For those who might find themselves confused by the recent protests sweeping Reddit, we’ll begin with an abbreviated explanation and timeline:

Explanation

Effective July 1, Reddit will be changing its API policy in a way that will severely limit 3rd party applications’ access to the site. These restrictions will (or already have) shuttered popular bots programmed with the intent of adding to the site. Effective July 5, Reddit will no longer serve sexually explicit content through their API. These changes have already or will reduce access to the site for those with vision impairment, as well as curtail the ability of moderators to effectively fight spam, disinformation, and other forms of abuse. We’re not saying that Reddit doesn’t have a right to make money off their site (though we vehemently deny Mr. Huffman the moral high ground he’s attempting to claim, given the content in question was generated by regular users and not the company); we’re only seeking reasonable compromises on pricing and timeline for implementation.

Timeline

• April 18, Reddit announced changes to its API policy effective July 1.
• May 1, Reddit unceremoniously cut off access to Pushshift, a third-party Reddit Archiving tool that many mods relied on to detect and remove bad actors, two full months in advance of the change in this API policy.
• May 31, with just 30 days before the deadline, Reddit released pricing for their paid API tier - an astronomically high price for many third-party developers.
• June 1, moderators pen an open letter to Reddit against these proposed API changes; a blackout from June 12-14 was coordinated.
• June 13 - One day into the blackout, a leaked Reddit memo from Steve Hoffman, aka /u/spez, served as the catalyst for many subreddits to extend their blackout indefinitely

DPP Specific Issues

The primary concern directly impacting DPP in this debacle is the proposed changes to API rules concerning sexually explicit content. With just over 15 days until that piece of the puzzle comes into play, we still have not received specific guidance on how those changes will work; we only have vague promises that moderation bots will not be affected. If the changes break the moderation workflow in significant ways, we may need to temporarily close the subreddit until these issues can hopefully be resolved. The admins have committed to working with any affected moderators to resolve issues that break workflows; they’ve also reportedly been generally unresponsive to requests for assistance so far. Given the mixed messaging coming from the admins over the last few months, their promises are worth nothing.

Updates on our Second Vote to Close

Despite initial promises from the administration that we had the right to protest, they have gone back on their word and are forcing subreddits to reopen. They’re not just targeting the big, multi-million subscriber subreddits, but NSFW subs of reasonably similar scale to DPP, like AskRedditAfterDark (Imgur link to their post, should the admins become hostile enough to not only silence dissent, but also attempt to quash record of their actions). In light of these actions by the admins, considering a second blackout is, at this time, untenable.

We do not make this decision lightly. There is not a member of the team that wishes to buckle to the pressure. If we remain, it is not out of a desire for control, but because DPP has been a community and a home for us, and we do not wish to see it overrun by low-effort posts, underage dog-whistles, and spam. The sheer amount of collected, specialized knowledge (collectively, more than 30 years of experience in the team) is not something that can be easily or quickly replaced in a heavily-moderated subreddit such as ours - and this is to say nothing of our custom bots and tooling to keep this place in order. Allowing the mod team to be replaced en masse, even with the noblest of intentions, would cause an amount of chaos that would do a great disservice to this community and those who enjoy it.

Results of Action

Clearly, the blackouts did have an effect on Reddit. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be forcing subreddits back open as previously mentioned. Mr. Huffman would not have engaged in a weeklong, increasingly deranged damage control tour in the media. [1] [2] [3] [4].

Recommendations Moving Forwards

Even though blackouts are no longer on the table, we remain committed to fighting against the enshitification of Reddit. Here’s what we recommend:

• If you use Reddit for more than DPP, explore alternative websites to get your content.
• Use an ad-blocker when accessing Reddit. If you have a premium subscription, cancel it.
• If you know of any brands advertising on Reddit, reach out to their social-media folks and ask them if their company supports piracy. Since Reddit forcibly reopened /r/Piracy, it’s hard to take that as anything other Reddit’s position being pro-piracy.

We remain committed to exploring options for a backup home for DPP, as outlined here, for when (as “when” seems inevitable now, not “if”) Reddit shuts NSFW communities down. In the meantime, we remain committed to keeping this community safe and vibrant; we’re looking at ways to make this sustainable in light of everything, and will have more details to share there soon.

A Closing note

In light of Mr. Huffman’s repeated lies about conversations with developers, and general destabilizing influence on the site, we call on Reddit’s board of directors to immediately remove Mr. Huffman from his position of CEO of Reddit.