Hacker News Reader

Comment by tomr75 | Hacker News Reader

they are protesting the high/unreasonable API price out of nowhere

And that's their right. Many subs announced they would protest for 48 hours to prove a point, at which point they returned. But a moderator who continues to keep their sub private indefinitely is not protesting a decision, they are defacing their subreddits and harming their members. Removing such a moderator is the appropriate thing to do.

Incorrect, it is a legitimate protest. Many have pointed out that Reddit could just wait out 48 hours, so indefinite blackout is a more logical move.

Incorrect, it is holding information hostage, due to vainglorious moderators.

The internet routes around damage.

The damage here is what Huffman & board are pulling. They can have their website and free moderation back after they grow up and change their attitude.

An indefinite blackout is not a protest, it's extortion. It's saying "if I can't enjoy this subreddit the way I want to, no one can."

Aren't all protests essentially extortion? We will sit here until you give into demands. We won't work until you give into our demands. We will crowd the streets until you give into our demands.

All that matters is who the community supports.

> We will crowd the streets until you give into our demands.

its more like blocking highways indefinitely.

Blocking an abstract highway where it takes 2 seconds to build a new one right by it at zero cost.

Reddit's original deal was hands off community as a service. I guess the mods are putting that to the test?

no, lots of info locked in specific subreddit, you can't recover it at zero cost.

Maybe reddit will provide such function.

And? Reddit can reverse course and have the highway back at any moment.

>It's saying "if I can't enjoy this subreddit the way I want to, no one can."

Who has said that users shouldn't be allowed to use the new app? I haven't seen even a single instance of that. The problem is that Reddit - the centralized entity with power - is forcing that to be the only option.

Reddit could be reasonable and continue to permit both. Until they decide to be reasonable the protests will continue. If Reddit gets butthurt and wants to call organized collective action "extortion" they can, but their childish whining isn't impressing anyone who has two brain cells to rub together.

You could make the argument that it's a reasonable API price compared to other social media sites. What I really wish is they made a distinction between people signing into Apollo to use the app and Apollo making API calls, although I suppose they're probably trying to push people onto their app to improve ad revenue

Reply on news.ycombinator.com