Hell will freeze over before they change course. "It's all in the game." to quote one of my favourite series ever.

Is this a recent change to deter people from complaining?

Most definetly. Could also be a technical necessity if they got spammed hard (as they should).

Yeah. I meant pointless in the sense of "we as the reddit community want to change the companies business strategy shortly before an IPO".

You being brought here (same as me) through the backlash-posts is great. But unless certain highly frequented subs go dark PERMANENTLY I dont see much that could sway the reddit leadership towards a more community friendly approach.

They took my RiF. The CEO seems like an absolute bastard. It got more and more toxic over the years. I can take some abuse but this was a bit too much. If it continues to be popular I'll use it for information gathering just like always, but they wont get any content, interaction or ad revenue from me.

This blackout thing, while surely sending a message, will be pointless in the end imo. The bosses have decided how they want to proceed and that's that.

Heck, I might even quit the lurkin' life if the trend stays that positive hehe.

It all reminds me a bit of the good old times of early reddit. People who are ready for conversation, relatively few trolling (and worse) and just a community or rather communities in the truest sense of the word.

But also I dont know how it is from a mods perspective.

I am enjoying it so far. I usually tend to lurk but the community is, as many have said, very welcoming and it creates an atmosphere where it encourages you to contribute (not just with up/downvotes but also comments).

I've got my politics, I've got my world news, techstuff, gaming & memes. I'd like to see picture subs like earthporn more populated. They're currently pretty empty. Also missing content in my regional Austria sub but that will solve itself if the reddit exodus continues.

You say a lot of sad truths there.

Of course it is not Trumps responsibility that our planet goes to shit. That people get more alienated from each other in general. That hate and fear spread like wildfires while empathy and humanity is in short supply.

But what IS Trumps accomplishment is that he is responsible for giving all those hateful, ignorant people a voice. He normalized saying shit that you'd only dared to share in the company of a few close friends in the past. He normalized the complete lack of empathy towards adversaries. He normalized acting like a complete moron against all evidence. He normalized distrust in science. He normalized abusing a political responsibility for selfpromotion. ... I could go on.

But what is really grinding my gears behind that context is, that he normalized all that shit not only in the US, but basically worldwide due to the insane reach he had as US president. Parties in my home country are beginning to do exactly the same shit, not on full-removed level yet but we will get there.

/rant sorry

undefined> setting the precedent that a former president can be charged is still important

absolutely. It is already a win, but I believe the US really need the BIG win which would be to actually sentence him for the serious crimes he commited. Literally every other US citizen would be a prisoner long since for doing a microscopic part of what Trump did. The damage that one person did in 4 years, and not just locally in America but also internationally, is sheer unbelievable.

Even the AMA announcement is at "0" (so probably in the thousands negative, didnt check). I'll also check in with some popcorn. =)

that seems like the sad truth.

Honestly, with all the shit this disgusting wannabe dictator has already gotten away with, I'll hold on to celebrations until there is some kind of definitive verdict.

And dont get me started on the sentence even IF they convict him for something. He's old, he's rich, he probably still has some buddies in higher places - I'd be absolutely surprised if he would go to a genpop prison. - Even though thats exactly what he would deserve the most.