Dan GillmorJun 14, 2023

After Reddit's beyond-arrogant CEO dismissed the subreddit blackout as just posturing, moderators of discussions extended the blackout. This is the only sensible response to the company's contempt.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/13/23759674/reddit-mods-blackout-protest-extended-indefinitely

Please stay the course.

For my part, I'm canceling my Reddit account and looking at decentralized alternatives.

Reddit communities with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely

Moderators of many Reddit communities are pledging to keep their subreddits private or restricted indefinitely. In response to a Tuesday post on the r/ModCoord subreddit, users are chiming in to say that their subreddits will remain dark past Wednesday.

The Verge
Show threadben moretti
@dangillmor the content is too valuable. Reddit will just kick the mods and take over themselves, which will ofc increase the decline in quality further
Jun 15, 2023 at 12:20amWeb
Show threadMilo KeiJun 15, 2023
@morebento @dangillmor I really don't see this happening. The mods are unpaid and Huffman is bullying his way through this imbroglio in the lead up to the IPO (supposedly adding value). Running the missing subs with staff costs too much at too crucial a time. They could get some scab mods in (unlikely in my opinion) but much more likely to bluster through with the reduced sub count and the content that is trickling in and sit out the storm. That or back down on the API prices - Conde Nast has a tendency to crack down then back down
Show threadben morettiJun 15, 2023
@milo @dangillmor what about cheap offshored labour like what openai did for labelling training data
Show threadMilo KeiJun 15, 2023
@morebento not sure what that is - just not knowledgeable enough but from what I can gather of the details, some of the genuine issues mods have is with the bots and AI tools developed to get around sub rules. AI battling AI could be interesting!
Show threadben morettiJun 15, 2023
@milo basically using cheap overseas labour to do tasks
Show threadben morettiJun 15, 2023
@milo https://www.mturk.com/ Amazon’s interface to global cheap labour to do menial tasks
Amazon Mechanical Turk

Show threadMilo KeiJun 15, 2023

@morebento that really doesn't sound like anything good. I mean... Jesus.

Apropos of nothing, can we have universal basic income now please?

Show threadben morettiJun 15, 2023
@milo yeah it’s a cracker - total gig economy / empire
Show threadDesign by AdrianJun 15, 2023
@morebento @dangillmor I believe this has already happened with some subreddits. Moderators got the boot, new moderators in, sub opened.
Show threadDesign by AdrianJun 18, 2023

@morebento @dangillmor Hoffman is now threatening my sub of a few hundred thousand users:

Absolute fascist scare tactics, trying to get people to tell on each other and abandon their friends. #redditblackout #reddit #redditstrike #spez

Show threadben morettiJun 18, 2023
@designbyadrian @dangillmor what a deadshit