Popular subreddits plan to extend blackouts indefinitely | Engadget

The vow to extend the demonstration came after CEO Steve Huffman reportedly sent a memo to staff saying Reddit would “get through it” while opining that “like all blowups on Reddit, this one will pass as well.” In response to Huffman doubling down, a user wrote, “Let them fuck around and find out.”

Moderators from well-trafficked subreddits, including r/awww, r/music, r/videos, r/futurology, r/apple and r/NBA (among many others) chimed in to commit to an indefinite protest.

aranym, (edited )

Update for anyone wondering: Around 58% of the initial protest userbase has gone dark permanently (at the time of writing).

Many have gone public only to run polls on how to proceed, so that number is expected to increase.

TomMasz,
@TomMasz@lemmy.world avatar

It sure sounds like the only thing that will change the current path is if potential investors shy away from the coming IPO. I've seen nothing (correct me if I'm wrong here) that says that's happening, but it's still early.

aranym, (edited )

I've heard several advertisers are reconsidering spending with Reddit, they didn't realize the community had this much power over the site (which introduces more risk for them.) Hopefully that has some effect.

Bautznersenf,

I'm curious to hear from reddit employees what the mood is like internally.

JesusTheCarpenter,

I am alsot wondering. I have a feeling that most devs are silently supporting the protest. Also, aren't the leak led memos of Spez suggesting that there are people there sympathetic to the cause?

Joker,

Yes! So happy to hear this! I was afraid the momentum would stall after the initially planned two days. I used Reddit as a basic replacement for google search… but it needs to die. This whole situation has is exactly why the fediverse must succeed. I am so tired of huge corporations pulling this bs. I am so tired of fighting them to hold on to my privacy. I am so tired of bloated websites that load slowly. I’m tired of it all.

penguin,

Doesn't the fediverse have privacy problems too? Or was that incorrect?

fcuks,

Its literally a public network where people chose to post things publicly for anyone to see and consume, I don't understand what degree of privacy people are expecting? If you have some insight into this or your own privacy concerns I'm super interested cuz its left me baffled.

I wouldn't stand out in a public city centre and expect privacy. However with the fediverse at least I choose which city centre I'm standing in and if I still don't like it, I can stand in my own and block anyone else to access it (yay privacy :D).

Also reddit served 'targeted' ads, which were admittedly pretty pants, so they had some degree of selling access to your data to third parties, which the fediverse doesn't have.

penguin,

All fair points. Thanks

stankmut,

People often reveal more about themselves then they intend to. Most of the time, it's not a big deal. If you piss off the wrong crowd though, they will hunt through your posts looking for every scrap of info so they can dox you. People want to be able to delete old posts when they realized that talking about which neighborhood they live in, which month they were born, and where they go to school might not have been a good idea.

Reddit is centralized, so unless it was archived there's a good chance your comments will disappear. Stuff in the fediverse is a lot more likely to stick around somewhere.

fcuks,

I do see what you're saying but if you were concerned about privacy would you be that open? And reddit is scraped and archived loads so the same is still true there also https://www.unddit.com/ https://www.reveddit.com for example

stankmut,

It's more about the people who weren't concerned about privacy until they read a story about someone getting swatted based on linking a bunch of small details across a variety of posts. Most people don't really think about how posting your favorite restaurant in a thread about the best restaurants in whatever local community of theirs gives bad actors the ability to track them down.

I do agree with you though, Reddit is scraped and archived. It gives people the illusion of privacy, though. That they could just delete old posts and surely nobody will go through the effort to have saved them all. The fediverse throws that out the window. No reasonable person is going to believe that every server will delete your data when you ask.

I think it's reasonable to yearn for the ability to delete a whoopsie that gives away too much personal information from the internet. It's not realistic though.

Joker,

I was talking about the targeted ads, telemetry/data that is gathered and sold to 3rd parties, and data retention policies. I understand that posting on a public forum means anyone can see what I post, but I dislike how little control I have over my own data and how it is used. The fediverse is definitely better on that front. If I don't like the privacy policy of one instance, I can simply hop to another. There are no targeted ads here, and most instances ban advertising altogether. It's refreshing, and it's a large part of what I miss from Web 1.0. Privacy isn't all or nothing, and I don't expect it to be. Whatever privacy problems the fediverse has, it's so much better than nearly every other social media platform out there.

janado,

I feel you. We need freedom from those corporations. All they care is money in their pockets.

EcstaticHumility,

Finally a protest with no end in sight. I hope more subreddits join for this to have an impact.

lixus98,

I'll be watching this with interest, how far are both sides capable of going?

SlowNPC,

Being a mod is a labor of love. If they don't love it any more, they'll leave. They're currently trying to save Reddit from making that happen.

The execs don't seem to understand this.

eric5949,

The dark souls subs just announced they're going indefinite, though their users seem pissed off about it.

Quarkie,

I couldn't see a short-term blackout working so I hope more subs make it indefinite.

Puffymumpkins,

Same here. We really fucked up by saying it was only for 48 hours

SamC,

Seems highly unlikely that Reddit will back down at this point. But because they've chosen to burn their userbase, they need to accept the consequences.

Every sub that can stay private is a problem that Reddit has to deal with. They have to remove the mods and find new ones. Doing that is going to massively disrupt the community of that sub, and even people who were not really paying attention to this issue will start to get pissed at Reddit. They'll have to set fire to any good will they have left. But that's the choice they've made, and we have to make it as hard as possible for them.

Aussiemandeus,

I wish there was a way we could support more.

Obviously leaving reddit has its benefits to the cause, however I'm worried if they bow down and leave everything as it was reddit will try something else in a few months. Make changes in the back end to stop it happening again preventing black outs then try their move again.

Especially if everyone goes back first.

Puffymumpkins,

The way to support more is to make content, and try to fill in the gap between reddit's 10 years of content and the bit we have here. That's really it.

Nymphioxetine,

I’m doing my part!

eric5949,

I mean so far it's going good, we'll see in the coming weeks and months.

SpezCanLigmaBalls,
@SpezCanLigmaBalls@lemmy.world avatar

Fuck Reddit. I’m honestly not going back. I’m happy enough with Lemmy and I am really interested to see it’s future

JCreazy,

I'm really excited to watch Lemmy grow.

riot_baby,

Sounds like a pet hahahah

Harpuajim,

Same here. This much more interesting alternative anyway.

Kittiesmom13,

And much more friendly

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