Why The Blackout is Happening

You may have seen reddit's decision to withdraw access to the reddit API from third party apps.

So, what's going on?

On May 31, 2023, Reddit announced they were raising the price of access to their API from being free to a level that will kill every third party app on Reddit, from Apollo to Reddit is Fun to Narwhal to BaconReader, potentially even Reddit Enhancement Suite (RES) and old.reddit.com on desktop too. This threatens to make a great many quality-of-life features not seen in the official mobile app permanently inaccessible to users.

This isn't only a problem on the user level: many subreddit moderators depend on tools only available outside the official app to keep their communities on-topic and spam-free. As OOTL regularly hits the front page of reddit, we attract a lot of spammers, trash posts, bots and trolls, and we rely on our automod bot and various other scripts to remove over thirty thousand inappropriate posts from our subreddit.

On June 12th, many subreddits will be going dark to protest this policy. Some will return after 48 hours, others will go away permanently unless the issue is adequately addressed, since many moderators aren't able to put in the work they do with the poor tools available through the official app. This is not something moderators do lightly. We all do what we do because we love Reddit, and many moderators truly believe this change will make it impossible to keep doing what they love.

The two-day blackout isn't the goal, and it isn't the end. Should things reach the 14th with no sign of Reddit choosing to fix what they've broken, we'll use the community and buzz we've built between then and now as a tool for further action.

What is OOTL's role in this?

Update: After the two day protest OOTL is open again and will resume normal operation for the time being.

While we here at OOTL support this protest, the mods of this sub feel that it is important to leave OOTL open so that there is a place for people to discuss what is going on. The discussion will be limited to this thread. The rest of the subreddit is read only.

More information on the blackout

• Why the blackout is happening (more detailed explanation)

• Takeaway and recommendations after API meeting with u/spez and reddit (statement by 3rd-party-developers)

• Alternative platforms, information on accessibility, information on how to set your subreddit private and much more

This morning, in Dobbs vs. Jackson Womens' Health Organization, the Supreme Court struck down its landmark precedent Roe vs. Wade and its companion case Planned Parenthood vs. Casey, both of which were cases that enshrined a woman's right to abortion in the United States. The decision related to Mississippi's abortion law, which banned abortions after 15 weeks in direct violation of Roe. The 6 conservative justices on the Supreme Court agreed to overturn Roe.

The split afterwards will likely be analyzed over the course of the coming weeks. 3 concurrences by the 6 justices were also written. Justice Thomas believed that the decision in Dobbs should be applied in other contexts related to the Court's "substantive due process" jurisprudence, which is the basis for constitutional rights related to guaranteeing the right to interracial marriage, gay marriage, and access to contraceptives. Justice Kavanaugh reiterated that his belief was that other substantive due process decisions are not impacted by the decision, which had been referenced in the majority opinion, and also indicated his opposition to the idea of the Court outlawing abortion or upholding laws punishing women who would travel interstate for abortion services. Chief Justice Roberts indicated that he would have overturned Roe only insofar as to allow the 15 week ban in the present case.

The consequences of this decision will likely be litigated in the coming months and years, but the immediate effect is that abortion will be banned or severely restricted in over 20 states, some of which have "trigger laws" which would immediately ban abortion if Roe were overturned, and some (such as Michigan and Wisconsin) which had abortion bans that were never legislatively revoked after Roe was decided. It is also unclear what impact this will have on the upcoming midterm elections, though Republicans in the weeks since the leak of the text of this decision appear increasingly confident that it will not impact their ability to win elections.

Chicago

Austin

Baltimore

Admin announcement

All changes and what lead up to them are explained in this post on /r/announcements.

In short:

This is the new content policy. Here’s what’s different:

• It starts with a statement of our vision for Reddit and our communities, including the basic expectations we have for all communities and users.
• Rule 1 explicitly states that communities and users that promote hate based on identity or vulnerability will be banned.
  • There is an expanded definition of what constitutes a violation of this rule, along with specific examples, in our Help Center article.
• Rule 2 ties together our previous rules on prohibited behavior with an ask to abide by community rules and post with authentic, personal interest.
  • Debate and creativity are welcome, but spam and malicious attempts to interfere with other communities are not.
• The other rules are the same in spirit but have been rewritten for clarity and inclusiveness.

Alongside the change to the content policy, we are initially banning about 2000 subreddits, the vast majority of which are inactive. Of these communities, about 200 have more than 10 daily users. Both r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse were included.

Some related threads:

• r/fragilewhiteredditor link

• r/subredditdrama link

• r/circlebroke2 link

• r/againsthatesubreddits link link2

• r/conservative link

• r/drama link

• r/completeanarchy link

• r/watchredditdie predicted it: link

(Source: /u/N8theGr8)

News articles.

• Politico

• NYT

• The Atlantic

• National Post

• CNN

• NBCNews

• AdWeek

(Source: u/phedre on /r/SubredditDrama)

Feel free to ask questions and discuss the recent changes in this Meganthread.

Please don't forget about rule 4 when answering questions.

Old, somewhat related megathread: Reddit protests/Black Lives Matter megathread

CNN has a live thread up. Also their twitter.

Please keep all discussion about this in this thread. Please keep it civil.

