A post from r/apple explaining why they were forced to reopen their subreddit after planning to close indefinitely.
Quotes from the r/apple announcement:
Reddit’s asshole CEO u/spez made it clear that Reddit was not backing down on their changes but assured users that apps or tools meant for accessibility will be unharmed along with most moderation tools and bots. While this was great to hear, it still wasn’t enough. So along with hundreds of other subreddits including our friends over at r/iPhone, r/iOS, r/AppleWatch, and r/Jailbreak, we decided to stay private indefinitely until Reddit changed course by giving third-party apps a fair price for API access.
Now you must be wondering, “I’m seeing this post, does that mean they budged?” Unfortunately, the answer is no. You are seeing this post because Reddit has threatened to open subreddits regardless of mod action and replace entire teams that otherwise refuse. We want the best for this community and have no choice but to open it back up — or have it opened for us.
NOTE: The URL linked to this post is a web.archive.org archive linked to a Libreddit instance to prevent Reddit from taking down that post from the internet + prevent giving Reddit direct traffic. Other links linked here go straight to Libreddit urls or to news articles. No links here lead directly to Reddit.
Libreddit is a third-party web client hosted by third-party servers.
EDIT: fixed grammar.
Spez also apparently called the mods “landed gentry” which is hilarious coming from a rich fuck behaving like a king towards some people who work for him for free!
Honestly, they should just force Reddit to replace them. Let’s see how long Reddit lasts without experienced moderators.
This is what I said to another person:
I’m assuming just current reddit admins are going to take over or getting some certain moderators from subreddits (that aren’t even of high ranking) to take over and remove the higher rankings from power, which then they will be the ones reopening the subreddits.
Now that I read it this sounds like a coup d’état
where I got the idea from: https://lemmy.world/post/101237
It is similar to a coup but from the top, so it‘s more like “consolidating power” phase which dictatorships do go through. Dissenters get removed and replaced by willing servants until the platform is more spez and less “The People”. Meanwhile he pretends like somehow the mods are the actual dictators or some shit to make all this palatable to those that still use Reddit, which in my cynical view they will eat up. Reddit is dead and done for anyone who values actual community over ads.
Please guys, we need a petition “u/spez wants to replace protesting moderators that does not bow to his will: we want to replace him as Reddit CEO then”
That dude seems to been an even bigger idiot than Musk.
A feat considered impossible until recently.
But active communities are relied upon by thousands or even millions of users, and we have a duty to keep these spaces active.
Dont kill 3rd party apps then.
hes really going for gold in the scumlympics
They should just leave then, along with all the users supporting the blackout. Not bending for that lying piece of shit is the best thing you can do for the community. Doing what he wants and reopening the subreddit only empowers him to continue ignoring and abusing the community. If reddit thinks they can forcefully open up hundreds and thousands of subreddits and figure out the moderation for all of them, so be it, I don’t even want to know how it goes. If you genuinely don’t like what spez is doing, delete your reddit account now and stop visiting the site, otherwise you’re supporting him and his actions.
Yeah I think this behavior is my breaking point. Going from “I just don’t log in anymore” the last few days to “I’ll get home today, nuke my account and overwrite everything”. I’m done.
I have a few loose ends to tie up before walking away from the explosion as outlined in this comment from a similar thread but at this point, nothing short of the entire chain of decisions that started the API debacle being reversed and anyone involved in the mess, spez included, stepping down and being replaced by competent people would even begin to make me reconsider leaving. Of course, I might as well wish for a meteorite made of solid gold to land into my yard.
Besides, this doesn’t fix the underlying issue that led us here in the first place, and the Fediverse might just be the answer to that one.
One thing that I feel is missing a lot in the whole discussion is, I don’t NEED reddit. Or any other platform. The whole discussion, especially from reddits POV feels like, “you need to accept this and that and move on”. Truth is, I don’t need to do anything. I’m using reddit for fun (and sometimes to find solutions to problems). If I don’t enjoy what they have done to the place, I just can go. Maybe somewhere else, maybe this part of my online activity is done for now, who know. But I think reddit vastly overestimates its usefulness in my daily life. I can always go back to reading shampoo bottles on the toilet!
