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?
Because they learned to expect much, much less from Reddit.
It’s on its way out.
I know TPTB think that by kicking everyone off and replacing them with AI bots, they can tailor the site in such a way that it shows huge amounts of use, but that’s just driving actual people away. People who come up with original content. People who have interesting discussion points. People who don’t want an antiseptic, saccharine 1950s White picket fence, Hail-to-the-Chief narrative to be the only thing they’re allowed to talk about without fear of being banned …
… which is what it’ll eventually become, and hold onto, desperately, as it drowns under the tide of users who eschew AI overreach, and crave originality and a reasonable lack of censorship in their discussions.
Or so I heard.