Reddit Crashed Because Too Many Users Are Protesting Site Changes
thegamer.comProtests against Reddit's planned changes to third-party APIs began today, and even though nothing has been reversed just yet, it's probably fair to say the immediate impact they've had was a big success. So many subreddits participated in the planned blackout, which will continue on into the week, Reddit crashed and was effectively inaccessible for more than two hours.
Reported by NBC News, when visiting Reddit on Monday morning, you were met with a sea of blank posts with nothing but a “something went wrong, don't panic” message in each. While most of you likely didn't panic when met with that sight, higher-ups at Reddit HQ probably did. Although they knew the blackout was coming, they probably didn't imagine it having quite that big an impact right off the bat.
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Even though the issue has been resolved and Reddit has been back online for a number of hours at the time of typing this, the blackout continues. There's a Twitch stream tracking the number of subreddits participating in the protest courtesy of reddark_247 (thanks, Polygon). 7,857 communities have gone dark right now, although that number increases every time I check back.
The blackout is scheduled to roll on until at least Wednesday, although a number of moderators have made it clear they plan to continue protesting until something is done. As for what that something will need to be, and what exactly everyone is so upset about, Reddit recently announced plans to charge third-party apps for access to its API.
If that sounds familiar, it's the same controversial decision Twitter made earlier this year. One of the most vocal people during all this has been Apollo creator
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