rif's UI was near perfect for me. I called it an app version of old.reddit, which was exactly what I wanted.
(Before old.reddit I just considered it a perfect app version of Reddit.)
This gif has always bothered me somehow. I think the transition is too 'good' and it makes it feel uncanny... Something like that. I'm sure the quality doesn't help.
Anyway, what's happening in 3 days?
You know how there are posts all over Reddit (and even all over here) saying "what's with the porn on r/interestingasfuck?" or "I don't know what's going on with John Oliver"?
It's because of them that the "protests" must continue. Raising awareness is the point. Only a small percentage even know what's going on.
Reddit would love for everyone to quietly go away, they'll pretend nothing happened and move on with a small chunk of users missing but still growing.
From my understanding, they already aren't using the API.
If the spam bots were using the API, then Reddit would have been able to shut them down trivially. Part of logging in via API requires a "client ID" that uniquely identifies the creator of the app/bot being used.
They could theoretically have each bot account create its own client ID, but even that would be a pretty obvious thing to look for.
Yes when all the apps had to change their names (January 2020), it came out that they had previously been working under a Trademark licensing arrangement.
(When "reddit is fun" became "rif" and then "rif is fun for Reddit".)
A lot of people thought it was Reddit suddenly cracking down to protect their trademark, but in reality it was something more petty.
I should mention I'm grateful to the "old" Reddit Inc. and its former employees for being willing to let me use the "reddit is fun" name for the past decade, working with me on mutually beneficial agreements like revenue share, in exchange for licensing the Reddit trademark. Not sure if you would be reading this, but thank you.
Anyone saying that they wouldn't was lying. Spez has a history of lying.
Here's what they said on June 7:
###Blackout
- We respect your right to protest – that’s part of democracy.
- This situation is a bit different, with some leading the charge, some users pressuring . We’re trying to work through all of the unique situations.
- Big picture: We are tolerant, but also a duty to keep Reddit online.
- If people want to do this out of anger, we want to make sure they’re mad for accurate reasons, not over things that are untrue. That’s a loss for everyone.
https://old.reddit.com/r/ModCoord/comments/143rk5p/-/jnbjtsc/
It might push more power users away. It won't push away the teeming masses.
Quality will suffer, but they'll keep their traffic.
There are tools to help. The best recommended ones I know of:
A Rust CLI app: https://github.com/andrewbanchich/shreddit/
A JavaScript bookmarklet (that feels a bit like a full browser extension): https://github.com/j0be/PowerDeleteSuite
Here's a contemporaneous article with a good amount of info on Digg's decline.
Know Your Meme has a surprisingly good write-up after the fact.
IMO one of the main factors that even allowed Digg to die as fast as it did was the fact that Reddit was already on the way up.
At the time I was primarily on Slashdot over either, but there were frequently articles about how Reddit was growing, and how people didn't like Digg. Then v4 launched and Digg's traffic dropped 25% in a month.
Unfortunately I don't think Reddit can or will lose that much, that fast. And one of the reasons is that there isn't already a "drop-in replacement". Reddit could do everything Digg could do, and more. But crucially it was also mature enough that there was a community and very low barrier to entry.
Breaking strikes also works, unfortunately. Look at Air Traffic Controllers with Reagan, or the Pinkertons back in the late 19th century. If there's a way to force compliance, they will. And there is.
Here's another contemporaneous article with a good amount of info: https://searchengineland.com/digg-v4-how-to-successfully-kill-a-community-50450
Personally I like this summary from a Harvard student assignment:
In August 2010, Digg attempted to wrest control back from its power users by migrating to a new system (Digg v4) that deemphasized user-contributed content in favor of publisher-contributed content. The change incited an uproar among power users and regular visitors alike, who felt the company was selling out to the mainstream media it had originally sought to replace. Digg experienced a mass exodus of users, many of whom turned to rival site Reddit. While Digg’s traffic fell by a quarter in the following month, Reddit’s traffic grew by 230% in 2010. Digg never recovered from its transition to Digg v4, and the site continued to bleed users and traffic over the next two years. By July 2012, the time of its sale to Betaworks, Digg’s monthly unique visitor count had fallen 90% from its peak.
Having 0 or negative karma is a barrier to posting. Some subs completely disallow posting if you don't meet a threshold, but even outside of those subs you still run into things like having your comments held up in the spam queue until they are manually reviewed.
So having a bit of karma allows them to post their scam and/or spam links and have a chance of being visible.