Been thinking about this and want to know if it bugs anyone else.
It’s crazy to me that Twitter, Reddit and Facebook all cut off API access and people just went quiet on it. There was noise and complaints but no solutions. Usually when stuff like this gets locked down a counterculture shows up around it. Workarounds, open alternatives, people who make it their thing to keep it open. Like file sharing or ad blockers.
That didn’t really happen this time and I can’t figure out why. With all the propaganda and fake stuff out there right now, wouldn’t being able to see what’s spreading be important to understand? And isn’t them shutting it down a pretty large signal that it is important?
Maybe there’s a boring explanation I’m missing. But the part that gets me is the other possibility, that there’s some kind of suppression force we might not even be aware of.
Is that terrifying to anyone else or am I overthinking it? Just curious what people who were around for it think.
Apparently you weren’t there. We fought, and left when that failed. I modded dozens of niche subs and took my time elsewhere.
This post is like if OP went to Normandy asking why nobody fought the nazis.
Nice analogy. I like it.
Yep. Thanks.
Exactly. It was a HUGE issue, especially with Reddit. It started with Reddit changing their API policies and charging insane prices. All third party Reddit readers pleaded with their contacts at Reddit about how the new API changes would kill third party apps, to basically be told too fucking bad.
Users started deleting their accounts or deleting/poisoning their comment history. Once it was clear nothing was going to be done by Mr. Piggy, users decided to either use old.reddit or some other reddit reader clone until word got out about Lemmy/mBin/Mastadon/Bluesky etc.