Prior to the protest reddit was in full support of the protest. Most polls on subs supported a shutdown. Now, seemingly every community cant understand why the protest was needed and they’re calling it a mod power trip. There is a 3rd possibility. This is an unfounded conspiracy but reddit themselves could be manipulating scores.
See the NFL thread if you don’t mind sending traffic
https://reddit.com/r/nfl/comments/14b11kh/were_just_here_so_we_dont_get_fined/
I think there is probably a mix of things going on.
First, the angriest people already did leave.
Second, people suck at protesting. I mean, the entire reason it was a 2-day protest instead of defaulting to indefinite is because the idea of sacrificing your own habits in a protest blows people’s minds. There is a reason “slacktivism” is a thing.
Third, there is probably a segment of the user base who basically got their addiction checked. Social media is addicting, and reddit is not exception, I mean, even I’ve kept habitually opening the site this whole week just cause that has been my browsing habit for over a decade. It’s just how I’ve check ed news.
And then lastly, the protest reached the more casual core of people who may have not even known about the protest before hand or understood the extent of it, and they are angry that this thing that didn’t affect them took away all their content.
The protests aren’t working because they didn’t consult the gays. We have our shit organized, color coded, and labeled.
I tell people at work all the time the reasons stuff like this doesn’t work is because they’ve not got a gay advisor. Lol
You want a protest? We can stonewall this bitch. You want a dating/hookup app for no string fun? We can refer to grindr. You want a little anonymous rendezvous on the go? I can take you cruising. Want to just piss people off for no reason? Just exist.
You should see how well we are organized on gay cruises. We have dry erase boards outside our cabin doors with dick schedules. Penciling in ass. It’s the new meta.
Never give in, never give up.