Reddit protest updates: news on the apps shutting down and Reddit’s fights with mods - The Verge

Something I'd like to share:

I've been periodically checking reddit in my Browser to see what's going on. I commented last week about noticing a sharp decrease in posts on "my" front page. Since then I've observed a few more interesting things.

1. Late last week, I noticed that multiple subreddits (BORU and PICS in particular) had like 2-4 posts when sorted by "top, 24 hours." It wasn't a case of having to click "next" (I really miss rifs endless scrolling feature...) to navigate to a second page of posts; there was no 2nd page. That was it.

2. I also noticed that on the mobile website, ads are designed to look nearly identical to posts (imo it was more obvious that they were ads on rif), and most of the time the website would only have 1 or 2 posts before one of these fake ad posts, so your user experience is immediately impacted.

3. The ads don't seem to be as targeted as they used to be. I used to get ads that seemed to be geared toward me, my searches, and interests. Creepy, but I found it way less annoying than the alternative. Which is apparently a lot of "He Gets Us" and ads for complicated electronics or unnecessary services. Like a mobile vet clinic that isn't even available in my area, lol.

4. The bot posts are getting obvious and WEIRD. I took screenshots last weekend because just about every other post had a robotic, overly formal, and/or downright confusing title. Here are some examples:

56.3k, front page: "A brain tumour changed her life Her nerves are badly damaged! But today she opened a car door.....walked.....opened a gym door.....walked and sat down ..BY HERSELF what a lady"

[Quotation marks, format, and ellipses are original]

40.5k, front page: The trapped dog doesn't wait a bit to hug the rescuer after being freed..

Same weird ellipses, and the way it's phrased is like a "correct the mistakes" worksheet for 2nd graders.

I think Reddit is in the "find out" stage of their fucking around, even if it's a quiet or subtle change to the casual observer.

I also tried going to ModCoord [I'm not a mod it just felt like a good place to find updates] and, on my end, it looks like almost everything has been deleted. The same day I took screenshots, /r/PICS posted a public response to reddit's threats, which weren't even acknowledged on modcoord. The most recent post I could see was something from GallowBoob? It was really odd.

Is the website being glitchy? Probably. That is, after all, part of the root of this problem. But if anything, I'd say it's pretty clear that the content has decreased in both quality and depth in the last 10 days. Even if a lot of users are still signing in, I don't think they're posting, commenting, or voting as much as they used to. That may be a reflection of the quality of posts, or of users displeasure at the situation, but regardless of where it came from, at least it's something.