Dear r/reddevils members,

As some of you may be aware, Reddit recently announced some significant changes to its API policy. You can read more about it here and moderators open letter, here . Edit: You can find an easier to read graphic regarding the situation here: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/140z59z

In summary:

• Reddit has completely priced out third-party apps by increasing costs and banning ad-supported tiers outright. This, in effect, will kill every third party app for accessing Reddit --- from Apollo to Reddit is Fun to Narwhal to BaconReader --- as it will be prohibitively inexpensive for these apps to continue to access the reddit site. Even if you're not a mobile user, and therefore don't use any of those apps, this is a step toward killing other ways of customizing Reddit, such as the Reddit Enhancement Suite, the use of the old.reddit.com desktop interface, or even such items as our own /u/goal_bot. That's right - they're coming for /u/goal_bot.
• The NSFW API is also getting shut down. So in addition to goalbot, they're also coming for your porn. Soon, the only way to access NSFW content will be through the official App. Even if third-party apps survive the higher costs, they will have significantly reduced access (up to 40% less). This also means that some bots, which rely on cross-subreddit API communication to prevent things like teenagers sharing images on NSFW subreddits, will break entirely.

The impact of this measure will be:

• If you are using a third-party apps or tools, you probably won’t be able to after July 1.
• Many subreddit moderators (including us) depend on tools only available outside the official app to keep their communities on-topic and spam-free. The tools are especially helpful as we moderate from everywhere, including while watching United matches, while commuting, etc. Forcing mods to use official apps (that still work inefficiently) means that reported posts and comments may stay unreviewed for longer, and modmail may go unanswered as we wait for someone available on a PC. Harmful content may stay up longer - or we may be forced to increase our automod filters more extravagantly in order to reduce potential problems proactively. No one likes getting caught in an automod filter, and adding more can take months to hit the right balance.

The moderators or reddit communities has been discussing this and has released an open letter here.

Part of the open letter involves a potential subreddit blackout for 48 hours from June 12th (Yay, mini retirement!) in protest of the measure. We have note that many-many hundreds or even thousands subreddit joined this movement. We even received request from another football sub whether we can band together to join the movement.

We have discussed this a lot over the past few days and we also received modmails regarding our possible participation from some of you. The moderator team has agreed that a blackout is a good way to protest to reddit regarding this issue.

Before doing so, however, we would like to ask your comments regarding the proposed blackout.

We intend to voice our concern until there is a clear path forward for third-party apps to access the API at reasonable prices. In the end, the mod team is here to support everyone reading this. You are our first priority - even if it means we can’t moderate as effectively while we’re out touching grass.

Signed, r/reddevils mod team

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Edit to add blackout confirmation: https://www.reddit.com/r/ModCoord/comments/1401qw5/comment/jn0s5ef/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3