Since June 12, Reddit has seen a moderator strike reach epic proportions over monetization changes to third-party application API access, and things have been chaotic ever since.
Nine long days ago, subReddit communities banded together to take a stand against the parent site, Reddit, which implemented a pay-to-play system for third-party applications using Reddit’s API (application programming interface). This would effectively price many of the applications out of existence. For those unfamiliar with the ins and outs of technology, an API is a method of sharing access to a website’s information with external sites and applications.
In hopes the site would back down from ‘killing off third-party apps’ users find more straightforward to use than the leading site itself, many of the site’s most popular communities decided to privatize access, and major ones like r/Music joined in — who have nearly 30 million subscribers — stifling the massive website from gaining traffic and cutting into ad revenue.
However, the ‘strike’ hasn’t ended as some participants hoped. Popular third-party app, Apollo, has been effectively still priced out of being able to run. Apollo was made popular by having features that the Reddit app does not provide. Developer Christian Selig published a long post regarding the new API permissions pricing on a blog post, explaining how the pricing “claims that it would be based in reality, it seems anything but.”
Selig also said, “While Reddit has been communicative and civil throughout this process with half a dozen phone calls back and forth that I thought went really well, I don’t see how this pricing is anything based in reality or remotely reasonable” regarding the calculated $20 million USD it would cost Apollo for API permissions.
Reddit CEO, Steve Huffman, sent an internal memo on June 13 to staff explaining the forum blackout isn’t cutting into revenue, and “There’s a lot of noise with this one. Among the noisiest we’ve seen. Please know that our teams are on it, and like all blowups on Reddit, this one will pass as well,” in a response towards the third-party app strike.
In response, the subReddit moderators decided to lengthen their originally planned 48-hour strike, but Steve Huffman brought up a portion of the moderator policy that says current moderators can be subject to “removal due to inactivity (either site-wide or within the community you’re moderating)” and mentioned voting may be implemented in the future as well on June 15, in a way to threaten current moderators positions within their community basically but with extra steps.
This caused many of the ‘striking’ communities to suddenly reappear from the previously ‘private’ status. r/Music, which was considered one of the bastions of the strike with millions of subscribers, recently posted a June 18 update which reads “We have not received any replies to any of our questions from Reddit staff. However, they have spammed all moderators, demanding they “get back to work.” This isn’t how volunteers should be treated” an image was also provided of this back and forth.
As of now, Reddit seems to be running at normal capacity again, and the third-party app Apollo will shutter its doors on June 30. Fans can head over to Reddit for more information on this growing issue the site faces.
