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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

#451

Post by nkuttler »

Panzer04 wrote: post #354
goykasi wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Im not a fan of how reddit is handling the situation, but: > To push an app no-one ever liked, you know that, but whatever. No-one likes “new” Reddit either, you know that, but whatever. Who’s even gonna use the site after this? Is just not true at all unless you have actual stats to back that up. A ton of people disagree with that take. The site has grown a massive amount since the new design was released in 2018. S…

"Core" user base != tyranny of the majority. Alienating a huge amount of clearly passionate reddit users in favour of Joe schmoe browsing on the train home sounds like a dangerous decision - reddit sti needs all those people who provide the content people browse for, etc. In any case, at this point the bigger issue for a lot of people is just the total disrespect reddit has publicly announced, repeatedly, towards its…

> reddit sti needs all those people who provide the content people browse for, etc

Seems like they are betting their future on commercial content producers. If you're on /r/all a lot of the content is already reposts, disguised corporate posts, professional reshufflers and karma hoarders, etc.

Re: Reddit is removing moderators that protest by taking their communities private

#453

Post by ralfd »

shmde wrote: post #89
silcoon wrote: post #18

Previous thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36347711 554 point, 5 hours ago, 518 comments => not on the front page. No, it's not the algorithm.

Yeah, its there in the ranking algorithm. Any post which starts getting more comments than votes gets downranked.

Oh? But is this a good metric for the algorithm?

I just noticed I very seldom upvote topics, but writing a comment is correlated with reading comments which is correlated with finding the topic interesting.

Re: Reddit is removing moderators that protest by taking their communities private

#454

Post by sarajevo »

andrewinardeer wrote: post #371
safety1st wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are done, 100%, this is the turning point and it's all downhill from here. They depend fundamentally on volunteer labor and every decision they've made since announcing the API change has alienated that labor. The morale of every mod I know is in the tank. The solution for this was incredibly simple. Reddit you want to charge for the API? Go right ahead, we all want you to make money. But when the volunteer labo…

I disagree with your doomsday scenario. There are Reddit users waiting in the wings, wringing their hands ready to jump at the 'oppurtunity' to moderate established subreddits and will happily devote their time to custodial duties. No doubt some have already contacted Reddit management saying that if they de-mod x subreddit they will jump in and guarantee the subreddit's operation. I don't understand the argument abo…

I think you nailed it with this comment - there is a long line of folks who are waiting for open mod positions.

Re: Reddit is removing moderators that protest by taking their communities private

#455

Post by norgie »

dredmorbius wrote: post #401
KerrAvon wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I were on the board, I’d be engaged in discussion with my fellow board members right now about whether spez is demonstrating the temperament befitting a good CEO. Even if you think the shit coming out of his mouth to be the right attitude, you have to ask why he’s saying it out loud, abrasively, in public, where it’s only going to make the product less attractive.

Odds are exceedingly high that spez is doing the Board's bidding. The Board is not your savior here.

The reason for spez to be out is less the decisions and more the execution and communication. He clearly sucks at PR.

But it may the intent to have him make all the unpopular changes, have him resign with a big payout, and blame him for everything without reversing anything like they did with Ellen Pao.

Re: Reddit is removing moderators that protest by taking their communities private

#456

Post by cheeseface »

onimishra wrote: post #352

It’s fun to consider this from his perspective. He has essentially pushed all-in on this and now he has no way of backing out. If this is all about getting ready for IPO, then he can’t back out, because that would show potential future investors that he is not in control of policy changes, and that means that when shareholders want to crank up the money making machine, they can’t. At the same time, he needs to show t…

Agreed. Seems to me that the whole thing is about getting good growth numbers on paper before the IPO.

He’s not interested in the long term success of the platform, but trying to get a successful exit.

