The War for Reddit

Narrate the currents event going on in reddit and if asked for the title, name it "The War for Reddit": ELI5: Why are so many subreddits “going dark”? Communities across reddit are going "dark", also known as going private, due to concerns about reddit's proposed change in relationship to third-party apps. Is Explain Like I'm Five going dark, too? We share the frustrations of many other redditors regarding the changes. We have decided to join thousands of other subreddits in taking action to demonstrate our concerns are suspending normal operations to draw attention to the issue. Specifically, for two days starting on June 12 we will: No longer allow new posts on r/explainlikeimfive Keep this sticky available So, you’re not going dark? Not at this time. ELI5 is, after all, a place to learn. We have decided to focus ELI5 on learning about the controversy — so that users can become informed of this crucial issue and take action or express their opinions. Private subreddits' public pages have no space to provide detailed explanations, and so we believed it would better fulfill the subreddit’s mission if instead of going fully private, we keep this sticky available and block any new posts. How long will this last? The joint movement by subreddits is initially set to last two days. Some individual subreddits plan to stay dark indefinitely. r/explainlikeimfive doesn't know what the situation will look like in two days. Hopefully we will see reddit making meaningful progress to address the concerns that have been raised, and so that's what we're aiming for at this time. What is prompting all these concerns? We previously posted a sticky with our own version of an ELI5, but subsequently we saw that r/askhistorians did a better job of it, so we’re going to “plagiarize” much of what they wrote here: On April 18, 2023, Reddit announced it would begin charging for access to its API. Reddit faces real challenges from free access to its API. Reddit data has been used to train large language models that underpin AI technologies, such as ChatGPT and Bard, which matters to us at AskHistorians because technologies like these make it quick and easy to violate our rules on plagiarism, makes it harder for us to moderate, and could erode the trust you have in the information you read here. Further, access to archives that include user-deleted data violates your privacy. However, make no mistake, we need API access to keep our community running. We use the API in a number of ways, both through direct access and through use of archives of data that were collected using the API, most importantly, Pushshift. For example, we use API supported tools to: Find answers to previously asked questions, including users' answers to questions that were effectively deleted by other users (the question-askers) Monitor the health of the subreddit and track how many questions get answers. Moderate via mobile (when we do) Admins have promised minimal disruption; however, over the years they’ve made a number of promises to support moderators that they did not, or could not follow up on, and at times even reneged on: In 2015, in response to widespread protests on the sub, the admins promised they would build tools and improve communication with mods. In 2019 the admins promised that chat would always be an opt-in feature. However, a year later an unmoderated chat feature was made a default feature on most subs In 2020, in response to moderators protesting racism on Reddit, admin promised to support mods in combating hate In 2021, again, in response to protests, Reddit’s admin promised a feature to report malicious interference by subreddits promoting Covid denial. Reddit’s admin has certainly made progress. In 2020 they updated the content policy to ban hate and in 2021 they banned and quarantined communities promoting covid denial. But while the company has updated their policies, they have not sufficiently invested in moderation support. Reddit admins have had 8 years to build a stronger infrastructure to support moderators but have not. API access isn’t just about making life easier for mods. It helps us keep our communities safe by providing important context about users, such as whether or not they have a history of posting rule-violating content or engaging in harmful behavior. The ability to search for removed and deleted data allows moderators to more quickly respond to spam, bigotry, and harassment. On ExplainLikeImFive, we’ve used it to help identify accounts that spam ChatGPT generated content that violates our rules. If we want to mod on our phones, third party apps offer the most robust mod tools. Further, third party apps are particularly important for moderators and users who rely on screen readers, as the official Reddit app is inaccessible to Blind individuals. Mods need API access because Reddit doesn’t support their needs. We are highly concerned about the downstream impacts of this decision. Reddit is built on volunteer moderation labor that costs other companies millions of dollars per year. While some tools we rely on may not be technically impacted, and some may return after successful negotiations, the ecosystem of API supported tools is vast and varied, and the tools themselves require volunteer labour to maintain. Changes like these, particularly the poor communication surrounding them, and cobbled responses as domino after domino falls, year after year, risk making r/ExplainLikeImFive a worse place both for moderators and for users—there will likely be more spam, fewer posts helpfully directing users to previous answers to their questions, and our ability to effectively address trolling, and JAQing off will slow down. Without the moderators who develop, nurture, and protect Reddit’s diverse communities, Reddit risks losing what makes it so special. We love what we do here at ExplainLikeI’mFive. A third party app is just another way you can read and post to reddit. Before reddit had its own app for your phone, there were other apps that let you read, post and comment. These apps use something called the API ELI5:How does an API Work?. Reddit's API lets your computer or phone get posts and comments without having to use a web browser or the official app. Apps such as Reddit is Fun, Slide, Comet, Boost, or Apollo then take what the API gives them and displays it. Apps like this allow you to customize your reddit experience by changing a theme, or changing how you upvote a post. While those are just two very small examples, you can begin to understand why people like these apps. Have you ever gotten mad at the reddit app because it had bugs, or it was just weird about how it did something? Right now, and until July 1st, you have the option to try out one of these apps and see if you like reddit better this way. After July 1st, you won't have the option anymore. If reddit's app has a bad bug, and you can't read posts for half a day, you will no longer be able to pull up a second option on your phone, or a third option, or a fourth... What are the next steps, and how long will all this last? We’re not sure. It depends on how the broader conversation goes. As you might imagine, there are a variety of views among our moderator team. But in general, our views are, again, similar to those on r/askhistorians: We understand Reddit’s need to change and evolve. For all we may harp on Reddit’s flaws, we do want to see it succeed! After all, we wouldn’t exist without it. So, if we’re expecting Reddit leadership to listen to us, we should be willing to work with them. In the days following the publication of the post, we discussed as a team what the specifics of working with Reddit would look like so we could clearly articulate it to you. Compromise means something along the lines of: Updates to the API are not tied to a particular date but are, instead, rolled out once the roadmap shared here is successfully achieved. Accessibility tools such as screen readers are part of the native Reddit infrastructure. Updates are made across Android and iOS. We think slowing down is the right thing to do. It would minimize further disruption while also generating an income stream for Reddit.