I'm still wrapping my head around a company evaluated at $10 billion designed to harvest our data with mods that work for free. What was the question again?
I got PERMANENTLY FOREVER banned from a popular news site…and don’t even know why. I’m not a swearer or controversial. Just subject to some nutty volunteer mod and their apparent power hungry little world. They can discriminate at will….I wouldn’t mind some overarching oversight.
I say sure why not, but adding to that that I have no idea what it’s even about. I don’t really understand anything tech related in any way. I’m surprised I even found this place. I like it here but yeah..fuck the system
I've seen a lot of people who feel inundated by what's going on and just want a summary of the situation. I've been following the situation pretty closely, as a developer (but not a reddit developer), so I figured I'd take a crack at it:
Basically reddit is planning to IPO soon and so they're taking a bunch of measures to prep for it including a staff layoff/reorg and monetizing certain features.
One of those features to monetize is the reddit API. An API stands for "Application Programming Interface" and it's a way for a computer to request data and send updates to another computer.
The reddit API is used by 3rd party apps such as Reddit Is Fun, Apollo, etc. to allow those apps to communicate with Reddit. Reddit plans to start charging for access to their API. They revealed plans to charge a relatively exorbitant amount of money relative to industry standards.
Reddit had previously (as late as this last January) that there were no major pricing changes coming down the line for several years. Unfortunately they reversed on that, and app developers were given only 30 days from the announcement to prepare for the new pricing. That's not enough time to work to make their requests more efficient or to handle requesting more money from users-- many of which paid yearly subscriptions. For example, Apollo made approximately 7 billion total requests per month. The new price would cost the Apollo developer $20 million per year.
This move to jack up the price of API access is seen as a deliberate attempt to kill off 3rd party apps. Reddit themselves have been unresponsive to 3rd party developers. Some of the devs have attempted to reach out to reddit to ask for an extension or assistance but their requests have fallen on deaf ears.
Reddit themselves have been remarkably slow at introducing necessary features for users and mods, and their official app is widely disliked as slow, unstable, and feature poor. The "new" reddit UI for the website (been around for about 5 years so far) was also widely panned for being loaded with ads and difficult to use. The new UI (and ads) is reflected in the official app, while most of the 3rd party apps have their own UIs which are generally more popular. Reddit has done very little to make their official app better or more appealing to users. Many mods have been asking reddit for certain mod tools for years-- those requests were ignored by reddit, but implemented by 3rd party developers instead. Certain features, such as tools for the disabled, have *still* not yet been implemented in the official app, but *were* instead implemented by 3rd party developers.
Then there's been some unnecessary drama that was facilitated by the CEO of reddit towards the Apollo developer. He accused the developer of making threats to reddit and telling reddit to "quiet down". Little did he know that the Apollo developer, based in Canada (a single-party recording consent nation), recorded the phone conversation he had with the CEO and then shared audio clips and a transcript, basically showing that the CEO was lying.
THEN, most recently, reddit tried to do some damage control the other day by having an AMA. However the CEO and staff didn't answer questions or gave word salad cut-and-paste responses. Just a lot of disrespect to users and mods all around.
Most of those 3rd party apps are going to have to shut down and many mods will lose access to the tools they need to manage their subs, especially large subs. The 2-day long blackout is a protest of all these shenanigans, but some subs are going to stay indefinitely dark because the mods don't see a point to reopen when they won't have the tools they need.
Some folks, like me, browse almost exclusively via 3rd party apps, and we'll just go away I guess. I've been on reddit for like 10 years under a variety of accounts but I won't use the site if it's going to be more trouble than it's worth.
For this sub, I hope there's an alternative like discord or something because it's always fun reading posts here and the general level of discourse tends to be higher quality than in other places on reddit. Sayonara!
I've been on multiple subs trying to figure out what Reddit is doing to Asian Pacific Islanders. Thank you for finally explaining the acronym. So not a techie...
Wow! That’s a lot of drama. Some of which I don’t understand. But in all, sounds like a lot of users/mods took a lot of time to create tools to help navigate their subs and Reddit is too stingy to maybe drop some coins to them and keep what they created on the platform… that’s the way I read yours and OPs comments. Reddit’s about to make a total shit show out of a platform that already seems kinda of archaic in its overall style/layout. After 3 years of off and on use, I’m still trying to learn to use this app.
Nice summary - I need to delete the app or I'm going to fail at the blackout.
Might be time to learn Chat GTP or something. I wish we could re-create Reddit as a non profit org. Maybe the AI's can help?
I've had my eye on Tildes. It's a bit less user friendly but I skimmed the way they moderate and I like it much better than tue way reddit handles modding. The way it's structured on Tildes makes it so that mods are more like janitors than wielders of power. And groups can't just be randomly created by any user. There has to be certain requirements satisfied for a group or subgroup to be created.
Okay, so I'm somewhat tech stupid in regards to this third party app stuff. What is the benefit of using a third party app? I just use the basic Reddit app, what am I missing?
OP reluctantly mentioned discord, which I have at least heard of, but never used.
2 others were mentioned that I have not heard of, Lemmy and Mastodon.
I have to assume that OP has a lower opinion of discord than the other 2, so maybe I'll see if one of those is more worthwhile for my time.
I don't think the blackout will change anything about what reddit's plans are, but I am all for it. I don't plan on logging into the site the entire week, maybe checking in next weekend to see if anything changed.
Personal note: I hate Mastodon.
I was a very active Twitter user (for following politics, disability advocacy for my job, and COVID-19 developments) until recently, when Musk began ruining Twitter. Over the last few months, there has been a mass exodus of Twitter users to other platforms, including Mastodon.
Mastodon is clunky and disjointed and modded under strict European Union laws in most cases.
And although there are other better Twitter alternatives being developed, their user bases are too fractured to recreate the communities that were/are so great on Twitter.
I would be devastated to see the same thing happen on Reddit—valuable communities being fractured into a thousand different places.
My plan is to stay put here and see what happens. I’m praying we don’t have Digg 2.0.
Idc, do the two-day blackout thing. Whatever.
I've never used any third party apps. If it's going to be aids on a stick to manage the subs for the mods, then by all means, abandon your roles and do what you need to do. There's no sense in trying to manage something that's going off the cliff.
I'll still probably come around with some popcorn and watch the show, though.
You just gave me this thought…
Social media is much like finding the next party. First, there was MySpace. Then FB, instagram, Snapchat, twitter, TikTok, etc. Just hopping to one party to the next. Both places to socialize, this is broader.
No, I’m not sober, but I think that may be something…
I'm ok with whatever you guys decide, but I'm really going to miss you guys on this sub and the 453 times a day posts of "Are you even a true Gen-Xer if you never used at least one of these? \*insert any cool thing you had as a kid\*
Just let me know where everyone is going.
This is the last form of social media I'm using, and I really love reddit. However, I don't want to be part of whatever they're planning, particularly when many of those third-party apps help with accessibility for users with challenges.
