So, /r/memes did a poll. The exact numbers happen to be multiples of 10%, but ignore that.
- 10% of users want the blackout to continue
- 10% of users want the subreddit to open back up as normal
- 80% of users want the subreddit to only allow Medieval / Landed Gentry themed memes.
Henceforth: “The title of the posts must include either of the words ‘Medieval’, ‘Landed’ or ‘Gentry’, and the meme must include medieval content/images, or include content that features text about Landed Gentry.”
Hear ye, hear ye, the people hath spoken.
Honestly, I love how the top subreddits are all doing stuff like this. It doesn’t stop the flow of traffic like the blackout did but it’s still hilarious.
90 percent of Reddit users are casual lurkers with no account. Of the ten percent with accounts, 10 percent actually post content or even leave a comment.
Driving away lurkers with stupid content is a solid strategy
I actually think that for a lot of people, it’s just become an opportunity for socializing and entertaining themselves, more so than being about “protest.” A lot of modern reddit is oriented around (1) wasting time with humor and (2) being part of an in-group.
spez did the worst thing you can possibly do to that kind of population: He gave them a target.
Yeah, I’ve seen some people upset about these things and complain that it doesn’t stop the flow of traffic, and that in fact it may increase interest in Reddit. Some want the blackout to continue indefinitely. But that’s impossible since Reddit will just force the subs open and replace the mods. So the next best thing is malicious compliance. Sure, Reddit will still see traffic from people curious about what’s going on, but these meme-y protests is still rendering the site essentially unusable while still keeping to the letter of Reddit’s demands.
The level of cooperation required to stage this malicious compliance also puts the lie to Puffman’s assertion that the people upset about the changes are a tiny, irrelevant minority. No, my liege, that tiny minority are the backbone of the product you’re so desperate to sell.
What it does do is actively highlight that the community is being destroyed, and the protests are actively degrading the experience. All the more to entice people to look around at other social media options.
They really thought it’d just end after 48 hours; it became a war of attrition and I’m happy so many of us found the fediverse. I’m happy the project(s) seem to have talented and dedicated developers and admins; long live the Fediverse.
It’s almost like Huffman doesn’t even understand his own user base.