D&D General Where do New DMs Go for Help Online?

[Demetrios1453]

Have you not heard about the blackouts, the whole "price the API at ridiculously high cost to drive out the far better competition" thing, the talking-out-of-both-sides-of-his-mouth from the CEO where he says he supports protest but also says he will exploit the moderator code of conduct to force reddits to re-open by removing mod teams that set their communities to Private mode until a mod team arrives that is willing to re-open it?

TL;DR: Steve Hoffman, Reddit's CEO, has been trying to ram through a price hike (up from the current, no-cost) for API usage on Reddit. That they wish to charge for this service is not a problem. However, the price they've set is completely prohibitive to anyone who might want to make a usable third-party app for reading Reddit; it's very clear that the goal is not to make money, but to drive out all competition, so everyone has to use the official Reddit app--AIUI, none of the existing third-party app developers can even remotely afford the new fees.

This is a problem for several reasons that others can explain better than me, but the gist is, (1) there are a ton of moderator tools that depend on these third-party apps which will go up in smoke on July 1 because it would cost the tool creators literally millions of dollars because they get billions of API calls per year; (2) the Reddit official app sucks, and has sucked for years, and hasn't gotten any better despite years of empty, broken promises; (3) the official Reddit app has none of the accessibility features that many disabled users rely on for access; and (4) Steve Hoffman has explicitly and repeatedly insulted the all-volunteer moderators (calling them "landed gentry" for example) and in other ways lied, misrepresented, or talked out of both sides of his mouth. For example, he explicitly said they would not force any subreddits out of Private mode ("going dark," as Private reddits are inaccessible to most people) because protest is vital to the spirit of Reddit....and then only a day later, turned around and started saying that Reddit would remove moderator teams that choose not to come out of Private mode and replace them until they do come out of private mode. And this somehow counts as supporting protest.

It's a PR disaster not dissimilar to the WotC/OGL thing.

It's such a PR disaster that the subreddits I'm on are back to normal, and 90% of the complaints are towards the subreddits themselves for taking themselves down, and not towards Reddit itself, its CEO, or the upcoming changes. So, basically, not a PR disaster at all.

And, to answer the OP, they'll go to Reddit as they always have since there will be no significant change.

 

[darjr]

It's such a PR disaster that the subreddits I'm on are back to normal, and 90% of the complaints are towards the subreddits themselves for taking themselves down, and not towards Reddit itself, its CEO, or the upcoming changes. So, basically, not a PR disaster at all.

And, to answer the OP, they'll go to Reddit as they always have since there will be no significant change.

Eh.

I’m unhappy with Reddit. I’m going to avoid participating for now.

 

[cbwjm]

It's such a PR disaster that the subreddits I'm on are back to normal, and 90% of the complaints are towards the subreddits themselves for taking themselves down, and not towards Reddit itself, its CEO, or the upcoming changes. So, basically, not a PR disaster at all.

And, to answer the OP, they'll go to Reddit as they always have since there will be no significant change.

I don't think any subreddits I'm on were actually affected by the blackout, just saw a few posts in the popular feed, seemed like a whole lot of nothing.

 

[payn]

I think google search hits any quick fire question I might have about rules. Though, if im digging in on running a game theme, I prefer a forum like EN World or Paizo. Particularly, if I'm running an AP. I have found a wealth of info from folks who ran themselves, was able to bounce ideas off, and avoid pitfalls to be invaluable. If you are asking for a 101 on game mastering, probably just rando youtubes.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Have you not heard about the blackouts, the whole "price the API at ridiculously high cost to drive out the far better competition" thing, the talking-out-of-both-sides-of-his-mouth from the CEO where he says he supports protest but also says he will exploit the moderator code of conduct to force reddits to re-open by removing mod teams that set their communities to Private mode until a mod team arrives that is willing to re-open it?

TL;DR: Steve Hoffman, Reddit's CEO, has been trying to ram through a price hike (up from the current, no-cost) for API usage on Reddit. That they wish to charge for this service is not a problem. However, the price they've set is completely prohibitive to anyone who might want to make a usable third-party app for reading Reddit; it's very clear that the goal is not to make money, but to drive out all competition, so everyone has to use the official Reddit app--AIUI, none of the existing third-party app developers can even remotely afford the new fees.

This is a problem for several reasons that others can explain better than me, but the gist is, (1) there are a ton of moderator tools that depend on these third-party apps which will go up in smoke on July 1 because it would cost the tool creators literally millions of dollars because they get billions of API calls per year; (2) the Reddit official app sucks, and has sucked for years, and hasn't gotten any better despite years of empty, broken promises; (3) the official Reddit app has none of the accessibility features that many disabled users rely on for access; and (4) Steve Hoffman has explicitly and repeatedly insulted the all-volunteer moderators (calling them "landed gentry" for example) and in other ways lied, misrepresented, or talked out of both sides of his mouth. For example, he explicitly said they would not force any subreddits out of Private mode ("going dark," as Private reddits are inaccessible to most people) because protest is vital to the spirit of Reddit....and then only a day later, turned around and started saying that Reddit would remove moderator teams that choose not to come out of Private mode and replace them until they do come out of private mode. And this somehow counts as supporting protest.

It's a PR disaster not dissimilar to the WotC/OGL thing.

Gotcha. So a similar situation to Elon charging for Twitter API usage. That's a business model doomed to fail (speaking as someone in the software development sphere). Open source is the way to go to promote usage of your platform. I suspect the hubris is that Twitter and Reddit think they are such huge players in their arenas that companies will pay these exorbitant costs to access their markets. Both of those tools have multiple competent competitors... the only difference between them and the competition is brand name and acceptance. This pricing model will drive businesses who currently provide access via Twitter/Reddit to the competition. Not because they want to... but because the cost of not doing is so is completely prohibitive.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Gotcha. So a similar situation to Elon charging for Twitter API usage. That's a business model doomed to fail (speaking as someone in the software development sphere). Open source is the way to go to promote usage of your platform. I suspect the hubris is that Twitter and Reddit think they are such huge players in their arenas that companies will pay these exorbitant costs to access their markets. Both of those tools have multiple competent competitors... the only difference between them and the competition is brand name and acceptance. This pricing model will drive businesses who currently provide access via Twitter/Reddit to the competition. Not because they want to... but because the cost of not doing is so is completely prohibitive.

An interesting article on the subject: Twitter and Reddit's high-priced APIs are bad news for the internet's future

 

[Storyteller Hero]

Aside from the usual forums like this one, there are Facebook groups and discords if one is looking for an alternative to Reddit.

Meetup.com also may have a local community in your area for things like asking around about places to host DnD sessions.

 

[John Lloyd1]

I go:

• Sly Flourish
• Google searches
• EnWorld
• D&D Discord (for AL)

I find that a lot of time, once I've formulated the question properly I have found the answer.

 

[SlyFlourish]

Slyflourish.com and the alexandrian.

Bless you

 

[SlyFlourish]

I don't think any subreddits I'm on were actually affected by the blackout, just saw a few posts in the popular feed, seemed like a whole lot of nothing.

The big one is the DM Academy which had a lot of new DMs asking questions and getting good advice. Right now it’s still blacked out.