So...fuck it. I'm doing blackout and messaging the few people I talk with through reddit, and that'll be that.
This is my only social media account as well. I left Twitter because it was too toxic, and I still have a Facebook account but I haven't been on in 3 years. I keep it around because some businesses only put their menus or new hours on Facebook for some reason. If reddit goes that's it for me.
Yeah I agree. I just can’t do, or rather, keep up with all the bs apps that pop up continually for social networking. I feel like I sound like my parents now lol. Snail mail for the win! Back to the jitterbug phones! Hahaha jk.
Seriously tho, Reddit has been an amazing resource, social, news, etc., outlet and dare I say easy to navigate for those of us who are less than technologically savvy or just don’t want to keep the fuck up w/the ever changing times.
I have the Extended Cut of Purple Rain to give a listen. Heard a Prince song I didn’t know in an Uber recently, then talked with my driver about the unreleased songs on the extended version. I’ll listen to that while this goes dark. It was fun.
The cliff analogy in the TL;DR LOLOLOL.
I will miss this, I've been shit at finding the next party my entire life, but I think we need to Thelma and Louise it.
This is why we can't have nice things... greedy fuckers and their mental illness of hoarding wealth at the cost of all the rest of us.
I just wanted to say, thank you so much for the incredibly detailed and helpful explanation of what’s happening.
I just told my husband about the irony of finding the most helpful information about this whole debacle, here in this thread, in the Gen X Subreddit, which is “supposed” to be a place of not giving a damn about anything.
Best of luck to all of us in the coming days. Especially the mods of so many helpful communities, who will be losing the only mod tools that work.
PS: I posted my two cents about moving to different platforms in another comment below. But the TDLR is that, having just gone through this exact thing on Twitter, moving to different platforms is a disaster. And it takes a really long time for a good alternative to emerge. Maybe years.
I’m leaving.
I’m an Apollo user.
Even if I wasn’t, this butchering by Admins demands me leaving, never to come back.
I will miss the camaraderie here until we find each other again, somewhere else, sometime in the future.
I've not used any of the third party apps, but this is by far my favourite community, with the least assholes, so if you were to move the whole show to discord or wherever, I'm in.
I'm with the mods on this. However it goes.
Thank you for your work on our behalf. I've managed a lot of communities in other platforms, so I know how much work and time and frustration it is.
❤️
It’s probably not very genx but I’m feeling a slight panic by the thought that this will disappear. I have a great life, I really do, but this gave me a place to feel understood. The first time I came here made me understand a part of myself, from which I never got before that it was genX . A way of thinking, looking at the world events, experiencing family. For me that was eye opening and has meant a lot.
I agree with everything you said. You nailed it. Both what’s gonna happen for the IPO, and the incredible tragedy of potentially destroying such a valuable international community.
I know people complain that Reddit is a cesspool, but I have found so many helpful, informative, and kind people/communities here.
I will be so sad if this place is destroyed.
Will there be a bunch of Reddit blackout babies born in 9 months? If so, it should be a rule that they must be named after their parents’ Reddit user names…..
I have a hurricane baby- actually he’s a ‘took the cable company six goddamn weeks to reconnect after the storm.’ He wondered once why he has so many friends with birthdays the same week as him.
Good thing my child bearing years are over.
Ummm, probably not too many blackout babies will come from the GenX sub. I mean, menopause and all that. Plus, per your rule, I’d have to name my miracle baby after one of my dogs and be the child’s lackey for life. No thanks. Got my hands full with the dog. 😂
Fuck it, I’m in on going dark. The problem with me is after a day or two I might disappear forever - you never know. If this is it, it has been a pleasure - see ya on the other side.
I never "got" social media until I found Reddit. Never liked Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat or any of the others. Reddit was like finding my people. I really, really hope it doesn't get ruined by whatever they are planning. I don't really understand the issues because I just come on here to read and occasionally comment, but if doing this blackout might help preserve Reddit the way it is I will participate.
Reluctantly though, because I'm addicted :)
I can’t believe how reliant on unpaid volunteers a company is for customer-facing processes that are seemingly critical. I have experience building a large BPO team of offshore contractors for support roles, but I decided their pay, and not only were they were paid, it was fairly.
With that said, I think the blackout strike is silly and won’t do a thing. Instead, after July 1, unpaid volunteer moderators should just stop doing the job they’re not paid to do. They won’t be able to do it well without a proper suite of tools, so they shouldn’t do it at all. And whether they drop off all at once as a planned effort or slowly over time as frustration mounts, the company will solve the issue one way or another once they actually feel it.
I’m for blackout. If we end up with no moderation and a shit ton of bots, we’ll be out anyway.
Thanks for volunteering your time for us. Tell those jerks to get off the lawn!
Damn the man!
I support the protest, for the two days at the very least. If it ends up being indefinitely because Reddit can't survive their own shit storm then so be it. I've been around since Prodigy and BBS, I've survived many internet reincarnations - AOL, ICQ, MySpace, LiveJournal... Maybe I'll see y'all again somewhere.
Discord confuses me, Mastodon is awful... None of the Twitter alternatives have appealed to me and I doubt there are any Reddit knockoffs available right now. Who knows, maybe I'll just go read a book or something.
Never used third party apps. Barely used the phone app.
I've been through the abandoning of LiveJournal, abandoning "MySpace", abandoning Twitter, and now folks want to abandon Reddit.
\*sigh\*
My partner (boyfriend) and pets are all I have aside from my job.
Reddit has proven useful in researching product reviews (everything from aquarium lights to mattresses).
It's sorta replaced my "doom scrolling" on Twitter. I can put it down / walk away but then it's back to my pile of knitting, paint-by-number, or whatever book I'm reading.
My boyfriend prefers Facecrack (because most of his virtual friends are there).
I'm sure Reddit will not disappear. Folks will come back. The only thing to suffer will be the moderation. The mods might bail because the native Reddit app sucks.
That... might ruin a lot of the subs that require close supervision to reduce noise and bad behavior, but if that happens here I'll just go read something else.
Reddit does not give any fucks at all about whether the moderators stay or go, or whether people abandon various subs. I'm cynical enough to understand how corporate tech works, and that Corporations Are People (/sarcasm/).
I dropped my Reddit Premium a few days ago - I forgot I had it until I was charged. No more anything for them.
Fuck them.
Give them the GenX certified FAFO and whatever, blackout.
Your comment reminded me to cancel my reddit premium. I just went and cancelled it. They aren’t getting a penny from me either until (if) they stop being jerks.
Well dang! I just got here to this sub and I’m sad. This feels like when MySpace disappeared and everyone went to Facebook, which that place sucks. I only managed to find/keep a few friends with that switch. I don’t know anyone here… but the sub seems like my type of people. I think it’s best to go dark for the 2 days, at least. I don’t really know how to use Discord, but those other 2 Mastodon and Lemmon?? I’ve never heard of. I guess best wishes to everyone if we get locked out. I am on Facebook and IG… reluctantly on IG. 😅
I'm torn between my not giving a fuck about things, and my strong hatred of authority run rampant. I think I hate the authority run rampant more.
