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Reddit Threatens to Remove Moderators from Subreddits Continuing Blackouts

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Re: Reddit Threatens to Remove Moderators from Subreddits Continuing Blackouts

#201

Post by mandmandam »

elektor wrote: post #121
mandmandam wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes! And they're so incredibly cheap to run, in the scheme of things. They're TEXT and LINKS ffs. Even Snapchat, which deals in video, costs about $2.50 per user per year to run. Honestly, we're some set of dopes to let people like Zuck and Huffman build yachts and apocalypse bunkers, with bloody advertising money, all for the genius idea of sharing text and links on the internet.

Do you have a source for that $2.5 figure?

To be clear, I'm talking about solely infrastructure costs.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/as-snapchat-use-soars-during-p...

Divide the costs cited by Snapchat themselves by their daily users and you get $~2.50/yr.

Re: Reddit Threatens to Remove Moderators from Subreddits Continuing Blackouts

#202

Post by sedatk »

Voluntary moderation isn't free labor. It's paid in power, influence, or moral gratification which may work with small platforms, but will eventually cost the platform more than a salary. Reddit just seems to be figuring that out now hence the frustration.

Re: Reddit Threatens to Remove Moderators from Subreddits Continuing Blackouts

#203

Post by TechBro8615 »

moskie wrote: post #76

We (the internet community) made such a terrible mistake with social media. We formed connections and communities and friendships on sites like Facebook and Twitter and Reddit, but those companies need to make money, so those connections are only allowed to exist as long as they are part of a profitable system. How awful it is to reduce human connection to that. To think that I am only allowed to maintain certain soc…

What choice did we have? A herd of sheep can only go through an open gate.

Re: Reddit Threatens to Remove Moderators from Subreddits Continuing Blackouts

#204

Post by Havoc »

pyuser583 wrote: post #147

Notice how everything has to go through a moderator. Is that a legal thing? Does it insulate Reddit from liability somehow?

Unpaid volunteers are a great deal for Reddit. Unless they’re rebellious of course

Legal no, but it does outsource modding decisions and blowbacks to a third party which solves a bunch of problems for Reddit. Eg having two diametrically opposed subs both run by Reddit staff would be tricky. If it’s 3rd party then problem solved - no conflict.

So they really want to hang on to this mod setup both for financial benefits and above. Just with more compliant ones

Re: Reddit Threatens to Remove Moderators from Subreddits Continuing Blackouts

#206

Post by Ledienejid »

CincinnatiMan wrote: post #69
Havoc wrote: post #24

Ah the classic beatings will continue until morale improves approach. Starting to think Reddit leadership is genuinely not all that sharp

There are likely hundreds if not thousands of users who would be willing to become mods of each of the subreddits that are still in private mode. I know I would mod some of the subs I find useful.

Great, then go create the sub and get it to the size of the ones in question. Creating subs takes seconds, if you think mods are so easy to replace, I'm sure you can achieve the same thing they did, no need to wait.

Re: Reddit Threatens to Remove Moderators from Subreddits Continuing Blackouts

#207

Post by danudey »

shadowgovt wrote: post #118
mandmandam wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes! And they're so incredibly cheap to run, in the scheme of things. They're TEXT and LINKS ffs. Even Snapchat, which deals in video, costs about $2.50 per user per year to run. Honestly, we're some set of dopes to let people like Zuck and Huffman build yachts and apocalypse bunkers, with bloody advertising money, all for the genius idea of sharing text and links on the internet.

It is entirely possible, even likely I would say given how often it has happened, that lots of people think it is easier to build a forum that scales than it is. I can't help but observe that for all of it being "just text and links," we sure do keep converging on monolithic service providers for... Some reason.

> It is entirely possible, even likely I would say given how often it has happened, that lots of people think it is easier to build a forum that scales than it is.

I'm an awful programmer and I could build a reddit clone pretty trivially if I really set my mind to it.

Then I'd have to figure out how to attract users, how to handle spam and abuse, how to filter content, how to age restrict things, what tools users need, how to host media content cheaply, how to hire people to help me keep the site online and scaled, how to.... probably a thousand other things.

Building a forum is easy, building a business around a forum.... difficult.

Re: Reddit Threatens to Remove Moderators from Subreddits Continuing Blackouts

#208

Post by ahahahahah »

monksy wrote: post #37
ardit33 wrote: post #16

Sorry... but this was handled very poorly by reddit and its CEO. Should have just disabled the 'go private' option. A subreddit, is not 'owned' or property of a moderator. Eg, https://www.reddit.com/r/Brooklyn/ , should not be own by one person that decides what to do. The questions and answers are made by common people that want to see their content that they posted into the subreddit. They are not property of some…

> A subreddit, is not 'owned' or property of a moderator. That is exactly how reddit works. Reddit does not compensate the mods.. this is a minor compensation that they get to maintain their fiefdom. Don't like it, create a new sub.

That's just not true. This is not how reddit works. There are other rules in place that make it clear that mods don't own the subreddits that they mod. They are stewards of that community, but when they try to sabotage that community they can and should be removed.

Re: Reddit Threatens to Remove Moderators from Subreddits Continuing Blackouts

#209

Post by nailer »

moskie wrote: post #76

We (the internet community) made such a terrible mistake with social media. We formed connections and communities and friendships on sites like Facebook and Twitter and Reddit, but those companies need to make money, so those connections are only allowed to exist as long as they are part of a profitable system. How awful it is to reduce human connection to that. To think that I am only allowed to maintain certain soc…

> Facebook and Twitter and Reddit, but those companies need to make money, so those connections are only allowed to exist as long as they are part of a profitable system.

I will point out that whenever somebody talks about a system where creators own and can profit from their own creations on HN someone responds with “crypto is a scam”.

Re: Reddit Threatens to Remove Moderators from Subreddits Continuing Blackouts

#210

Post by r2vcap »

Panzer04 wrote: post #102
satvikpendem wrote: post #71

> If a moderator team unanimously decides to stop moderating, we will invite new, active moderators to keep these spaces open and accessible to users. If there is no consensus, but at least one mod wants to keep the community going, we will respect their decisions and remove those who no longer want to moderate from the mod team. Moderators exist to moderate a community, not to shut it down wholesale. Reddit's respon…

Worth noting many subs actively voted for the shutdown. It's very much a case-by-case basis. Also, shitting on your userbase only works for so long. You keep consuming people's trust and you eventually reach a tipping point where people are actively looking to move to alternatives. It would not surprise me if there is a sudden exodus if a suitable alternative to reddit became clear. I don't understand why reddit has…

Upvotes/downvotes are not good for democracy. Especially if the upvote/downvote history stays in your account. Think of the yes and no stickers in the Soviet Union and other totalitarian countries on the front of their government buildings. Even, moderators can pin their thoughts. It is not easy to express a different kind of opinion in the first place.
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