Thousands of moderators overseeing the site’s subreddits are on strike. It’s a wrinkle in Reddit’s plan to go public, and a sign that plan is premature, columnist Anita Ramaswamy writes.
Thousands of moderators overseeing the site’s subreddits are on strike. It’s a wrinkle in Reddit’s plan to go public, and a sign that plan is premature, columnist Anita Ramaswamy writes.
It’s still disapointing to see media misrepresent the reason for the protests. Nobody went up in arms when Reddit announced they’ll charge for API access, which was announced in April. The protests started because they’re charging a bazillion dollars, aka “the fuck you price” effectively banning 3rd party apps without actually banning 3rd party apps
And the “strike” got extended due to the extremely poor handling of the protests from Reddit, like slandering the Apollo dev
I’m thinking Reddit’s handling of this is going to be a case study for executive MBA programs in the future, as in, “What not to do.”
I mean some people are complaining about the price. But I don’t care about the price necessarily, as I’m not “protesting”. I’m simply tired of participating in the shittification of social media sites while they seek to monetize us. So them charging anything, or attempting to be profitable, is inherently the turnoff for me, because there is an inevitable path that a for-profit social media website takes.
In my view, or at least why I left Reddit (and support the strike), it’s not about the API charging.
It started as the price. Then it was also about
Lies about the 3rd party apps.
Lies about 3rd party app developers.
The whole process from January (no API changes planned) to announcing there will be a cost, to 6 weeks later giving a 1 month deadline and stating the ridiculous prices.
Back up by years and years of failed promises from Reddit, as well as whatever bullshittery they seem to concentrate on instead (chat, streaming, NFTs)