A mass user protest six months ago over technical tweaks had big downstream effects, and now the ‘front page of the internet’ is changed for ever

In June, thousands of Reddit communities plunged into darkness – making their pages inaccessible to the public in a mass protest of corporate policy changes. Users of a social network lambasting it is nothing new; but Reddit’s moderators rebelled on a scale never seen before. Six months later, users and researchers say reforms sparked by the movement are still rippling through the social network, which bills itself as the “front page of the internet”.

The changes are a mixed bag, they say. The quality of the posts on the forum site has changed, some say, but the social network’s corporate parent appears more attentive, making changes long requested by users and moderators alike. The conflict with the company left Reddit’s denizens angry and skeptical, but many say they’re sticking around to see how things go with Reddit’s new normal.