This may be the most significant result of the API debacle. Without proper tools to stop bots, the site will quickly become a nearly unusable cesspool. This is the kind of thing that will actually affect users in the long run. When site usability degrades, people will have even more reasons to jump ship.
This may ultimately be the most impactful event so far in the Reddit API debacle. Without filtering bots, Reddit will quickly devolve into unusable garbage.
The cynical part of me wants to say that’s by design. That reddit wants to get rid of good moderation tools so that it can allow more paid astroturfung to get more revenue.
I’ve been waiting for reddit to realize how much of a mess they’ve caused because it seems like they just think they can “ignore it and it’ll go away” kinda deal. I wouldn’t want them to have more spam and such but it gets to a point where something has to break…
I understand people’s attachment to their community, but if even a significant minority of those who went dark mass resigned on the 30th, it would’ve had so much bigger an impact than any of the ongoing attempts at protest.
I am surprised roughly a quarter of the protesting communities have stayed dark. That’s way more than I expected out of a two day protest. It’s no mass resignation, but it is more effective than most of the follow up protests.
And if all mods are unified, it can be hard for the admins to figure out what to do with the sub. There is a reason why interesting as fuck hasn’t come back yet; the admins will own whatever the mods do.
Absolutely will cause a lot more spam to go through. But why is that the custom written moderators tool/bot fault? Why isn’t Reddit the company doing more to stop or combat spam/bots? Why keep doing their job for them, for free?? If it’s so damn useful (and BotDefense is), then Reddit should be doing it, or I don’t know pay for that service?!
Because … You can say to tech illiterate investors: "hey look, look at all the activity that goes on in my site"with not much scrutiny and inflate those rookie numbers up.
There is no much incentive, in the capitalists sense, to deter spam or trolls, fear mongering and explosive comments, clickbait journalism, etc etc etc … for owners of any online outlet, it’s all in the service of ever growing traffic.
People were providing free labour to address their shortcomings, why would they prioritize duplicating work? The part where they fucked up was the part where their CEO doesn’t understand their business model.
Yar, there be a shitstorm a brewin’ on the horizon. With a flood of bots, not only is the content quality going to drop further on Reddit, but we’ll see more disinformation, phishing attempts, and other crap of the same ilk too. This is how big sites die off, not all at once, but in waves.
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