r/AMA Mods Stop Running Celebrity Interviews, as Reddit’s API Pricing Protest Drags On

It’s not only Twitter that’s coping with user backlash in consequence of information access restrictions.

Reddit’s also seeking to limit how its data may be used, by upping the value of its API entry points, which has sparked ongoing protests inside Reddit’s user community, with many subreddit moderators maintaining strike motion to oppose Reddit’s changes.

Back in April, Reddit announced that it could be increasing the value of its API access, ostensibly to make sure that it could be ‘fairly paid’ for such moving forward. But more directly, Reddit, like Twitter, is aiming to combat the rising amount of generative AI projects which are using Reddit data to fuel their large language models (LLMs).

Such systems require large caches of conversational data, and with Meta and LinkedIn having already locked down their info to a big degree, it’s Reddit and Twitter which have grow to be the important thing focal points for such, which is why they’re each now attempting to stop data scraping, and restrict access, that would see other businesses essentially profiting off of their platforms.

The collateral damage, nevertheless, is that many popular third-party Reddit apps, like Reddit reader ‘Apollo’, have been forced to shut down in consequence, angering many users, while it’s also raised questions as to the worth of the work that moderators do for the positioning.

If Reddit’s making hundreds of thousands off of API access, then why shouldn’t subreddit mods, who maintain and manage large portions of the positioning, also receives a commission?

That set the wheels in motion for the protest motion, which mods initially began by switching their communities to ‘Private’, which Reddit has sought to subvert by appealing to other outstanding users in each to grow to be moderators, as a substitute for the present managers. In response to that, some mods then switched their communities to NSFW, which meant that Reddit could now not sell ads against their content.

That’s triggered Reddit management to take more drastic motion to combat the protest motion, by once more threatening to remove mods who keep their communities locked, or otherwise obscured from general access, without clear reason.

But still, the protest continues. Almost a month on from the initial blackout motion, over the weekend, moderators of the well-known subreddit r/AMA – or ‘Ask Me Anything’ – announced that they might now not be running celebrity interviews within the app.

As per r/AMA (paraphrased from original post):

“Reddit executives have shown that they will not yield to the pressure of a protest. They’ve told the media that they’re actively planning to remove moderators who keep subreddits shut down and haven’t any intentions of creating changes. So, moving forward, we will run IAmA like your average subreddit. We are going to proceed moderating, removing spam, and enforcing rules. Nevertheless, effective immediately, we plan to […] discontinue lively solicitation of celebrities or high profile figures to do AMAs, running and maintaining a web site for scheduling of AMAs, and maintaining a current up-to-date sidebar calendar of scheduled AMAs.”

The moderators of r/AMA also note that Reddit leadership ‘has all of the funds they should hire people to perform those extra tasks we formerly undertook as volunteer moderators’, and as such, they’ve little interest in returning, essentially, to work for the positioning if it continues down its current path.

That could possibly be a giant blow for Reddit’s long-term viability. Reddit’s AMA’s are arguably its most well-known original content element, with many high-profile celebrities, and even world leaders, collaborating in these in-app Q and A sessions with users.

That attracts in additional immediate users who tune in live, and helps get Reddit more exposure through subsequent press coverage of the responses, while the content also lives on in Google search, feeding more traffic back into the positioning. Losing this may be a significant problem for the app, which could force Reddit to enter into more lively and open negotiations with its current moderation crews.

Which, as r/AMA notes, Reddit has to this point been unwilling to do.

As Reddit CEO Steve Huffman told The Verge in a very testy interview recently:

“We’ve had blackouts in previous times where there’s slightly more room for movement. However the core of this one is the API pricing change. That’s our business decision. And we’re not undoing that business decision.”

Huffman has essentially planted his flag on this hill, and seems unwilling to even consider any discussion across the change – yet, because the protest drags on, which have to be impacting Reddit usage, you’ll assume that he’ll must reconsider this stance, or look to work with the user and moderator community to some extent.

The effective lack of r/AMA is one other big hit on this front, and it’ll be interesting to see what number of hits Reddit can take before it has to re-address the continued motion.

Plainly this may inevitably harm Reddit’s valuation, which is a critical concern provided that it’s also seeking to launch an IPO at some stage.

Can Reddit regain the trust of its moderator community, and get back to a level of normal – or does this highlight the pitfalls of counting on volunteer admins when attempting to run a business?