Hello everyone, I’ll try to keep this short as I know there’s been a lot going on over the last few days. When we made our announcement last week, we intended to get Reddit's attention on a subject that our team found extremely concerning. /r/Videos is joining a larger coordinated protest and signing an open letter to the admins found here.

The announcement was of 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/Videos 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/Videos 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 multimillion 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 Tildes which I’ve personally found to be a nice change of pace from the traditional Reddit experience.

P.S. Thank you to everyone who has helped make /r/Videos a special place, it was a hell of a ride.

Hello, /r/SquaredCircle.

As many of you are aware, Reddit has announced their plan to start charging for API access, a change that would most likely result in any third party apps and any other open source Reddit modifcations being forced to shut down.

You can read our initial post regarding this change and how it affects our community here.

In short, the moderating team decided to private/blackout the SquaredCircle subreddit from Monday, June 12th, through Thursday, June 15th.

After watching the news spread, taking in Reddit's response, and conferring amongst ourselves, we have decided to lengthen the blackout indefinitely.

For the benefit of those skimming for a TL;DR:

/r/SquaredCircle will blackout on June 12th and stay blacked out indefinitely until satisfactory changes are made regarding Reddit's API.

We do not come to this decision lightly, and below you will find some of the multitude of reasons why we will be taking this stance moving forward.

Loss of users and contributors.

This is the immediate concern for most of you reading this. A good 20% of the users on reddit as a whole currently use third party apps to access reddit. These will no longer be a viable option, as two of the biggest apps, Apollo and RIF will be shutting down due to the cost changes outlined by Reddit.

Many users across the platform and in our sub have stated that a loss of these will cause them to drop from the community entirely due to how difficult the official Reddit app and mobile platforms operate.

Insufficient accessibility support, mod tool support, and support in general.

The new API changes full-stop will deplatform users who are visually impaired. It has been mentioned in both calls with developers and moderators that the official Reddit app does not satisfactorily, adequately, or even BARELY help with accessibility in any way. The third-party apps that will be shutting down are currently the only options available for some to access this community.

These changes will also diminish moderation tools. Across the entire site, unpaid volunteer moderators of subreddits utilize many third party tools and kits to make moderation easier. The changes to the API will severely hamstring an already hamstrung collective of unpaid volunteers who make your favorite subreddits tolerable. With diminished mod tools, you will see an increase in obvious bots and astroturfing, as removing of this content will be done manually. NSFW content will also become unviewable for third-party apps and tools, which will make it absurdly easier for spammers, scammers, porn-bots, and creepers to sneak into the community.

In addition, this will also mean the end of helpful quality-of-life bots that operate within Reddit. RemindMe, video downloading bots, and more will go away under the new API access guidelines.

All of this can fall under a lack of support from Reddit as a whole. From accessibility, mod tools, the barebones functionality of the mobile app and the website in general, the moderation team does not have faith that Reddit will address these concerns in a timely or satisfactory manner.

A vote of no confidence.

As mentioned previously, a call took place between developers, moderators, and the Reddit team yesterday. Here are the official notes as posted by Reddit, along with takeaways and notes from the developers and moderators themselves that they feel were not properly expressed in Reddit's summary.

We as a team agree that many of the concerns regarding the timeline of these changes (developers were given only 30 days advance notice to figure something out), the needs of all end-point users, moderators, etc. were not addressed sufficiently.

Alarmingly, per the developer of Apollo, Reddit appears to have fabricated allegations that the Apollo dev "blackmailed" and "threatened" Reddit for money. The Apollo dev has published audio and a text transcript of the calls in question to verify that this did not happen, in the aforementioned link.

Earlier today, an AMA with /u/spez took place and it backfired like an AEW Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch. He was buried like a WWE Superstar in their hometown. Even Ryback's AMA fared better. Among some of the non-answers we have received: a promise to have new moderation tools created after the API changes, rather than before, a vague assurance that the official app will be accessible. No specific plans, and doubling down on allegations that the developer of Apollo "blackmailed" them. At least one response was copypasta from another question.

But where will I go to discuss all things wrestling?

Should you want to continue chatting wrestling, we recommend checking out the official SquaredCircle Discord server.

It has live show chats, 24/7 wrestling content, voice chats, game nights, and a lot more. It’s a fun, growing community. However, please keep in mind that subreddit rules do still apply.

It will also be the first place (along with the /r/SquaredCircle Twitter at @WredditOfficial) to find updates on when or if the subreddit opens back up.

In closing:

The moderating team as a whole does not make this decision lightly, but we do make it unanimously.

We believe that the changes Reddit is attempting to enact are not only a detriment to us as a mod team, but to developers, all users, and Reddit as a whole.

The new API access changes and the manner in which Reddit addressed past, present, and future concerns do not give us confidence that anything will change without drastic action.

We are committed to keeping the doors of this community closed until adequate changes are made by Reddit.

Until then, know that we love you very much. Watch wrestling. Enjoy wrestling.

- The r/SquaredCircle Moderation Team