It is so frustrating seeing how people received the protest.
"it's not working" "Reddit doesn't care" "they can do whatever they want".
Well yeah, if that's the attitude!
How do people not see that the protest disrupted the entirity of Reddit? Just about every weekly active user felt it.
How do they not understand the impact on revenue (especially ads), and how Reddit cannot feasibly sustain it, and were banking on the idea that it'll eventually die down?
The fact of the matter is, if Reddit became worried that the protest will continue in strength indefinitely, they would be forced to roll back. The loss impact would greatly outweigh whatever measly profits they make from this API change that no one will buy.
Yes, this was a lot more for Reddit than just profits. If Reddit had backed down, it would have impact much greater than just third party apps. It remind people once again that users hold the power when they're United. They can decide how to run their communities. But Reddit just could not afford this to happen, which is why they fought to convince you that the protest isn't working and you should back down. And unfortunately many of us did...
It seems like post-2010 users see the internet as a completely different beast. Those of use who know the world wide web as it was in the before times have this mental image of it as places we built.
Post-2010 they seem to have a mental image of spaces that snapped into existence. They have no concept of every day people in real life making a new forum/board/subreddit then seeding the content themselves. Over the years fostering a community. Building up the network effects.
I saw so many comments on reddit from ignorant indifferent users saying just open another sub then. Who will do that? Who will foster it? You? To which they're like, 'lol no'.
Such is the corporate internet. Users of the corporate internet see communities as big established companies with store fronts open 24/7. Always stocked, always clean, up kept by invisible staff out of sight out of mind. That's not how any of this works...