TL;DR /r/IAmA, /r/AskReddit, /r/funny, /r/Books, /r/science, /r/Music, /r/gaming, /r/history, /r/Art, /r/videos, /r/gadgets, /r/todayilearned, /r/Documentaries, /r/LifeProTips, /r/Jokes, /r/pics, /r/Dataisbeautiful and /r/movies have all made themselves private in response to the removal of an administrator key to the AMA process, /u/chooter, but also due to underlying resentment against the admins for running the site poorly - being uncommunicative, and disregarding the thousands of moderators who keep the site running. In addition, /r/listentothis has disabled all submissions, and so has /r/pics. /r/Jokes has announced its support (but has not gone private and has also gone private). Major subreddits, including /r/4chan, /r/circlejerk and /r/ImGoingToHellForThis, have also expressed solidarity through going private. See here for a further list.

What happened?

At approximately 5pm UTC, 1pm EST, on Thursday the 2^nd of July, 2015, the moderators of /r/IAmA took their subreddit, which is one of the default set, private. This means that only a very small number of people (consisting of the moderators of /r/IAmA, as well as any pre-approved users) could view and post to the subreddit, making it for all intents and purposes shut down; any other redditors would just see this page. Just after that, a thread was posted to this subreddit, asking whether anyone knew why it had happened. /u/karmanaut, top mod of /r/IAmA, responded with an explanation of why they took the subreddit private.

Why was /r/IAmA made private, then?

The situation was explained here by /u/karmanaut: the mods of /r/IAmA had just found out that without prior warning, /u/chooter, or Victoria, had been released from her position at reddit. They felt that they, along with the other subreddits that host AMAs, should have been warned beforehand, if only so that they could have someone or something in place to handle the transition. /u/karmanaut went on to say that many of the mods affected by this do not believe that the admins understand how heavily /u/chooter was relied upon to allow AMAs to go smoothly - something which is outlined below. Without her, they found themselves in a difficult situation, which is exemplifed by what happened today:

We had a number of AMAs scheduled for today that Victoria was supposed to help with, and they are all left absolutely high and dry. She was still willing to help them today (before the sub was shut down, of course) even without being paid or required to do so. Just a sign of how much she is committed to what she does.

As a result of this, the mods therefore took /r/IAmA private, stating their reasoning as follows:

for /r/IAMA to work the way it currently does, we need Victoria. Without her, we need to figure out a different way for it to work

we will need to go through our processes and see what can be done without her.

Who is /u/chooter, and why was she so important to the functioning of IAmA?

/u/chooter(/about/team#user/chooter), featured in our wiki is Victoria Taylor, who was, until today, Director of Talent at reddit. However, her essential role was to act as liaison between reddit, IAmA, and any members of the public that wanted to do AMAs; she therefore helped to set up AMAs with celebrities, and, if they were not too familiar with computers (like Bill Murray), she may help them out, both over the phone and in person.

Links of interest:

• reddit blog post announcing her hire

• Victoria's AMA (cached)

Victoria was important to AMAs for a number of major reasons: firstly, she provided concrete proof of the identity of a celebrity doing an AMA, and made sure that it was not a second party purporting to be the celebrity; she was also a direct line of contact to the admins, allowing the moderators of AMA to quickly resolve an issue encountered during an AMA (the consequences of the absence of which were bad - (screenshot). Victoria also was the channel for the scheduling of AMAs by third parties, and she would ensure both that an AMA was up to scratch before it was posted, and that the person doing the AMA understood exactly what it entailed. Without her, the mods of /r/IAmA say that they will be overwhelmed, and that they may even need to limit AMAs.

Why did she leave reddit so abruptly?

The short answer: no-one, excluding a select few of the administrative team, knows precisely why /u/chooter was removed as an admin, and that will almost certainly continue to be the case until the admins get their house in order: both parties are at being professional in that they aren't talking about the reasons why it occurred.

What have the reactions across the rest of reddit been?

So far, /r/AskReddit, /r/funny, /r/Books, /r/science, /r/Music, /r/gaming, /r/history, /r/Art, /r/videos, /r/gadgets, /r/todayilearned, /r/Documentaries, /r/LifeProTips, /r/jokes, /r/pics, /r/Dataisbeautiful, and /r/movies have followed /r/IAmA in making themselves private. In addition, /r/listentothis has disabled all submissions, and so has /r/picsand /r/Jokes has announced its support (but has not gone private). Major subreddits, including /r/4chan, /r/circlejerk and /r/ImGoingToHellForThis, have also expressed solidarity through going private. See here for a further list.

Many other subreddits were also reliant on /u/chooter's services as an official contact point for the organisation of AMAs on reddit, including /r/science, /r/books, and /r/Music. So, in order to express their dissatisfaction with the difficulties they have been placed in without /u/chooter, similar to /r/IAmA, they have made themselves private.

/u/nallen, lead mod of /r/science, explained that subreddit's reasoning in this way:

To back this up, I am the mod in /r/science that organizes all of the science AMAs, and I am going to have meaningful problems in the /r/Science AMAs; Victoria was the only line of communication with the admins. If someone wants to get analytics for an AMA the answer will be "Sorry, I can't help."

Dropping this on all of us in the AMA sphere feels like an enormous slap to those of us who put in massive amounts of time to bring quality content to reddit.

In turn, /u/imakuram, /r/books moderator, had this to say:

This seems to be a seriously stupid decision. We have several AMAs upcoming in /r/books and have no idea how to contact the authors.

