Thoughts Unboxed

The Reddit Saga continues to generate attention in the blogosphere, but unfortunately, not for positive reasons. In what can only be described as a devastating blow to Reddit moderators, the CEO has unleashed a formidable weapon in an attempt to quell the protest against API policies — forced eviction . In an interview with NBC News, the Reddit CEO stated his intention to implement changes that would enable users of a Reddit community to vote out the moderators, effectively weaponizing the very communities these moderators have dedicated countless hours to build and maintain.   Reddit clarified its stance in a fact sheet released on Thursday , stating that it is "not shutting down discussions or unilaterally reopening communities." The admin account u/ModCodeOfConduct also commented on the moderator removal policy, stating: If a moderator team unanimously decides to stop moderating, we will invite new, active moderators to keep t...

And the Reddit Saga continues ... In an unprecedented CEOh moment, Reddit's CEO, Steve Huffman, referred to the ongoing protests as " noise ", and expressed his belief that the protests would eventually subside, allowing things to return to normal. Huffman's comments were made in an internal memo - as obtained by TheVerge -  addressing the protest-oriented blackout of over 8,000 subreddits on June 12. This blackout was a direct response to the controversial API pricing policies implemented by Reddit that would force most of the third-paty apps to close shop. The contentious API policy, designed to monetize Reddit's data for training artificial intelligence tools, dealt a heavy blow to many third-party apps, rendering them unable to function under the new pricing model. Despite the backlash, Steve Huffman remained optimistic, suggesting that the " noise " would eventually fade away. He expressed confidenc...

On Monday, Reddit experienced an outage coinciding with a protest by thousands of subreddits against the site's new API pricing terms. Reddit attributed the issues to a significant number of subreddits going private, causing expected stability problems. The blackout was resolved by 12:28 PM CT.  The problems began in the morning, affecting Reddit's desktop and mobile sites as well as its native mobile apps. Although some subreddits were accessible during the outage, Reddit.com failed to load. Downdetector recorded around 43,000 user reports of issues at the peak, but the reports have since decreased. A Twitch stream tracking the number of subreddits going private in protest was also affected but has returned to normal. Over 7,900 subreddits have gone private or read-only in response to the API pricing changes, leading apps like Apollo for Reddit to announce their shutdown by the end of the month. The new pricing structure would b...