pvrJun 14, 2023
Casey Newton
Steve Huffman’s comments to Reddit employees yesterday seem likely to exacerbate the furor the company now finds itself caught in https://www.platformer.news/p/reddit-doubles-down
Reddit doubles down

Delaying its API changes would benefit everyone — but users have other options, too

Platformer
Jun 14, 2023 at 12:05amIvory for Mac
Show threadRick WilliamsJun 14, 2023

@caseynewton I’m pretty sure he just poured fuel on the fire. Lots of subreddits now switching from 48 hours to indefinitely. https://reddit.com/r/ModCoord/comments/148ks6u/indefinite_blackout_next_steps_polling_your/

Seems to be a lot of others planning for blackouts every Tuesday going forward.

Indefinite Blackout: Next Steps, Polling Your Community, and Where We Go From Here

On May 31, 2023, Reddit announced a policy change that will kill essentially every third-party Reddit app now operating, from...

reddit
Show threadEmilyJun 14, 2023
@RickWilliams @caseynewton i haven't checked to see, I hope r/hockey is down today. Honestly that'd be all the subreddits best bet would be to go dark on anticipated big traffic days
Show threadMitchell Jun 14, 2023
@Emtweetworld @RickWilliams @caseynewton Made a sacrifice and checked. /r/hockey is indeed currently private!
Show threadWogan MayJun 14, 2023

@caseynewton Statistically, platform furors tend to die down when unpopular changes are begrudgingly accepted, but everything we know about human behavior in this context this comes from the last, what, 20 years?

Given what Reddit is (a platform for other people's content), what it wants to be (a profitable business that can IPO), and the increasingly-harsh tradeoffs they'll have to make to balance that - plus rising decentralization! - I dunno that I'd be confident in historical behavior.

Show threadWogan MayJun 14, 2023
@caseynewton The single, largest, most successful example of monetizing other people's content at scale (and not their demographics or search patterns) is probably YouTube? And even YouTube does not report directly to Alphabet shareholders, far as I'm aware.
Show threadStefan SchollJun 14, 2023
@wogan @caseynewton if it really is just a platform for other people’s content, how come so many google searches lead to Reddit for answers?
Show threadWogan MayJun 14, 2023

@Stefan_S_from_H Really feels like you answered your own question there. Who do you think wrote the content that Google is indexing?

@caseynewton

Show threadStefan SchollJun 14, 2023
@wogan @caseynewton Oops, I thought you are from the journalism bubble that hates link aggregators.
Show threadThe Implausible GirlJun 14, 2023
@wogan @caseynewton It is worth noting that the *reason* Reddit is popular today is because *Digg* made that same bet that they could just ride out users angry about site changes in 2010
Show threadWogan MayJun 14, 2023
@implausiblegrrl @caseynewton I forgot Digg was a thing 😂
Show threadNikhilesh DeJun 14, 2023

@caseynewton one of the subs I moderate that went dark is probably going to get extended for sure.

You didn't get into this in today's piece but part of the problem is reddit has made promises to improve things before without delivering on those promises. There were a lot of questions about that in last week's AMA. Mod tools, etc. There's a huge lack of trust

Show threadCasey NewtonJun 14, 2023
@nikhileshde great point
Show threadAlex CheekJun 14, 2023
@caseynewton The value of trust and goodwill also seems deeply underestimated. Just have a look at the Wizards of the Coast OGL controversy. Sure, people are still there and using it, but the feeling of trust and community feel is damaged.
Show threadSimon RingsmuthJun 14, 2023
@caseynewton There's an interesting vacuum in the space Reddit occupied up until a few days ago. When Digg imploded, users migrated to Reddit. If Reddit implodes, there seems to be no clear answer as to where to go next. Perhaps the Fediverse, but onboarding new users is not one of this platform's strong points.
Show threadCatch42Jun 14, 2023
@sringsmuth @caseynewton I'm hopeful that most of the really active Redditors will make their way to the fediverse. If that happens then there should be enough content on fediverse groups like Lemmy and kbin to keep people from going back.
Show threadSimon RingsmuthJun 14, 2023
@Catch42 @caseynewton I hope so too, though ultimately I wish the situation hadn't devolved to this point. Reddit had a really good thing going, and it's a shame Spez doesn't seem like he wants to find an amicable path forward with API pricing and 3rd party apps. Even if the platform remains, trust and goodwill have certainly been broken and I wouldn't be surprised if a great deal of active users abandon it.
Show threadtoxtethogradyJun 14, 2023
@caseynewton He's gone full Chris Licht? I hope he knows what happened to Licht...
Show threadCoryJun 14, 2023
@caseynewton great piece. Thank you!
Show threadMark ZimmermanJun 14, 2023
@caseynewton Perhaps it's space for something like Lemmy to take off 🤷‍♂️
Show threadjgillmanJun 14, 2023
@caseynewton oof. Ultimately I think he’s right; The fury _will_ pass in many ways but that is a stone cold take on Huffman’s part.
Show threadOlavJun 14, 2023
@caseynewton
It's funny sad when companies forget what their product is. But a lot of subs will either capitulate or just close shop soon enough; it's relatively easy for smaller subs to migrate, but the Fediverse in its entirety is not in a position to suddenly absorb the 10M+ communities
Show threadStefan SchollJun 14, 2023
@caseynewton which subreddit will get their mods purged the first? It will start within the next few weeks. They can’t do all at once but the biggest subreddits will be up again before the end of the month.
Show threadRejZoRJun 14, 2023
@caseynewton Yeah, I ain't switching to crap stock Reddit app. Used Apollo on iPhone and Infinity on Android. If this is it, then I'm just not gonna use Reddit anymore.
Show threadRon MillerJun 14, 2023
@caseynewton Real smooth, Shrek.
Show threadold man and the cbownsJun 14, 2023
@caseynewton thanks for all the coverage on this so far, been sharing this out to folks to keep heavy users in the loop (since they used to get their news from… reddit.)