Item — HN Reader

I am curious how this will all settle out in the end. I think the majority of users don’t really care about the API or subreddits going private as they primarily just lurk.

However, the people that do care are the ones that moderate and contribute the vast majority of the content that the larger group enjoys.

I am pessimistic that the minority here will win out in the end, but the majority may begin to lose interest if the quality of new content drops.

At least for myself, the blackout gave me enough space away from the site to consider if my time on Reddit was valuable/enjoyable and basically I concluded it is not worth the time. I’ve uninstalled the app and I haven’t really missed a thing.

1 comments

> I think the majority of users don’t really care about the API or subreddits going private as they primarily just lurk.

I agree. These protests have missed the point. There is a (very) loud minority raising hell right now, but spez is right, it's just noise. The silent majority is still hanging around.

They're a loud minority because they've invested more into the platform. It is the 1–9–90 rule in action.

When the 1% leaves the platform's quality will go down.

My bet is that quality will go up. I'm not really interested in reading what the small number of people who spend 8+ hours per day on Reddit think, about any topic. Hopefully they'll take their silly Reddit mannerisms and inside jokes with themselves on the way out.

Unfortunately I believe the ones with the Reddit mannerisms and overused jokes are the ones that stayed as they are too addicted to leave.

The actual creators of content are different from the drones.

We'll see. Reddit will not die in 2 weeks that's for sure. But some people will leave and maybe a viable alternative will surface as a result of this shifty behavior