Reddit going darkish: 6,000+ subreddits go quiet over developer pricing modifications

More than 6,000 boards have gone darkish in protest of the social discussion board web site Reddit charging builders for entry to its inner code, a protest that would depart customers unable to make use of massive parts of the web site for days.

A number of subreddits, or smaller boards devoted to particular topics on Reddit, set themselves to personal on Monday, which means customers won't have entry, together with those that had beforehand subscribed. The protesting subreddits embody among the web site's largest, reminiscent of r/humorous, r/aww, r/gaming, r/music, and r/science. The moderators of the subreddits mentioned they had been protesting over the corporate charging builders for its once-free API, which third-party apps require in an effort to entry a web site's content material. A number of Reddit app builders declare that the present pricing system is an excessive amount of for his or her overhead prices, forcing them to close down their apps.

TWITTER CONTENT BATTLE DEMONSTRATES THE IMPORTANCE OF SECTION 230

"This is not one thing any of us do evenly: we do what we do as a result of we love Reddit, and we really imagine this modification will make it unimaginable to maintain doing what we love," the Redditor Toptomcat wrote in a r/Save3rdPartyApps submit asserting the protest final week.

The protest is scheduled from June 12-14, though some subreddits could prolong the shutdown till Reddit updates its API coverage.

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman hosted an "Ask Me Something" on Friday over the API modifications, however the questioning session was poorly acquired. A number of customers slammed Huffman, calling him a coward and stating they misplaced his belief.