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Well, there’s a contradiction right there - Apollo is an “existing utility” so it should “have free access to [Reddit’s] API”. But it won’t: its developer has been told that payments for the allegedly-“inefficient” app’s usage will be required.
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Furthermore, shouldn’t all of these other changes and improvements (according to Reddit management) have occurred well in advance of the changes to API pricing, so that the moderators could at least assess their suitability (and perhaps even provide useful feedback, considering their combined person-decades of experience)?
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I wouldn’t say a railway worker and a moderator are comparable in any way regarding this matter; the former is an employee of a company, who was hired by it, and has some contract with terms stipulated that need to be met, and so on, whereas the latter is a volunteer, which by definition is a person who offered themselves to perform some service, moderating a subreddit, willingly, without pay and without any conditions formally agreed. I most certainly support railworkers, nurses, teachers, airline employees… striking because we’re talking about their livelihood.
Is it frustrating? Of course, but I don’t believe for a second the blackouts have any justification. Moreover, I have never seen anyone being thankful verbally to reddit for having had free API for 7+ years, when no other company with their volume/users has ever done that.
Similarly, I’m willing to bet many of the more technically-minded users navigate reddit using ad-blockers and aren’t paying for a subscription either, so they’re just a burden financially speaking. At most some could say they contribute, but what good is content from a business point of view if the contributor and most of the readers of said content are just costing money and not paying a penny.
Finally, when I position myself against blackouts, don’t take me wrong in thinking I position myself in favour of reddit’s CEO, more like the opposite. What I care about though is the community, and if each subreddit ends up fragmented in completely independent communities, not many people are going to go through the effort of creating and managing accounts in all of them.
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…more precisely, your attention is the product that Reddit-the-business sells, by way of advertising:
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Would the mods just standing down affect this?
No: people would still be able to see the ads, no matter what the content!
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Would making subreddits “read-only” affect this?
No, again: people would still be able to see the ads, along with the ageing content.
So only by implementing a full “blackout” - thereby preventing people from seeing the ads - do mods have a chance of influencing Reddit-the-business.
A post found in the Django subreddit offers a few interesting details: Reddit - Dive into anything
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Presumably, making a subreddit unmoderated will reduce the number of views (because the content will be less good and it will be a less fun place to hang out). And making it read-only will also do that (because there won’t be much content to read). So it seems false to me to suggest that these interventions can have no effect.
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I just want to put my voice out there since it appears I’m the only one who feels this way. But my stance is quite simple and not part of any larger framework of beliefs or allegories about capitalism… I just really liked r/Haskell. It was probably my favorite place on the Internet. Now it’s gone, and that makes me sad.
I truly appreciate all the work that Taylor has put into the subreddit over the years, and it sucks if the changes Reddit is making would make his job there harder. But please consider bringing it back.
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So Reddit-the-business are apparently going to try solving this problem with all-new personnel using first-version software…what could possibly go wrong?
But neither would happen an effect anywhere near as quickly as the “blackout” intervention. The mods’ options were limited, so they chose the intervention with the most immediate impact…
But you wouldn’t be getting “the same Reddit” back - you’ll probably be getting an all-new “corporatised version” designed for maximum profits: Reddit-the-business will soon be answering to shareholders, if all goes to (their) plan…
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I didn’t say anything in the original Reddit thread because I was under the impression that it would only be for 48h. I would have objected had I known otherwise.
I am on board with moderators standing up for themselves, but wouldn’t it have made more sense to simply stop moderating, demonstrating their value to both Reddit and non-moderator users, rather than taking the whole thing private, demonstrating only that they hold some sort of a gun?
Suppose there are volunteers that, for no reward at all, regularly go to a public park and pick up dog poop. If park management stupidly makes it harder for them to do their volunteer work, would it be fair for the volunteers to lock up the park and not allow anybody into it?
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Sounds like you haven’t visited r/interestingasfuck lately, which is flooded with porn. Don’t think anyone would have preferred that for r/haskell.
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I guess what I really meant is that it would have made more sense to allow others to try to mod. Call them scabs if you want, but at least the subreddit would have kept going.
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There have been a number of people demanding the sub reopen on their terms, but I haven’t seen any volunteers for moderating it. 
Even though I don’t feel I have the legitimacy and would prefer to give such rights to more experienced and knowledgeable contributors, I’d be happy to, 0 problem, and I can see others are replying already, so that could happen fast.
I’ve felt reluctant to volunteer when Taylor hasn’t asked for volunteers. It feels kinda off, like maybe it would seem like my goal all along has been to get mod powers or something? Idk.
But since you ask: yes, I would be willing to help mod, if desired.
(Separately, I think the number of people who could be considered to be demanding that the sub reopen is small.)
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r/haskell is now read-only. I have opened a poll to see what the community would like to do next. You can read about it and vote here:
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As I’ve stated on Reddit, the problem was that the decision was too abrupt. Please do not resign from /r/Haskell; even if we choose to keep the subreddit open, it’s good to have old and experienced hands moderating.
I think with the recent blackout protest, Reddit is likely starting to go down the drain (to pure unusability from merely something distasteful; there are still hate communities, there used to be CSEI boards) and migrating off Reddit is a good idea.
But it is not in the spirit of the Haskell community to make such a snap decision; we’ve been arguing for dependent types for years, and only recently was in approved, and DTs are, unfortunately currently deep in the pipeline and not expected for years either due to the implementation issues rae discovered.
In the same way, if we are to move away from Reddit, it should be a gradual, phased process, not a snap “your /r/Haskell is dead” decision, and the migration plan should be well-architected.
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Would be nice to have an actual poll where you can pick from several choices. Non-binding perhaps but would be interesting to measure the temperature.
I think this Discourse is working pretty good as a replacement for the Reddit so far.
There is now : Vote on the future of r/haskell - #8 by f-a
In hindsight, you probably meant a poll about where to move the community next. Sorry about that
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Indeed see you all in the new thread
If Taylor does not mind I will lock this to keep discussion going in one place.
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