Blackout

18 minutes

Both subreddits are now under new mod management, see update below.

Updates #

r/PHGamers re-opened in Restricted Mode
r/PHBuildaPC re-opened, new head mod: u/its_ianph
Last update: July 21, 2023 at 6:00PM PT
For more up-to-date info, please inquire at the Discord server.

Background #

Hello everyone, I’ll try to keep this short. As mentioned in our previous announcement, we intended to get Reddit’s attention on a subject that our team found extremely concerning. r/PHGamers & r/PHBuildaPC are joining a larger coordinated protest and signing an open letter to the admins found here.

The announcement was of exceedingly high API prices which is a thinly-veiled attempt to intentionally kill third-party applications (3PAs) on Reddit (Apollo, Sync, Reddit is Fun, Boost, Relay, etc.) Since that post, it has become clear that Reddit is not willing to listen to its users or the mod teams from many of its largest communities on this matter. Yesterday, all major 3PAs announced that they would be shutting down on the 30th of June due to these changes. There were no negotiations and Reddit refused to extend the deadlines. The rug was pulled out from under them and by extension all of the users who rely on those tools to use and/or moderate Reddit.

In addition to this, the AMA hosted by Steve Huffman, CEO of Reddit—which was intended to alleviate concerns held by many users about these issues—was nothing short of a collage of inappropriate responses. There are many things to take away from this AMA but here are the key points. Most disappointingly it appears that Reddit outright misconstrued the actions of Apollo’s creator /u/iamthatis by saying that he threatened Reddit and leaked private phone calls, something done only to clear his name of another accusation.

So what’s happening? The TL;DR? Effective 24 hours from the publishing of this post, r/PHGamers & r/PHBuildaPC will be shut down indefinitely. In the unlikely scenario that Reddit ownership has a sudden change of heart and capitulates on their decisions, we will reopen. Until that happens, r/PHGamers & r/PHBuildaPC will stay closed. Many other communities have come to similar decisions and we support those who have decided to take a stand.

Short FAQ #

Q: Where will we go?

A: I am looking into starting up an old-school forum-based solution for r/PHGamers and r/PHBuildaPC. As a self-hosted solution, the content and data contributed there will be completely self-owned (except for anything shared via offsite servers like Imgur/Facebook, of course). Development of this forum will take time. Until then, our Discord server remains open to accommodate any of those who wish to continue discussing amongst the community. Discord is not the end-goal; it, too, can and will present the same or similar problems that Reddit currently poses to us. Please bear with me as I work to prepare our new home.

Q: Won’t Reddit just remove you as moderators and reopen the subreddit?

A: This is a distinct possibility, Reddit has made it clear that the “health” of their site is more important to them than the people who built its communities. We as a team are prepared for this; none of us want to continue to volunteer unpaid hours for a company that disrespects the people who helped build it into the front page of the Internet.

Q: An indefinite lockdown? I thought this was only supposed to be for 48 hours?

A: The 48-hour blackout was largely adopted as the de-facto plan by many participating subreddits, however in the original announcement we made on r/PHGamers, it was left open-ended. Originally it was our intention to spread awareness of these issues, but over the past week it has become clear that Reddit doesn’t intend to act in good faith, and our role in the protest became clear. The owners of Reddit have taken their users, community developers, and their moderator teams for granted and used them to build up a multimillion dollar company which is now focused not on the community, but on how many commas they can get out of Silicon Valley investors.

Q: What can we as users do to support this protest?

A: The best way you can make your opinion known is by stopping your use of Reddit entirely. At the very least you can try and reduce your usage of the site, consider using alternatives such as Tildes which I’ve personally found to be a nice change of pace from the traditional Reddit experience. However, we realize this is a tall ask for a lot of you who also use Reddit for its other communities, research and information-gathering, and whatnot. I personally will not hold anything against anyone for staying on Reddit. You even have my blessing to create your own r/PHGamers2 or r/PHBuildaPC2, if you so pleased.

Goodbye #

Thank you to everyone who has helped make r/PHGamers and r/PHBuildaPC such special places, was fun while it lasted. So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Yours in truth,
JP