Anandtech Off-Topic subreddit will go DARK in protest of API fees:

[Captante]

-The age old adage "If a service is free, you're the product that's bought and sold" strikes again.

Key is going in eyes-open.

Frankly I find "smart" (lol) speakers and phones potentially "always on" listening EVERYWHERE to be far more concerning. (and I'm not all that concerned... "listening in" on me would get REALLY boring REALLY fast!)

 

[pete6032]

Disappointed to now have some of the locally focused subs go dark. Nowhere to discuss local happenings or local sports teams.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Haven't been on Reddit at all since Tuesday, what's the story over there? Guessing going dark had no effect on the API changes, so next up is nuking personal profiles and deleting everything?

 

[lxskllr]

Checkout lemmy. You may or may not find what you're looking for, but there's a lot of stuff there. Not as much as reddit, but it's growing fast.

As far as what I'm doing, I'll be nuking my account at the end of the month. More likely some subs will have reopened so auto tools can access them. I believe in federation, and want to support that model. If they don't have exactly what I want now, well... life sucks. I'll enjoy what is available, and expect it to get better. Anyone thinking this is the last time reddit acts like a dick is deluded. It'll be a steady trickle of fuck-yous as long as the site exists.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Word is that Reddit might just add different mods and reopen subreddits if they stay dark too long. It seems they are hell bent with their decision and not going to change it. The app developers should just rewrite their apps to not use the API. Would that be illegal somehow? Like copyright infringement or something?

 

[lxskllr]

AFAIK, all you can do without the api is web scrape. That gives you a read only copy, but you can't interact with the site. Might be good enough for some uses. I prefer to avoid it altogether.

edit:
I guess you could make a dedicated reddit webbrowser, and style the site as you like. You'd have to fake being a desktop client so it doesn't try to force the app on you. Dunno if that's any good for mod tools.

 

[Zeze]

The subreddits have 0 leverage today. It's kinda sad.

99% users don't care including the ones they say they do.

All the third party apps will die along with the popular subs and reddit will be just fine.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Pretty much this. Will barely affect them in the end. This will also only really affect mobile users from what I understand, and browser experience won't change. Though there's a rumour they're getting rid of the old style, if that do that, it's going to suck, but still, people will just be forced to get used to it. Kinda like when Microsoft came out with Windows 8. It was like "WTF?!" but MS didn't care and people just learned to live with it.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I have no idea what this thread is about. Reddit looks normal to me and any 'sub' (stupid term) I visit has not changed, nor are there any fees involved.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I have no idea what this thread is about. Reddit looks normal to me and any 'sub' (stupid term) I visit has not changed, nor are there any fees involved.

Reddit as a webpage won't have any noticable changes, aside from less users. The changes are affecting all third parties who access the site via apis, notably any phone apps that aren't the official Reddit app. It's basically a fuck off to third party apps.

I've only ever accessed via the webpage, and only old.reddit at that. If they kill off old I might have to reconsider using it at all, modern webpage design is trash and reddit is no exception.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I only do it via the web. Tried it using the official phone tool and it was so loaded with ads and nags, I dumped it within minutes.

 

[lxskllr]

I liked the redreader app. It violated my policy of not duplicating browser functionality, but reddit's design was such shit, I could either load my browser with hacks to fix it, or use the app. I liked it for laying in bed and looking at dumb pictures before I went to sleep. BTW, it's one of the few apps that'll be allowed to exist after the api restrictions due to it's accessibility features, and lack of monetization.

 

[DigDog]

.... we have a subreddit?

 

[GodisanAtheist]

.... we have a subreddit?

-Of all the times to find out, right

 

[Red Storm]

The subreddits have 0 leverage today. It's kinda sad.

99% users don't care including the ones they say they do.

All the third party apps will die along with the popular subs and reddit will be just fine.

I disagree. Websites need content to attract and keep users coming back. What is Reddit's content? Posts and discussions in a moderated setting covering nearly every topic imagineable. The overwhelming majority of Reddit users are just lurkers, they consume the content but don't contribute towards making it. The content is made by a small minority of users. If that small minority of users gets fed up and leaves, the quality and flow of content dwindles and then the next step is the lurkers start to leave. So Reddit can easily die off, the majority of Reddit users have nothing to do with it.

I've been on subs that have either zero or lackluster moderation, and seeing them bombarded by stuff like wannabe porn stars spamming their only fans or other garbage very easily ensures I never go back to those subreddits. Now imagine that happens all over Reddit with even the popular subs. People would dip out in no time.

 

[Zeze]

I disagree. Websites need content to attract and keep users coming back. What is Reddit's content? Posts and discussions in a moderated setting covering nearly every topic imagineable. The overwhelming majority of Reddit users are just lurkers, they consume the content but don't contribute towards making it. The content is made by a small minority of users. If that small minority of users gets fed up and leaves, the quality and flow of content dwindles and then the next step is the lurkers start to leave. So Reddit can easily die off, the majority of Reddit users have nothing to do with it.

I've been on subs that have either zero or lackluster moderation, and seeing them bombarded by stuff like wannabe porn stars spamming their only fans or other garbage very easily ensures I never go back to those subreddits. Now imagine that happens all over Reddit with even the popular subs. People would dip out in no time.

I see. I just don't think the outage is impactful enough. I mean it's entirely a week after the protest started, none of my browsing habits changed. It's already becoming yesterday's news. The trend certainly is going towards in reddit CEO's favor.

New content gets posted in other subreddits already. I see tons of gifs, pics, and videos already. Most casual users don't care what subreddits are what. Gifs, pics, and videos are being consumed just fine through reddit.

