Reddit’s controversial API change and the resulting protests have caused one high-profile game developer to bail from the platform: Minecraft developer Mojang Studios.
A Java developer for Mojang Studios posted the news on the Minecraft subreddit, which has over 7 million followers. "As you have no doubt heard by now, Reddit management introduced changes recently that have led to rule and moderation changes across many subreddits,” Sliced_lime wrote, who is likely Minecraft Java tech lead Mikael Hedberg.
“Because of these changes, we no longer feel that Reddit is an appropriate place to post official content or refer our players to,” he added.
The Mojang developer didn’t elaborate on the decision. But the Minecraft subreddit was among the thousands that participated in the Reddit “blackout” earlier this month to protest the platform’s plan to charge for API access, which risks shutting down several third-party apps and tools.
Although the protests have somewhat died down, the Microsoft-owned Mojang appears to be the first software developer team to quit Reddit in response. In a separate post, Sliced_lime added: “The moderators (of the Minecraft subreddit) did not cause this.”
On whether Mojang could return to the platform, the developer wrote: “We haven't really decided or discussed anything. This decision is based on the current situation, if the situation was to change we'd have to discuss that then."
The decision to bail from Reddit is more of a symbolic move; the Minecraft subreddit will to live on, but without official updates from the Mojang team. Nevertheless, it occurs as other subreddits are considering another round of protests against Reddit.
A subreddit continuing to protest the API changes.On Tuesday, a moderator on the ModCoord subreddit, which has been organizing the protests, posted a “call to action” starting on July 1 — the day Reddit’s API changes take effect. The post urges subreddits to consider protesting again by making themselves private like they did during the blackout or enacting other changes to annoy Reddit.
“The Reddit admin has shown a callous disregard regarding the demands of users and mods alike to ensure continued access to the site,” the post adds. “If Reddit persists down this path, third-party applications will have to shut down for good (many have already announced that), and many users and mods will lose valuable tools, that have enriched communities.”
It remains unclear if the major subreddits will join the call to action. “Spiritually I support this initiative but after polling the community and having plenty of vitriol spewed at me even despite initial community support, I don't think we can take our sub private without community backlash,” one moderator wrote in response.
Some subreddits are still restricting user posts or enacting other ridiculous rules to draw attention to the cause. Other moderators say they've quit the platform entirely.
In the meantime, Reddit has threatened to remove moderators backing the protests and reopen subreddits that’ve gone private. In a previous blog post, Reddit also claimed it was making API access free for “non-commercial researchers and academics” and “moderator tools and bots.”
