Reddit has been in the news a ton this week, literally a ton. And it’s all due to them deciding to charge for their API. Because of that, many of the biggest and most popular subreddits decided to go dark for 48 hours earlier this week. And a number of others decided to continue, indefinitely.
Initially, Reddit’s CEO had stated that this would pass. But now, it looks like they have another plan. Replacing the moderators on these more popular subreddits.
Here’s the full note from Reddit, that was sent to moderators:
If there are mods here who are willing to work towards reopening this community, we are willing to work with you to process a Top Mod Removal request or reorder the mod team to achieve this goal if mods higher up the list are hindering reopening. We would handle this request and any retaliation attempts here in this modmail chain immediately.
Our goal is to work with the existing mod team to find a path forward and make sure your subreddit is made available for the community which makes its home here. If you are not able or willing to reopen and maintain the community, please let us know.
More than 4,000 subreddits remain closed
Earlier this week, more than 8,000 subreddits went dark, to protest the changes that Reddit is making to third-party apps. And it’s not so much the changes, but the pricing for the API as well as how quickly developers need to implement these changes. Currently, more than 4,000 subreddits remain dark.
Apparently, moderators of subreddits going dark to protest the upcoming API price changes could be in violation of the Mod Code of Conduct that Reddit has. But keeping these subreddits dark is a big deal for Reddit. As r/Funny and r/Aww are still closed and these are the second and fifth most-subscribed to subreddits on Reddit. So losing all that traffic is not good for Reddit, and wanting to be profitable.