Regarding the future of Reddit and /r/woodworking

Fellow woodworkers,

Following broad frustration last few weeks directed at reddit's CEO over upcoming changes predicted to kill off 3rd party Reddit apps, increase spam and malicious bots and reposted/stolen content, and remove accessibility features for blind and other disabled redditors, we made an announcement a few days ago. Our goal was to get Reddit's attention, that if 4,000 of the largest communities representing over 1 Billion redditors were going dark, maybe mgmt should re-think their plans.

Reddit Mgmt's plans are exceedingly high API prices which we all know was to intentionally kill 3rd party applications on reddit (Apollo, Reddit is Fun, Boost, Relay, etc.) Since that post several things have become clear; Reddit is not willing to listen to its users or the mod teams from many of its largest communities on this matter. Yesterday all major third-party Reddit apps announced that they would be shutting down on the 30th of June due to these changes. There were no negotiations and Reddit refused to extend the deadlines. The rug was pulled out from under them and by extension all of the users who rely on those tools to use reddit.

In addition to this, the AMA hosted by Steve Huffman, CEO of Reddit, which was intended to alleviate concerns held by many users about these issues, was nothing short of a collage of inappropriate responses. There are many things to take away from this AMA but here are the key points. Most disappointingly it appears that Reddit outright misconstrued the actions of Apollo's creator /u/iamthatis by saying that he threatened Reddit and leaked private phone calls, something done only to clear his name of another accusation.

So what’s happening? The TL;DR? Effective tomorrow (6/11/2023), /r/woodworking will be restricting posting capabilities. Anything posted before the cut off date will likely be the final front page of our community before we go private indefinitely. In the unlikely scenario that Reddit ownership has a sudden change of heart and capitulates on their decisions we will reopen, but until that happens /r/woodworking will stay closed. Many other communities have come to similar decisions and we support those who have decided to take a stand.

Short FAQ:

Q: Won’t Reddit just remove you as moderators and reopen the subreddit?

A: This is a distinct possibility, Reddit has made it clear that the “health” of their site is more important to them. We as a team are prepared for this, none of us want to continue to volunteer for a company that disrespects the people who helped build it into the front page of the internet.

Q: An indefinite lockdown? I thought this was only supposed to be for 48 hours?

A: Originally it was our intention to spread awareness of these issues, but over the past week it has become clear that Reddit doesn’t intend to act in good faith, and our role in the protest became clear. The owners of Reddit have taken their users, community developers, and their moderator teams for granted and used them to build up a multibillion dollar company which is now focused not on the community, but on how many commas they can get out of Silicon Valley investors.

Q: What can we as users do to support this protest?

A: The best way you can make your opinion known is by stopping using reddit. At the very least you can try and reduce your usage of the site, consider using alternatives such as Discord, which a lot of us find to be a nice change of pace from the traditional Reddit experience. The Discord "chat server" focused on woodworking, in fact feels a lot like how tight-knight the r/woodworking community felt 10 years ago.

Thank you to everyone who has helped make /r/woodworking a special place the past 8 years. You inspired each other, started businesses and YouTube channels, some of you went from beginner to advanced, some got married, some had kids, moved, picked up DIY projects. From bookcases to saunas to planters to coffee tables, you have poured the best of your talent into woodworking, and selflessly shared that skill with others to inspire your fellow humans in achieving their own goals, and reminding us that building is always better than buying.

Thank you, for 8 years of sharing awesome woodworking content. We hope to reopen - but only if reddit reverses course. If that doesn't happen, and it doesn't look like it will, know we're deeply grateful for every single one of you. YOU are what made r/woodworking welcoming, special, helpful, insightful, inspiring. So take a minute to be proud of what you built here. Take two.

-Signed unamimously by the r/woodworking mod team