ThePokemon GOsubreddit has reopened following a temporary closure in protest of planned Reddit changes to its API’s pricing, but don’t expect the subreddit to have returned to normal. Reddit’s decision to raise API access prices to a degree that will shut down third-party apps and necessary moderation tools drove many major subreddits to close. Threats to remove moderation teams has led to almost all of those subreddits to re-open. But some communities, like thePokemon GOsubreddit, continue the protest in a new way.
On June 12, awidespread Reddit protestbegan that saw many of the site’s largest subreddits shut down. These subreddits would remain inaccessible for 48 hours, though many chose to indefinitely shut down so long as Reddit was unwilling to compromise. The effort was made to push Reddit to change plans regarding a massive pricing increase for access to its Application Programming Interface, or API. The price increase is forcing multiple major third-party Reddit apps to shut down, which will dramatically impact accessibility and limit moderation tools that prevent spam, bigotry, harassment, and more.
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Pokemon GO’s popular subredditshut down on June 12 like many others, and has remained closed since. That changed on Monday, however, due to ongoing threats from Reddit leadership to remove moderators refusing to re-open their subreddits. But thePokemon GOsubreddit is going to be continuing the protest in a new way. A community poll showed that 68% of the community favored changes to the subreddit that would continue support for the protest – and moderators are following through.
Going forward, content on thePokemon GOsubreddit will be limited to photos featuring either talk show host John Oliver, Pikachu, or Spark (theleader ofPokemon GO’s Team Instinct), or a combination of the three. John Oliver’s inclusion is due to his vocal support of Reddit users' protests and similar rules being used in other subreddits' plans. These rules will remain in effect for the foreseeable future.
It’s unclear what impact the ongoingPokemon GOsubreddit’s protest will have on Reddit. It’s possible that the rule changes will drive traffic away from the subreddit, thereby continuing to hurt Reddit’s bottom line. ThePokemon GOsubreddit isn’t necessarily big enough to force changes on its own. However, showing solidarity with other protesting subreddits could lead to future protest growth that does lead Reddit to make changes.
Many subreddits outside ofPokemon GOcontinue protest actions stemming from the June 12 shutdown date. These include gaming-focused subreddits including AmongUs, Gamedev, gamernews, Hearthstone, MinecraftMemes, Nintendo, pathofexile, Warframe, and witcher. These subreddits, includingPokemon GO’s, couldeventually be punished by Redditin some way, but it’s undeniable at this point that they’ve each made their communities' voices heard.
Pokemon GOis available now on iOS and Android devices.
