Ask HN: How can we help the Reddit mods? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How can we help the Reddit mods?

23 pointsTekMol16 comments

Reddit is a cornerstone of the open web. But it seems the current management has set its mind on turning Reddit into a closed platform, just like all the other big social platforms:

    - Blocking users from accessing Reddit on mobile on the web.
    - Killing 3rd Party apps via prices 10 times too high.
    - Neglect the user-friendly, old version of Reddit.
    - Forcefully redirect new users who visit the old version to the new version

If they go by the playbook of Twitter, Instagram, FB and Co, their next steps might include:

    - Kill the RSS feeds
    - Completely close down the old, user-friendly version
    - Take away power from the mods
    - Restrict searching to logged in users
    - Restrict full reading to logged in users

Amazingly, the mods on Reddit have managed to stand up against this tendency and organized a strike which (contrary to what the management says) really hurts Reddit.

Now that the agreed length of the strike is coming to an end, the web is at a turning point. Will the last platform where users have at least some power stay intact, or will it fall?

Hacker News is the most intelligent bunch on the web. What can we do to help the Reddit mods to keep the steering wheel in their hands?

>Will the last platform where users have at least some power

Are you sure about that? 0.0001% of the users, the mods have power. No one else. Yet the regular users create the content not the mods. Funny how mods actually not quiting or deleting their accs or even subs which you know actually would have an impact. Even if they go private a lot of them happy to have that imaginary power.

And even then everyone can create new subs whenever they want. So I'm not sure a great migration will happen (to where exactly? and what guarantees that the users will follow too) instead I can see new subs replacing the old ones. Just because a vocal minority have the "we did reddit" moment that means really nothing at all.

Reddit is dead, it cannot be saved.

Your only hope is something new takes it's place.

Delete all your posts, then delete all your accounts.

Took Redact 9 hours to overwrite & delete my 17,000 comments. But watching them scroll by, most weren't worth keeping.

On an internal staff email the CEO stated that the blackout hasn’t (yet) had “significant revenue impact” [0].

If REVENUE IMPACT is their measure, focus efforts there.

- Get a together a list of major sponsors to target - Encourage sponsors to come out in solidarity and to pause sponsorship until things are resolved with the community - make it easy for sponsors to look like good guys and ride the wave “we support the reddit community” badges etc

- encourage reddit hood subscribers to pause their memberships

Basically next step translate the stop work to have more immediate revenue impact

What else could affect their revenues?

I asked this exact question in an Ask HN earlier today[1].

[0] https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/13/23759559/reddit-internal-...

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36331929

> Hacker News is the most intelligent bunch on the web. What can we do to help the Reddit mods to keep the steering wheel in their hands?

-- Citation needed.

But in all seriousness, I think that we can stress that continuing the strike for longer will help their goals. Secondly we can (as users) avoid using the reddit client.

> Reddit is a cornerstone of the open web.

I don't hate Reddit as much as most, but that's like saying Sbarro is a cornerstone of Open Food. The web would survive if they went away, which I think a lot of moderators have accounted for when they shut down their sub.

My honest-to-goodness advice to Reddit moderators is to back-up the meaningful content of each sub and prepare for the worst. If you want leverage against Reddit, copy down the same content they would otherwise monetize.

Websites like 4chan have the association of being 'le evil place' while websites like reddit are referenced as sites that its socially acceptable to go to. Yet on 4chan, rekt content is relegated to offtopic boards, on reddit they have several subreddits dedicated to rekt content, and its shown on the front page. Reddit, and its users can go burn and die.

I had to search urban dictionary to find this alternate usage of rekt, which apparently is gore/smut. it's been a while since watchpeopledie existed but i'm sure there's still "communities" around such content

eyeblech was on the front page r/popular a few weeks ago, although I suspect getting there then highlighted it enough to get it put on the front page blocklist

There are several other watchpeopledie-like subreddits that are popular enough to be mentioned in public occasionally.

Pretty sure reddit doesn't show content from all subs on the front page by default. And I am pretty sure rekt / gore thread would not be part of the default list.

Make an alternative. Fund alternatives. Reddit is having its Digg moment. Facebook is the new Yahoo. Twitter is just shooting itself in the foot and chest but it's proving too resilient to die.

Part of the problem is these alternatives can be bloody expensive and could be bleeding millions of dollars a month for a decade before they can become profitable.

Americans are usually quite good at creating and funding these, but there's too many comfortable jobs in the US that it's unlikely someone will try. Plus the gold rush that is AI will black hole devs and investors.

China has been emerging in this space, especially with TikTok and gaming. Metaverse is a joke with Americans, because its just so heavily buzzworded. But immersive digital socializing is a thing, maybe more so in parts of Asia. Informercials are huge in Korea. So I think someone that the Western world didn't notice will fill the power vacuum quickly, especially once late stage investors are interested.

Some sources say up to 96% of reddit communities blacked out and they still refuse to budge. Reddit is quite screwed.

The mods can quit in protest

Did you notice that nobody quit?

I dunno , i dont want to save such people

Host teddit instances, and get users/mods to use it.

But I think this need will only get more dire when old.reddit.com is inevitably killed.

kbin, tilde, lemmy, ...

Ask not how you can help the mods, ask how you can help the reddit admins.

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