Is this a recent change to deter people from complaining?

Most definetly. Could also be a technical necessity if they got spammed hard (as they should).

As far as I can see, the real number is already on top of the post. And then you have the split of up/downvotes near the arrows. So the “algorithm” is just basic addidion and subtraction. Someone correct me if I saw something wrong…

Yeah. I meant pointless in the sense of “we as the reddit community want to change the companies business strategy shortly before an IPO”.

You being brought here (same as me) through the backlash-posts is great. But unless certain highly frequented subs go dark PERMANENTLY I dont see much that could sway the reddit leadership towards a more community friendly approach.

Bet itz lonely on ze top of ze world.

They took my RiF. The CEO seems like an absolute bastard. It got more and more toxic over the years. I can take some abuse but this was a bit too much. If it continues to be popular I’ll use it for information gathering just like always, but they wont get any content, interaction or ad revenue from me.

This blackout thing, while surely sending a message, will be pointless in the end imo. The bosses have decided how they want to proceed and that’s that.

Same boat. It’s kind of amazing, you can literally watch the userbase grow with popular entries getting more and more general upvotes.

I am enjoying it so far. I usually tend to lurk but the community is, as many have said, very welcoming and it creates an atmosphere where it encourages you to contribute (not just with up/downvotes but also comments).