Original post:
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
Hi everyone,
Well, it has been a wild ride. I joined reddit over a decade ago, when it was still much smaller and different from today. I quickly stumbled upon r/theoryofreddit and was fascinated by all the discussion and theories about how communities work. So when after a while mod applications opened up I applied, which was my first experience modding on reddit. My experiences there also prompted me to start experimenting with ways to make moderation easier through various user scripts and CSS hacks. This eventually resulted in a very early version of toolbox, although some earlier experiments never made it to the general public.
In the decade that followed I was involved in various communities and Toolbox developed into a project that used by over 20.000 (twenty thousand) mods all over reddit. But over the past few years reddit has been moving slowly in a direction that I believe is not good for the health of many communities. So even before this whole API debacle properly started I was already burned out and tired with reddit.
What I said in this post holds true even more today. I am just tired with the platform’s now accelerated decline, see also this comment.
So, over the past two weeks I have decided that I am not going to use reddit anymore.
As a mod, I already did quit my last actual subreddit last year (r/history). Yesterday I cleaned up a few of the smaller subreddits I was still involved as well. As a user I went through all my subscriptions and unsubscribed from all of them with the exception of r/modnews and r/modcoord. The last two because I’ll stick around a bit for the meta stuff, certainly to see how things end up. But I think I have invested more than enough time in this platform, probably more than has been healthy at times.
I want to use this post to thank everyone who has been involved with me in a mod team, involved with toolbox and all users of toolbox. “Wait, why is this posted on r/creesch and not r/toolbox?”
Fair question, with a simple answer. This is me saying my goodbyes for now, not strictly a toolbox announcement. While a lot of people see me and toolbox as one and the same thing, many different people contributed over the years and the project itself is not going away. I am also not going nuclear by disabling it as that would make me no better than certain admin actions in the past couple of weeks. As I said here two weeks ago. I will speak my mind, but toolbox itself has since it’s inception be there for all mods to help them out. I am not going to abuse that trust we build over the years by forcing my opinion. “Why not quit reddit entirely, delete your account, be done with it?”
I thought about it. But I am not really the nuclear type. And to be completely honest, over a decade of work and effort is difficult to entirely let go. I really do dislike the direction reddit has chosen to go but I’d like to be able to check in to see if there is a shift in course. And yes, while reddit profits from the information on reddit it also is information regular people might benefit from. If I deleted my account, including scrubbing all comments my voice, over what has happened in the past two weeks (years, honestly) will also no longer be there.
Glad they are getting out of there.
I was very impressed by how you stood up to spez on that phone call a couple weeks back.
Interesting comment in that thread.
They mention Lemmy and kbin in the comments (as well as Tildes).
Welp, modding without Toolbox is not great, especially on the old reddit interface. Can’t imagine modding without it. That just leaves one dev working on the toolbox.
Edit: Brain thought Toolbox, fingers typed RES. Fixed the typo.
Is Toolbox related to RES?
I know RES is mostly u/honestbleeps, I don’t actually know who all is behind Toolbox.
That’s a typo on my part, edited.
What’s their name?
/u/creesch
Here’s his post about it:
https://old.reddit.com/r/creesch/comments/14fxzr4/so_long_and_thanks_for_all_the_fish/
Edit: changed like to use old reddit.
Link for people who don’t have a reddit account anymore. As now everything is unreviewed content and you need the app
https://teddit.net/r/creesch/comments/14fxzr4/so_long_and_thanks_for_all_the_fish/
The below is a paste of the above link, missing the formatting, including links.