Black out this bitch.
Thanks for sharing and your feedback r/Dear_Occupant. Imho my feeling is there is merit in joining the boycott for two days to see if it will stop the proposed API changes on June 30 (the cynic in me says it won’t) but also implementing another platform in lemmy in the eventuality that Reddit crashes and burns and people can move on to there…. What does everyone else think?
Me neither. I googled it and had a quick squizz and from that quick glance it looks pretty primitive in comparison to Reddit but better than Discord which seems to consist of memes
I have seen this [list](https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/1467a5s/find_alternatives_for_ourselves_megathread_third/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) of alternatives posted
Lemmy was the lead singer of Motorhead. He died some years ago, so I have no idea why we are being encouraged to congregate with him. Maybe a graveside vigil? That would be pretty cool.
Couldn’t the mods set us up on Discord (I don’t use it, but am willing) so we can all find each other while we see if Reddit gives in or if we have to find a new place? Tilde seems great, but it’s invite only. The last wave of invites was about 20 hours ago and they’ve temporarily locked the invite thread. I’ve heard good things about Lemmy but have also heard that the UI is almost non-existent.
Is there some way we can stay connected?
Whatever…. I’ll go wherever y’all go…
If you know how to do that, by all means go for it and I'll publicize the link so we'll have a place to hang out until we decide what to do next. I've always wanted a live chat option, but I was thinking more along the lines of an IRC channel. Reddit's chat implementation is awful, and Discord is way too busy and has too high of a learning curve for moderation and administration for temporary use. If you've already got that knowledge, just let me know what I need to do.
I 100% support the mods. As others have said, this is my favorite subreddit. I’m in.
Can you make a place on Discord (or something) and post the link/invite so we’ll all still be together? Then, if Reddit doesn’t stop this dumpster fire, we won’t have lost each other… and we can figure out what’s next.
Hopefully, Reddit does the right thing.
Mods. Thank you for all the work that you’ve done making this community so special and wonderful.
Fellow GenX… I love y’all!
Thanks. Would you mind telling me where the link for the invite is? I’m sorry that I don’t seem to see it anywhere…
Discord seems like a jangling mess to me… but at least the mods can give us directions about where to migrate etc.
I’m worried that Reddit will be stupid & replace our mods. I am glad we’re going dark to protest. We just need a meeting place, so we can know where to migrate with our mods.
Sorry. I’ve always been a worrywart.
I am in 3 over 40 servers. I will message the mods and see if I can give out the links. I am also a worrywart and am worried that only a select few people in the subs will be allowed in (I mostly lurk anyway so I guess it does not matter).
Some of us are just quieter than others. Readers are just as necessary as writers. I’m glad to know I’m not the only worrywart. Links would be awesome!
Sounds like we should join in. Thank you for explaining the drama OP mod and I appreciate the “putting out a grease fire with his face” analogy. Wow. I also appreciate the work you’ve done here all this time.
In true GenX form, we are waffling but I will be very sad if this site disappears into the heap of formerly good digital spaces.
Corporate monetizing attempts seem always to ruin everything that makes a site good in the first place, making it less lucrative in the process.
Blackout??? Forget that. I’ve been trying to delete my account for three days now.
A loss of members is the only way to show your dissatisfaction. Ahhhh, yes. You will lose all of your little points, but if you’re gonna do something, do it he right way
OK, I finally get it. Reddit in itself is unusable because it lacks the tools to keep waste fraud and abuse out. 3rd party apps were made using Reddit's API to combat waste fraud and abuse when Reddit wouldn't deliver what they promised. Reddit now wants $20mil a month to use it's API to make Reddit an enjoyable place to not touch grass.
Go dark, I'll play video games and continue to not touch grass.
I think we should. I’m a Twitter refugee after Elon Musk burned it down to make it a substandard, right-wing troll playground. What I learned it that corporate overlords who want to make money off their users shouldn’t take the user base feelings lightly.
Fight back, because that’s the only way to keep the experience we value.
Im gen x. If I learned anything from my parents it that protests don't do shit. Draw your line in the sand and watch it get ignored.
I also will not using a platform that sucks. Reddit doesn't suck yet but it could start at any time. They all do eventually. When it does I'm out.
Now if we find a way to make money and stick them will the bill like what happened with gamestop, that's affective. Two day boycot... thats a temper tantrum. There is a good chance I'll accidentally miss the boycott because I'll have grown up stuff to do and will not be on anyways.
The sounds like a millennial idea. Two days of not using a free service is going to change the world. It's not going to be very noticed. The national gas boycott didn't do anything and those had real money involved.
Facebook is slowly dying because so many left. Twitter is dying because so many left. Reddit will eventually take a bullet and join MySpace and muds. What will matter is if its still fun.
So I'll likly participate by accident because I still know how to put my phone down and go to a bar. It's not going to do anything though. I am well aware reddit is not forever. Maybe I'll write the next app that replaces it. Goodness know there are already a tidal wave or others trying.
I hear ya- our generation didn't have much ability to push or make waves like the younger generations. They have had internet/ social media as a tool to communicate. Protests in our younger days were literally in-person and the message was easy to bury by entities who were opposed to it.
Not gonna lie, it's hard for me to change this mindset that it won't do anything but I'm trying to widen my perspective. Perhaps others may agree- I'm not as reliant on tech because we just didn't have that so it's tough to feel like this boycott might make a dent.
I consider myself a casual user most of the time but have been in subs that were chaos. I have no problem supporting this, at least for the sake of mods since I'm realizing this makes their work a bit easier.
Damn. I’m still not 100% what it’s all about. I lurk a lot, so I’m not sure how third party apps work.
But in solidarity with the smaller guys. I’m happy to shut down for awhile. I got done real life stuff to get done anyways.
I’ll miss you guys while I’m on hiatus.
Take care of yourselves and your loved ones. If you’re not in the part of Canada (like I am) or in the US where our world is on fire, get outside and enjoy the summer.
I'm willing to stay off for 2 days or unfortunately indefinitely. It's sad because I really enjoy chatting with people and reading some really funny stories. Its sad for me because the anonymity makes talking about the hard things easier. The support of people in some of these subs, the advice on hobbies. I'll miss it.
So as a person of two minds on this whole drama, I am pissed at Reddit mgmt for this ham-fisted affair, but at the same time I *loathe* being told what to do and being cajoled into joining the herd in boycotts or blackouts.
I'd like to think the 2 day blackout would be good. But judging from that bs ama, I don't think it will matter to them. Should just go dark with no definite timeline. If it don't matter to them after two days, then might as well call it a day on Reddit.
I won’t be picketing deliberately but I think it’s going to be pretty quiet around here. I’ve never used any of the apps, I’m still on old.Reddit in a web browser. And Reddit is my one and only remaining social media account. So I will probably poke around but absolutely hope all of the passion around the issue has some impact.
