Reddit Joins Twitter In Squeezing Devs With Unreasonable Fees

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Sync for Lemmy
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Macallik86

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☝🏽 It's small things like this that definitely shift the tides in the long run

Side Note: The last poster doesn't seem to be aware of Threads being released by meta.
 

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You Can't Look at Porn on Any Reddit Third-Party App Now​


Following changes to its API access, users are forced to log in on the official Reddit app if they want to view NSFW content on mobile.

By Samantha Cole
July 6, 2023, 1:37pm

1688664813484-gettyimages-1235634696.jpeg

GETTY IMAGES


Last month, Reddit announced it would limit access to mature content through its API as part of changes to access and new, exorbitant fees for third-party app developers

Reddit said that the changes to API access would begin on July 5, and porn was still visible on third-party apps such as Narwhal until then. Now, NSFW content is unviewable on mobile devices unless users are logged in on the official Reddit app.

As of Thursday, visiting a NSFW subreddit on the app Narwhal shows a message that directs users to get the official Reddit app and confirm they’re over 18 years of age.

SCREENSHOT FROM THIRD-PARTY APP NARWHAL SHOWING A MESSAGE THAT DIRECTS USERS TO LOG IN TO THE OFFICIAL REDDIT APP TO SEE NSFW CONTENT.

“Effective July 5, 2023, we will limit access to mature content via our Data API as part of an ongoing effort to provide guardrails to how explicit content and communities on Reddit are discovered and viewed,” Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman wrote under his u/spez username in an announcement last month. “This change will not impact any moderator bots or extensions.”

Moderators, who are unpaid volunteers helping enforce Reddit’s community guidelines, have been in revolt since April when the platform announced the new API rules. Many mods use third-party apps to keep their communities safe and useful for members; these third-party apps are often easier to use and less buggy in comparison to Reddit’s official app.

In June, hundreds of subreddits went dark in protest of the API access changes, setting their communities to private and therefore unviewable to everyone except approved members. After the multi-day blackout, many mods kept the protest going by setting their previously safe-for-work subreddits to NSFW and allowing explicit content like porn. Advertisements aren’t allowed to run on NSFW subreddits.

In response, Reddit administrators—paid employees of the company—removed mods from their own subreddits and left many of the protesting subs without any mods; subreddits without moderators are eventually banned if they’re left without mods for a significant amount of time.

Reddit making NSFW inaccessible on the few remaining third party apps that have not yet shut down is a major blow for those apps' usability and utility. It's also a signal that Reddit is hell-bent on eventually forcing all users to its own official app, because NSFW content is a large part of Reddit (and it's not all porn—NSFW can also include sex education, harm reduction, and conversations about sexuality and gender).

A SCREENSHOT SHOWING R/GONEWILD, A NSFW SUBREDDIT, ON A MOBILE CHROME BROWSER. ACCESSING THE SUBREDDIT REQUIRES VIEWING IT IN THE OFFICIAL REDDIT APP.

This most recent move by Reddit is also the latest to make accessing NSFW content on Reddit from smartphones far more difficult. In 2016, Apple removed a series of Reddit apps because they allowed NSFW content in violation of the App Store's terms of service. Reddit apps were only allowed back in if they showed NSFW content only to logged-in users who had explicitly opted into seeing NSFW content from their Reddit account from a desktop browser. Reddit also does not allow NSFW content to be viewed from its mobile website; when trying to view a NSFW subreddit, users are directed to use the official app.

“It’s a constant fight to keep this content at all,” Huffman said in June. “We are going to keep it. But the regulatory environment has gotten much stricter about adult content, and as a result we have to be strict / conservative about where it shows up.”



Reddit has long been one of the few places online where explicit content has mostly been allowed to thrive. But these decisions by Huffman and Reddit’s leadership, which reportedly want to take the company public in the near future, means it’s joining the many mainstream social media platforms that’s closing the walls around sex online.
 

