Just like every “grassroots” political campaign on Reddit that suddenly arises, and then disappears just as suddenly after failing.
Huh… my feed has been nothing but straight porn or pictures of John Oliver… sometimes both at the same time.
What tf is going on over there I’ve not been to Reddit since the 11th
Reddit is now filled with a bunch of people saying “we don’t even NEED mods! they just make everything worse!”, because this is apparently their first time on the Internet.
I had a Hacker News discussion where in separate comments, a guy said:
- all the moderators should go away because they’re not needed, and he doesn’t agree with their decisions
- but there should still be moderation
- but he’s not going to do it because he’s not here to do unpaid labor
- but of course he wouldn’t pay for there to be moderators
Internet discourse in a nutshell
Yeah. My tendencies are pretty tame anymore, and my inner troll just started salivating.
The people that cared distanced themselves already so a new majority of indifference starts to emerge. Those that are still active on Reddit are now more likely to just want things back to normal.
Either only the scabs are left, or there’s a concerted smear campaign against the mods who helped with the blackout. I lean towards the latter, but it’s probably both.
There’s a lot of upset users who had no idea that a protest had been planned for weeks ahead of time or that the protests made the news.
They just showed up looking for their content, and having it cut off is like when your heroin supplier leaves town.
I talked to some kid who was furious he couldn’t see r/starwars.
And he blamed it all on the mods.
When I explained the whole history of what was happening, he said he supported the protest but wanted to subs to go public again.
:/
I mean…what’s wrong with that? The original meme talks about society, something you can’t opt-out of.
You can absolutely opt-out of Reddit. Reddit is a private company and it’s CEO has announced he doesn’t care what the users of the site think, he will be making any changes he damn well pleases. Continuing to use the site after the CEO has already given a hardline “No” to all requests (and then telling the media he idolizes Musk and his overhaul of Twitter) is implicitly accepting you’re fine with the answer and the changes.
I think the problem stems from the fact that Reddit and other ‘private’ businesses are acting like public squares. People use these systems as public spaces in which they can build communities, relationships and ideas. It’s not just a question of “well it’s private so they can do whatever they want”. Lawful is the same thing as ethical. Some people on Reddit have their society on Reddit. What does Reddit owe them? It’s a demand to ask ‘How should Reddit and other businesses participate in society in a way that is ethical and helpful?’
I think the problem stems from the fact that Reddit and other ‘private’ businesses are acting like public squares.
Oh absolutely, but is that the fault of the private company or the people who use it? There are now alternatives that are decentralized and run on free open source software with the specific purpose of creating public spaces that can exist without pressures from CEOs, shareholders, and advertisers. Why not use them instead of whining on Twitter about Twitter or complaining on Reddit about Reddit?
You know why. Network effects, usability, marketing, astroturfing, etc.
We need to do a better job at making the Fediverse more inviting and easier to use. Have a better, clear path for migration.
Instances are still privately operated and at the whim of their operators, who are technically free to delete and modify posts arbitrarily. They are not public spaces.
People use these systems as public spaces in which they can build communities
What really amused me is when Reddit sent messages to moderators saying things like “your subreddits are public spaces which users depend on, so you should open them”.
When obviously what they mean is “your decision to close your subreddit is hurting our revenues, and if I don’t keep up the payments on my BMW then I’ll be forced to drive an old Honda, so either open the subreddit or we will forcibly do it ourselves”.
I’ve been lurking on old.reddit.com and I’ve seen a lot of people who are upset about the protesting. They are calling it childish, they are calling protesters white knights, etc. If you go on r/JustUnsubbed you can see a bunch of people whining about it. But it really just shows people don’t get it nor do they care to. They just care about being mildly inconvenienced.
Some of them are starting to go on r/Save3rdPartyApps to tell people who are upset to “get off our high horse” lol
It’s just sad that people are trying to defend corporate greed man…
I got banned from there because years ago for disagreeing with someone that a post was “being upvoted because girl” and politely pointed out to him that it wasnt really, and that he was a baby.
I can understand the wanting to vent about a sub declining, because reddit certainly has lots of declined subreddits, but a lot of it was the usual “THIS IS TOO POLITICAL!” “THIS ATTENTIONWHORE GOT UPVOTED BYE BYE” and etc.