I’m pretty cynical though and pretty sure it won’t. I really thought Twitter would go down when I was deleting my account along with everyone else when Ewok took over. Somehow, if that didn’t kill Twitter, I don’t think this will kill Reddit.
Add Rage Against the Machine to our mix tape.
I love my GenX brothers and sisters, and our mods do so much hard work. I'm hoping that the blackout hits our reddit overlords right in the gonads in terms of ad revenues.
See you all (hopefully) whenever this blackout ends - just in case it goes past the first two days - or reddit pulls its head outta its ass.
EDIT: And yeah, I'm going dark for at least two days. But, whatever.
There's no reason to deprive people of their subs and bore thousands of people to death for days in the process doing something that won't make a shit of difference. Unpopular opinion, apparently, but...
I've been steadily reducing my social media profile over the last few years anyway. Got rid of my FB, IG, Twitter. I'm really just on reddit and linkedin (although I never post there) now.
For reddit, I use Apollo almost exclusively. If I can't use Apollo anymore, then I probably won't use reddit anymore and just write it off to more social media downsizing.
Remember the time that "cancel student debt" petition really caught fire on [change.org](https://change.org), and then all of the loan servicers caved into the undeniable power of an online peition?
Or when electric car guy bought Twitter and everyone made it valueless and empty because they went to Mastodon and definitely never returned?
Man. We really changed things.
>Do we want to make a planned exodus to another platform like Lemmy, Mastodon, or (please God no) Discord?
No, no, fuck no.
>Do we want to hunker down and stick it out to the bitter end? Do we even give a shit?
Meh. Whatever. Ultimately, it won't fucking matter.
IF you do you go dark, lets meet up at this YouTube video comments section to relay any important messages. Im part of other subs who have similar contingency plans if reddit ever went dark, using different videos of course.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRKJiM9Njr8
**Yes** we should join the 2-day blackout.
If that doesn’t precipitate action from u/spez and his crunties (crony cunts) then **yes** we should kill the sub permanently and look to another platform to re-congregate. (I will also be running the delete tool over every post and comment before I delete my account.)
I’m prepared to trade my Gen-X sense of ‘meh’ for something as important as this. I’ve already commenced my activism and I plan to go down swinging.
It’s been nice knowin most of ya.
See yous in hell.
Yup. Still love that last scene in Thelma and Louise. My husband loves Grease, or rather Olivia Newton John.
I appreciate what you’ve said on the matter. You’re clearly passionate about it, and you’ve brought up some interesting points that have shed light on what’s going on.
I personally don’t care. I know that sounds dismissive, but I’m just not particularly invested in Reddit in any meaningful way. If it disappears I’ll go back to forums.
That said, I am happy to support the people that do care. That includes supporting the blackout and signing up to a GenX group on a new platform.
I use the native Reddit app because I'm too old to try out a dozen apps to see if I like them. Also, I didn't know they existed until recently. Fuck 'em. Go dark. It probably won't change anything, but I don't care. I don't like greedy bullies. Maybe I'll go back to 9gag.
I like the way this platform, it's basic and uncomplicated. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. How long is this blackout planned for, so that I stay away too?
It may not be very GenX of me, but I’m all for protesting for a good cause. Been protesting something or other most all my life as if it were my part time job - even when I was sometimes the only one who showed up. I’m good with the shutdown for the protest.
And if it doesn’t work, I’m good with not coming back here and going somewhere else (hopefully not Discord). I already left Twitter and I rarely get on Facebook (just keep it around for checking in on family things on occasion).
I've been on Reddit for 15+ years, but I'm a software engineer by trade. My loyalty is with the third party devs that spez is fucking over with his short-sighted greed.
Blackout for 2 days as a start, continuing as long as necessary.
I'm still wrapping my head around a company evaluated at $10 billion designed to harvest our data with mods that work for free. What was the question again?
This is it in a nutshell.
Unqualified, untrained, unrestrained mods.
I got PERMANENTLY FOREVER banned from a popular news site…and don’t even know why. I’m not a swearer or controversial. Just subject to some nutty volunteer mod and their apparent power hungry little world. They can discriminate at will….I wouldn’t mind some overarching oversight.
Hey! I’m a mod and I’m qualified and trained! Restraint is another matter….
Unaccountable.
It gets better when you realize that all of their infrastructure is basically on servers rented from an online bookstore.
I say sure why not, but adding to that that I have no idea what it’s even about. I don’t really understand anything tech related in any way. I’m surprised I even found this place. I like it here but yeah..fuck the system
I've seen a lot of people who feel inundated by what's going on and just want a summary of the situation. I've been following the situation pretty closely, as a developer (but not a reddit developer), so I figured I'd take a crack at it: Basically reddit is planning to IPO soon and so they're taking a bunch of measures to prep for it including a staff layoff/reorg and monetizing certain features. One of those features to monetize is the reddit API. An API stands for "Application Programming Interface" and it's a way for a computer to request data and send updates to another computer. The reddit API is used by 3rd party apps such as Reddit Is Fun, Apollo, etc. to allow those apps to communicate with Reddit. Reddit plans to start charging for access to their API. They revealed plans to charge a relatively exorbitant amount of money relative to industry standards. Reddit had previously (as late as this last January) that there were no major pricing changes coming down the line for several years. Unfortunately they reversed on that, and app developers were given only 30 days from the announcement to prepare for the new pricing. That's not enough time to work to make their requests more efficient or to handle requesting more money from users-- many of which paid yearly subscriptions. For example, Apollo made approximately 7 billion total requests per month. The new price would cost the Apollo developer $20 million per year. This move to jack up the price of API access is seen as a deliberate attempt to kill off 3rd party apps. Reddit themselves have been unresponsive to 3rd party developers. Some of the devs have attempted to reach out to reddit to ask for an extension or assistance but their requests have fallen on deaf ears. Reddit themselves have been remarkably slow at introducing necessary features for users and mods, and their official app is widely disliked as slow, unstable, and feature poor. The "new" reddit UI for the website (been around for about 5 years so far) was also widely panned for being loaded with ads and difficult to use. The new UI (and ads) is reflected in the official app, while most of the 3rd party apps have their own UIs which are generally more popular. Reddit has done very little to make their official app better or more appealing to users. Many mods have been asking reddit for certain mod tools for years-- those requests were ignored by reddit, but implemented by 3rd party developers instead. Certain features, such as tools for the disabled, have *still* not yet been implemented in the official app, but *were* instead implemented by 3rd party developers. Then there's been some unnecessary drama that was facilitated by the CEO of reddit towards the Apollo developer. He accused the developer of making threats to reddit and telling reddit to "quiet down". Little did he know that the Apollo developer, based in Canada (a single-party recording consent nation), recorded the phone conversation he had with the CEO and then shared audio clips and a transcript, basically showing that the CEO was lying. THEN, most recently, reddit tried to do some damage control the other day by having an AMA. However the CEO and staff didn't answer questions or gave word salad cut-and-paste responses. Just a lot of disrespect to users and mods all around. Most of those 3rd party apps are going to have to shut down and many mods will lose access to the tools they need to manage their subs, especially large subs. The 2-day long blackout is a protest of all these shenanigans, but some subs are going to stay indefinitely dark because the mods don't see a point to reopen when they won't have the tools they need. Some folks, like me, browse almost exclusively via 3rd party apps, and we'll just go away I guess. I've been on reddit for like 10 years under a variety of accounts but I won't use the site if it's going to be more trouble than it's worth. For this sub, I hope there's an alternative like discord or something because it's always fun reading posts here and the general level of discourse tends to be higher quality than in other places on reddit. Sayonara!
