Reddit Transcription Group to Close Due to Loss of Confidence in Platform
The r/TranscribersOfReddit community, consisting of Reddit volunteers who transcribe media from other subreddits, is shutting down. The decision to close the community is partly due to changes in Reddit’s API, which will start charging for access on July 1st. The community will cease operations on June 30th.
The group transcribes media from about 100 subreddits. It aimed to provide temporary solutions to Reddit’s missing accessibility features, such as alternative text, while urging the company to address such “deficiencies,” according to Transcribers Of Reddit moderator Rebekah Ginsburg. As reported by The Verge, Ginsburg (aka u/halailah) is also the chairman of Grafeas Group. Grafeas Group is a non-profit organization that provides the technology that supports much of the community’s transcription work.
“In light of recent events, we now recognize that the Reddit company has demonstrated a serious willingness to fix the platform’s core issues,” Ginsburg wrote. “It is clear that these problems are coming from above and we do not believe they can be fixed. Unfortunately, although this was a very difficult decision for us, these circumstances mean that we can no longer carry out this project.”
Ginsburg added that “API changes and realistic limits on how much work we could do, along with our distrust of Reddit as a platform and a clear disregard for the accessibility of the Reddit business” made it “impossible” for the team to continue the project.
While Reddit has said it will exempt some third-party accessibility apps from paying for API access, community members say apps like RedReader, Dystopia, and Luna don’t have “adequate monitoring features” for blind and visually impaired moderators.
Reddit declined to comment on these matters to The Verge. A spokesperson previously said the company is “investigating a number of issues” related to accessibility on its platform. In the meantime, it looks like Reddit will soon be more difficult for some people to use.
Some of the communities I’m a member of have volunteers who add alt text to an image in the comments or transcribe a short video. Still, the loss of a larger, coordinated effort to facilitate Reddit is a blow.
Reddit said last month that it would start charging for access to its API, which third-party developers have used to build apps (such as for moderation and accessibility) that plug into the platform. The change caused an uproar in the community, and several third-party apps, including those used by tens of thousands of people on Reddit, are shutting down as a result of the changes.
However, Reddit continues with the new policy. CEO Steve Huffman also said he was planning changes to make it easier for subreddit members to vote on a moderator who makes unpopular decisions. Some moderators have taken similar comments from a Reddit admin as a direct threat after thousands of subreddits went private to protest the API changes.
Reddit has also reportedly removed moderators from subreddits that were suddenly marked as safe for work. Not only did these communities allow porn for the first time as a protest against the API changes, but NSFW meant Reddit couldn’t monetize them due to its advertising policies.
