Reddit’s site continues to protest the API changes that will shut down popular third-party apps. It’s an outcome Reddit should have seen coming after years of entrusting the community to grow itself.

That history begins to explain the meltdown that has taken place on Reddit over the past day, as thousands of communities go private — effectively taking themselves offline — to protest changes that will eliminate most third-party apps, and could threaten third-party moderation tools and research initiatives. So many forums went dark on Monday, in fact, that Reddit itself briefly crashed.

The protest today marked the culmination of weeks of controversy. It centers on changes to the Reddit API, which developers have always been able to use freely to build their own clients, bots, and...

Reddit’s site continues to protest the API changes that will shut down popular third-party apps. It’s an outcome Reddit should have seen coming after years of entrusting the community to grow itself.

That history begins to explain the meltdown that has taken place on Reddit over the past day, as thousands of communities go private — effectively taking themselves offline — to protest changes that will eliminate most third-party apps, and could threaten third-party moderation tools and research initiatives. So many forums went dark on Monday, in fact, that Reddit itself briefly crashed.

The protest today marked the culmination of weeks of controversy. It centers on changes to the Reddit API, which developers have always been able to use freely to build their own clients, bots, and other enhancements to the service...