Yea, not looking good at all. I think it's already over for the protesters by the end of last week.

 

[lxskllr]

I haven't been back. I check my user profile on teddit once a day or so, to see if my posts have come back(indicates sub is out of lockdown). Just curiosity cause I want max effectiveness when I wipe my account, but after the end of June, I won't be going back. I'm not the only one. We may be the minority, but everyone's the minority til they're not. I have time. I estimate 30 years left. I'll be supporting the fediverse with those 30 years, and not reddit.

 

[Red Storm]

I see. I just don't think the outage is impactful enough. I mean it's entirely a week after the protest started, none of my browsing habits changed. It's already becoming yesterday's news. The trend certainly is going towards in reddit CEO's favor.

New content gets posted in other subreddits already. I see tons of gifs, pics, and videos already. Most casual users don't care what subreddits are what. Gifs, pics, and videos are being consumed just fine through reddit.

Yea, not looking good at all. I think it's already over for the protesters by the end of last week.

But that's my point, it's only a small subset of actual users who post those gifs/pics/videos. Piss off that minority and they leave, and the rest will quickly follow and then Reddit dies. Get rid of mods and the ensuing flood of spam will make everyone leave in a hurry.

Personally Reddit is so much more than just a place to consume media for me though. 99% of my product/service Google searches are really just Reddit searches, because I want to find actual discussion about things not just paid reviews. You can ask about window installation on ATOT and maybe there's one or two people who know what they're talking about, meanwhile on Reddit you'll find an entire community devoted to just windows, or tents, or electric cars, or basketball, or a specific video game from 20 years ago, etc. Where else has that? Losing Reddit would really suck, and their CEO is doing a great job of making it more and more shitty. Reddit going under would be the loss of a lot of centralized information/discussion about all sorts of topics.

 

[nakedfrog]

Pretty much this. Will barely affect them in the end. This will also only really affect mobile users from what I understand, and browser experience won't change.

LOL, their traffic is 72% mobile users. They don't all use a 3rd party app, of course.
But that leads to the dichotomy of the way their CEO is framing it: "hardly anyone is even using 3rd party apps" and also "we need to monetize 3rd party app usage".

 

[Captante]

The issue Reddit/3rd party app guys have here is that for me personally the site has already been relegated to the occasional Google search result and nothing beyond that. (usually something obscure & technical)

Thing is while I need Google/Bing etc, I do not need Reddit. I'll find what I need anyway. (besides 75% of the time Reddit results are useless drivel and/or totally outdated)

So while I DO side with "3rd party app users/developers" (and the "little guy" in general) here, the entire thing is pretty much irrelevant to my day-to-day. (sorry)

 

[Captante]

LOL, their traffic is 72% mobile users. They don't all use a 3rd party app, of course.

The rare time I look @ Reddit on my Android phone I just use a browser tab. (usually Chrome) I'm aware of other apps to use Reddit exist but have never considered using one.

Works perfectly fine for viewing threads aside from the annoying prompts to "install the app" (official Reddit app) which completely suck. Ummm ... no, thank you?!? (worst thing is it keeps coming back no matter what!)

That's as much Google/Google Play Store as Reddit though and not related to the primary issue at hand.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Reddit was a lot of doom scrolling and karma farming for me.

I've actively stopped using Reddit and really am only dipping in once or twice to check in on any fallout from the blackout.

What the blackout really did for me is bring awareness to how much of my time I flush away on Reddit. I can use that time for duo lingo, or playing piano, or wrestling with my kids, or even just gaming. Hell, I come here more often and get deeper, more engaging conversations with all the dying old farts that populate this forum and their eons of knowledge.

 

[Red Storm]

Reddit was a lot of doom scrolling and karma farming for me.

I've actively stopped using Reddit and really am only dipping in once or twice to check in on any fallout from the blackout.

What the blackout really did for me is bring awareness to how much of my time I flush away on Reddit. I can use that time for duo lingo, or playing piano, or wrestling with my kids, or even just gaming. Hell, I come here more often and get deeper, more engaging conversations with all the dying old farts that populate this forum and their eons of knowledge.

The key is to avoid Popular or New, and instead go to specific subreddits only. I found my real time wasting was always when I was endlessly scrolling on the main page. I switched to visiting specific subreddits (mainly to catch up on news related to that sub) and my time spent on Reddit went down, but I still got out of it what I wanted.

 

[nakedfrog]

The rare time I look @ Reddit on my Android phone I just use a browser tab. (usually Chrome) I'm aware other apps to use Reddit exist but have never considered using one.

Works perfectly fine for viewing threads aside from the annoying prompts to "install the app" (official Reddit app) which completely suck. Ummm ... no, thank you?!? (worst thing is it keeps coming back no matter what!)

That's as much Google/Google Play Store as Reddit though and not related to the primary issue at hand.

That's a Reddit thing, not Google. There used to be an option in Reddit to tell it to NOT prompt you to get the app. They got rid of that, and started prompting you to get the app much more frequently. For the occasions I'm browsing on my Fire tablet, it's super annoying because there is no app for Fire tablets. And yes, IMO the mobile website seems perfectly adequate apart from that nagging.

 

[lxskllr]

For the occasions I'm browsing on my Fire tablet, it's super annoying because there is no app for Fire tablets.

Try redreader. It's a great simple program. Nothing fancy, but it allows all typical actions. It was also greenlighted by reddit. Sideload if necessary. Either that, or say 'fuck reddit' and go elsewhere.

edit:

RedReader | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

Client for reddit.com

f-droid.org