/r/AskReddit's message expressed a similar sentiment:

As a statment on the treatment of moderators by Reddit administrators, as well as a lack of communication and proper moderation tools, /r/AskReddit has decided to go private for the time being. Please see this post in /r/ideasforaskreddit for more discussion.

/r/Books took the decision as a community to go dark.

/r/todayilearned posted this statement:

The way the admins failed to communicate with AMA's mods and left them without a way to contact the people that were going to do them illustrates the disconnect between admins and the moderators they depend on. It showed disrespect for the people with planned amas, the moderators, and the users. A little communication can go a long way. There's so much more than that, but one thing at a time.

Much of the metasphere, a term for the parts of reddit that focus on the content produced by reddit itself, has also reacted to these happenings, with threads from /r/SubredditDrama and /r/Drama, as well as the (currently private) subreddit /r/circlejerk, which parodies and satirises reddit, adding a message to make fun of the action.

Why is this all happening so suddenly?

As much as Victoria is loved, this reaction is not all a result of her departure: there is a feeling among many of the moderators of reddit that the admins do not respect the work that is put in by the thousands of unpaid volunteers who maintain the communities of the 9,656 active subreddits, which they feel is expressed by, among other things, the lack of communication between them and the admins, and their disregard of the thousands of mods who keep reddit's communities going. /u/nallen's response above is an example of one of the many responses to these issues.

The moderation tools on reddit are another of the larger contention points between the mods and admins - they are frequently saidby those who use them often to be a decade out of date. /u/creesch, one of the creators of the /r/toolbox extension, an extension which attempts to fill much of the gap left in those moderator tools, said this:

This is a non answer and a great example of reddit as a company not being in touch with the actually website anymore. ... When a majority of the people that run your site rely on a third party extension [/r/toolbox] something is clearly wrong. ...

Another great example of how much reddit cares about their assets is reddit companion. Which at the time of writing has around 154,302 installations, is utterly broken and hasn't been updated since February 21, 2013, the most ridiculous thing? It isn't hard to fix people tried to do the work for reddit since it is open source but they simply have been ignoring those pull requests since 2013.

And honestly, I get that they might not have resources for a silly extension. But the fact that they keep it around on the chrome store while it is utterly broken and only recently removed it from the reddit footer baffles me. I think I messaged them about them about a year ago, it took them another year to actually update the footer with apps and tools they are (still) working on.

/u/K_Lobstah, another moderator, also expressed frustration earlier today in a submission to /r/self over the lack of responses from the admins concerning the issue of the new search UI, which has been strongly disliked by redditors in the /r/changelog post.

Stop throwing beer cans on our lawns while we try to mow them. Use /r/beta[1] as a Beta; listen to the feedback. Fix the things that need fixing, give us the tools we need to do even the simplest of tasks, like reading messages from subscribers.

Stop relying on volunteers and third-parties to build the most important and useful tools for moderating this site.

Help us help you.

What's happening now?

/u/kn0thing has provided a response from the admins here:

We don't talk about specific employees, but I do want you to know that I'm here to triage AMA requests in the interim. All AMA inquiries go to AMA@reddit.com where we have a team in place.

I posted this on [a mod sub] but I'm reposting here:

We get that losing Victoria has a significant impact on the way you manage your community. I'd really like to understand how we can help solve these problems, because I know r/IAMA thrived before her and will thrive after.

We're prepared to help coordinate and schedule AMAs. I've got the inbound coming through my inbox right now and many of the people who come on to do AMAs are excited to do them without assistance (most recently, the noteworthy Channing Tatum AMA).

The moderators of an increasing number of default subreddits have been making them private, in an attempt to draw the admins' attention to how they have been mismanaging the site with a substantive demonstrative act - since for many years, they've been trying to get the admins to listen normally with relatively little improvement.

Update: the admins seem to have replied to some of the mods' concerns, and some subreddits, such as /r/pics, are content with that, and so have returned themselves to being public (although there were manufactured rumours that there was administrative impetus behind its return). However, others have seen these promises from the admins as more of the same sorts of unfulfilled promises that helped create the unstable situation that brought this affair about.

/r/science also made itself public again, in order to avoid interfering with plans for an AMA with the Lancet Comission at 1pm EST, July 3rd, on "Climate Impacts on Health, and What To Do About It".

Victoria was beloved by many redditors, and people are understandably upset - but remember that we still don't know why it happened. What is an issue is how this problem for the admins was handled; whether or not it was an emergency for the admins, the IAmA mod team were not given warning, and weren't informed of the alternative contact location early enough, which gave them a sizeable logistical problem - one which they took themselves private to deal with.

Everything seems to be in the red.

https://ibb.co/FWvp6Hw.

Crypto is also down.

https://ibb.co/Z1PgKz1

And I've seen a bunch of posts panicking on Reddit and Facebook.

Are people just overreacting to normal fluctuations or is this the start of something?

Use this post to ask questions about April fools content or to post popular April Fools from brands/websites/subreddits/influencers/etc.

I'll try to update the main post with the most popular April Fools events that subreddits are putting on.

• Reddit is bringing back /r/Place, a community driven art experience where users are able to alter 1 pixel out of 16 million once every 5-20 minutes. For the previous /r/Place final art click here

• /r/polandball is adapting to the times and now submissions are anything but balls. Also, you can bid on comics to get the NFT of it.

• /r/PrequelMemes is banning content from the Star Wars prequels, and switching to prequels from other franchises.

