As you may know, /r/philosophy went private from June 12-15 as part of the coordinated blackout to protest reddit's decision to eliminated third-party apps which are essential to moderation and accessibility via exorbitant API pricing. Starting now, /r/philosophy will go public, but will be in 'restricted mode', which means that no new posts or comments will be allowed. This post will serve as the moderation team's statement on why we are participating in the protest.

Why are subreddits protesting reddit in the first place?

reddit recently announced that it would begin charging for access to its API (Application Programming Interface, essentially the communication between reddit and other sites/apps). While this may be, in isolation, a reasonable business operation, the timeline and pricing of API access has threatened to put nearly all third-party apps, e.g. Apollo and RIF, out of business. You can read more about the history of this change here or here.

Why does the API pricing change matter?

Eliminating third-party apps poses two major issues which we are concerned about.

First, the native reddit app is lacks accessibility features which are essential for some people, notably those who are blind and visually impaired. You can read /r/blind's protest announcement here. These apps are the only way that many people can interact with reddit, given the poor accessibility state of the official reddit app. As philosophers we are particularly concerned with the ethics of accessibility, and support protests in solidarity with this community.

Second, the reddit app lacks many essential tools for moderation. While reddit has promised better moderation tools on the app in the future, this is not enough. First, reddit has repeatedly broken promises regarding features, including moderation features. Most notably, reddit promised CSS support for new reddit over six years ago, which has yet to materialize. Second, even if reddit follows through on the roadmap in the post linked above, many of the features will not come until well after June 30, when the third-party apps will shut down due to reddit's API pricing changes.

Why does a lack of moderation tools on the reddit app matter?

reddit's moderation is handled by volunteer teams who spend their free time trying to curate some of the best and most informative communities on the internet. This moderation labor costs other companies in the range of millions of dollars per year. Many moderators, including the moderators of /r/philosophy, find it significantly easier to moderate in short bursts on mobile rather than via desktop. In fact, almost all of the moderation (well over 90%) of this subreddit happens via a third-party app currently. If third-party apps are eliminated by reddit's changes, then the moderation of this subreddit will suffer drastically.

Why should I care about moderation on /r/philosophy?

Moderation is mostly invisible labor, unseen by the majority of people but essential to the well-being of the community. While some people will claim that they think that subreddits would work better without any moderation, if they knew what moderators actually handle for the benefit of communities they would quickly change their minds.

As an example, let's consider a recent spam wave that hit /r/philosophy over the last three weeks. As part of a complicated dropshipping spam ring, /r/philosophy was explicitly targeted by human spammers who would create numerous accounts and post low-effort and often explicitly copied comments in numerous threads, filling up threads with meaningless spam that derailed conversations. You can see an example of this spam in this screenshot, which shows six of these accounts in a single thread (which featured even more of this spam that is not featured in the screenshot). Over the course of two weeks /r/philosophy identified and banned 103 such accounts which posted nearly 500 comments. In short, a significant portion of the community comments in those two weeks was astroturfed spam comments attempting to generate karma for nefarious purposes. (Also of note: the admins offered essentially no support in combating this spam ring, despite multiple attempts at reaching out.)

Examples like this are just one of the many things which moderation does to make this subreddit better. Our rules are designed to, and partially responsible for, making this subreddit the largest philosophy forum on the internet. Prior to these rules (around 10 years ago) /r/philosophy was an awful subreddit, filled with spam and image posts and little else. Today /r/philosophy features some of the best philosophy content on the internet, from academic philosophy articles to successful philosophy YouTubers to amateur blogs. Without moderation, a forum of this size would devolve into mostly spam and low-effort posts in no-time.

So what is the goal of this protest?

As noted in our original private-status message, we would like to see reddit reverse course or at the very least return to the negotiating table with moderators and third-party apps. Specifically, the moderators of /r/philosophy would like to see:

1. A good faith effort from reddit's administration to return to the negotiating table regarding API pricing.
2. An extended timeline for any implementation of API pricing, specifically until reddit's native app moderation tools and accessibility features equal those available in third-party apps.
3. A public apology from reddit CEO Steve Huffman, i.e. /u/spez, for his hostility towards third-party app developers and moderators (see here and here for examples, as well as his infamous AMA).

What can I do to support the protests?

You can stand in solidarity with this community and thousands of others across reddit by making your voice heard. Write to the admins and respectfully let them know your concerns. Post on social media, raising awareness of these issues. Most importantly, do not cede reddit to the admins. These are our communities, which we built and which we make great. We can resist the enshittification of the internet, if we stand together.