The masses got stampeded into supporting the protest because people like to feel that they're taking part in some righteous battle. Sucks for spez that he got outmaneuvered by a cabal of mods who derive their feeling of importance (and oftentimes a side income) from having control over a bunch of popular subreddits who are upset that their status is being threatened. Hope Reddit comes out of this alright.
Reddit is removing moderators that protest by taking their communities private
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Re: Reddit is removing moderators that protest by taking their communities private
#62One somewhat-related bit on the topic of moderators: does it bother anyone else that the stewards of some of these communities are effectively 100% anonymous? Are we actually okay with these spaces that shape significant discussion/sentiment being guided by people who lack accountability?
I want to be clear that I'm not saying we should be doxxing mods or anything, but if there is a significant changeover of moderators at Reddit, it would be interesting if this discussion was more of a sticking point. I have to wonder if there's not a world where Reddit shouldn't implement a policy of:
> Look, you moderate a community above N size, we/your members need to know who you are
I'm not entirely sure where my opinion on it even stands but figured it might make for interesting discussion. It does get tricky in the face of subreddits that deal in protest/whistleblower/etc matter though. I don't want to lose the anonymous aspect of the internet, especially when it's been effectively under assault for years - but at the same time, something that powerful and/or manipulate-able seems like it shouldn't get a free pass.
Interested to hear what others think.
(I am also fully open to being wrong on e.g Reddit themselves not knowing who mods are, and invite someone to correct me if I am - but I've not seen anything to date that suggests otherwise)
Re: Reddit is removing moderators that protest by taking their communities private
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean if they follow your plan and replace the moderators of the subreddits I enjoy then I'm done with Reddit. Reddit can't expect to freeride off various communities and then kick out mods without a reasonable excuse, and this definitely does not classify.
And if they allow popular subreddits to remain private indefinitely then a lot more users will leave than just the ones who oppose the API changes. Better to force communities back open and let the most obstinate users leave than keep them private to satisfy the feelings of that obnoxious minority.
The most 'obstinate' users are the content creators and people actually driving those Reddits. I would hope you're familiar from the history of social media websites what happens when you drive out the users creating content.
Re: Reddit is removing moderators that protest by taking their communities private
#64good, many of those mods are weird and insane, better for them, and better for reddit
Re: Reddit is removing moderators that protest by taking their communities private
#65There's a power-law at play here. If the top 0.5% of those who participate / moderate / contribute the most leave, that might end the site. Tipping points exist. Interesting times.
Re: Reddit is removing moderators that protest by taking their communities private
#66If this wasn't connected to the blackout, this would be great news. There are a few mods, who when reddit was young, decided to squat every existing country's subreddit, along with common words. Those subs now work well with active mods below them. But the squatter still has full power, and can override any other mod. Now it will hopefully be easier to kick those mods.
It's often struck me as odd how some moderators can be modding 50+ sometimes even high as 100+ subreddits. Why so many? I doubt they can be reasonably expected to moderate all of them. Shouldn't there be a limit?
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Re: Reddit is removing moderators that protest by taking their communities private
#67Reddit could have avoided all of this years ago by building out the tools that moderators claim to need. Instead, they relied on third parties to create them. Doing this would have nullified mods’ strongest justification for protesting. While removing 3rd party apps is certainly annoying for users, mods are what keep the site functioning. The fact that Reddit chose to take this course of action tells me that they don…
>Reddit could have avoided all of this years ago by building out the tools that moderators claim to need.
I moderate a small subreddit and don't even know what tools they are talking about. I don't want to say goodbye to RedReader.
Re: Reddit is removing moderators that protest by taking their communities private
#68One somewhat-related bit on the topic of moderators: does it bother anyone else that the stewards of some of these communities are effectively 100% anonymous? Are we actually okay with these spaces that shape significant discussion/sentiment being guided by people who lack accountability? I want to be clear that I'm not saying we should be doxxing mods or anything, but if there is a significant changeover of moderato…
Yes, and they seem to be absolutely 100% unaccountable.
Re: Reddit is removing moderators that protest by taking their communities private
#69Reddit could have avoided all of this years ago by building out the tools that moderators claim to need. Instead, they relied on third parties to create them. Doing this would have nullified mods’ strongest justification for protesting. While removing 3rd party apps is certainly annoying for users, mods are what keep the site functioning. The fact that Reddit chose to take this course of action tells me that they don…
The richest part here is where spez refers to moderators as a "landed gentry": https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/reddit-protest-blacko... “And I think, on Reddit, the analogy is closer to the landed gentry: The people who get there first get to stay there and pass it down to their descendants, and that is not democratic.” What does that make spez relative to the constituents in his community?
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Re: Reddit is removing moderators that protest by taking their communities private
#70If you don't pay for it, it's not your community. Again and again people think they get something for free, which they don't. If it's free you're a volunteer for the company, if you pay you're a customer.
What kind of communities are you a part of that you pay for? All the best ones that I can think of have never involved money moving around at all--participation makes a community, not money.