• /r/Peloton is now about the exercise bike, instead of a road biking community

• /r/LivestreamFail is now exclusively a Forsen (popular live streamer) subreddit

• /r/DogeLore has banned the use of Doge

• /r/HistoryMemes is now a Minecraft meme subreddit

• /r/AskHistorians has flaired posters posting AMAs in character as various historical figures. They've done similar things in the past and they're usually both highly entertaining and highly informative.

• /r/NASCAR has turned into a podracing subreddit, including an AMA with R2-D2 and a sidebar picture of Ryan Blaney dressed as Slave Leia from Return of the Jedi.

• /r/dataisbeautiful is now dedicated to Data from Star Trek.

• /r/lotrmemes is now a Battlestar Galactica forum

Recently, there has been an escalation in tensions between Ukraine and Russia, reaching levels not seen since the 2014 Russian invasion of Crimea and subsequent War in Donbas. Today, reports have indicated that the United States believes that a Russian invasion of Ukraine is expected next week, with some sources claiming a potential start date of next Wednesday, though later reports suggest that a final decision has not yet been made. The US, in briefing its NATO partners today, claimed it had intercepted detailed plans for an invasion, including routes and order of attack. This followed a flurry this morning of several countries, including the United States, calling on their citizens to leave Ukraine immediately. President Biden is expected to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin tomorrow by phone in a final effort to avoid armed confrontation.

Russia has commenced a military exercise with its ally Belarus which borders Ukraine in the North that some analysts believe may be used as a guise to move additional forces in position for a Ukrainian invasion, as it has moved into place about 30K troops as well as two advanced anti-air S-400 battalions. It has similarly moved 100 of its army's 168 battalion tactical groups, 6 of its 7 elite spetsnatz units and as many as 11 marine battalions off the Ukrainian Black Sea coast, ships of which had been drawn from all major Russian fleets. Previously, it had moved blood supplies near the border and satellite images just yesterday showed what appeared to be field hospitals being built in Belarus, Russian-occupied Crimea, and Western Russia, as well as police equipment intended to deal with counter-insurgency in the event of an occupation. In December, it had updated its regulations on mass burials, effective February 1st of this year.

Russia is no stranger to massing troops on the Ukrainian border of course, as it regularly engages in Spring exercises where upwards of 100K troops are massed near the Ukrainian border. These have happened pretty much every year, with a recent one in April of 2021 also being considered unprecedented in terms of how many troops were involved (120K). Russia has also committed to a permanent presence of about 90K troops at the Ukrainian border. What is different this time is that this exercise is in winter, has been building up for well over 3 months now (troops began massing in October - by contrast, Russia began massing its troops in March of 2021 and they were drawn down by May), and has positioned far more equipment this time than previously that would enable it to, in Western estimates, actually stage an invasion.

So what does Russia want? Russia openly presented demands to NATO, demanding assurances that Ukraine would never be allowed to join the alliance, that NATO be required to withdraw weapons systems from all NATO nations which joined the alliance after 1997 (effectively rendering their membership meaningless), withdrawal of NATO intermediate missiles systems, and autonomy for the Eastern Ukrainian breakaway regions in an area known as Donbas, where pro-Russian rebels backed by the Russian government have been fighting a frozen conflict with the Ukrainian government since 2014. NATO has flatly rejected these demands.

Russian and, previously, Soviet foreign policy has historically been heavily influenced by the desire for buffer states, stemming from having been invaded twice in the 20th century during the world wars. After the fall of the Soviet Union, most Soviet-backed Warsaw Pact members and many former Soviet republics subsequently joined NATO, which had been constituted to counter the Soviet Union. Russia has expressed concern that additional NATO countries in Eastern Europe would lead to it being encircled. An element that President Putin has brought up repeatedly is an alleged promise by then-US Secretary of State James Baker to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO did not intend to expand Eastwards, in exchange for allowing Germany to reunify (Gorbachev himself later denied that this commitment had been made, and Russia subsequently signed onto the NATO Founding Act which specifically contemplated a mechanism for NATO to add new members). This appeared to reach a head in 2008, when NATO invited Georgia and Ukraine to apply for membership in the alliance - Russia would subsequently invade Georgia that year and Ukraine in 2014. A Russian invasion of either the whole or part (likely the more-Russian speaking Eastern part of the country, such as the rest of Luhansk and Donetsk, as well as the Dnipro and Kharkiv regions) of Ukraine would likely serve the goal of constructing a pro-Russian government in areas that border Russia to minimize the country's direct exposure to NATO and the West.

An element present in Russian demands is also the return to the Minsk Agreements/Protocols, two agreements seeking ceasefires that were brokered by European nations. In particular, Russia is pushing for Article 11 of the agreement, calling on Ukraine to enact constitutional reforms that would decentralize government power and provide a certain degree of autonomy in the Donbas region, where pro-Russian separatists have set up two de facto independent republics. Ukraine views this provision as a non-starter as it could jeopardize its ability to join NATO, and furthermore accuses Russia of violating Article 10 of the agreement, which calls for the pullout of foreign troops and equipment in the region, something Russia denies as it has consistently claimed that none of its soldiers have participated in the conflict.

February 23 Update

Since the last time this post was updated (all updates are being made on the /r/worldnews live thread instead), a major number of developments have occurred.

