Two IMO on-point excerpts of the article:
The highest-ranked replies are very critical of the post. “What good is our feedback when reddit seems perfectly happy to ignore all of it?” wrote one user. “What’s the point?” Another pointed out that Huffman called mods “landed gentry.” “Show, don’t tell,” wrote another user — to which the admin replied, “Agreed.”
“A beginning of what?” replied one user. “This solves nothing, and just wastes everybody’s time.”
Reddit’s administration is sounding more and more like an abusive SO trying to gaslight you into staying in the relationship. “Baby I’ll listen to you, I swear.”
A community garden(Reddit) with bad, broken or non existent tools.
Volunteer workers(Mods) bring their own tools(3rd party apps) to maintain the garden. Other volunteers(Reddit OC contributing users) plant seeds, water and harvest the garden. Other non-volunteers (Non-OC contributing users who only consume media) benefit, leech and take home food.
Garden owners(Reddit) decide to charge tool companies to allow their tools into the garden(3rd party app makers being charged for API access). Tool companies(3rd party app makers) can’t pay exorbitant amounts. Volunteer maintenance workers(Mods) can no longer use outside tools(3rd party apps) to upkeep the garden.
The workers(Mods) become angry and disruptive by limiting access to the garden(Mods privatize and demonetize subreddits).
Non-Contributing leechers become upset. “We don’t care about you workers! Give us food!”(“No one cares about you Mods! We want to mindlessly consume! Give us media!”)
Workers and real gardeners leave to find a better garden (Mods and OC contributors leave to find a better social media platform).
Old garden fills with weeds and dog shit(Reddit fills with reposts and bots).
The End.
Sadly, it is working.