50% subreddits are hidden to protest the "greedy" API pricing by Reddit. Community moderators are showing off their power. Reddit isn't budging. This is an all out war. It isn't new but.
Reddit is a prime example of the power of weak ties in society. Facebook and Instagram are built on strong ties, Reddit leverages weak ties instead. They are fundamentally different social networks.
This comes from Dunbar's number theory - we can maintain relationship with 150 individuals only. Of this intimate relationship will be only 5, rest are weak ties.
"Social networks provide information, transmit peer pressure, and structure interactions in ways that help groups overcome social dilemmas"
"Second, individuals in peripheral network positions (relatively low connectivity) actually have a large impact on whether a protest occurs. Their numbers are large enough that even if they do little, collectively they amplify messages widely enough to make them important to social movements (Barberá et al. 2015), and their participation may more credibly signal to others on the periphery that enough people plan to turn out to be motivating (Steinert-Threlkeld 2017)."
"Third, the structure of online networks is such that certain positions are better able to send information quickly to many others. In the follower network on Twitter, those who have more followers are in fact more influential in the reach of information (González-Bailón et al. 2011). Some also occupy bridge and bottleneck positions that afford the opportunity to share information spreading in one group with another group, though occupants of these positions do not make use of them very often (González-Bailón & Wang 2016)."
https://the-ken.com/incitingincident/whats-reddit-without-redditors/
Another golden article from The Ken. They are awesome is summarising issues.
Reddit is a prime example of the power of weak ties in society. Facebook and Instagram are built on strong ties, Reddit leverages weak ties instead. They are fundamentally different social networks.
This comes from Dunbar's number theory - we can maintain relationship with 150 individuals only. Of this intimate relationship will be only 5, rest are weak ties.
Let me share some interesting quotes from research papers -(https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-polisci-041719-102523)
"Social networks provide information, transmit peer pressure, and structure interactions in ways that help groups overcome social dilemmas"
"Second, individuals in peripheral network positions (relatively low connectivity) actually have a large impact on whether a protest occurs. Their numbers are large enough that even if they do little, collectively they amplify messages widely enough to make them important to social movements (Barberá et al. 2015), and their participation may more credibly signal to others on the periphery that enough people plan to turn out to be motivating (Steinert-Threlkeld 2017)."
"Third, the structure of online networks is such that certain positions are better able to send information quickly to many others. In the follower network on Twitter, those who have more followers are in fact more influential in the reach of information (González-Bailón et al. 2011). Some also occupy bridge and bottleneck positions that afford the opportunity to share information spreading in one group with another group, though occupants of these positions do not make use of them very often (González-Bailón & Wang 2016)."