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I7JcGI7.png


{lemmy.ml}

lemmy.world {lemmy.world}

lemmynsfw.com {lemmynsfw.com}




U9A9lpP.png

it has features found in reddit enhancement suite:wow:
 
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bnew

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Reddit Gives Final Warning to Subreddits Using NSFW Protest Tactic​

The social media platform is once again threatening to crack down on entire moderator teams of several subreddits for permitting NSFW content.

By Michael Kan
July 7, 2023

https://www.thecoli.com/threads/red...h-unreasonable-fees.979075/javascript:void(0)
Reddit app
(Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

To stamp out any remaining protests, Reddit is sending “final warnings” to subreddits that decided to permit NSFW content as a way to derail the company’s advertising business.

Reddit sent warnings to subreddits including r/PICs, r/Military, r/dndmemes, and r/JustNoMil, which was first noticed(Opens in a new window) by The Verge. The message states: “This is a final warning for inaccurately labeling your community NSFW, which is a violation of the Mod Code of Conduct rule 2(Opens in a new window). Your subreddit has not historically been considered NSFW nor would they under our current policies.”

The warning threatens to punish volunteer moderators of the affected subreddits. “Please immediately correct the NSFW labeling on your subreddit. Failure to do so will result in action being taken on your moderator team by the end of this week,” Reddit told(Opens in a new window) the moderators of r/PICs. “This means moderators involved in this activity will be removed from this mod team.”

A final warning message sent to r/dndmemes

(Credit: r/dndmemes)

According to Reddit’s own rules, NSFW subreddits are barred(Opens in a new window) from serving ads. So the protest tactic risks harming a main way the social media platform generates revenue. Other subreddits—including r/cyberpunkgame and r/bookscirclejerk—received(Opens in a new window) similar warnings to drop NSFW content, but without the harsh warning that moderators could be removed.

Reddit didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But the company has previously told PCMag it intends to crack down on subreddits for permitting NSFW content as a way to protest the company’s controversial API change. This has already involved removing the entire moderator team for r/interestingasfukk, r/self, r/TIHI (Thanks, I hate it), and r/shyttylifeprotips.

"It’s not OK to show people NSFW content when they don’t want to see it,” a Reddit spokesperson said at the time. “In line with our Moderator Code of Conduct(Opens in a new window), we’ll remove moderators and restrict communities where moderators are engaging in malicious conduct, like allowing rule-violating behavior or encouraging the submission of sexually explicit content in previously safe-for-work spaces."

The final warning was enough to cause the moderators for r/Military—a forum partly devoted to helping veterans—to stop operating as a NSFW subreddit. “We are now stuck in a difficult position as we do not want the community to die,” the moderator team wrote(Opens in a new window). “We've worked together for years and we are concerned that Reddit removing us without a discussion could put the community more at risk.”

However, the r/PICs subreddit wants to remain a NSFW destination, citing the adult and profane content that users often post. “We are not in violation of the cited rule as it is written. Moreover, according to Reddit's listed policies, our subreddit is considered NSFW,” the moderators for r/PICs told(Opens in a new window) Reddit.

The r/JustNoMil subreddit—which is devoted to terrible mothers-in-law—also wanted to continue hosting NSFW content, but ultimately decided to drop it.

“While we're obviously aware that Reddit is a for-profit company, the recent weeks have made it very clear that Reddit is not a website that allows people to host communities for its members, but rather a company that allows people to maintain communities for them and for their profit," a r/JustNoMil moderator wrote.
 

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Reddit relaunched r/Place public art canvas. Redditors immediately protest on it.​

This doesn't seem too well thought out.
By Matt Binder on July 20, 2023


The reddit logo displayed on a smartphone screen.

Credit: Mateusz Slodkowski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images


Reddit has been on the receiving end of massive online protests from its own users over the past few weeks, with swaths of the platform being completely unusable by visitors at times.

So, the company has seemingly decided that now would be the perfect time to once again roll out r/Place, a big blank canvas where users can display pixel art on an online public space.

Naturally, Redditors have taken this opportunity to voice their opinions on Reddit in pixelated art form.

For example, "fukk Spez" has been scrawled all over the r/Place canvas for all of Reddit's visitors to see. Spez is the Reddit username used by the company's CEO Steve Hoffman, who the platform's users have blamed for many recent unpopular decisions made on the platform.

