Thousands of subreddits go dark in protest

by WarriorForum.com Administrator
6 replies


If you're in the know, Reddit announced in April that it would start charging third-party app devs for its API. From July 1 onwards, devs that require higher usage limits for every 1,000 API calls will be charged $0.24 per user per month.

Why?

One of the reasons is generative AI. Reddit's forums have lots of data that can be used to train tools like ChatGPT and Google Bard. And Reddit's API will make it easier for companies to directly find and collate these data.

In an interview with the New York Times in April, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said that the 'Reddit corpus of data is really valuable" and that he doesn't wanna "need to give all of that value to some of the largest companies in the world for free."

Does he make any sense? Why? Why not?

So, in retaliation to the increase in API usage prices, thousands of subreddits have protested the move, and most of their mods have already instituted a 48-hour blackout during which subreddits are currently private. This means millions of users have no access.

Chime in.
#dark #protest #subreddits #thousands
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  • Profile picture of the author DWolfe
    The subreddits went dark for a 2 protest on June 12. As of today June 13, those subs are still dark. Reddit has gotten greedy with more ads and now the issue with the subreddits. The main sub that went dark, probably won't return because communications with the corporation are going nowhere.

    Reddit has changed the Home, and Popular posts, and now added the Latest posts section in the past few weeks. This is another example of corporate greed who don't listen to their core audience.

    There are a few subreddits that support those going dark. However, since they are more crisis-related or war-related subs they did not close down. Two that shut down temporarily, are in my area that provided a lot of local information. It's a sad situation when you consider the I-95 collapse on Sunday in Philly, and people were asking for alternative directions to bypass the area Now those subs are dark.

    Seeing the Reddit board has grown tone-death like other major social media is frustrating. It's going to hit their bottom line which they deserve. Enough backlash they may be the next Twitter or possibly MySpace.
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  • Profile picture of the author cypherslock
    *shrugs* won't matter since those subreddits don't own the platform. Much ado about nothing.
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  • Profile picture of the author zainseo
    I believe that the AI tools not depend upon sources like the reddit or likewise.
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  • Reddit hasn't become greedy for ads. The whole point of creating websites like Reddit where millions of website traffic congregates online, is to monetize it with advertising revenue.

    Why else would you grow a website with millions of subscribers, if your not going to monetize it by allowing marketers and advertising agencies advertise/market to your affordable traffic sources.
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  • Why they want to cash out every inch of the platform, reddit renting out APIs, twitter blue tick saga now restricting post views. They should think about users, they are at stake.
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    • i think they know at this point people need their platform more than they need people. they are using us now.
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