Having 0 or negative karma is a barrier to posting. Some subs completely disallow posting if you don’t meet a threshold, but even outside of those subs you still run into things like having your comments held up in the spam queue until they are manually reviewed.

So having a bit of karma allows them to post their scam and/or spam links and have a chance of being visible.

I use Unexpected Keyboard when I’m working in Termux. It’s Open Source and does allow some layout customization.

Unfortunately it doesn’t support “glide/swipe typing” so I find it doesn’t replace Gboard for everyday usage.

It sounds like this will become a problem if/when content providers start requiring it.

Like how Netflix requires certain hardware to enable 4K. (At least I think they do? I remember that was a thing a few years ago.)

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/information-protection/pluton/microsoft-pluton-security-processor

Microsoft Pluton security processor is a chip-to-cloud security technology built with Zero Trust principles at the core. Microsoft Pluton provides hardware-based root of trust, secure identity, secure attestation, and cryptographic services. Pluton technology is a combination of a secure subsystem which is part of the System on Chip (SoC) and Microsoft authored software that runs on this integrated secure subsystem.

Microsoft Pluton is currently available on devices with Ryzen 6000 and Qualcomm Snapdragon® 8cx Gen 3 series processors. Microsoft Pluton can be enabled on devices with Pluton capable processors running Windows 11, version 22H2.

What is Microsoft Pluton?

Designed by Microsoft and built by silicon partners, Microsoft Pluton is a secure crypto-processor built into the CPU for security at the core to ensure code integrity and the latest protection with updates delivered by Microsoft through Windows Update. Pluton protects credentials, identities, personal data and encryption keys. Information is significantly harder to be removed even if an attacker has installed malware or has complete physical possession of the PC.

Microsoft Pluton is designed to provide the functionality of the Trusted Platform Module as well as deliver other security functionality beyond what is possible with the TPM 2.0 specification, and allows for additional Pluton firmware and OS features to be delivered over time via Windows Update. For more information, see Microsoft Pluton as TPM.

Pluton is built on proven technology used in Xbox and Azure Sphere, and provides hardened integrated security capabilities to Windows 11 devices in collaboration with leading silicon partners. For more information, see Meet the Microsoft Pluton processor – The security chip designed for the future of Windows PCs.

I’m a fan of the very light, widget-only AF Weather. All it does is a chart showing temp & precipitation for the next 24hrs. I like it more than “hourly” forecasts in other apps, but it is pretty niche.

https://github.com/Gitsaibot/AF-Weather-Widget

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.gitsaibot.af/

This one, I presume?

wX (Weather app geared towards storm chasers, meteorologists and weather enthusiasts)

https://f-droid.org/packages/joshuatee.wx/

rif’s UI was near perfect for me. I called it an app version of old.reddit, which was exactly what I wanted.

(Before old.reddit I just considered it a perfect app version of Reddit.)

From my understanding, they already aren’t using the API.

If the spam bots were using the API, then Reddit would have been able to shut them down trivially. Part of logging in via API requires a “client ID” that uniquely identifies the creator of the app/bot being used.

They could theoretically have each bot account create its own client ID, but even that would be a pretty obvious thing to look for.

I typed a long response but it seems to have disappeared.

It wouldn’t be hard for Reddit to find sympathetic mods to jump in. Any mods of big subs that didn’t participate in the blackout would likely be thrilled to grow their empires.

If necessary, Reddit could throw some interns or some contract employees at the problem. A huge part of the job moderating the giant subs is removing spam and other obvious rule violations. It doesn’t take specialized training to check a report to see if it is accurate and click ban/remove/approve.

The parts of moderating a sub that do take special skill – the parts related to growing and tending a community through thoughtful application of subreddit specific rules and norms – will not be missed in the million+ subscriber subreddits in the short-to-mid term. r/funny and r/TikTokCringe and whatever other giant subs don’t really have any quality standards to speak of anyway.

No. I mentioned that:

Forbes did mention it in their most recent article, but the majority of the drop in valuation was last year.

The “new” valuation, 41% lower than their investment, was announced in April 2023.

Note that this cut in valuation has nothing to do with the blackout. It’s actually old news. Forbes did mention it in their most recent article, but the majority of the drop in valuation was last year.

https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/01/fidelity-reddit-valuation/

Fidelity, the lead investor in Reddit’s most recent funding round in 2021, has slashed the estimated worth of its equity stake in the popular social media platform by 41% since the investment.

Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund’s stake in Reddit was valued at $16.6 million as of April 28, according to the fund’s monthly disclosure released over the weekend. That’s down 41.1% cumulatively since August 2021 when the asset manager spent $28.2 million to acquire the Reddit shares, according to disclosures the firm has made in its annual and semi-annual reports. […]

The substantial markdown of Reddit’s value by Fidelity predominantly occurred by the previous year. Nevertheless, it merits pointing out that Fidelity has persistently implemented minor reductions in the worth of Reddit’s shares in the ensuing months.

My initial response was “probably everywhere, duh”. But then I remembered that Reddit tried to throw Apollo under the bus, claiming that their API usage was only high because of inefficient code.

As I recall, Apollo (Christian S.) responded by open-sourcing their backend. Maybe Reddit should do the same?

Christian has been the public face of this and therefore has borne the brunt of it. I can’t even imagine how frustrating it would be in his shoes.

I do also wish the best for the Android app devs.

I’m a “rif” user for over a decade, so a special shout-out for talklittle. (I hear he’s developing an app for Tildes, a link aggregator.)