Hi everyone, Well, it has been a wild ride. I joined reddit over a decade ago, when it was still much smaller and different from today. I quickly stumbled upon /r/theoryofreddit and was fascinated by all the discussion and theories about how communities work. So when after a while mod applications opened up I applied, which was my first experience modding on reddit. My experiences there also prompted me to start experimenting with ways to make moderation easier through various user scripts and CSS hacks. This eventually resulted in a very early version of toolbox, although some earlier experiments never made it to the general public. In the decade that followed I was involved in various communities and Toolbox developed into a project that used by over 20.000 (twenty thousand) mods all over reddit. But over the past few years reddit has been moving slowly in a direction that I believe is not good for the health of many communities. So even before this whole API debacle properly started I was already burned out and tired with reddit. What I said in this post holds true even more today. I am just tired with the platform’s now accelerated decline, see also this comment. So, over the past two weeks I have decided that I am not going to use reddit anymore. As a mod, I already did quit my last actual subreddit last year (/r/history). Yesterday I cleaned up a few of the smaller subreddits I was still involved as well. As a user I went through all my subscriptions and unsubscribed from all of them with the exception of /r/modnews and /r/modcoord. The last two because I’ll stick around a bit for the meta stuff, certainly to see how things end up. But I think I have invested more than enough time in this platform, probably more than has been healthy at times. I want to use this post to thank everyone who has been involved with me in a mod team, involved with toolbox and all users of toolbox. “Wait, why is this posted on /r/creesch and not /r/toolbox?”
Fair question, with a simple answer. This is me saying my goodbyes for now, not strictly a toolbox announcement. While a lot of people see me and toolbox as one and the same thing, many different people contributed over the years and the project itself is not going away. I am also not going nuclear by disabling it as that would make me no better than certain admin actions in the past couple of weeks. As I said here two weeks ago. I will speak my mind, but toolbox itself has since it’s inception be there for all mods to help them out. I am not going to abuse that trust we build over the years by forcing my opinion. “Why not quit reddit entirely, delete your account, be done with it?”
I thought about it. But I am not really the nuclear type. And to be completely honest, over a decade of work and effort is difficult to entirely let go. I really do dislike the direction reddit has chosen to go but I’d like to be able to check in to see if there is a shift in course. And yes, while reddit profits from the information on reddit it also is information regular people might benefit from. If I deleted my account, including scrubbing all comments my voice, over what has happened in the past two weeks (years, honestly) will also no longer be there.
Hahaha, Reddit won’t let me view that unless I’m in the app because it’s “unverified content”.
Wow!
Old reddit still works, so I’m guessing their next step will really be to kill it.naturally.
It’s like they don’t want people to use their site… I’ve updated the link above to point to old reddit.
You can usually get around that with the old compact interface. Clicking links is a bit glitchy after its “retirement” (Reddit “retired” it by stripping
.compactfrom all links, but compact still tries to use them), however, it’s still mostly usable, if you put.iat the end of the link.https://old.reddit.com/r/creesch/comments/14fxzr4/so_long_and_thanks_for_all_the_fish/.i
Still learning reddit hacks after all these years.
deleted by creator
Wow. They are really so far gone at this point.
I can see it just fine in browser, not logged in. Not to call you a liar but can you take a screen shot?
It affects me too. Only the mobile site, probably because they’re trying to get mobile users to use their app and they don’t have a desktop app.
It did to me too. You just have to switch it over to opening in a desktop browser.
I had no idea they were doing that now…great
You love to see it…
The first time I clicked the link, it tried to change browsers on me. I said no. Then it looked like it was actually going to let me read the text, but instead demanded that I use the reddit app. I gave up.
Thanks to @peanuts4life@beehaw.org for posting a readable version!
This is exactly the type of friction that made RiF my “reddit”. It’s not even close to the same experience and it’s painful.
Yep I get “Choose how to open link”, select RedReader, and boom I’m exactly where I need to be. Works from Firefox Mobile’s Open In App functions as well.
It’s been 6 fuckin years Reddit. Why still have these unnecessary hurdles, and why force people onto a comparitively much worse experience?
Somewhat inevitable :\
It’s all fine, we just need the IPO
deleted by creator
It’s a dev annnpincing they’re discontinuing a project for software that people use and rely on.
Got any more shit takes you’d like to “announce?”
This might also be a shit take, but you’re both right IMO. On the one hand people announcing they’re off social media IS pretty melodramatic, but on the other hand, the person doing it also developed a very popular mod toolbox and it’s probably important for those that use it to know he’s stepping away.
The vast majority of the time, yes… but if someone built tools and volunteered their time to help make that platform better, I’ll cut them some slack.
If you don’t understand why he’s doing it then you’ve never done anything of value w/r/t community projects and your opinion belongs in the toxic wasteland with all the others.
Presidents who feel the need to announce their resignations are ridiculous.
(yes, exaggerated, but someone who does something very important for many communities still makes sence.)
That’s hilarious!!!