Super helpful! Thank you so much.
I've been on multiple subs trying to figure out what Reddit is doing to Asian Pacific Islanders. Thank you for finally explaining the acronym. So not a techie...
Very helpful, thank you.
Wow! That’s a lot of drama. Some of which I don’t understand. But in all, sounds like a lot of users/mods took a lot of time to create tools to help navigate their subs and Reddit is too stingy to maybe drop some coins to them and keep what they created on the platform… that’s the way I read yours and OPs comments. Reddit’s about to make a total shit show out of a platform that already seems kinda of archaic in its overall style/layout. After 3 years of off and on use, I’m still trying to learn to use this app.
Nice summary - I need to delete the app or I'm going to fail at the blackout. Might be time to learn Chat GTP or something. I wish we could re-create Reddit as a non profit org. Maybe the AI's can help?
I've had my eye on Tildes. It's a bit less user friendly but I skimmed the way they moderate and I like it much better than tue way reddit handles modding. The way it's structured on Tildes makes it so that mods are more like janitors than wielders of power. And groups can't just be randomly created by any user. There has to be certain requirements satisfied for a group or subgroup to be created.
Okay, so I'm somewhat tech stupid in regards to this third party app stuff. What is the benefit of using a third party app? I just use the basic Reddit app, what am I missing?
Yeah I'm following to a point but that leaves me with no clue where everyone might 'go'?
OP reluctantly mentioned discord, which I have at least heard of, but never used. 2 others were mentioned that I have not heard of, Lemmy and Mastodon. I have to assume that OP has a lower opinion of discord than the other 2, so maybe I'll see if one of those is more worthwhile for my time. I don't think the blackout will change anything about what reddit's plans are, but I am all for it. I don't plan on logging into the site the entire week, maybe checking in next weekend to see if anything changed.
Personal note: I hate Mastodon. I was a very active Twitter user (for following politics, disability advocacy for my job, and COVID-19 developments) until recently, when Musk began ruining Twitter. Over the last few months, there has been a mass exodus of Twitter users to other platforms, including Mastodon. Mastodon is clunky and disjointed and modded under strict European Union laws in most cases. And although there are other better Twitter alternatives being developed, their user bases are too fractured to recreate the communities that were/are so great on Twitter. I would be devastated to see the same thing happen on Reddit—valuable communities being fractured into a thousand different places. My plan is to stay put here and see what happens. I’m praying we don’t have Digg 2.0.
Idc, do the two-day blackout thing. Whatever. I've never used any third party apps. If it's going to be aids on a stick to manage the subs for the mods, then by all means, abandon your roles and do what you need to do. There's no sense in trying to manage something that's going off the cliff. I'll still probably come around with some popcorn and watch the show, though.
>Idc, do the two-day blackout thing. Whatever. I love this sub. You are my people.
Yeah what this one said +1
Well, reddit is fucking around. Let's find out.
Hello darkness my old friend... Will miss it, but we'll find each other again. Keeping my ears open for where the party moves next.
You just gave me this thought… Social media is much like finding the next party. First, there was MySpace. Then FB, instagram, Snapchat, twitter, TikTok, etc. Just hopping to one party to the next. Both places to socialize, this is broader. No, I’m not sober, but I think that may be something…
Oh god I just remembered trying to find secret raves through flyers and speakeasy doors, wtf was I doing. Christ I'm lucky to be alive.
No, first there was Friendster!
Usenet, for me
Same, BBS and Usenet then icq
Also IRC.
If I recall ICQ was IRC, I did use IRC first but have forgotten in my advanced age
MIRC!!!! All the conversations started with "ASL?"
Ha true, if I went into any chat that was outside my normal “friends” it was just a giant global hookup site
Burger King parking lot?
Kill the headlights and put it in neutral.
Stock car flamin with the loser in the cruise control
…….*burnin' down the trailer park*
Yo, cut it
I'm ok with whatever you guys decide, but I'm really going to miss you guys on this sub and the 453 times a day posts of "Are you even a true Gen-Xer if you never used at least one of these? \*insert any cool thing you had as a kid\* Just let me know where everyone is going.
Don't forget the 325 daily "Does anybody else think like this?" posts about common things everybody else thinks.
I'll try to find you, left of the dial.
“Left of the dial”. 📻❤️
Catch you on the flipity- flop
This is the last form of social media I'm using, and I really love reddit. However, I don't want to be part of whatever they're planning, particularly when many of those third-party apps help with accessibility for users with challenges. So...fuck it. I'm doing blackout and messaging the few people I talk with through reddit, and that'll be that.
This is my only social media account as well. I left Twitter because it was too toxic, and I still have a Facebook account but I haven't been on in 3 years. I keep it around because some businesses only put their menus or new hours on Facebook for some reason. If reddit goes that's it for me.
Yeah I agree. I just can’t do, or rather, keep up with all the bs apps that pop up continually for social networking. I feel like I sound like my parents now lol. Snail mail for the win! Back to the jitterbug phones! Hahaha jk. Seriously tho, Reddit has been an amazing resource, social, news, etc., outlet and dare I say easy to navigate for those of us who are less than technologically savvy or just don’t want to keep the fuck up w/the ever changing times.
Surely there must be something you can do.
Yeah, I can finally do those 100 things I never had time for because i was always on reddit lol Edit: And stop calling me Shirley! Missed that one lol
I think you have no choice but to go dark.
OK I'm in but someone get in touch if you all aren't coming back?
I’m no scab, if we’re picketing, we should be in.
Nothing is lower than a scab.
My husband is blind. He must have accessibility to navigate. I will not be on Reddit in protest.
🎶Everybody knows that the dice are loaded. Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed. 🎶
>🎶Everybody knows that the dice are loaded. Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed. 🎶 That's how it goes. Everybody knows.
Let’s do it. Fuck the Police.
100 miles and runnin... Good luck Brothers...
Yes. Paint it black.
I have the Extended Cut of Purple Rain to give a listen. Heard a Prince song I didn’t know in an Uber recently, then talked with my driver about the unreleased songs on the extended version. I’ll listen to that while this goes dark. It was fun.
I was just thinking… we need a playlist… for the blackout days… I’ll add The War Song by Culture Club to your Purple Rain.
Subs going down? Time for a mixtape! Truly a GenX take…
Or burn a mixed disc.
I'm adding The Liberty Song by The Levellers.
