Reddit Meltdown

chikorita157

chikorita157

Administrator
Staff member
It's obvious by now that Reddit is having a big meltdown over its decision to overcharge for its API. Many subreddits are going in the dark tomorrow for 48 hours and some may not even come back.

More details
https://www.reddit.com/r/Save3rdPartyApps/comments/13yh0jf

While people describes this as enshittification, but in reality, it's just late capitalism trying to lock users into the platform and exploit them while making it seem difficult to leave. In the process, Reddit has banned /r/kbinmigration, which I mentioned on Mastodon along with a user developing an unofficial Reddit API and temporarily banning a lennymigration subreddit.

Maybe we need to go back to using platforms that is controlled by corporations, whose platforms only lose money. With free money going away and interest rates going up, more centralized platforms are going to exploit their users. The only way is to well, go back to owning and controlling your self and not building it on a big centralized platform. that has a profit motive.
 
One thing I can say, forums had always been there, and technically they still are there, the popularity of them is going down, the only places using forums are a few fan gaming sites, and anime sites idk anything else using forums anymore at a "popular" rate.

The $20 million dolars a year fee is insane, likely because Reddit knows not a single 3rd party app developer would say yes to that even if they *did* have that kind of money. Reddit would prefere all third party apps die, but if they can get $20 million a year from them why not try. At some point, from paying this rate the dev would reach bankrupcy in 3 to 10 to 15 years. This is not substainably for a simple redit 3rd party app it shouldn't be this expensive but agains it's this pricey because Reddit doesn't want third party apps. People better start complaining about the lack of accesability features in the offical app since they took them away.
 
emily said:
One thing I can say, forums had always been there, and technically they still are there, the popularity of them is going down, the only places using forums are a few fan gaming sites, and anime sites idk anything else using forums anymore at a "popular" rate.

The $20 million dolars a year fee is insane, likely because Reddit knows not a single 3rd party app developer would say yes to that even if they *did* have that kind of money. Reddit would prefere all third party apps die, but if they can get $20 million a year from them why not try. At some point, from paying this rate the dev would reach bankrupcy in 3 to 10 to 15 years. This is not substainably for a simple redit 3rd party app it shouldn't be this expensive but agains it's this pricey because Reddit doesn't want third party apps. People better start complaining about the lack of accesability features in the offical app since they took them away.
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I have been on a lot of forum communities back in the day, even when I started using the internet in late 1999 when I was 10 years old. I have been though a lot of forum communities, even created my own back in the day. I used to participate on the Anime Suki Forums from 2008 to around 2016-2017 (when I last logged in). That forum kind of dropped in activity as people moved to Twitter, Facebook, and even Reddit for Anime discussions.

With how centralized social platforms are enshittifying itself thanks to late capitalism, I won't be surprised there will be a shift back to user controlled communities such as blogging and Internet forums. Sure, KBin and Lemmy are the "fediverse" versions of Reddit, but they might not be easy to use and the software themselves are immature, but it can improve in the future. Still, Internet forums software has been around for years and relatively stable (Xenforo and Invision are still popular commercial options with MyBB, SMF, PHPBB, and Disourse being the open source options).
 
It is easier to manage forums with less users, just not as fun. 10 years ago forums I noticed still had life I'd say around 2014-2015 is where forums really started dieing in users to the point where social media sites would be preferable just for the users being on them. One forum I use to like was the Rayman pc forum, because I liked Ubisoft's Rayman games which at the time I joined it in 2011 it was a dieing franchise with a reliable fanbase beging Ubisoft to continue the franchise, for that reason the activity there was good, but it's the exception not the rule to the lack of forum site activity. 1999 was the year I was born haha, My internet experiences started in 2009 when I was 9, remember when I was trying to figure out everything I could do with flash player, on the Wii Internet channel and browsing forum sites that would come up in searches.
 
emily said:
It is easier to manage forums with less users, just not as fun. 10 years ago forums I noticed still had life I'd say around 2014-2015 is where forums really started dieing in users to the point where social media sites would be preferable just for the users being on them. One forum I use to like was the Rayman pc forum, because I liked Ubisoft's Rayman games which at the time I joined it in 2011 it was a dieing franchise with a reliable fanbase beging Ubisoft to continue the franchise, for that reason the activity there was good, but it's the exception not the rule to the lack of forum site activity. 1999 was the year I was born haha, My internet experiences started in 2009 when I was 9, remember when I was trying to figure out everything I could do with flash player, on the Wii Internet channel and browsing forum sites that would come up in searches.
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It's interesting how the younger generation (Gen Z) start using technology as most probably have access to technology at a very young age now, which is especially the case with 2000 born Generation Z. I'm from the middle of the Millennial/Generation Y in 1989 and was born when computer technology was rapidly evolving.

At least you didn't have to experience dialup internet in the 1990s and early 2000s. It's painful. Even so, I started using computers when I was 4 and mostly play educational games (while I do have things like Gameboys and Super Nintendo). Nowadays, children have tablets, smartphones and more powerful game consoles to play around with. They have it lucky, but of course I'm concerned by parents who just have a kid play with a tablet instead of playing outside, which I did in my childhood too.
 
Welp, the blackout didn't do much to change Reddit's mind, and as of now, only 5800 out of 8829 subredits are private. I guess there is a fear that the Reddit Admins will kick the mods of more popular ones and replace the mods to force them to open.

I think the damage is done hopefully. There is no going back.
 
Welp, the CEO of the Aliensite is forcing subreddits open if they do not comply and replacing mods to do it if they don't open up. This is a dictator move and will sure cause users to leave in an exodus, as in deleting their accounts for good.

www.nbcnews.com

Reddit CEO slams protesters, says he'll change site rules

Steve Huffman, the Reddit CEO, told NBC News in an interview that a user protest on the site this week is led by a minority of moderators and doesn’t have wide support.
www.nbcnews.com www.nbcnews.com
 
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