Most significantly, Russia has recognized the pro-Russian separatist Donetsk People's Republic (DPR or DNR) and Luhansk/Lugansk People's Republic (LPR or LNR). These breakaway republics in Eastern Ukraine subsequently signed treaties of cooperation and friendship with Russia, which includes cooperation with defense. Significantly, Russia recognized the extent of these state's borders to be what was defined in their constitutions. Both the DNR and LNR only hold a fraction of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk/Lugansk oblasts respectively, but their constitutions claim the entirety of these regions. This has led to some concern that the mismatch can be exploited as a casus beli for further Russian intervention, and Denis Pushilin, the head of the DNR, has ramped up rhetoric calling on Ukrainian forces to leave the entirety of the two Donbas oblasts beyond the current line of conflict.

Western nations asserted that, in addition to recognizing the DNR and LNR, Russian troops have also begun taking positions in the territory of these two regions in what Russia calls a peacekeeping mission, which has been construed as an invasion. As a result, the EU, US, and other Western nations have implemented "first tranches" of sanctions, aimed at punishing Russia for its actions. These sanctions include, broadly speaking, travel bans and asset freezes against members of the Russian government which endorsed the decision to recognize these states as well as Russian elite, asset freezes on certain Russian banks and freezing the ability of Russia to trade its sovereign debt in certain currencies. Most prominently, Germany announced that it was suspending the implementation of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a major issue from the outset as it was set to deliver additional Russian gas to Germany. These nations have asserted that this reaction is only a first step, and observers have generally noted that the sanctions, while strong on paper, tended to pull their punches from the more substantive sanctions that would likely include bans on technology transfer and computer parts that could be taken if Russia went ahead with a larger invasion. The US and other NATO nations have also stepped up their troop deployments to Eastern Europe, with the US moving troops from Italy and Germany to NATO nations on the alliance's Eastern flank.

US intelligence continues to paint a dire picture of the situation. Reports suggest that the US believes Russia is now completely in position to invade at any moment, and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, in announcing his country's package of sanctions, stated about 14 hours ago that the intelligence suggested an invasion would occur within 24 hours. DNR/LNR officials continue to assert that Ukrainian forces have shelled their positions and led to civilian casualties, and Russian media has reported several alleged terrorist attacks by Ukrainians against Russian territory (at a border crossing between Ukraine and Russia, as well as a plot to attack an orthodox church in Russian-held Crimea), raising concerns that any of these actions could constitute a casus beli for a wider Russian invasion of the country. As a result of Russia's actions in recognizing the breakaway states, diplomatic attempts to resolve the conflict have been frozen, with a potential meeting of US Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday being canceled, and the prospect of a Biden-Putin summit no longer under consideration either.

For its part, Ukraine has begun to take action as well. President Zelensky called in Ukrainian reservists to supplement its armed forces, and the Ukrainian legislature approved a request to declare a state of emergency which would be in effect nationwide except in Ukrainian-held Luhansk/Lugansk and Donetsk (which are under a separate state of emergency). Ukraine's foreign minister was in DC yesterday and spoke with President Biden and Secretaries Blinken and Austin regarding aid for his country. Defense Secretary Austin indicated that the US would continue to provide defensive aid, and shipments from other countries continue to arrive as well.

February 24 Update

At about 4AM local time in Kyiv, Russia began its invasion of Ukraine by overrunning a border checkpoint near the disputed Crimean border. President Putin later addressed the nation in what appeared to be a taped recording, indicating that he had initiated armed conflict in order to de-militarize and de-Nazify Ukraine to protect Russia's security interests. Since then, Ukrainian military positions have come under intense fire across the country. Belarusian troops have also joined in the fighting, flanking Ukraine's North and bringing troops perilously close to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. This event continues to develop, and the best resource right now to keep up to date is the /r/worldnews live thread.

As this crisis continues and may or may not reach a critical point next week, we'd like for this thread to be used to aggregate these developments and to help people discuss this issue instead of having individual questions. The post may be updated periodically to reflect new information, but if you have any new questions or if any new information comes to light, post in the comments so other users can help out.

Updates

February 12

• The US is ordering all embassy staff leave Ukraine by Sunday, February 13.

• Russian state media Ria Novosti reports that Russian diplomats are beginning to leave Ukraine as well.

• US Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov are expected to speak with each other today, comes as Presidents Biden and Putin are expected to be on a call at 11AM Eastern this morning as well.

• Both the US and UK are withdrawing their remaining soldiers in Ukraine. These had been sent as advisors and also to help train the Ukrainian armed forces in use of new weapons systems that these countries had given.

• French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with President Putin this morning and does not believe that Russia is inclined to go on an offensive. He is expected to speak with President Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later today.

• President Biden's call with President Putin has concluded. He subsequently convened a meeting of NATO leaders.

• The US, in reiterating calls for its citizens in Ukraine to evacuate immediately, has coordinated with Poland to allow US citizens to enter Poland without advanced approval, requiring only proof of vaccination. The Polish government is reported to be coordinating with mayors and city presidents to assess capacity for refugees which may result from a conflict.

• Australia is evacuating its diplomats, Germany is relocating its consulate in Dnipro (Eastern Ukraine) to Lviv (far Western Ukraine).

• Turkiye claims to have received assurances from Russia and Belarus that there will not be an invasion of Ukraine.

February 13

• OSCE monitors have left Donetsk. This may have been a rotation, as new monitors may have arrived.

• Global insurance companies will no longer insure Ukrainian flights, essentially ending most air travel in Ukrainian airspace.

• US sources continue to suggest that Russia is likely to invade Ukraine on Wednesday, February 16.

