the end of it plus the CEO already confirmed he doesnt care at all. He wants Reddit to start making money. I bet they just replace many moderators since literally a tiny amount of Uber mods run all of the most popular subs.

If people really cared they would stop using reddit and not perform the worst wannabe boycott in history.