Live data from Hacker News

Reddit CEO Says Mods Too Powerful, Plans to Weaken After Blackout

businessinsider.com

91–100 of 447 posts

Re: Reddit CEO Says Mods Too Powerful, Plans to Weaken After Blackout

#91

The difference between Musk/Twitter and spez/Reddit is that the value of Reddit lies in its army of unpaid moderators, and Twitter's value lies in its brand recognition. When Musk took over and pissed off everyone, the only protest the users can do is to leave the platform. Some did but not enough to hurt Twitter. That's because the management (ie modding) is done by Twitter staff already. With a strong brand, Twitte…

>If those moderators leave,

Then they will find new ones. As long as Reddit has usecases, as long as the powertrip is worth the lack of ownership and poor tooling, there will be mods willing to moderate subs and feeling powerful and getting drunk off of it. 'Historically', this has happened in every social medium with moderation so far.

There's no anarchy here. Most Redditors don't care for the mods in particular. If the underlying reason doesn't move them, a new generation of mods will take place and the cycle continues.

Re: Reddit CEO Says Mods Too Powerful, Plans to Weaken After Blackout

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, for one, they're the sole value prop for the site. They generate, rank, and curate the content in concert with mods and admins.

Why don't the users go and do that somewhere else? genuine question, I don't use Reddit.

Seems like they might. The weird/confusing thing is that Reddit seems to be doing their best to incentivize them to.

Re: Reddit CEO Says Mods Too Powerful, Plans to Weaken After Blackout

#94

Ha. There were some weird posts from new users in subreddits I frequent. 'we need to rise up against the mods the blackout is an outrage!' It was met with unanimous wtf is wrong with you, go outside. I get the feeling spez is creating new accounts and posting as them again.

Well, I, for one, don't fucking care about third party apps (which make money mind you) Reddit is/was my first source of real human information for a lot of stuff (since google is unusable now). And this blackout was really a pain in the ass

> Well, I, for one, don't fucking care about third party apps (which make money mind you)

Those third party apps are central to how the entire content works, they're absolutely critical for the moderators that try valiantly to diver the tide of pure excrement of content that floods in to the various subreddits.

That content you want to be able to see would be buried and gone, or never put there in the first place if it wasn't for third party apps that are crucial to moderators doing their work. Reddit has consistently done an awful job on quality moderation tooling. They really don't seem to give a shit, and just do the absolute bare minimum. The only reason it has managed to survive in the state it is is because others have voluntarily picked up the slack and built the tooling Reddit hasn't bothered to build.

Just because you don't see it or use it doesn't mean it's not central to what you get to experience. Think bigger, beyond your direct experience and consider how that directly impacts you.

Re: Reddit CEO Says Mods Too Powerful, Plans to Weaken After Blackout

#95
post #18

Reddit wouldn't be what it is without mods. Good luck finding people that will work for free without a sense of ownership.

There is a plenty of power hungry basement dwellers who crave any kind of authority. Mods are literally the worst aspect of Reddit. Good riddance.

Re: Reddit CEO Says Mods Too Powerful, Plans to Weaken After Blackout

#96
post #16

Good riddance. The moderators are the worst part of Reddit. Just pay someone to do their job.

>The moderators are the worst part of Reddit. probably why you were down voted, I think the mods provide a decent service preventing it from degenerating into an echo chamber like truth-social >Just pay someone to do their job This I agree with, if the mods were paid well, maybe things would be better. Maybe a rule change like "If your group gets xxx many unique users posting content per day, you get paid X". But tha…

> preventing it from degenerating into an echo chamber

I'm sorry, what?

Re: Reddit CEO Says Mods Too Powerful, Plans to Weaken After Blackout

#97
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He doesn't seem to have a great way with words. If you are the owner (implying >50% ownership), you can't be fired by the shareholders. If you hold less than 50%, you are not the business owner.

If you have more than 50% and your actions are deemed to be against the company the minority stakeholders can ask legally to take control. Even if no actions are taken but your statements appear incoherent

Minority owners can sue, but it doesn't mean they will win. Especially in this case spez is most likely the lightning rod for the board so Reddit can get a big fat IPO. If majority of the board is behind him, there's nothing minority owners can do except pray.

Investors are happy to preach and virtue signal about the 'S' in ESG until hundreds of millions is on the line. Then you won't hear a peep from them.

Re: Reddit CEO Says Mods Too Powerful, Plans to Weaken After Blackout

#98

Quote from him in the NBC interview: “…a business owner can be fired by its shareholders…” You know, I think he may be on to something there. Maybe someone should look into that for oh, say, the CEO of Reddit.

He doesn't seem to have a great way with words. If you are the owner (implying >50% ownership), you can't be fired by the shareholders. If you hold less than 50%, you are not the business owner.

If Huffman had the foresight to not speak, this whole mess probably would have blown over by now.

The API change upset mods. The AMA and these subsequent interviews have created genuine animosity that will bring large changes to Reddit.

If the outcome will be good or bad is anyone’s guess. But it’s clear that many moderators are much more upset at Huffman’s behavior than the API changes.

Post reply on HN