[eksapsy]

Strike you say? That's like, as Louis Rossmann on his yt channel wisely said, "I am so angry, so infuriated that you're abusing me, that ..... I WILL... leave for 3 days and then come back for the rest of my life".

Like it's literally like saying "hey I need you in my life". Do you know what message that sends? What would you think if your customers would say "hey Im not gonna come for 3 days but I'm coming for the rest of the year" ? Would you give a damn?

Reddit is a commodity. Admittedly a great one. Used to be at least. We'll create another one or they'll fix themselves, but they won't unless they know you're not going to use them unless they fix themselves.

No strike is successful unless you actually make them understand that they can't live without you or that ••AT LEAST* that you're doing your part.

Like, is reddit scared of me deleting my account? I think it doesn't give a damn. Is reddit gonna give a damn if another 100k accounts start getting deleted along with mine? At least they're gonna start noticing. And at least I can say that I've done my part.

Ive deleted my reddit account and I'm done with Reddit. Until they fix themselves and realize that acting that greedy and immaturely with lies about conversations that never happened between the Apollo programmer and /u/spez are not gonna pass. At least not from me, i'm fairly disgusted by the Reddit leadership.

[cedilla]

Rossmann seems to have misunderstood what a strike is. A strike is always between two parties that depend on each other.

"Leaving forever" is the only thing that won't send a message. If you're truly gone forever, Reddit has no shared interest with you any longer.

[htag]

I use to be a reddit power user, but my relationship with the platform has been extremely casual (less than 5 hours/yr) for the last 10 years. Even after all this time, Reddit could win me back as a power user if the platform was better.

[teaearlgraycold]

And powerful strikes go on for weeks if there is no acceptable compromise made.

[mikewarot]

The two parties here are the public, and the corporations owning social networking sites.

You're not sending a message to Reddit, true enough... but it does send a VERY strong message to the rest of the tech bros and their investors that Reddit f*cked up, bad, if their numbers crash.

[DamnInteresting]

> "I am so angry, so infuriated that you're abusing me, that ..... I WILL... leave for 3 days and then come back for the rest of my life".

"for the rest of my life" is a big assumption. This strike could/should be the first in a series of escalating strikes. If parties truly seek change, and not just punishment, it is tactically unwise for one's first response to be maximum retaliation.

[brucethemoose2]

Subreddits have been striking for years. This is not the first response.

This is quite an escalation though.

[itzworm]

This my take as well.

I'll be doing the strike, and possibly an extended strike. Then I'll briefly return to see where the communities I follow are migrating to. After that I'll have no more need for reddit since most of the communities I follow are tech related and will almost certainly be looking for a new home should the behavior at the top continue.

[munchler]

Many of us are quitting Reddit for good on June 30 when Apollo and the other third-party apps are killed. This week's strike is just a warning shot across Reddit's bow.

[0xr0kk3r]

I don’t believe that for a hot minute. These peoples’ identities are so wrapped up in Reddit it’s be like amputating a limb. No way.

[srslack]

To be fair, Reddit's mobile app is comically bad, and the prospect of having to use it might be akin to amputating two limbs, for some.

[anthonypasq]

it really isnt, supported by the fact 95% of people use the official app.

[Black616Angel]

Okay, do you have numbers for that? (honest question) Most "statistics" I have seen were done via a reddit survey, which 3rd party apps can't do due to API-limitations. So all the users sying "yes I use a 3rd party app" did so either via their mobile or workstation browser (where you have to auth again) which is a hassle most people (me included) are not willing to take for some random reddit survey.

[celdon25]

They pretty much force you to use the app if you are on mobile (nag screens at best). Maybe there are ways to get around that but your average andy won’t bother

[SllX]

There is a ton of information I need to make sure I have saved, so I might not be out by June 30th, but I can’t see myself using Reddit remotely like I do through Apollo. Mobile apps made Reddit for me when the primary reason I hadn’t made an account till 2013 was because I thought even the old website was bad.

Alien Blue, BaconReader, Narwhal, and then eventually Apollo. All of them great apps, and that was Reddit for me.

[celdon25]

I'm inclined to believe this considering how toxic of a place it has become. If that didn't drive them away I don't see how losing some 3rd party "enhancements" are going to break the bank for them.

[hapticmonkey]

I’d like to continue using the site, but third party apps are the only way to do so in a bearable way.

The mobile site and official app have terrible UX and bugs that make the whole experience rather infuriating.

[Double_a_92]

I will definitely not use it on mobile anymore. I was already using it very casually, because even the alternative apps are very clunky. If I had to use an even worse app, or god-forbid a mobile browser I would just stop.

[_sword]

I only browse Reddit on my phone, and I use Apollo, so when that’s gone I’m not sure I’d use Reddit anymore

[revscat]

Who are you talking about, specifically? Name names. Otherwise this appears to be a straw man.

[jachee]

FWIW, Many of the participating subs are going dark indefinitely. And the real APIcalypse will happen in a couple of weeks, when people actually using third party apps literally can’t anymore.

[arthens]

Indefinitely until reddit picks new moderators and reopen them. No way they'll allow major subs closing down.

[jacksnipe]

Mods are not fungible. It’s tempting to feel that they are, but they have an enormous influence on their communities.

[grecy]

I agree with you at heart, but that's like saying the head of a hospital or the head union guy dictate what the experience of being in a hospital or shop floor are like.

That is absolutely true, but in the interest of making money the owners will replace them in a heartbeat. Sure, the vibe will change, some existing users will move on, but there are always, always new users to hook.

Reddit are not even paying these mods pennies, they couldn't care less about them and getting rid of them to find ones who are more "compliant".

EDIT: Redditor for 14 years 99,665 post karma 97,633 comment karma

[pests]

Name a single mod.

I can't.

[AlexandrB]

Mods are like air traffic controllers. If you know their name, they probably fucked up badly. I suspect we'll know the names of many more mods if Reddit goes ahead with replacing them en-mass.

[makeitdouble]

I'd hate to be so aware of the mods that I remember their names. As much as they deserve gratitude and praise it's supposed to be transparent.

I only knew one name, once, because the other mod showed him the finger and started another sub. I followed the drama, agreed he was a dick and moved to the new sub.

PS: actually, I remember heroofwar and pinko from HQGifs because they're part of the meta jokes of the sub.

[grogenaut]

dang

wendifur

Lowtax

drew

cmdrtaco

jatman

[natebc]

cmndrtaco, he counts right?

[jacksnipe]

Thank you! dang and Lowtax are exactly who I had in mind.

[pram]

pud of fuckedcompany deserves to be in the pantheon imo

[mahathu]

dtxer

[teaearlgraycold]

Yes but there are too many big subs closing. My guess is they couldn't support more than a couple dozen on their own.

[thyrox]

But sometimes sites do die. Digg is a big example of this. It started with the top users like MrBabyMan posting against the site and then it quickly snowballed taking the whole site with it.

Doesn't always happens but it can happen and we can still hope.

[treyd]

That Louis Rossman quote is really great actually. I feels to me like a lot of people see very popular platform services "suddenly and unexpectedly" turning around and start changing things in ways that are very unpopular, but I don't see it very common for people (on reddit at least) to point out the common characteristic between them, that they're almost always startups with investors to answer to, is the reason that they end up making unpopular changes. It really does feel a little bit like an abusive relationship that it keeps happening and yet people keep using these investor-backed startup platforms that initially offer deals that are too good to be true.

[LelouBil]

Some subreddits are private for 48hrs, others are indefinitely private until the issue is resolved