Re: Reddit is removing moderators that protest by taking their communities private

#457

Post by CSMastermind »

mrtksn wrote: post #367
CSMastermind wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moderated a few decently popular subreddits for a while (a couple hundred posts a day, nothing crazy). I will say that most moderation work on Reddit can be done independently of a particular sub and scales okay across subreddits. Like the additional effort of moderating 100 subreddits vs 1 would be nowhere near 100x. It would probably be closer to like 5x the amount of work. And there are benefits to moderating ma…

Thank you for writing these interesting insights. However, I wonder what was your motivation to do moderation and what made you stop?

I was a contributor to a sub with a specific interest group (think something like your favorite programming framework). I got some value out of the community and so when someone suggested 'it would be really nice if a sub existed for xyz' I just went ahead and made the subreddit and was like, well here you go. By default, when you make a subreddit you're the moderator.

Then once that subreddit grew a little bit two things happened: first moderators of similar subreddits asked if I would be willing to help them out on their subs. The second was that moderators from other subreddits who enjoyed the community would reach out and ask if I needed any help moderating the sub. I both cases I said sure and eventually I ended up just being added to a bunch of subreddits as a moderator.

I would spend about an hour a day doing it and I think I kept it up as long as I did for the social aspect of it - I didn't want to burden the other moderators by leaving.

Then there was a highly politically charged let's say discussion that cropped up on the subreddit around some specific language (think similar to the default git branch being called "master"). It was exhausting to moderate, and it all suddenly felt like it wasn't worth it.

I also said to myself, hey I've got a lot to lose here, I've got a high paying job at a top company, and what happens it someone upset about this issue decides to email my employer and cause trouble? That could have real consequences for me. I'm taking a risk here and it's no longer worth it.

So yeah, I deleted the account and just walked away.

Re: Reddit is removing moderators that protest by taking their communities private

#458

Post by Ringz »

braindead_in wrote: post #415
TeMPOraL wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are Reddit users waiting in the wings, wringing their hands ready to jump at the 'oppurtunity' to moderate established subreddits and will happily devote their time to custodial duties. (...) There are people who thrive on having power over others even though in this case, subreddit moderation, it is perceived power. Yes. Those are the very people who should be never ever allowed to become mods, or to be anyw…

> Those are the very people who should be never ever allowed to become mods, or to be anywhere near any position of power Okay. How about AI as the new mod then?

Bots creating content. Bots moderating content to fit corporate agenda. Clueless users consuming streamlined content. That would be a perfect circle.

Re: Reddit is removing moderators that protest by taking their communities private

#459

Post by LunaSea »

garte wrote: post #166
zik wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's amazing and wonderful. The only guys who use a vote are anarchists.

You should read up on anarchism. You're in for a huge surprise there.

Not really. It's usually twenty somethings that somehow think the world wouldn't devolve into chaos if there wasn't a structure to organise society and secure it.

Re: Reddit is removing moderators that protest by taking their communities private

#460

Post by TeMPOraL »

golergka wrote: post #431
TeMPOraL wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are Reddit users waiting in the wings, wringing their hands ready to jump at the 'oppurtunity' to moderate established subreddits and will happily devote their time to custodial duties. (...) There are people who thrive on having power over others even though in this case, subreddit moderation, it is perceived power. Yes. Those are the very people who should be never ever allowed to become mods, or to be anyw…

> Yes. Those are the very people who should be never ever allowed to become mods, or to be anywhere near any position of power. Who do you think the existing mods are?

> Who do you think the existing mods are?

The people invested in the community (or their vision of the community) enough to do that job for free, and do it well enough the community accepts it. I.e. people either not from the group I mentioned, or the least bad cases from it.

Right now (or at least before the blackout), you were looking at subreddits in a steady state. Some had excellent moderation, others less so. Users moved around according to their tastes, and as things settled, every subreddit ended having its own kind of flavor and quality level.

With the existing moderators leaving in protest and with Reddit shaking things up, everything is in flux again. It will take time for the worst, power/status-seeking mods to eventually get bored and drop out (thankfully Reddit isn't actually paying the mods, thus giving the bad ones little reason to stay), possibly destroying whatever subreddits they took over in the process.

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