r/Nintendo Votes on Next Steps for the Reddit Protest

Hello r/Nintendo,

# Voting on Next Steps

At Reddit’s demand, the moderator team has reopened the subreddit to a restricted state in order to facilitate a poll asking the community whether it wishes to:

1. Reopen and allow posts
2. Open in Restricted Mode (like now)
3. Open, but only allow Waluigi pics
4. Stay Closed

We believe the vote should reflect the wishes of the community, so we will host the vote via Reddit comments so we can verify past community participation. We will tally votes from users who have a karma minimum of 50. Ironically, we are able to determine this via API usage to ensure comments posted here are from active users, and will use AutoModerator to remove comments for users who don’t meet this threshold

# Why did r/Nintendo, r/NintendoHelp, and r/CasualNintendo close?

## TL;DR

In short, a few things happened that has us extremely concerned about Reddit and its future:

1. **[On July 1, Reddit is implementing an aggressive pricing strategy that effectively ends 3rd party applications](https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/)** and other large scale development projects. [They previously hadn’t planned on this](https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/14dkqrw/i_want_to_debunk_reddits_claims_and_talk_about/), so something changed in their business strategy that led to this aggressive approach. Some of us on the team are developers, and believe Reddit is better with a more open approach to open, lower-cost APIs and fostering a robust developer ecosystem.

2. **[Their API pricing changes disproportionately affect applications that provide tools for disabled users to better enjoy Reddit’s content](https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/13/23759761/reddit-disability-accessibility-blackout-api-blind)** and be equitable participants in online discourse. We think this is a serious loss that disadvantages an already vulnerable group of users.

3. **[Reddit’s CEO publicly defamed the developer of Apollo](https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/13/23759180/reddit-protest-private-apollo-christian-selig-subreddit)** through accusations that are demonstrably false. We think this is deeply problematic, and that an apology to u/iamthatis is warranted. What they’re willing to do to one, they’re willing to do all of us.

4. **[Reddit is attacking its moderator structure and how it governs communities because communities protested the above issues](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/reddit-protest-blackout-ceo-steve-huffman-moderators-rcna89544)**. After years of developing robust moderator engagement programs and restoring relations with the moderator userbase, Reddit has returned to directly attacking the validity of its subreddit governance system and the moderators who moderate content for the service. Their actions have included ambiguous and depersonalized messages to their communities (see below), weaponization of or exclusion from programs formerly used for fostering healthy relationships with mods, and even layoffs of their Community team which would have facilitated healthier engagements. This is a disinvestment that perhaps has more repercussions for the platform than even the API changes, and leads to the internet being a more closed, hostile space that obligates communities to be open for the sake of generating Reddit more revenue (content = data = $$$) rather than for the sake of online community itself.

5. **[They are taking an unusually obtuse and threatening approach in their moderator communications](https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/28/23777195/reddit-protesting-moderators-communities-subreddits-private-reopen).** We’ve spent weeks trying to figure out what approach they are taking with the highest expectations that they would be more diplomatic (especially in light of our messages below). Instead they’ve been communicating sparsely and inconsistently, further exacerbating the situation.

## Some more details

When talk of a mass protest first began, we initially planned on merely setting the sub to read-only. Our announcement was met with feedback overwhelmingly in favor of going completely closed. After reading Spez’s AMA in which he blew off many concerns and continued to attack and slander developers, we were all on board with a total shutdown too.

Over the past two weeks, the situation has only continued to deteriorate as Reddit’s CEO has continued to spread lies and attacks, make outright threats, enact hostile takeovers of some of the largest subreddits, and repeatedly contradict itself on promises not to interfere. To us, this protest is not merely about the API, third-party apps, or mod tools, but a level of hostility from Reddit Inc towards the volunteers who make this platform what it is, one that has been simmering for a long time before finally reaching a breaking point this month. And it is only getting worse.

Many of you may be tired of how long this has gone on and perhaps just wish it would all go away and things would return to normal so you can go back to reading the news here. We’d like things to return to normal too, but we feel that there can be no normal as long as Reddit Inc proceeds down the destructive path it is on. It is the opinion of the /r/nintendo mod team that we are not able to do our job here under the current state of things, and we do not believe we can effectively reopen now. Unfortunately, the threats being made to us from Reddit mean we no longer have a choice in the matter.

Protests aren’t meant to be convenient. Protests are meant to disrupt, agitate, and annoy. A protest that can be easily ignored, will be. We realize this protest may be frustrating to many of you, but that is because it has to be frustrating in order to have teeth.

Reddit Inc is gearing up for an upcoming IPO. But as the CEO and administration continue to wage war on its userbase, they are only digging a deeper hole for themselves in how much bad press they create, which will scare away investors. The full impact of this protest will take a lot more time, but we believe we are succeeding in putting real pressure on them.

# Communications with Reddit

Ten days ago, Reddit sent us a message to r/Nintendo, r/NintendoHelp, and r/CasualNintendo. We responded with a draft statement composed by the moderator team. Here’s the exchange in r/Nintendo’s Modmail:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/416452303835627521/1123704063364706376/1.png

Reddit’s representative did not acknowledge our reply at the time, and ceased communications for a week, but yesterday we received a more precise message from Reddit asking us to reopen. We reiterated the same message from before since we hadn’t received a response. This was how Reddit responded:

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/416452303835627521/1123704063683477555/2.png?width=1462&height=1056

While Reddit hasn’t sent us threatening messages yet personally specifying a more granular timeline, we’ve inferred from other subreddits that there is an expectation to reopen by June 29, 12 PM Pacific Time. Because Reddit has been hit-or-miss with how they’ve communicated with us directly, we aren’t sure if the same applies to us.

# Final Thoughts

We hope this provides some clarity to the community on what has been going on. We also hope this transparency helps you make informed recommendations to Reddit. This includes how you vote here, contribute as a moderator or user to other communities, and how you contribute to making the internet a healthier, safer place for everyone.

by NintendoModerators