Mods made a poll to ask whether to extend the blackout or re-open. After accusations of brigading, mods created a second, more secure poll. The option to extend the blackout wins by a 18% margin. However, the top mod changes his mind, unilaterally decides that the sub should open, and threatens the rest of the mods with contacting the admins to reopen and depose them if they follow through the results of the vote.
It’s amazing seeing this all happen in realtime. I was on the fence about deleting my reddit account in order to keep participating in the small communities that decide to stay on reddit, but I’m just how aggressive reddit admins have been with treating people who actively engage with the site.
Subreddits protesting are trying to get the message to reddit management that they don’t agree. Instead of having a discussion, reddit management is just forcing their will on everyone, which causes the discenters to leave the proverbial table as they realize any there will be no discussion.
At this point, anyone who still wants to use reddit is just enabling this behavior.