No, we will not be going dark. The reasons are simple:

  1. This form of protest has proven ineffective on reddit repeatedly.

  2. Shutting down the sub on a Monday will have an adverse impact on our readers, including possible production issues.

  3. We have avoided reddit “politics” intentionally and will continue to do so.

You are more than welcome to avoid participating on that day which will make the message far clearer to reddit through their metrics than shutting down the sub to folks in need who would be here anyways.

It’s disappointing to see the r/sysadmin mods take this stance, but I guess in a way it’s a good thing that they’ve shown their true colors.

Here’s hoping that c/sysadmin thrives and replaces it in the near future as the go-to place for all sysadmin stuff.

  • DarraignTheSaneM
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    1 year ago

    Absolute shit take on their part, and a 2-day blackout is the least that they could do. Everyone’s systems won’t go down in flames because /r/sysadmin isn’t there for people to whine about how they hate their jobs for a few days. If there’s some major vulnerability being exploited on those days, mainstream news and other tech news sites will pick it up.

    However, they’re not entirely wrong on the first point. I remembered the 2015 blackout to protest the firing of Victoria the AMA admin and other stuff about Ellen Chao (honestly don’t remember or care what it was all about), and it was huge. Most subreddits went dark. Reddit didn’t hire Victoria back. If I recall there was a PR statement, and everyone moved on with their lives.

    When I was searching for that I found that reddit has had a handful of other blackouts since - one about the SOPA bill (which I seem to recall), another about COVID (which I don’t), etc. - and as far as I can tell the most that all of those blackouts ever did was generate press.

    They’re already at that point - reddit’s tenuous situation with their devaluation and the API nonsense has been all over the news, from Ars Technica, to CNN and Reuters. And really I don’t think it’s going to change anything either. Reddit’s going public, the stakeholders will have their say, and the site is going to be monitized and crapified, the users be damned.

    But again, going dark for 2 days is, IMO, ethically required. For that matter, they should stay dark until reddit changes course.

    Oh well, now we have Lemmy. :)

    • @zkikiz@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Whether it changes Reddit’s course or not, the solidarity of people in protecting their interests against giant organizations that control stuff is pretty much always a good thing in the end. Assholes in power need to be reminded of what happens when they treat people poorly, and if that means bankrupting the richest man in the world and destroying our favorite website on the eve of its IPO, so be it. Long live federated decentralized open source!

      • DarraignTheSaneM
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        61 year ago

        Yeah, my hope is that reddit is about to enter the “find out” phase. If they only stick to a 2 day blackout however (or snub it like the /r/sysadmin mods), things are going to get right back to status quo real quick unfortunately.

  • JC Denton
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    151 year ago

    This doesn´t make any sense. Their readers will be forever ‘adversely’ impacted when they can’t access reddit through their favorite applications anymore.

    One thing is to believe this will be ineffective (which I also believe) but there is another thing called solidarity. Specially when a lot of bigger subreddits are joining.

    What a lack of empathy.

  • The Bard in GreenA
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    1 year ago

    Is it a shock that r/sysadmin is run by people who’s mentality is “keep the trains running”?

    EDIT: Lol, they’ve also locked the thread calling for them to join the protest. Cowards.

  • @XKSS_@lemmy.ml
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    211 year ago

    Lol as if career sysadmins rely on a forum where 90% of people moan about their job, how they’re the only IT person being on call 24/7/365, having abusive users.

  • @GarbageShootAlt2@lemmy.ml
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    301 year ago

    Someone should tell them that “avoiding ‘politics’” is just the lazy method of supporting the status-quo rather than achieving being “apolitical”.

  • @raiun@beehaw.org
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    241 year ago

    Overall, this is a silly take by the Mods of sysadmin.

    This form of protest has proven ineffective on reddit repeatedly.

    WE are the content. While I agree going dark for just a couple days is weak, it still shows a point.

    Shutting down the sub on a Monday will have an adverse impact on our readers, including possible production issues.

    If you are solely relying on Reddit to fix a Production issue you are not using the internet like you should be.

    We have avoided reddit “politics” intentionally and will continue to do so.

    By mentioning you are not going dark is being involved.

      • @NapoleonBonaparty@lemmy.ml
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        11 year ago

        I just see their response as being close to the stereotypical, skeptical IT guy response to problems. Including having an inflated view of ones self… that "shutting down the sub on a Monday will have an adverse impact on our readers, including possible production issues. really got me.

    • m-p{3}
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      1 year ago

      I pity the business where its sysadmins solely relies on Reddit for troubleshooting.

      Like it’s the only resource out there.

  • @stanleytweedle@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    I’m looking at a post saying they are going dark and even offer Lemmy/c/sysadmin as an alternative. Am I missing something?

  • @Avian_Carrier@lemmy.mlM
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    131 year ago

    Yea that’s because mkosmo is a dickwad and has been on the site for 15 years. You know damn well someone that is a top mod for a big sub is gonna be in bed with the shitty admins.