So I’ve seen a few posts regarding news outlets calling the protests a failure, and I don’t really think that’s the case. The protests have clearly made an impact, especially if the Reddit CEO is willing to oust MODS to reopen subreddits. I truly believe that something has been jump started here on Lemmy, Kbin, and all of the fediverse. What happened on Reddit has simply pushed those already on the fence, or looking for other social media platforms to jump ship. I truly believe the impact is greater than what the media and Reddit in general want us to believe. Something has started here on the fediverse that simply cannot be stopped, all we can do is inform others and show why it’s the future of aggregated news boards and social media.

  • Spzi@lemmy.clickEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    Great article with much more detail than what I quote: https://lifehacker.com/the-reddit-blackout-is-over-but-the-protest-isn-t-1850539204

    Critics of the blackout wondered how a two-day protest is going to solve anything. My friends, let me speak to you for a moment from my perspective as a person who has more than a little familiarity with taking collective action to get out-of-touch CEOs to do the right thing.

    While a strike or a blackout may be the most visible action in a campaign, it’s never the only one. Leading up to both our 2022 strike, and our 2019 seemingly uneventful signing of a fair contract, we lived and breathed by something called an escalation chart (same idea as the one illustrated here). You start with small actions, and build on them, with a clear plan for how you’ll continue if your demands are not met. A strike is almost always preceded by dozens of smaller actions.

    Fixed-length walkouts and strikes are one possible step on the chart. The idea is to send a message: This many of us are this committed. After that, you don’t stop. You keep escalating. Even on an open-ended strike, the idea is to become more and more of a problem to the company over time. You get more and more media attention; the company suffers more and more from lost business. Collective actions are effective because they are part of a larger escalation.

    The article also mentions some successes the protest already achieved:

    • “accessibility-focused apps” will be exempted from the new policy
    • several advertisers chose to spend their advertising budgets elsewhere
    • exempt certain tools used by “verified moderators” from the new API policy

    A (quite impressively long) list of concessions and agreements can be found in /r/ModCoord

    And as others mentioned in this thread, it spurred a migration and more people than ever (me included) finally engage with the fediverse.

    My summary is: The protest had a huge impact. Sure, we did not (fully) get what we want, and reddit remains committed to becoming evil. But we won some battles, and the war isn’t over yet.

    It also brought people to things they might never have done before; to engage in protests and to discuss forms and strategies of resistance. Many joined the fediverse in the process, here to stay. I feel the importance of this exercise in self-efficacy and self-empowerment cannot be understated.