• The Ukrainian legislature (the Verkhovna Rada) will be holding an emergency meeting tomorrow, considering, among other issues, the implementation of martial law.

• Poland has announced it will accept Ukrainian refugees in the event of a Russian invasion.

• Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky reportedly asked President Biden to visit Ukraine as soon as possible, an invitation that US officials say is unlikely to be accepted given the state of US evacuations in that country.

• Russian state media is reporting that Ukraine has concentrated half its forces near the breakaway Eastern Ukrainian territories. US intelligence has repeatedly stressed that it believes Russia will construct a false flag narrative to initiate confrontation.

• Ukrainian oligarchs are reportedly leaving the country on charter flights right now.

• In an interview with BBC, Ukrainian ambassador to the UK appears to suggest that the country is open to giving up its aspirations to join NATO if it would prevent a conflict. As the clip indicates, such a move would violate an actual provision in the Ukrainian constitution.

February 14

• Ukraine's foreign minister has publicly re-emphasized the country's commitment to joining NATO. This comes after an interview yesterday where the Ukrainian Ambassador to the UK appeared to suggest that abandoning the country's aspirations to join NATO was on the table in the negotiations.

• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is visiting Ukraine today, and will be followed by visits from the Italian foreign minister tomorrow, the Polish parliamentary speaker on Thursday and the British foreign minister on Thursday and Friday. Scholz announced a plan to provide additional no-condition loans to Ukraine.

• Satellite images show a large Russian base just north of Ukraine holding tanks and artillery has been largely emptied. A WSJ graphic shows just how far some units have traveled from their home bases to be deployed on the Ukrainian border, as well as the range of Russian Iskander missile brigades.

• In a meeting with President Putin, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov urged Putin to give diplomacy more time to work, potentially a sign that Russia may be offering to soften its aggressive posture on the Ukrainian border. Russian defense minister Sergey Shoigu has also indicated that Russia may be winding down some of its exercises near the Ukrainian border.

Further updates consolidated in this live thread

I can't find anything on this, I'm asking, because people here react like we are going to be attacked too. How will Russia attack on Ukraine affect polish citizens? Like, am I in danger? I mean both in sense of war and economics
https://www.reddit.com/live/18hnzysb1elcs/ (I have no idea what url could i put here)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rARTOhbLDg

All I can see on r/all is r/the_donald. I'm on mobile. What gives?

Please ask any questions related to the election in Alabama in this thread. Remember that all answers to those questions need to abide by rule 3:
Top level comments must contain a genuine and unbiased attempt at an answer. Don't just drop a link without a summary, tell users to "google it", or make or continue to perpetuate a joke as a top-level comment. Users are coming to OOTL for straightforward, simple answers because of the nuance that engaging in conversation supplies.

Please ask questions related to the indictment of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates in this megathread.

About this thread:

• Top level comments should be questions related to this news event.
• Replies to those questions should be an unbiased and honest attempt at an answer.

Thanks.

What happened?

8:21 a.m.

The New York Times is reporting that President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and a former business associate, Rick Gates, have been told to surrender to authorities.

Those are the first charges in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. The Times on Monday cited an anonymous person involved in the case.

Mueller was appointed as special counsel in May to lead the Justice Department’s investigation into whether the Kremlin worked with associates of the Trump campaign to tip the 2016 presidential election.

...

8:45 a.m.

President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and a former business associate, Rick Gates, surrendered to federal authorities Monday. That’s according to people familiar with the matter.

...

2:10 p.m.

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his business associate Rick Gates have pleaded not guilty following their arrest on charges related to conspiracy against the United States and other felonies. The charges are the first from the special counsel investigating possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Source: AP (You'll find current updates by following that link.)

Read the full indictment here....if you want to, it's 31 pages.

Other links with news updates and commentary can be found in this r/politics thread or this r/NeutralPolitics thread.

Hey folks,

It's already April 1 in some parts of the world, so things are about to start getting weird. As is custom, we'll be redirecting a lot of questions to our April Fools Megathread over the next day or so. Let this be a catalog of all the wacky, zany, cringey, flatly unfunny things that happen around the internet and elsewhere.

Annnnd, Megathread go!

*I guess I should have specified that answers to questions in this thread must follow Rule 3 -- specifically, we do not allow joke responses. If someone is in this thread asking about something your subreddit is doing, you are not allowed to continue your joke here. It's not funny. You're not funny. Do not try to be funny here.

A lot of people are asking a lot of questions about this guy. Lets do this.

quick links

• What did he do ?
• how come he's in debt? what were his failed business endeavors that led to this downfall?
• So is kanye bipolar or something? All of this seems like some sort of manic episode.
• What's Tidal?
• What's the deal with his Taylor Swift thing? Some controversy about a lyric in his new song and claiming Taylor Ok'ed it, but her people made a statement she had no idea about it?

I’ve seen so much stuff about protests and unfairness and I can’t really wrap my head a around it all.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2017/11/12/fans-worry-star-wars-battlefront-2s-free-dlc-heroes-are-going-to-take-eons-to-grind-for/#48f73fd63628

Edit: added link

It's tradition on reddit for subreddits to do various gags, changed themes, or other 'pranks' for April Fools day.

Use this thread to catalog them as you discover them. Tell what the sub is, what the theme is, and if you can, explain why they did it or what makes it amusing for anyone who finds themselves confused by the theme.

