Reddit mods caving the second their status as mods is threatened is an absolute embarrassment. Not only do the prove spez right, they also reenforce the notion that Reddit without 3rd party apps is something they can live with - proving the blackouts were unnecessary and just an emotional reaction. What a joke!
Resistance from an inferior negotiating position is difficult.
If you feel strongly enough about the API situation to block your sub from MILLIONS of people, you are drawing a line in the sand. Any person with a spine or conviction would go down with a fight. It doesn’t matter how futile. MAKE Reddit take action and deal with the consequences of their own actions.
Reddit can and will do whatever Reddit wants, and by “Reddit” I mean the venture capitalist who control the strings and want their ROI.
Redditors and Mods have two choices. Deal with it, or leave. Nothing they do will affect Reddit’s decisions. Most people will deal with it.
Some of them might be worried that if they keep their community lockdown and Reddit strips them of their moderator status it will be for nothing anyway.
Kind of a defeatist mentality
It’s either: make Reddit take control and risk losing their communities to bad or no moderation. At the absolute minimum, you put Reddit in a bad/risky situation
or
Give reddit what they want and keep the community the way it was. Reinforcing Reddit’s position and justifying all of the bullshit they’ve done while simultaneously negating their participation in the protests themselves.
Only one of those options has an outcome that ends with it being for nothing.
They chose the latter
It’s either: make Reddit take control and risk losing their communities to bad or no moderation
That’s where I am right now. I am the solo mod on one small sub (2.5k users) and a joint mod on a couple of larger ones (21k and 90k). All three are still dark and we are fully prepared that the endgame for this will be when Reddit forcibly remove us as mods. It might come sooner, it might come later, but without the active support of many of the larger subs the protest is not going to work.
I have mentally become an ex-Redditor already, only logging on every few hours to check modmail and respond to users asking for access.