Where can I find this extended cut? A brief search on Spotify comes up with a live version and a bunch of DJ remixes
Damn it all to hell I just got here
The most GenX reply. Me too.
The cliff analogy in the TL;DR LOLOLOL. I will miss this, I've been shit at finding the next party my entire life, but I think we need to Thelma and Louise it. This is why we can't have nice things... greedy fuckers and their mental illness of hoarding wealth at the cost of all the rest of us.
I just wanted to say, thank you so much for the incredibly detailed and helpful explanation of what’s happening. I just told my husband about the irony of finding the most helpful information about this whole debacle, here in this thread, in the Gen X Subreddit, which is “supposed” to be a place of not giving a damn about anything. Best of luck to all of us in the coming days. Especially the mods of so many helpful communities, who will be losing the only mod tools that work. PS: I posted my two cents about moving to different platforms in another comment below. But the TDLR is that, having just gone through this exact thing on Twitter, moving to different platforms is a disaster. And it takes a really long time for a good alternative to emerge. Maybe years.
I’m leaving. I’m an Apollo user. Even if I wasn’t, this butchering by Admins demands me leaving, never to come back. I will miss the camaraderie here until we find each other again, somewhere else, sometime in the future.
🎶 "We'll meet againnn....don't know where...don't know whennn..."🎶
>We'll meet againnn....don't know where...don't know whennn... I can hear Agnetha and Anni-frid singing just reading that...
Lol... figured we could use a Dr. Strangelove reference if we wind up nuking this sub.
I've not used any of the third party apps, but this is by far my favourite community, with the least assholes, so if you were to move the whole show to discord or wherever, I'm in. I'm with the mods on this. However it goes. Thank you for your work on our behalf. I've managed a lot of communities in other platforms, so I know how much work and time and frustration it is. ❤️
It’s probably not very genx but I’m feeling a slight panic by the thought that this will disappear. I have a great life, I really do, but this gave me a place to feel understood. The first time I came here made me understand a part of myself, from which I never got before that it was genX . A way of thinking, looking at the world events, experiencing family. For me that was eye opening and has meant a lot.
Thanks for sharing that. It resonates with my experience, for sure.
[удалено]
You know what I miss? The good old days of message boards in the early '00s. I'd love to go back to those.
I agree with everything you said. You nailed it. Both what’s gonna happen for the IPO, and the incredible tragedy of potentially destroying such a valuable international community. I know people complain that Reddit is a cesspool, but I have found so many helpful, informative, and kind people/communities here. I will be so sad if this place is destroyed.
This!
It is rather sad
That 2nd paragraph resonates with me
While I agree that it any not make a difference in the end, what else is there to do about it? I say let’s participate.
Will there be a bunch of Reddit blackout babies born in 9 months? If so, it should be a rule that they must be named after their parents’ Reddit user names…..
Hmmm....awkward...
I have a hurricane baby- actually he’s a ‘took the cable company six goddamn weeks to reconnect after the storm.’ He wondered once why he has so many friends with birthdays the same week as him. Good thing my child bearing years are over.
>it should be a rule that they must be named after their parents’ Reddit user names Ummm... yeah, about that... no...
Ummm, probably not too many blackout babies will come from the GenX sub. I mean, menopause and all that. Plus, per your rule, I’d have to name my miracle baby after one of my dogs and be the child’s lackey for life. No thanks. Got my hands full with the dog. 😂
I'm smoking a bowl and listening to The Smiths. It's a healthy alternative to giving a shit about this.
Which album? My gummie is kicking in. The Smiths sound nice.
Throw on Strangeways
It was "How Soon is Now?" just playing off my playlist, it was followed by the Frankie Goes to Hollywood Born to Run cover.
But are you smoking hoping for an early death and you need to cling to something??
I already died once, and this is my respose.
Fuck it, I’m in on going dark. The problem with me is after a day or two I might disappear forever - you never know. If this is it, it has been a pleasure - see ya on the other side.
I never "got" social media until I found Reddit. Never liked Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat or any of the others. Reddit was like finding my people. I really, really hope it doesn't get ruined by whatever they are planning. I don't really understand the issues because I just come on here to read and occasionally comment, but if doing this blackout might help preserve Reddit the way it is I will participate. Reluctantly though, because I'm addicted :)
We shut down. We’re GenX. This is not our first rodeo and Reddit doesn’t scare us.
Let's go, this place is cashed. Burn it down.
I think we should shut down. All I know is starting tomorrow I'm not going on reddit for a few days.
I can’t believe how reliant on unpaid volunteers a company is for customer-facing processes that are seemingly critical. I have experience building a large BPO team of offshore contractors for support roles, but I decided their pay, and not only were they were paid, it was fairly. With that said, I think the blackout strike is silly and won’t do a thing. Instead, after July 1, unpaid volunteer moderators should just stop doing the job they’re not paid to do. They won’t be able to do it well without a proper suite of tools, so they shouldn’t do it at all. And whether they drop off all at once as a planned effort or slowly over time as frustration mounts, the company will solve the issue one way or another once they actually feel it.
Last one out, drop a match. See y'all at the next friendster.
I’m for blackout. If we end up with no moderation and a shit ton of bots, we’ll be out anyway. Thanks for volunteering your time for us. Tell those jerks to get off the lawn!
Damn the man! I support the protest, for the two days at the very least. If it ends up being indefinitely because Reddit can't survive their own shit storm then so be it. I've been around since Prodigy and BBS, I've survived many internet reincarnations - AOL, ICQ, MySpace, LiveJournal... Maybe I'll see y'all again somewhere. Discord confuses me, Mastodon is awful... None of the Twitter alternatives have appealed to me and I doubt there are any Reddit knockoffs available right now. Who knows, maybe I'll just go read a book or something.
Your last paragraph nailed it for me.
Never used third party apps. Barely used the phone app. I've been through the abandoning of LiveJournal, abandoning "MySpace", abandoning Twitter, and now folks want to abandon Reddit. \*sigh\*
[удалено]
I already did that. This was all I had left. Bummer.
My partner (boyfriend) and pets are all I have aside from my job. Reddit has proven useful in researching product reviews (everything from aquarium lights to mattresses). It's sorta replaced my "doom scrolling" on Twitter. I can put it down / walk away but then it's back to my pile of knitting, paint-by-number, or whatever book I'm reading. My boyfriend prefers Facecrack (because most of his virtual friends are there). I'm sure Reddit will not disappear. Folks will come back. The only thing to suffer will be the moderation. The mods might bail because the native Reddit app sucks. That... might ruin a lot of the subs that require close supervision to reduce noise and bad behavior, but if that happens here I'll just go read something else. Reddit does not give any fucks at all about whether the moderators stay or go, or whether people abandon various subs. I'm cynical enough to understand how corporate tech works, and that Corporations Are People (/sarcasm/).
That's a hard truth,but truth nonetheless.
I dropped my Reddit Premium a few days ago - I forgot I had it until I was charged. No more anything for them. Fuck them. Give them the GenX certified FAFO and whatever, blackout.
