The mods here at A Year of Mythology have decided that we will be joining the site-wide subreddit blackout from June 12 - 14. This means that we will be locking the sub during this time, which will temporarily mean you won't be able to see posts or comments here.

As the protest is an ongoing situation, our schedule may be subject to change. At the moment, the dates mentioned do not directly impact our intended schedule. Should more dates be added to the blackout schedule that interfere with our planned posts we will act accordingly and hold off on posting on those dates. For now, we will still be starting our reading of The Iliad next week and we will go ahead with our posting/reading schedule. I will also still be posting a context post for the Iliad before the blackout, just to clarify some things about the story and provide an outline of the major characters.

We are aware that we are not a huge or busy sub but we want to show our support for this movement in whatever way we can. We believe that accessibility is important and that Reddit should be open to everyone.

TLDR: Reddit recently announced that they are going to change their policy concerning third party apps and from next week onwards they intend to charge these apps a lot of money in order to stay functional. On the surface, that may sound okay but the main issue is that Reddit - and it's own mobile app - do not provide the accessibility features disabled users need in order to use or enjoy the site. Communities such as r/Blind will be especially disrupted should these policies come to pass.

An infographic has been made to sum up the background to the protest.

If you wish to read more about what r/Blind have said on the situation, click here

There are a couple of major subreddits that are organizing this blackout, so I will add the posts from r/SubredditDrama here and r/ModCoord here.

There are some ongoing discussions by reddit about the situation, so I'm going to keep this post updated with the information as it comes forward. Currently r/ModCoord have discussed today's discussions here. While r/Blind have responded here

I am not well versed enough in tech to fully explain it myself, so I will share more information below on the situation, originally posted by other moderators:

What's going on?

A recent Reddit policy change threatens to kill many beloved third-party mobile apps, making a great many quality-of-life features not seen in the official mobile app permanently inaccessible to users.

On May 31, 2023, Reddit announced they were raising the price to make calls to their API from being free to a level that will kill every third party app on Reddit, from Apollo to Reddit is Fun to Narwhal to BaconReader.

Even if you're not a mobile user and don't use any of those apps, this is a step toward killing other ways of customizing Reddit, such as Reddit Enhancement Suite or the use of the old.reddit.com desktop interface .

This isn't only a problem on the user level: many subreddit moderators depend on tools only available outside the official app to keep their communities on-topic and spam-free.

What's the plan?

On June 12th, many subreddits will be going dark to protest this policy. Some will return after 48 hours: others will go away permanently unless the issue is adequately addressed, since many moderators aren't able to put in the work they do with the poor tools available through the official app. This isn't something any of us do lightly: we do what we do because we love Reddit, and we truly believe this change will make it impossible to keep doing what we love.

The two-day blackout isn't the goal, and it isn't the end. Should things reach the 14th with no sign of Reddit choosing to fix what they've broken, we'll use the community and buzz we've built between then and now as a tool for further action.

What can you do as a user?

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1. Complain. Message the mods of r/reddit.com, who are the admins of the site: message /u/reddit/">/u/reddit: submit a support request
   : comment in relevant threads on r/reddit, such as this one, leave a negative review on their official iOS or Android app- and sign your username in support to this post.
2. Spread the word. Rabble-rouse on related subreddits. Meme it up, make it spicy. Bitch about it to your cat. Suggest anyone you know who moderates a subreddit join us at our sister sub at r/ModCoord- but please don't pester mods you don't know by simply spamming their modmail.
3. Boycott and spread the word...to Reddit's competition! Stay off Reddit entirely on June 12th through the 13th- instead, take to your favorite non-Reddit platform of choice and make some noise in support!
4. Don't be a jerk. As upsetting this may be, threats, profanity and vandalism will be worse than useless in getting people on our side. Please make every effort to be as restrained, polite, reasonable and law-abiding as possible.

What can you do as a moderator?

Join the coordinated effort over at r/ModCoord

Make a sticky post showing your support, A template has been created here you can use or modify to your liking, and be sure to crosspost it to r/ModCoord.