I remember when Reddit announced it would begin charging commercial developers for access to its API, and in response, thousands of subreddits went dark in protest. I think it lasted for a couple of weeks. The CEO threatened the Reddit mods that he would replace them if they didn’t reopen the subs, so nearly every mod reopened and everything went back to normal. The CEO won easily without offering anything, and he was right when he said that ‘this too shall pass.’ Those third-party apps offered accessibility features for disabled people that Reddit still hasn’t implemented today. Now Reddit is getting even worse. How come there wasn’t a protest like that when they made even worse decisions?
The issue is that most people aren’t aware that their data is being sold, or they just don’t care at all. And by 2023, most people on Reddit were using the official app, not 3rd party apps (according to the subreddit stats of the subreddits I used to moderate). So for most people, the 2023 API change wouldn’t have affected them at all. It only would’ve affected older users and some moderators.
It would have to be a disruption that would affect:
Not only do you need to do all 3, you need to do it simultaneously in order for the users to rebel. So Reddit nowadays have chosen to implement negative changes in smaller parts. AKA boiling the frog alive.