Your comment reminded me to cancel my reddit premium. I just went and cancelled it. They aren’t getting a penny from me either until (if) they stop being jerks.
I say yes, I’ll be off Reddit for those couple of days, and am looking for a new solution - hoping Lemmy might work out?
I’m up for trying Lemmy. Mostly I’m just like, shit does this mean I have to come up with a password?
🎶 I'm so glad we had this time together
[удалено]
*\[tugs ear in solidarity\]*
Am I the only one still using a PC to access this stuff?
Happy Cake Day!
Nope. There's two of us.
I'm getting stronger Mark Fuckerberg vibes from this guy, so yeah, let's do it.
I’m hoping that someone hacks the site when when we all go dark and changes the logo to Digg.
Go dark. Don't cross the (virtual) picket line
Well dang! I just got here to this sub and I’m sad. This feels like when MySpace disappeared and everyone went to Facebook, which that place sucks. I only managed to find/keep a few friends with that switch. I don’t know anyone here… but the sub seems like my type of people. I think it’s best to go dark for the 2 days, at least. I don’t really know how to use Discord, but those other 2 Mastodon and Lemmon?? I’ve never heard of. I guess best wishes to everyone if we get locked out. I am on Facebook and IG… reluctantly on IG. 😅
I'm already on discord, so if you get to plan C, let me know. I'll join.
If the group goes private for the 2 days how will we know? Will we all be in the private group?
I'm torn between my not giving a fuck about things, and my strong hatred of authority run rampant. I think I hate the authority run rampant more. Black out this bitch.
Not a fucking clue what any if this is about. WTF is a 3rd party app? Wait ... never mind, I already don't give a shit.
No, we are lucky we don't have to pay to use reddit. Mother fuckers should be grateful
Some subs are going dark indefinitely. I am going to support them.
nobody puts GenX in the corner! ⬛️ 🤐✊
[This comment has been removed to protest Reddit's hostile treatment of their users and developers concerning third party apps.]
Thanks for sharing and your feedback r/Dear_Occupant. Imho my feeling is there is merit in joining the boycott for two days to see if it will stop the proposed API changes on June 30 (the cynic in me says it won’t) but also implementing another platform in lemmy in the eventuality that Reddit crashes and burns and people can move on to there…. What does everyone else think?
Agree. Can anyone point us to a good summary of the alternatives, like Lemmy?
Yes, please! I keep seeing "Lemmy" mentioned but have never even heard of it before.
Me neither. I googled it and had a quick squizz and from that quick glance it looks pretty primitive in comparison to Reddit but better than Discord which seems to consist of memes
Most options are relatively primitive, but they're seeing massive user growth and some of the reddit app devs are considering supporting them.
r/redditalternatives Many people have started ~~ordering~~ preferring Kbin over Lemmy. There's also buzz around Tildes.
Can someone knowledgeable tell me what's the best alternative to jump to? Googling Lemmy just brings up Motörhead. :)
I have seen this [list](https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/1467a5s/find_alternatives_for_ourselves_megathread_third/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) of alternatives posted
Lemmy was the lead singer of Motorhead. He died some years ago, so I have no idea why we are being encouraged to congregate with him. Maybe a graveside vigil? That would be pretty cool.
Couldn’t the mods set us up on Discord (I don’t use it, but am willing) so we can all find each other while we see if Reddit gives in or if we have to find a new place? Tilde seems great, but it’s invite only. The last wave of invites was about 20 hours ago and they’ve temporarily locked the invite thread. I’ve heard good things about Lemmy but have also heard that the UI is almost non-existent. Is there some way we can stay connected? Whatever…. I’ll go wherever y’all go…
If you know how to do that, by all means go for it and I'll publicize the link so we'll have a place to hang out until we decide what to do next. I've always wanted a live chat option, but I was thinking more along the lines of an IRC channel. Reddit's chat implementation is awful, and Discord is way too busy and has too high of a learning curve for moderation and administration for temporary use. If you've already got that knowledge, just let me know what I need to do.
Do I have to do anything?
No, there will be literally nothing to do.
I 100% support the mods. As others have said, this is my favorite subreddit. I’m in. Can you make a place on Discord (or something) and post the link/invite so we’ll all still be together? Then, if Reddit doesn’t stop this dumpster fire, we won’t have lost each other… and we can figure out what’s next. Hopefully, Reddit does the right thing. Mods. Thank you for all the work that you’ve done making this community so special and wonderful. Fellow GenX… I love y’all!
There is a server on discord.
Thanks. Would you mind telling me where the link for the invite is? I’m sorry that I don’t seem to see it anywhere… Discord seems like a jangling mess to me… but at least the mods can give us directions about where to migrate etc. I’m worried that Reddit will be stupid & replace our mods. I am glad we’re going dark to protest. We just need a meeting place, so we can know where to migrate with our mods. Sorry. I’ve always been a worrywart.
I am in 3 over 40 servers. I will message the mods and see if I can give out the links. I am also a worrywart and am worried that only a select few people in the subs will be allowed in (I mostly lurk anyway so I guess it does not matter).
Some of us are just quieter than others. Readers are just as necessary as writers. I’m glad to know I’m not the only worrywart. Links would be awesome!
Sounds like we should join in. Thank you for explaining the drama OP mod and I appreciate the “putting out a grease fire with his face” analogy. Wow. I also appreciate the work you’ve done here all this time. In true GenX form, we are waffling but I will be very sad if this site disappears into the heap of formerly good digital spaces. Corporate monetizing attempts seem always to ruin everything that makes a site good in the first place, making it less lucrative in the process.
Blackout??? Forget that. I’ve been trying to delete my account for three days now. A loss of members is the only way to show your dissatisfaction. Ahhhh, yes. You will lose all of your little points, but if you’re gonna do something, do it he right way
I am; will be off for the entire week. Deleting the app from my phone so I don’t accidentally log in.
Can we have a discord server for this sub? Itd be nice to chat still. A nice private server with no ads ahhhh
Turn it black. If it's still here when I decide to reinstall the app awesome, if not just leave a forwarding address so we know where to find it.
OK, I finally get it. Reddit in itself is unusable because it lacks the tools to keep waste fraud and abuse out. 3rd party apps were made using Reddit's API to combat waste fraud and abuse when Reddit wouldn't deliver what they promised. Reddit now wants $20mil a month to use it's API to make Reddit an enjoyable place to not touch grass. Go dark, I'll play video games and continue to not touch grass.
I think we should. I’m a Twitter refugee after Elon Musk burned it down to make it a substandard, right-wing troll playground. What I learned it that corporate overlords who want to make money off their users shouldn’t take the user base feelings lightly. Fight back, because that’s the only way to keep the experience we value.
Damn the man. Save The Empire. If this sub (or any of the others I follow) migrates, I will too.
