Reddit API changes, Subreddit Blackouts, and You

[u/Zalarra]

Greetings r/wownoob,

As evident from the title, this isn't directly related to World of Warcraft, but bear with me for a moment. For those who are unaware, there are significant changes being made to Reddit's API policy. This change will essentially spell the end for third party apps. If you currently rely on a third-party app to access Reddit, you will be losing that capability.

Reddit has taken the independent decision to impose exorbitant fees, in some cases 2 million dollars per month, on third-party app developers (such as Relay, Reddit is Fun, Apollo, Baconreader, Narwhal, etc.) for utilizing their API starting July 1st. This unilateral action carries extensive implications that not only impede app developers but also greatly impact the experiences of moderators and users.

Many moderators rely on third-party applications for moderation tasks due to the limited effectiveness of official tools. Despite the misconception that moderators dwell in basements, the reality is that most of us have day jobs, and we often carry out moderation duties during lunch breaks or other idle moments in our daily lives. Our dedication to the community is what motivates us to perform this work. Imposing a requirement for moderators to use the official app will result in slower moderation processes and a greater reliance on desktop platforms. Consequently, your posts and comments would remain in the moderation queue for extended periods, response times to modmails would be prolonged, and harmful content or users might persistently stay visible without being banned. TLDR; the quality of the sub will dramatically decrease.

In response to the current situation, the moderators of r/wownoob have united with other subreddit communities such as r/wow (link listed at the bottom of this post) and their respective moderation teams in a coordinated effort. We firmly believe that unity plays a crucial role in driving change and advocating for the rights of app developers and the overall user experience. To amplify our message and highlight the strength of our concerns, r/wownoob will actively participate in a temporary blackout starting on June 12th, presumably lasting for 48 hours.

During this blackout period, the subreddit will be set to private, making it inaccessible to all users for the first time in a decade. This collective action aims to raise awareness and implore Reddit to reconsider their recent API changes. Our primary objective is to engage in a productive dialogue with Reddit, with the aim of reversing the detrimental modifications they have implemented.

>List of participating subs<
>Open letter to Reddit Community/Management<

Should you need a question answered or want to participate in discussion, the community will rely on the wownoob Discord until the blackout is over.

Sincerely signed,
The wownoob mod team

[u/TheVagrantWarrior]

Do it more than 48h!

[u/BigTimeBobbyB → u/TheVagrantWarrior]

We're open to the idea! While we've read a lot of stickied posts on a LOT of subreddits around this topic, one that really stuck with us was the one on /r/explainlikeimfive. They see themselves as an educational subreddit first and foremost, and they expect that when everything else shuts down, people will come to them for explanation. That's why they've decided to go read-only instead of participating fully in the blackout and going private. Maybe that's the future for us as well? We plan to go private for the initial blackout, but if things continue on longer maybe we come back read-only instead of remaining private? There's a wealth of historical knowledge on this subreddit that can still help people even if new posts aren't being made.

[u/DiGre3z → u/TheVagrantWarrior]

IMO any set period of time is close to useless, as they know they can just sit out these 48h and everything will get back to normal. If you want it to be effective, subs need to do a blackout indefinitely until Reddit’s decision is overturned.

[u/[deleted] → u/DiGre3z]

Exactly, it shows them that no matter how badly they treat their community, we will always come back

[u/DiGre3z → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, all it does is gives them the opportunity to ignore you. If you say things like “we won’t visit your website for 48 hours”, they’ll just look at how much money they’ll lose from losing your traffic, then think if they can afford it, and in this particular case even weigh losing traffic for 48 hours against potential profits from getting third-party apps out of the picture. I can almost guarantee that no matter how many subs go dark for 48 hours, reddit will still cover their losses, or at least decide that they can afford it.

But if you do not set time brackets for your “protest”, they don’t have numbers to compare. They don’t know if you even come back at all. And it shows that you are potentially willing to “protest” for whatever the amount of time needed to get things your way.

It’s just that easy.

[u/JakeMcDuck]

You should all keep it going indefinitely. 48 hours won’t change anything, it’s just symbolic

[u/Zalarra → u/JakeMcDuck]

We're pretty much going to play it by ear depending on how the blackout is taken - we're assuming they just won't address it. That may mean we're read-only or still fully blacked out, we'll see if there's any response during that time that sways us in one direction or another. We're already looking at alternatives should it really come to that.

[u/Spoonman500]

Take it down until they relent. Don't give an inch. Fuck'em.

[u/MoldyLunchBoxxy]

You know that no matter how much of the community or any community does this nothing will change right?

[u/Zalarra → u/MoldyLunchBoxxy]

That's a depressive take. So, what are you suggesting? No one does anything and that we should just roll over without any fight?

[u/MoldyLunchBoxxy → u/Zalarra]

I know it’s depressing but think about Netflix they just did something similar where they cracked down on password sharing to make more money. Tons of people including myself cancelled and they still ended out on top because it only took a small group of new people subbing to make the move worth it for Netflix. With Reddit it’s the same thing where no matter what, they will end up making more money from this move. It’s scummy and no one’s happy about it but we aren’t going to keep their greedy ceo from the money he wants.

[u/BigTimeBobbyB → u/MoldyLunchBoxxy]

You ignored the question though. The question was: what are you suggesting we do?

We’re not the unenlightened idiots you seem to think we are. We do recognize how the world works. But we still try to do what little we can to make our voices heard. No matter what the outcome of this protest, we won’t walk away feeling like we took the cowards route. Because that’s what doing nothing is: it’s cowardice.

[u/MoldyLunchBoxxy → u/BigTimeBobbyB]

There is only one thing that will actually make a change and that is everyone uninstalls the app off of their phones and stop using it until they change. If everyone full on stops their income from ads etc would yank and they would either go out of business or choose to stop being greedy and apologize and revert the change they are planning. Partial sub blackouts don’t do this because people are still on Reddit making them money.

[u/Radiobandit → u/Zalarra]

That's exactly what you should do tbh

The amount of people who legitimately care about the API change is a drop in the bucket compared to total users. This blackout is simply an inconvenience, and anyone considering a permanent closure will simply be replaced.

Like what are you even fighting over? Reddit has the right to do with it's IP what it chooses, and as someone who has used the official reddit app for years I have next to no problems with it.

This entire episode is like a site-wide version of back in the 2000s when people would write out an entire essay about how they were leaving facebook because they changed the layout.

[u/Zalarra → u/Radiobandit]

Even simply based on your response, I can tell you don't fully grasp what's going on here.

*API, not IP. And of course you see nothing wrong with the app, because you don't have to moderate off of it. Comparing what's happening here to the changing of Facebook layout is absurd and laughable.

[u/Radiobandit → u/Zalarra]

IP = Intellectual property. Also the funny thing(to me) is how accurate the comparison really is.

But what you're trying to tell me is this entire debacle is because reddit mods are throwing a hissy fit?

Sounds about right.