First, some reccomended reading. (The Enshittification of TikTok - or, how, exactly platforms die)

This subreddit has gone dark for nearly a month now, in protest of the API changes that have everyone so up in arms. There are loads of good reasons for this protest. I will not elaborate them here. You can find better writeups of the nitty gritty elsewhere, if you care to look.

The truth is... I had my own reasons. And they are best explained in the Doctorow article linked above. The pivot in policy we have seen is not the first time that Reddit and it's owners have begun to walk down the path that the article spells out. The death of the API is just the biggest step down that path I've seen them take.

It's clear to me that the Enshittification of Reddit is happening, and that it's further along the path then I realized. In my experince, these things happen very slowly... and then all at once. I think the "all at once" part of that equation is looming over the horizon.

This makes me sad. I have spent 11+ years building and guiding this subreddit to the place where it is now. We built a lovely community here, and I really do feel like it has grown alongside an increased awareness of the way women in armor are depicted in fantasy and sci-fi art.

The protest has failed. It only had a longshot of working, anyway. To me, the success or failure wasn't really the point. The point was... I am done. I want no part of Reddit anymore. The Enshittification of Reddit is inevitable. I don't want to see it happen in this subreddit.

So, going forward, I've gotten enough requests for people to see what has been posted here to figure I'll just open it, and leave it restricted.

I grabbed a Kbin mirror for this community... Here, but the truth is... I don't want to spend another 11 years building up another community from scratch. I'm not in a place in my life where that kind of sustained effort is going to happen unless it keeps the lights on. But, If any of y'all feel otherwise... mosey on over there, and say Hello.

I'll be deleting my reddit account at some point. Not sure when.

Reddit has removed moderators from several large subreddits, and archived the subreddits to prevent further posts.

So... I'm just going to leave this here. https://karab.in/m/ArmoredWomen

Not saying I'll use it. The notion of trying to rebuild this community again is... kinda heartbreaking. But I figure I could future proof things a little.

(Assuming this doesn't get removed if I do, anyway.)

We've gone dark for 2 days in protest of the API changes. Reddit has remained silent, save for expectations that the protest will blow over.

Our work isn't done. We need to go dark again - possibily untill we get the changes.

I don't have time to make a survey to formally poll folks, but I'd like to ask the subreddit what you think.

Should we go dark again? Possibly permanantly? Some folks are floating going dark for a few days a week, and I'd be willing to consider that. I'd need more mod help to make it practical, though.

Please chime in!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CtPB71erjg0/

Timelapse on my instagram

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