The Random Crap Thread 2: It Hits the Fan.
- Thread starter North_Ranger
- Start date
I am the textbook definition of a Capcom bundle and would get angry with you.
I am the textbook definition of the union and the other parts of the community.
(wtf)
(wtf)
Happy birthday to you, @blotsfan! We are the textbook definition of birthdays.
I have it on, but i get the same...
Funnily, if i don't put a space after teh "a", i do get "i am a textbook definition of art" (and yes, the I gets made small... it does know me well...)
Reddit is trying to break all of the third party api shit, because it was such a good idea when twitter did it.
Yeah, I had posted a thread on the Halifax subreddit for some local recommendations. I went to read some of the latest comments and discovered the subreddit was set to private. :/
It'll be that way for a couple of days, it's a blackout in protest
Some subreddits are saying they'll extend the blackout indefinitely.
Basically, the chatter among the mods is that a lot of them are sick of donating their time and effort to moderating a site that clearly does not give a shit about its users. Among the mods on the subreddit I recently became a mod at (r/AskScienceFiction), the feeling is basically, "Y'know what, this ain't worth it."
Also someone created a site where you can see subreddits going dark in real time: https://reddark.untone.uk/
Basically, the chatter among the mods is that a lot of them are sick of donating their time and effort to moderating a site that clearly does not give a shit about its users. Among the mods on the subreddit I recently became a mod at (r/AskScienceFiction), the feeling is basically, "Y'know what, this ain't worth it."
Also someone created a site where you can see subreddits going dark in real time: https://reddark.untone.uk/
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If I am reading it right, current reddit leadership wants to restrict access to use of their API, essentially adding a toll for use. Their rationale for doing so is that the site is experiencing substantial requests between normal reddit users PLUS bots and such accessing reddit's text corpus to train AI language models, etc., and so a fee-per-access would function like a utility, earning money for reddit while discouraging excessive access. But the rates they want to charge are well outside what clients (and others) consider FRAND territory, which suggests that this is not something reddit is doing merely to defray operating costs, but as a means of pricing all those who have created competitors to the native reddit app out of the market, effectively making competitors choose to either shut down or go bankrupt.
What I don't get is how reddit's staff doesn't seem to be able to (or even want to) grasp the idea that 99% of the value contained within reddit's content was 100% generated by its users, not its staff. So restricting how users access its content will also reduce the amount of generated content. To put it another way, they are throttling the goose that lays their golden eggs, and legitimately risking their own sustainability. Presumably this is because reddit wants to court the gatekeepers of massive user bases (Apple/Microsoft/Android's various app stores), or maybe because their owner, Advance Publications, has some other kind of plan(s) for them, but whatever the reason, it's not very smart when your site's entire reason for existing is to try and lure in as many participants as possible, not turn them away.
The way I see it, the subreddits are entirely within their rights to take their content read-only/dark/down entirely, because they made it. The only thing reddit really did was host it.
I'm not gonna lie. I hope this kills reddit. Not because I have something against reddit or anything like that, but because I want to see one of these enshittification attempts just absolutely go down in flames so that other people who get similar ideas will have to think twice before trying the same thing.
--Patrick
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The cat is very much out of the bag, but it is amazing that a social media platform that at the time was in the 10 most popular websites on the internet did not have their own app until 2016. Truly incompetent of them to let these third party apps steak their market in the first place.
Also the reports are that Reddit is really trying to get bought by a big company and this is part of making them more appealing. I don't use an app for it so I'm not personally effected but if they ever kill old reddit I will be done.
Also the reports are that Reddit is really trying to get bought by a big company and this is part of making them more appealing. I don't use an app for it so I'm not personally effected but if they ever kill old reddit I will be done.
That’s the thing, though. They already were bought by a big company (Condé Nast, which is a division of Advance Publications) back in 2006, barely a year after they were founded. Sure, they went “independent” of CN in 2011, but they’re still a subsidiary of AP. The only reason I can see AP trotting them out and trying to marry them off like some 18yr-old daughter would be because AP wants to unload a division that they feel is losing money (reddit has lost 40% of its estimated value since 2021, and that’s not counting since the blackouts) before reddit gets “too old” (i.e., drops too much in value) to attract a suitor.
—Patrick
Update: Its been almost two years since this and I still have anxiety and self-doubt every time I have to tell someone her phone number.
GasBandit
Staff member
As of this moment, it's up to:
7257/7806 subreddits are currently dark.
That's barely shy of 93% of Reddit being unavailable.
We keep a gate at the top of the basement. It has a little cat door in it, so we can keep the dog out of the basement but the cat can come and go as he pleases since his food and litter is down there. However, we also can lock the cat door so we can lock him in the basement if we need to. It doesn't happen a ton but we've done it a decent bit.
Well today we had a guy come to replace our side door. So we had to lock the cat in the basement for a few hours so he wouldn't get out. About two hours after he got here, I see the cat walking around. I grab him to bring him downstairs and the guy said that the cat just squeezed through the bars. He put him back behind the gate, and the cat squeezed through again so the guy just let him go since he didn't try to get outside. So apparently for the year or so we've locked the cat in the basement on occasion (90% of the time when I let him free he is waiting at the gate), he's been able to get out the entire time and just realized it today.
Well today we had a guy come to replace our side door. So we had to lock the cat in the basement for a few hours so he wouldn't get out. About two hours after he got here, I see the cat walking around. I grab him to bring him downstairs and the guy said that the cat just squeezed through the bars. He put him back behind the gate, and the cat squeezed through again so the guy just let him go since he didn't try to get outside. So apparently for the year or so we've locked the cat in the basement on occasion (90% of the time when I let him free he is waiting at the gate), he's been able to get out the entire time and just realized it today.
GasBandit
Staff member
Lots of companies that aren't profitable have huge market valuations. Uber has never made a profit but is valued at $80bn. So, while that AMA is a gong show, that particular fact is not going to prevent them from being purchased or going public.
checked in this morning, and the only thing on my feed was r/news.
It actually improved the reddit experience immensely.
GasBandit
Staff member
/r/killingfloor is dark, buuuuuuut... just about all my nsfw subreddits are still open. But their mods aren't exactly attentive.
My wife is out of town, and while I wait for @GasBandit to invite me to the rasslin matches to let off a little steam, I keep having weird thoughts like, why shouldn't I put Fruit Loops in my tea and coffee?
I'm actually not sure what that denominator refers to, because I recall there are actually over a hundred thousand subreddits on the site. Though most of them are probably inactive, bot-created, or repeats? I dunno. Point is, I'm not sure how they got the 7806 figure.
Still, though, it does feel like over 90% of Reddit's active subreddits are closed.
I think the site tracking is only tracking subreddits that are over some threshold user count.