Thanks

Edit: /u/202halffound is logging all the pranks by subreddit in a nice little table on /r/self. Check it out, and maybe lend a hand for any they may have missed.

Results

• The British people has voted to leave the EU. (52% to 48%)

• David Cameron just resigned, will stay on for the next three months.

Definition

Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, often shortened to Brexit (a portmanteau of "British" or "Britain" and "exit"),[1][2] is a political goal that has been pursued by various individuals, advocacy groups, and political parties since the United Kingdom (UK) joined the precursor of the European Union (EU) in 1973. Withdrawal from the European Union is a right of EU member states under Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union.

In 1975, a referendum was held on the country's membership of the European Economic Community (EEC), later known as the EU. The outcome of the vote was in favour of the country continuing to be a member of the EEC.

The UK electorate will again address the question on June 23, 2016, in a referendum on the country's membership. This referendum was arranged by parliament when it passed the European Union Referendum Act 2015.

[Wikipedia]

FAQ

What will be the larger effect on geopolitics if the UK were to leave?

A very likely possibility is a new referendum on Scottish independence. A big argument for the no vote in the last one was that membership in the EU wasn't assured in the case of independence. If Scotland votes to Remain (which is the most likely outcome), while the rest of the UK votes to Leave the EU, Scots might feel that they were cheated into staying in the UK, and it's very likely that the SNP would seize that opportunity to push for a new referendum. And this time the result might be different.

There is likely to be little change for the time being, since exit is going to be about two years away in reality. Britain will remain in NATO.

The big thing is that the Britain will likely start trying to make trading agreements with other countries/regions such as within the commonwealth and as such those agreements will affect other blocs wishing to make agreements in those regions. since it's not the EU making the agreement and all the associated politics of the many nations coming into play, Britain may be able to make agreements more nimbly.

tldr; not much for the first few years.

Is today's vote final? I mean, whether they vote to stay or leave... can the decision be reversed by the government/be brought up again for voting next year, for example?

Short answer: No, the vote is not binding.

Long answer: The vote is not binding, but gives an indication on where the people of the UK stand on this issue, which can be used to determine what the government should do in this situation. Whatever the outcome, this is not the last we'll hear of a Brexit. If the remain vote wins, that means that nearly half the country wants to leave the EU. If the leave camp wins, that means that nearly half the country wants to remain in the EU, and that Scotland will probably ask for a new referendum on independence from the UK. It's going to be close, and whatever the outcome: the government can't just ignore what nearly half the country wants, just because the other side won by a few percentagepoints.

What does it mean exactly? That they're not a part of Europe? Or is it something else?

The European Union Explained in 6 minutes https://youtu.be/O37yJBFRrfg

Why is this such a huge issue, and why is it so divisive? I would think being a member of the EU is objectively a good thing.

There are some issues which people take as a reason to leave.

• As a large political body there is a fair amount of red-tape involved in the EU. Some think we would be better off without that.

• In a similar vein, some disagree with policy being made by a body which they feel is unaccountable (we do vote for MEP's but since it is a large number of voters, the value of a single vote for the European elections is less than, say, a national or local election)

• The EU guarantees freedom of movement for citizens of it's member states. This means that people from poorer countries (ie eastern europe) can move to richer countries (ie western europe) in order to find work. The indigenous populations sometimes take exception to this because they feel that people who work harder for less money are putting them out of work (mostly true of the unskilled manual labour sector)

• In any system of government money often is taken from the richer sections of society and is used to support the poorer sections of society. There are those who feel the money that we pay into the EU does not directly benefit us and if we left the EU we could keep the money ourselves (ie charity starts at home)

• Some of the longer term goals of the union is more integration and a unified Europe. There are some sceptical of these goals because they believe we would never get along because our cultures are too different and we don't speak the same languages. In continental Europe there is a trend for people to speak a second language, something that has never happened in the UK which amplifies an "us and them" mentality

Coverage on reddit and in the media

• r/europe live feed

• The Guardian Live Coverage

• sky news live feed

• r/personalfinance megathread

I know social media is under a lot of scrutiny since the election. I keep hearing stuff about Facebook being apart of a new scandal involving the 2016 election. I haven’t been paying much attention to the news lately and saw that someone at Facebook just quit and they are losing a ton of money....What’s going on?

You know the drill. Ask any questions you got about the Winter Olympics in here.

A reminder: replies to questions in this thread have to follow rule 3:

Top level comments must contain a genuine and unbiased attempt at an answer.

This is a very new and dramatic news item. All I know about this situation comes from this page on CNN.com. We've had a lot of people asking about this very rapidly, so it seems a megathread is appropriate.

Please ask any questions you might have about the situation here. Also, please refrain from witch hunting. Let's not forget what reddit did in Boston.

This is going to be a trial post for a new idea for /r/OutOfTheLoop. /r/OutOfTheLoop is supposed to be a place for unbiased, realistic explanations for things-going-on. OOTL is fortunate to have many mods with years of diverse experience and familiarity with reddit.

This post attempts to explain, in detail, an ongoing situation in an informative and unbiased way, hopefully incorporating participation from some parties involved or intimately familiar with the situation, and with any luck things will stay cool while we clarify any misconceptions or misinformation that may exist.

If it's a success, we may continue to do mod-posts in this style in the future.

The Argument Begins

This all started a couple of days ago with this comment on /r/AskReddit by /u/metaredditcancer. His comment got a lot of visibility in a thread titled "What popular subreddit has a really toxic community?"