A screenshot of r/place on Reddit.

Credit: Screenshot: Reddit
Reddit announced the return of r/Place on Wednesday. The company launched previous versions in 2017 and again in 2022. Reddit explained that the 2023 version was originally planned for April, but various setbacks (and the blackout protests) pushed this year's r/Place to launch on Thursday, July 20.

"Better late than never?" reads the r/Place announcement post from Reddit. The comments section quickly filled up with users posting "API" in the comments. This is a reference to the main issue users have with Reddit: the new exorbitantly priced API. Many popular third-party developers were forced to shut down their Reddit-based apps earlier this month after the company started charging a per-usage subscription fee for an API which was once free.

The developer behind Apollo for Reddit, a popular Reddit client app, shared that he'd be forced to pay $20 million per year for API access under these new terms. Redditors quickly rallied together and planned a days-long blackout protest, turning many popular subreddit communities private, which blocked visitors from accessing them. The days-long protests turned into weeks before Reddit started making veiled threats to remove moderators who didn't reopen these online communities. While many subreddits subsequently reopened, Redditors found new ways to protest such as filling some of these re-opened communities with nothing but photos of comedian John Oliver.

In an effort to utilize Reddit's recently relaunched r/Place for their new protest actions, some Redditors have started a new subreddit called r/PlaceAPI where users can strategize on messaging for their pixelated art takeover.

Regardless of these massive user blowback, Reddit has not budged on its API pricing. In fact, the company has made new, more recent decisions that have upset its user base. Last week, Mashable reported that Reddit has removed years of chats and message archives from users' accounts while transitioning to a new chat system. Soon after that, Reddit also announced that it was sunsetting its popular Reddit Gold reward system, which further angered users.





https://www.reddit.com/r/technology...dit_users_unite_to_turn_rplace_mural/jsvpiwe/
KpzTXRt.png
 

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Reddit is taking control of large subreddits that are still protesting its API changes​

Mods of subreddits with millions of members are getting the boot.
By Matt Binder on July 21, 2023

Reddit is serious about ending the blackout API protests that have kneecapped the platform since last month.

Most subreddits have since reopened amid threats from the company to remove protesting communities' mods. But, some have continued to stay private, locking visitors out and blocking users from posting. And Reddit is making good on those threats.

Reddit has just booted the moderators at r/malefashionadvice for refusing to reopen the subreddit, reports The Verge, which spoke to the now-former mods. With more than 5 million members, r/malefashionadvice appears to be the largest subreddit that the company has taken control of as a result of the API blackout protests. The protests were originally slated to last for two days, but have continued on at some subreddits for weeks.

The only mod at r/malefashionadvicenow is "modcodeofconduct," a Reddit account run by the company and used to facilitate the transfer of subreddit moderator privileges.

SEE ALSO: Reddit relaunched r/Place public art canvas. Redditors immediately protest on it.
The account is also listed as the mod on a number of subreddits, which gives a peak into other communities that the company has taken control of from its previous moderators. r/homeautomation and r/shyttyLifeProTips, with more than two million and over one and a half million members respectively, are two other large subreddits now controlled by Reddit. The modcodeofconduct account currently controls 11 subreddits of varying size. However, over the past week, the account has posted in 14 different subreddits looking for new mods for each community, meaning that some of these communities have since reopened with new moderators.

There are still a few large subreddits in restricted-mode as part of the API protests, according to Reddark. Its unclear how much longer the mod teams in charge of those communities will remain in their positions as Reddit cracks down.

But, just because the original blackout protests are being shut down, that doesn't mean that Redditors are done voicing their displeasure with the company. For example, according to Reddark, members of r/aww and r/pics, two subreddits with more than 30 million users each, continue with a new protest action: Filling up the subreddits with solely posts of photos of comedian John Oliver. Other Redditors have taken their protest message to the relaunched open pixel art canvas at r/Place.

These Reddit protests are in response to recent decisions made by the company, led by its CEO Steve Huffman. The focus of the protest is Reddit's new paid API plans, which priced-out many popular third-party apps, forcing them to shut down.
 
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