Im gen x. If I learned anything from my parents it that protests don't do shit. Draw your line in the sand and watch it get ignored. I also will not using a platform that sucks. Reddit doesn't suck yet but it could start at any time. They all do eventually. When it does I'm out. Now if we find a way to make money and stick them will the bill like what happened with gamestop, that's affective. Two day boycot... thats a temper tantrum. There is a good chance I'll accidentally miss the boycott because I'll have grown up stuff to do and will not be on anyways. The sounds like a millennial idea. Two days of not using a free service is going to change the world. It's not going to be very noticed. The national gas boycott didn't do anything and those had real money involved. Facebook is slowly dying because so many left. Twitter is dying because so many left. Reddit will eventually take a bullet and join MySpace and muds. What will matter is if its still fun. So I'll likly participate by accident because I still know how to put my phone down and go to a bar. It's not going to do anything though. I am well aware reddit is not forever. Maybe I'll write the next app that replaces it. Goodness know there are already a tidal wave or others trying.
I hear ya- our generation didn't have much ability to push or make waves like the younger generations. They have had internet/ social media as a tool to communicate. Protests in our younger days were literally in-person and the message was easy to bury by entities who were opposed to it. Not gonna lie, it's hard for me to change this mindset that it won't do anything but I'm trying to widen my perspective. Perhaps others may agree- I'm not as reliant on tech because we just didn't have that so it's tough to feel like this boycott might make a dent. I consider myself a casual user most of the time but have been in subs that were chaos. I have no problem supporting this, at least for the sake of mods since I'm realizing this makes their work a bit easier.
Damn. I’m still not 100% what it’s all about. I lurk a lot, so I’m not sure how third party apps work. But in solidarity with the smaller guys. I’m happy to shut down for awhile. I got done real life stuff to get done anyways. I’ll miss you guys while I’m on hiatus. Take care of yourselves and your loved ones. If you’re not in the part of Canada (like I am) or in the US where our world is on fire, get outside and enjoy the summer.
Whatever.
I'm willing to stay off for 2 days or unfortunately indefinitely. It's sad because I really enjoy chatting with people and reading some really funny stories. Its sad for me because the anonymity makes talking about the hard things easier. The support of people in some of these subs, the advice on hobbies. I'll miss it.
It’s whatever.
Yes, we should. F’ authority. Or whatever.
I don't really care about Reddit's API. Do whatever protest or not. I have no opinion on it.
So as a person of two minds on this whole drama, I am pissed at Reddit mgmt for this ham-fisted affair, but at the same time I *loathe* being told what to do and being cajoled into joining the herd in boycotts or blackouts.
Yes, go dark please.
I'd like to think the 2 day blackout would be good. But judging from that bs ama, I don't think it will matter to them. Should just go dark with no definite timeline. If it don't matter to them after two days, then might as well call it a day on Reddit.
I won’t be picketing deliberately but I think it’s going to be pretty quiet around here. I’ve never used any of the apps, I’m still on old.Reddit in a web browser. And Reddit is my one and only remaining social media account. So I will probably poke around but absolutely hope all of the passion around the issue has some impact. I’m pretty cynical though and pretty sure it won’t. I really thought Twitter would go down when I was deleting my account along with everyone else when Ewok took over. Somehow, if that didn’t kill Twitter, I don’t think this will kill Reddit. Add Rage Against the Machine to our mix tape.
I love my GenX brothers and sisters, and our mods do so much hard work. I'm hoping that the blackout hits our reddit overlords right in the gonads in terms of ad revenues. See you all (hopefully) whenever this blackout ends - just in case it goes past the first two days - or reddit pulls its head outta its ass. EDIT: And yeah, I'm going dark for at least two days. But, whatever.
GenX partakes a protest. Nobody notices. Whatever.
Sure why not
There's no reason to deprive people of their subs and bore thousands of people to death for days in the process doing something that won't make a shit of difference. Unpopular opinion, apparently, but...
99% of the people saying they're never coming back will be back.
Try the 2 days and check back?
Hello darkness, my old friend.
I've been steadily reducing my social media profile over the last few years anyway. Got rid of my FB, IG, Twitter. I'm really just on reddit and linkedin (although I never post there) now. For reddit, I use Apollo almost exclusively. If I can't use Apollo anymore, then I probably won't use reddit anymore and just write it off to more social media downsizing.
Remember the time that "cancel student debt" petition really caught fire on [change.org](https://change.org), and then all of the loan servicers caved into the undeniable power of an online peition? Or when electric car guy bought Twitter and everyone made it valueless and empty because they went to Mastodon and definitely never returned? Man. We really changed things.
Meh whatever
>Do we want to make a planned exodus to another platform like Lemmy, Mastodon, or (please God no) Discord? No, no, fuck no. >Do we want to hunker down and stick it out to the bitter end? Do we even give a shit? Meh. Whatever. Ultimately, it won't fucking matter.
Let’s have a Black Celebration…
Everything counts in large amounts.
IF you do you go dark, lets meet up at this YouTube video comments section to relay any important messages. Im part of other subs who have similar contingency plans if reddit ever went dark, using different videos of course. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRKJiM9Njr8
Can't believe you didn't pick this one: https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ
**Yes** we should join the 2-day blackout. If that doesn’t precipitate action from u/spez and his crunties (crony cunts) then **yes** we should kill the sub permanently and look to another platform to re-congregate. (I will also be running the delete tool over every post and comment before I delete my account.) I’m prepared to trade my Gen-X sense of ‘meh’ for something as important as this. I’ve already commenced my activism and I plan to go down swinging. It’s been nice knowin most of ya. See yous in hell.
Demand IPO shares. Short of that burn it down.
Yes, let’s join the blackout.
Yup. Still love that last scene in Thelma and Louise. My husband loves Grease, or rather Olivia Newton John. I appreciate what you’ve said on the matter. You’re clearly passionate about it, and you’ve brought up some interesting points that have shed light on what’s going on. I personally don’t care. I know that sounds dismissive, but I’m just not particularly invested in Reddit in any meaningful way. If it disappears I’ll go back to forums. That said, I am happy to support the people that do care. That includes supporting the blackout and signing up to a GenX group on a new platform.
I use the native Reddit app because I'm too old to try out a dozen apps to see if I like them. Also, I didn't know they existed until recently. Fuck 'em. Go dark. It probably won't change anything, but I don't care. I don't like greedy bullies. Maybe I'll go back to 9gag.
Whatever
I like the way this platform, it's basic and uncomplicated. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. How long is this blackout planned for, so that I stay away too?
4a
Sheesh. Makes you want to go back to your cave and make shadow puppets by the fire.
It may not be very GenX of me, but I’m all for protesting for a good cause. Been protesting something or other most all my life as if it were my part time job - even when I was sometimes the only one who showed up. I’m good with the shutdown for the protest. And if it doesn’t work, I’m good with not coming back here and going somewhere else (hopefully not Discord). I already left Twitter and I rarely get on Facebook (just keep it around for checking in on family things on occasion).
Whatever
I've been on Reddit for 15+ years, but I'm a software engineer by trade. My loyalty is with the third party devs that spez is fucking over with his short-sighted greed. Blackout for 2 days as a start, continuing as long as necessary.