Summary: It is becoming increasingly safe to predict the irreversible demise of Reddit; give it a few weeks and watch how regulars of Reddit -- not just longtime moderators -- become Web refugees, looking for a new place. Maybe a few of them will explore self-hosting and even Gemini.

OVER the years we wrote a lot about bad sides of Reddit, seeing since 2006 or since 2007 (Reddit was full of Novell shills) that it was dominated by malicious corporations, moderated by liars, recklessly lying about its own history, and even hiding sponsors like Microsoft. Reddit is a censorship site, controlled by sponsors via volunteers, pretending to be a community. No wonder Microsoft chatbots are trained on Reddit data; the "truth" there is already curated by Microsoft and it omits Microsoft critics, among many other critics.

For those who've been living under a rock somewhere, Reddit is having a crisis because its arrogant CEO refuses to acknowledge a mistake [1], he's now spamming countless journalists via NPR (yes, NPR spammed me by using their Microsoft E-mail system!), and locking moderators out [2]. Even the mainstream media covered this yesterday [3]. It's no longer a one-day strike but something vastly bigger. In Gemini, people debate alternatives to Reddit (including Gemini). The latest episode from Jupiter Broadcasting (Self-Hosted) covers it [4]. It's spinning out of control. Even 3 days ago it was already called "Reddit Blackout" [5] and users, not just moderators, were impacted. There were downtimes too.

Two days ago we saw reports that the "company won’t budge" [6] (they seem to lack an understanding of who's truly in control, not over the computer systems but the fake community) and Jupiter Broadcasting's Coder Radio said [7] three days ago that "the ridiculous situation Reddit has created for itself and the weak position of app developers."

Ervin, a Free software developer, said [8]: "Another centralized tool for communication going down the drain. I wonder what the IPO will look like in this case."

Yes, another. It seems like a trend. ⬆

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. Reddit CEO Triples Down, Insults Protesters, Whines About Not Making Enough Money From Reddit Users

   Steve Huffman, the CEO of Reddit, has decided to just keep on talking. After his disastrous AMA helped inspire more subreddits to join a 48 hour blackout, and his dismissal of the protesting subreddits as something not worth paying attention to resulted in many subreddits extending their protests indefinitely, Huffman apparently thought it would make sense to go do a bunch of interviews and insult the protesting mods some more. We’ll start with the interview he did with NPR which is just dripping with entitlement.





2. Reddit’s users and moderators are revolting against its CEO - The Verge





3. Reddit Revolts, MrBeast’s YouTube Empire and Peak Trust and Safety?

   Social platforms are entering a strange and uncertain future.





4. Lemmy at em! | Self-Hosted 99

   We dive into Lemmy, a self-hosted Reddit alternative. Plus, a couple of easy-to-deploy tools that make life better.





5. Reddit Blackout: What, Why and How It is Impacting Users

   Almost 8,000 subreddit forums calls for a Reddit Blackout to protest against the latest pricing policy that will charge third-party developers for accessing APIs [...]





6. Reddit: users boycott to force platform to scrap plans to charge for access, company won’t budge

   Nobody cleans a house as quickly and as thoroughly as a gentleman who has a ladyfriend coming over. Or something like that, goes the saying. As the man cleans the house, he is acknowledging that the state it was in was not acceptable and yet he was okay with it.





7. Reddit Goes Dark | Coder Radio 522

   We chew on the ridiculous situation Reddit has created for itself and the weak position of app developers.





8. Web Review, Week 2023-24