A considerable portion of the Reddit community, consisting of more than six thousand subreddits - among which are some of the most popular ones like r/funny, r/aww, r/gaming, r/music, and r/science - have made the decision to go private in response to Reddit's impending API pricing adjustments. This implies that these platforms are no longer visible to the public, even to Reddit members who previously subscribed to them. A Twitch stream is keeping a real-time count of subreddits that have opted for this blackout.
The move towards this dramatic action commenced last week when creators of popular third-party applications for Reddit voiced their concerns about the inability to bear the cost of the modified API pricing structure. Consequently, developers of renowned apps like Apollo for Reddit and others made a public announcement on Thursday that their apps would be discontinued come June 30th due to the revised API pricing.
Many of the protesting subreddits have chosen to adopt a private status for a duration of 48 hours, stretching from June 12th to June 14th, with some planning to remain private until a resolution is achieved, as per a post on the r/Save3rdPartyApps subreddit.
Venturing to access r/aww, a mammoth subreddit, displays a notification of its private status. In a Reddit post, r/Toptomcat expressed their apprehension regarding the situation, emphasizing their devotion to Reddit and belief that this shift could hamper their ability to continue their Reddit engagement. Some subreddits such as r/TIHI (Thanks, I Hate It) and r/polls initiated their blackout earlier than planned, following Reddit CEO Steve Huffman's Friday AMA, which was largely met with disapproval.
Christian Selig, the developer of the Apollo app, expressed his gratitude for the Reddit community's united stance against the proposed modifications. In a post on the Apollo subreddit, he communicated his hopes that Reddit will heed the outcry, suggesting an apology for the mismanagement of the process and assurances of an extended timeframe for developers would contribute significantly to restoring community confidence.
While the majority of subreddits have chosen the path of privacy, others including r/NintendoSwitch, r/Frugal, and r/StarWars have opted to inhibit new posts. This means previous posts remain accessible but moderators will not permit new submissions while the protest persists. The subreddit r/DankMemes has remained public but restricts users to posting memes related to the API changes.
In the subreddit r/ModCoord, there are four threads documenting an ever-expanding roster of participating subreddits, a list that encompasses numerous high-profile communities with a combined subscriber count reaching into the tens of millions.
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