I remember when Reddit announced it would begin charging commercial developers for access to its API, and in response, thousands of subreddits went dark in protest. I think it lasted for a couple of weeks. The CEO threatened the Reddit mods that he would replace them if they didn’t reopen the subs, so nearly every mod reopened and everything went back to normal. The CEO won easily without offering anything, and he was right when he said that ‘this too shall pass.’ Those third-party apps offered accessibility features for disabled people that Reddit still hasn’t implemented today. Now Reddit is getting even worse. How come there wasn’t a protest like that when they made even worse decisions?

  • WizardArtsPropaganda@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
    2·
    12 hours ago

    And what did the CEO learned? that he can do stuff like this and every thing will be alright and the users will just accept it eventually. “Bark but no bite”. The CEO held no actual leverage and still doesn’t have the leverage.

    • missingno@fedia.io
      3·
      12 hours ago

      No leverage? I think having full control over the platform, the ability to boot out any moderators still protesting and force subs to reopen, is all the leverage.

      There’s nothing any of us could’ve done to change the outcome. We voiced our displeasure, tried to protest, but Spez was able to quash all of it by forcing out anyone who didn’t accept it in the end.

      • WizardArtsPropaganda@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
        1·
        12 hours ago

        The users would have won if they did actually nothing, it the sense that they wouldn’t interact with reddit at all, tf is Spez gonna do when the entire business model is based on user content? He would have given up because there was no way he would have accepted to lose his entire business or a large part of it.

        • missingno@fedia.io
          2·
          11 hours ago

          I don’t think you realize how unrealistic it is to expect the entire userbase of Reddit to all collectively agree to get up and leave. Spez knew he didn’t have to worry about the impossible.

          • WizardArtsPropaganda@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
            1·
            11 hours ago

            You don’t need the entire userbase or even close to the entire userbase. Just enough to make it lose more money then charging for the API. The shareholders are money driven.

            • missingno@fedia.io
              2·
              11 hours ago

              Even that sizeable of a percentage would never been realistic. Spez knew this, and he was right.