I didn't think Reddit would change. Honestly? I thought a lot of the hoopla was funny. Sure, there are some points users/mods had with the lack of support and tools, but I knew that this was all a bunch of hot air as soon as r/pics went back up after that vaguest of vague post from the admins. Reddit is a reactionary place. I think Redditors like getting upset or excited about something as a group. The Blackout was THE biggest... well, circlejerk in the history of the site. The issue was entirely beyond partisan lines, and I think Redditors liked that. But it was also boring. Going private meant no content, no upvotes, no karma. If Reddit loved doing something as a group, then what happens if you're hours upon hours into this just refreshing r/all and seeing nothing there? A lot of Redditors gleefully imagined how dull and confusing the site had to have been for new users on the holdout open subs and meta subs, but I really wonder just how much of that was projection. I spent my time watching AMAgeddon on the IRC chat in subredditdrama while playing terraria. There was nothing else to do. But what really spoke volumes is the fact that there has not been one single announcement by the admins on Reddit itself publicly. I think the admins knew just what kind of userbase they have and they knew we would get bored eventually. Reddit has a short attention span almost by design. Pao made that run of the mill apology on TIME, but there's been little actual talk from them otherwise. Why should they have faced the flames if we were going to stop throwing a tantrum sooner rather than later? The petition on change.org says it all, really. Reddit has no conviction to stay dark, we have neither the desire to mass leave or the option to, and I honestly doubt that the July 10th thing will amount to anything. Pao's detractors will sign that worthless petition till the cows come home, but have little will to do anything that requires any actual effort or inconvenience for long periods of time. Just how much work is in electronically signing a petition anyway? That's why AMAgeddon was funny to me.
Hey, I was in that IRC, too! I agree, the whole AMAgeddon fell pretty flat. The way everything went down looked like a temper tantrum rather than a revolt, and it got pretty tiresome to deal with. I think the weirdest part about it was all of the people that got mad when the mods brought the subs back, despite it being their fight more than anyone else's. I think a lot of people just used it as an excuse to get mad at Chairman Pao and her minions at the Gestapo Reddit HQ. It went from pretty understandable to absolutely ridiculous pretty fast. However, I don't really mind. I found a couple new sites to split some of my time up into, which is a bonus for me. If anything, I guess I have to thank them for it, so: thank you Ellen Pao!