Hi /r/physics and /r/askphysics

Here we are, the community has spoken and the recent AMA from /u/spez probably cemented some of the sentiments that were out.

In spite of the good news for the disabled that would still have access to their apps through special free API calls, /u/spez doubled down on demonising third party apps and unfortunately I hardly see an easy way out of this one given the answer from reddit so far.

Therefore, I hereby announce on behalf of the mod teams of /r/physics and /r/askphysics that the countdown has started, we will go private from 00:00 PDT/UTC-7 on the 12th of June until 00:00 PDT/UTC-7 14th of June. Afterwards, according to community decision the subreddit will be back to limited submission until further notice or demands are met. The demands are very simple: Have an API pricing model that does not price out third party apps and try to restart dialog with third party developers in good faith.

We do not think this demand to be unreasonable and we are still hoping this could be salvaged.

To address the concerns of some of the community that there might not be a strong stance from bigger subreddit such as /r/videos will follow a similar hard line to the finish protest. But as they pointed out we all might as well be removed as moderators by reddit for going through with this.

If you have opinions that you would like to share or, given the situation and the potential for no solutions, have suggestions where we should redirect the community or what we should do please use the following google form in addition if you wish, even if in normal times I would not advocate for it as we were lukewarm on chat for reddit, here is a discord for /r/physics (please use your reddit username for an easier time)

We will keep the light on, and hope for the best.

See you for updates on the 14th, if not here, somewhere else.

/u/wodashit on behalf of /r/physics and /r/askphysics.

On this note I would like to take a minute to take off my moderator hat and speak as an individual:

I was not expecting to join this mod team, now 8 years ago. In that spawn of time, we all have grown differently, people have come and gone, arguments have been had, crackpots have been spamming and goddamn physics mug posts kept on being posted. We had our highs, we had our lows but overall we have shared our passion for the understanding of nature and I hope that we made this place even marginally better by our presence. Technology is a mean to help people and improve our time on this earth, and even though all of what those subreddits are are just words on a screen, just a website, they reflect many people from all around the world with different experiences and very complex and different lives and I am privileged enough to be able to be at the service of those many people, even if my contributions were not major, or even sometimes clumsy, I am glad I could help.

Although it does not mean much, I would like to thank all of you, lurkers, usuals, posters, commenters, fellow mods for all this time, I do not know what is next to come, maybe something here or somewhere else, but I hope that I will keep on helping, in whatever capacity, wherever this might be.

Gentlemen,

It’s been a privilege posting with you tonight.

Whomever you are, wherever you are,

Take care,

Woda.

EDIT: To clear any confusion the sub will remain private, I was unaware that the description was showing on the private landing page, there will be a message linking to an update from the description page! Sorry for the confusion!