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Notes -
Thinking about this some more, I came to an interesting realization:
Up to now, everything that Reddit did around this issue seemed boneheadedly stupid in pretty much every way. This might be the first psychologically smart thing they've done in this whole scandal.
Okay, I can see that they have an interest in and a right to make a fair amount of money off of their APIs and data. But why in the world do they have to jack the prices so high that third party apps are mostly unviable, and do it at such short notice that the few who thought they might be able to make it work can't get things arranged in time? I can't see how that benefits anyone. And why have they been sitting on their asses so long, ignoring all of the extra features and capabilities provided by third-party mobile apps and mod tools? It's like they don't even have a clue what those features are, how much difference each one makes, or how hard they would all be to implement themselves. Any dope could have come up with a fairer solution that lets the apps stay alive and still gets Reddit a cut of the money. It's framed as the stupid and thoughtless Reddit admins against the power users, who just want to contribute content and commentary basically for free.
I'm not super inclined by my side of the culture war to care about the Reddit PowerMod clique. But the issue was framed in such a way to paint it primarily as an attack against the more everyday Reddit powerusers, the people who post and comment a lot and usually prefer third-party mobile apps, and also taking out the disabled who depend on them, just for kicks I guess. So I felt like I at least weakly supported the blackout, though I didn't care enough to actually take any significant action based on it.
Now, with this new statement, Reddit has successfully re-framed the issue in my mind and, going by the sentiment I see around the internet, in the minds of many other users. Now it's the reasonable Reddit admins against a whiny and petulant clique of PowerMods who run all of the major subs with iron fists and revel in their tiny little empires. They're whining that their jobs might get a little bit harder, they think they're so great and awesome that they can't be replaced on a whim, and I feel happy to see them get proven wrong. The majority of Reddit users don't really care what app they have to use to access Reddit, many probably weren't even aware of these third-party apps at all, and they're starting to get pissed that their favorite places are being shuttered because the mods are throwing a tantrum as they see it.
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