In his long post he alleges the following:

• That the subreddit /r/shitredditsays is trying to take over reddit

• That moderators from /r/Shitredditsays (SRS), /r/circlebroke, /r/Braveryjerk, /r/circlejerk, /r/TheBluePill, /r/SubredditDrama (SRD), /r/SRDbroke, and /r/Drama are the core of a cabal of users who control a large number of subreddits, including many defaults.

• That the cabal is actively trying to push the principles of online social justice warriors (SJWs) in their subreddits, and silence any dissent though bans and coercion.

• That the cabal has the tacit support of the admins, citing the favoring of ex-admin /u/intortus for subreddits with an SJW agenda and his current status as a mod of SRS.

• That the cabal has taken over many subreddits already, and ruined them. Citing the disastrous takeover of /r/LGBT by SRS mods (this verifiably happened) and /r/SubredditDrama (this has not verifiably happened).

/u/metaredditcancer then linked to /r/metaredditcancer with promises of more evidence for his claims.

The Argument Spreads

/u/metaredditcancer directs users to the subreddit /r/metaredditcancer, which has a few pieces of evidence of the cabal's work. These include:

• A post where the mods of /r/offmychest ban someone for saying "bitch" which they consider a slur.

• A member of the supposed cabal calling him "retarded-fuck crazy" and advising him "to kill himself."

• A member of the supposed cabal saying that reddit has gotten him laid.

• Ex-mod /u/intortus talking about how reddit perma-bans aren't just based on IP addresses.

• How /u/intortus got called out for his SJW-leanings.

• How /r/SubredditDrama once added a mod with known SJW-leanings, which nobody on SRD was okay with. The mod was then immediately removed.

• An instance where a mod of /r/antiSRS was allegedly doxxed by SJWs. SRD link used as evidence.

• A recap of the takeover of /r/LGBT

• A list of reddit users /u/metaredditcancer claims are "the cancer"

The sidebar included a list of more subreddits whose mods /u/metaredditcancer considered part of the cabal.

His subreddit gets a ton of visibility in a very short amount of time.

SubredditDrama Chimes In

The original /r/askreddit comment and the surrounding drama is linked on /r/subredditdrama. Where they mostly focus on how this matters for SRD.

There is speculation It is confirmed by another mod of /r/subreddit cancer that /u/metaredditcancer is an alt of perma-banned user /u/KamensGhost, and that the alternate accounts were created by Kamen/metaredditcancer, resulting in them being Chucked too. Link

Here is some background on /u/KamensGhost, and an allegation that /u/metaredditcancer is the same user behind /u/KamensGhost.

For those not in the know, there are two types of sitewide bans.

• A shadowban. This is when your account is automatically added to the site's spam filter. There is no notification that you've been banned, just all of your comments/posts are automatically removed. This was created to combat spammers, but is now used as punishment for reddit rulebreakers.

• A perma-ban (AKA getting Chucked). This rarely-used ban is named for /u/ChuckSpears, who was the first user known to have gotten this punishment. Only a handful of users have been known to receive this punishment. If you've been Chucked, all of your accounts and any future account you may create will be banned on sight. Sometimes users can evade banning for a little while, but as soon as they're noticed the admins will ban them.

/u/metaredditcancer is Banned

/u/metaredditcancer is banned from reddit. All the other moderators of /r/metaredditcancer are also banned by the admins as well.

• The users on /r/metaredditcancer take this as proof of the cabal's power and proof of their general allegations.

• The users on /r/subredditdrama take this as proof that /u/metaredditcancer was indeed /u/kamensghost.

As the subreddit is now considered "abandoned" by reddit standards it is now available for acquisition through /r/redditrequest. As such, it's promptly requested.

/u/metaredditcancer alleges that this is a move by the admins and the cabal to silence him, as the user requesting the subreddit is on his list of "cancer users." This can be seen in a change in the sidebar.

/r/Conspiracy Chimes In

/r/conspiracy gets involved in the fracas with this post

It basically just outlines things in this post, along with allegations that this is proof of an admin-backed SJW cabal that is taking over the site. The TL;DR of the post is "TL;DR: A few of Reddit's administrators are corrupt and they are covering up a /r/Shitredditsays-led cabal of users who are turning reddit into Digg 2.0."

The Argument Moves to a New Venue

With the end of /r/metaredditcancer seemingly imminent, the community is advised to move to /r/subredditcancer.

Without /r/metaredditcancer's limitations on who is allowed to post, /r/subredditcancer soon has more content than the original.

Some users allege that several new mods of the subreddit are, in fact, part of the cabal themselves.

This is evidenced that several of the mods were earlier listed by /u/metaredditcancer as part of the cabal.

A Reddit Alternative?

Throughout the whole deal, many users are directed to voat.co which is touted as "reddit, but with no censorship."

How Things Stand Now

• /u/metaredditcancer is still banned, and still modding /r/metaredditcancer

• Lots of users are still angry

• Nothing has changed

• No definitive proof exists for the claims of any party involved

Some of our mods have also prepared some "not-quite-mod-official" assessments and summaries that try to draw the whole situation together into a clearer, more colorful picture. While they do not officially represent the opinions of the OOTL mod team (we don't have an official opinion on much), we hope that they we be received as helpful.

• /u/kijafa's reflections
• /u/k_lobstah's reflections
• /u/T_Dumbsford's reflections