More from Reddit protest updates: news on the apps shutting down and Reddit’s fights with mods
Toolbox is running into Reddit’s new API rate limits, but even CEO Steve Huffman said it should have free access. A Reddit admin (employee) says the company is looking into it.
Update July 11th, 6:40PM ET: The admin says the issue is fixed, and the user that posted the thread I linked to earlier about the issue says the issue appears to be resolved.
That’s based on screenshots shared in the moderator coordination subreddit, including a message from the Reddit admin (employee) account u/ModCodeofConduct.
The iOS app shut down last week. As of this writing, Apple is currently showcasing it as an Editors’ Choice app even though you can’t actually browse Reddit with it anymore. Apple is also featuring the official Reddit app right below Apollo.
Also, according to Christian Selig, the Apollo subreddit will be restricted, meaning you can’t make new posts but can chat in the comments of already-available posts.
The mods of the subreddit may be removed as a result, but they’ve accepted that.
“Our ethics won’t allow us in good faith to lie to you so Reddit can make a buck,” the mods wrote. “So when the sub gets turned over to whatever scab steps forward, we hope they have the decency to run it in a way that keeps you safe.”
Read more about the response to these warnings from Reddit in my story from Thursday, which I updated a few minutes ago.
BotDefense, a tool that helps fight bots in more than 3,600 subreddits and has nearly 150,000 accounts on its bans list, will be going away. As for why:
The community of users and moderators submitting accounts to us depend on Pushshift, the API, and third-party apps. And we would be deluding ourselves if we believed any assurances from Reddit given the track record of broken promises. Investing further resources into Reddit as a platform presents significant risks, and it’s safer to allocate one’s time, energy, and passions elsewhere.
They posted their response publicly for the community — and, presumably, Reddit — to read. According to the mods, the admin sent the moderators a message that they violated the moderator code of conduct by going NSFW.
Reddit has said it’s “not acceptable” for communities to switch to NSFW in protest of Reddit’s policies. r/PICS is trying to make the case that it should remain so given things like profanity on the subreddit, which technically counts as NSFW under Reddit’s content policy.
Users have been voting on the subreddit’s rules, and the newest one means you’ll be seeing a lot fewer actual videos in the community.
Currently, the subreddit’s rules are:
0. Posts must be videos
1. No Porn/Nudity/Gore
2. All post titles must contain profanity
3. Only text posts describing videos are permitted, and must describe a video in detail. Video links are permitted in the comments only.
r/PICS, another big subreddit, went NSFW on Monday.
In a tongue-in-cheek announcement post, the moderators said they had “no choice” because people had been posting profanity, which technically counts as NSFW (Not Safe For Work) under Reddit’s content policy. Despite the change, gore and pornography are still not allowed on the subreddit.
r/PICS has already been trying to stir the pot; it is one of a few subreddits now dedicated to John Oliver since reopening. We’ll have to wait and see if Reddit takes action against the subreddit, but it previously said that going NSFW to protest the company’s policies is “not acceptable.”
“When users are logged out, the app is still working because it does not use the OAuth client credentials while logged out,” developer Andrew Shu tells The Verge in an email. However, he expects that the app will stop working in this way soon.
Many third-party apps finally shut down on Friday.
I’m getting kind of melancholy reading posts about Reddit apps actually going kaput. It has been clear for awhile that Reddit wouldn’t budge, but part of me still hoped something would change before today.
Here’s a few of the threads I’ve seen.
Christian Selig wrote a eulogy on the Apollo subreddit paying tribute to his app, which will be shutting down sometime Friday. (As I write this, the eulogy is at the top of r/all.)
I’m really heartbroken with how this whole process unfolded, I truly drank the Kool Aid talking to Reddit at the beginning that this was something they were going into in good faith with the interest of developers, moderators, and the community as a whole, but as many people pointed out to me, it’s clear now that ultimately wasn’t their intent. If they wanted something that could work for everyone, they would have simply made an effort to listen, instead of being dishonest, callous, and punitive in pricing. I’m sorry to all the folks who, like me, lost Apollo abruptly as a result of this. I had so much more I wanted to do with this app!
Other users are memorializing the app (and others), too.
“Rate limits will go into effect for all apps with usage above the free limit in the coming weeks, and some changes will be noticeable over the next 24 hours,” Reddit said in a post on Friday.
I’m guessing that means developers of some third-party apps like Apollo and RIF will start shutting things down soon.
That’s the latest stat from Reddit in an updated version of its “Key Facts to Understanding Reddit’s Recent API Updates” website. While more than 2,000 communities remain dark, according to the Reddark tracker, many that had shut down have opened up.
Reddit said last Friday the features would arrive by July 1st, and today, the company said they’re now available in its iOS app and coming “shortly” to its Android app.
One commenter asked for updates on accessibility of the app in general. In response, a Reddit admin (employee) promised this:
I’ll be back in a few weeks with an update about the work we’re doing on the general app experience. We know these improvements are important, and this is a high priority for Reddit.
Screenshot below.
One neat thing: though the app won’t let you browse Reddit very soon, you’ll still be able to customize the app icon if you want to keep it around and looking good on your phone.
The more than 2 million subscribers to the subreddit can now access it again. But the moderators of the community aren’t done protesting:
Given Reddit’s poor history of following through on promises to support moderators, we are following r/science’s lead, and intend to hold the Admins accountable to the mobile mod tools roadmap they published. Failure to deliver a promised feature on time will result in the subreddit being returned to ‘Restricted’ mode until the feature is delivered.