Users of AS:F,

For about 2 weeks and change, this subreddit has been blacked out as part of a protest against changes to Reddit’s API pricing policies that will have a negative impact on 3rd party operations, including those in support of visually impaired users and moderators. As of this writing, just over 2,300 subreddits are still participating in the original blackout out of a peak of about 8,800. Some planned for 48 hours, and stuck to that. Others committed to indefinite but packed it in due to admin pressure or compromise from within the moderator roster. And some have engaged in other forms of protest, with mixed results; more than one subreddit has suffered a total purge of the moderator roster due to perceived attacks on the integrity of the site as a whole or actions that admin chose to consider “vandalism”.

One element that the admins have been harping on is the notion of the will of the users. While the actions of the admins in interpreting this “will” have been decidedly self-serving, we do believe in the principle that underpins it. To that end, a series of questions will be submitted to the users of Ask Science: Fiction to assess what our path forward will be. The first of these will be whether to resume operations of the subreddit, or to return to a blackout state for another week. If the majority of users call for a return to operations, we will open up channels to propose and consider additional protest actions. If the majority calls for a blackout, we will go dark again before reopening to consider the question again.

Voting will be by simple majority, and will be open until Midnight 3 July 2023 Monday Morning by UTC standard (8:00 PM Eastern Standard Time/7:00 PM Central Standard on Sunday), at which the top voted option will be immediately enacted.

To be clear, if the majority of the user base votes for additional shutdown time, there’s a real and present danger that admin is going to purge the moderator roster. The “will of the users” is unlikely to matter when said will goes against what the company wants. If you vote for a blackout, we will accept this risk, and not reopen the subreddit until the scheduled blackout ends (or until the admins purge us all, reopen, and then put out a request for scabs).

Additionally, Ask Science: Fiction is experimenting with Discord. The current intention is for this to be a supplemental tool to the subreddit, not the primary, but some announcements and updates will be happening there. https://discord.gg/aSMMUECz

-Vote_for_Knife_Party