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Over six thousand subreddits, including many of the most-subscribed communities on Reddit like r\/funny<\/a>, r\/aww<\/a>, r\/gaming<\/a>, r\/music<\/a>, and r\/science<\/a>, have set themselves private to protest Reddit\u2019s upcoming API pricing changes. It means these communities are no longer publicly accessible, even to Reddit users previously subscribed to them. Here\u2019s a Twitch stream<\/a> which is tracking the exact number of subreddits that have gone dark.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Moderators began planning the actions last week<\/a> after the developers of some of Reddit\u2019s most-beloved third-party apps said they wouldn\u2019t be able to afford<\/a> the platform\u2019s updated API pricing. On Thursday, the developers for Apollo for Reddit<\/a> and others<\/a> announced they would be shutting down their apps on June 30th due to the API changes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t something any of us do lightly: we do what we do because\u00a0we love Reddit<\/em>, and we truly believe this change will make it impossible to keep doing what we love,\u201d r\/Toptomcat wrote in the post. And some subreddits didn\u2019t wait until Monday: r\/TIHI (Thanks, I Hate It)<\/a> and r\/polls<\/a> were among those that went dark shortly after CEO Steve Huffman\u2019s poorly-received<\/a> Friday AMA<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Apollo app developer Christian Selig, whose post about Reddit\u2019s API pricing<\/a> generated much of the initial outrage, said it was \u201cincredibly amazing\u201d seeing Reddit\u2019s community come together to push back against the proposed changes. \u201cI really hope Reddit listens,\u201d he wrote in a post on the Apollo subreddit<\/a>. \u201cI think showing humanity through apologizing for and recognizing that this process was handled poorly, and concrete promises to give developers more time, would go a long way to making people feel heard and instilling community confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n While many subreddits are going private, others (such as r\/NintendoSwitch<\/a>, r\/Frugal<\/a>, and r\/StarWars<\/a>) are instead choosing to restrict new posts. Historical posts are still visible, but moderators won\u2019t be allowing new content on these communities while the protest is taking place. One subreddit, r\/DankMemes<\/a>, is still public but only allows users to post memes about the API changes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n