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

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

#181

Post by oniony »

BeefWellington wrote: post #74
llm_nerd wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a pretty common sentiment that opinions that differ from our own must be corrupt, bought, sock-puppets, etc. People on virtually every side of any issue feel this way because it's comforting to imagine that our own opinion is the only authentic one. Loads of reddit users are annoyed by the blackout thing and find the arguments for it unconvincing. I mean personally I think all of the blackout people should just…

> delete your comments Given reddit is apparently restoring deleted comments, that's going to be a useless gesture.[1] I agree with the sentiment though; if people en masse migrated away from Reddit the way they did with Digg, that would be the only really impactful long-term gesture. Edit: Regarding the sockpuppet thing, I mean, we've literally seen that happen a number of times. When you see an account created in 2…

I've a fifteen year account and I've found alternatives for my interests that I'm happy with now. Don't think I'll be on Reddit much from now on.

It's a shame as I really enjoyed it while it lasted, especially in the early days.

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

#182

Post by snickerbockers »

llm_nerd wrote: post #41
AnotherGoodName wrote: post #8

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.

It's a pretty common sentiment that opinions that differ from our own must be corrupt, bought, sock-puppets, etc. People on virtually every side of any issue feel this way because it's comforting to imagine that our own opinion is the only authentic one. Loads of reddit users are annoyed by the blackout thing and find the arguments for it unconvincing. I mean personally I think all of the blackout people should just…

I actually got accused of "arguing in bad faith" by a hackernews mod once because they couldn't fathom that a real person on this site would disagree with net neutrality.

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

#183

Post by x86x87 »

fullshark wrote: post #151
bhaak wrote: post #43

Every day that passes I’m getting more convinced that the best move to improve the likelihood of a successful IPO (which IMHO this whole API clusterfuck is all about) is to fire spez and install a sane CEO. How can it be that he is still in charge and hasn’t been fired years ago?

Do you disagree with him here? Mods are too powerful, many have decided to try and murder the site because of something most users don't even care about. The idea that because I volunteered to moderate r/subcultureX for a few years I can make sure www.reddit.com/r/subcultureX can never direct to any content forever is ridiculous.

nah. there was always a way to remove crappy mods. reddit could and would step in at any point in time.

don't mix "there are crappy mods out there" with "all mods are crappy". it's not even close. the reason reddit runs is because of all the unpaid mod labor.

reddit should just fucking moderate all subs themselves and after that they can do whatever the fuck they want. what? that's expensive AF and comes with liability? what? you want to eat the cake and also keep the cake? that's cute!

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

#184

Post by sudhirkhanger »

shmatt wrote: post #141
guardiangod wrote: post #64

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…

except you don't need to be born a chosen one to become a mod. its not rocket science, and plenty of people want the power have you every thought to yourself, wow, /r/pics is so much better since /u/DM_ME_BOOGERS joined the mod team, I really feel like there was a pre-2019 /r/pics and a post-2019 /r/pics People don't even notice that mod teams could have completely rotated out this year and they didn't feel a thing e…

You can pretty much leave communities in auto mode and nothing will happen. A few posts will get blocked. A few people will get annoyed. It is both difficult to encourage and discourage people to participate in Reddit communities.

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

#185

Post by rootusrootus »

AnotherGoodName wrote: post #125
bheadmaster wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Not at all. Just a regular user who wasn't particularly inconvenienced by the blackout. Were you seriously inconvenienced by the blackout in some way? I really don't get the overly impassioned 'rise up against the mods' posts I've been seeing.

> Were you seriously inconvenienced by the blackout in some way?

You phrased that in the past tense, but I assure you that a number of major subreddits are still private at this moment. With each passing day, my sympathy for the moderators diminishes and I become more receptive to the notion that Reddit should reopen the subreddit, remove all the existing mods, and hold elections for new ones. With a subreddit that has 1M+ users I guarantee there are at least a few dedicated souls that will jump at the opportunity. Only current moderators think they are a rare, irreplaceable asset.

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

#186

Post by djbusby »

arbitrage wrote: post #140
Twirrim wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> Those third party apps are central to how the entire content works, they're absolutely critical for the moderators This is simply not true. I moderate several subs. 3rd party mod tools are not critical. Mods who claim this is so are really misrepresenting the issue. Power tools for mods are nice to have for some. I make use of automod extensively. The tools reddit provides are adequate to perform moderation tasks.…

The tools are critical for some small set of mods, notably r/blind. Apparently Reddit will allow those tools to continue.

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

#187

Post by PragmaticPulp »

chongli wrote: post #132
lazystar wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a silent majority - "lurkers" - that the mods have completely ignored over the course of their tantrum. I've commented more in the past few days than i have in the past few months, because it's obvious the mods have completely lost perspective of the average user experience.

Lurkers are pure consumers, free-riders. They produce nothing. They are valuable only to Reddit for their potential to be monetized. People like to say that users who post content care about lurkers because they want to be seen/heard. No. People who post content care about commenters (and up/downvoters at the bare minimum) who interact with them in meaningful ways, not lurkers. Lurkers are the cosmic neutrinos of soc…

> They are valuable only to Reddit for their potential to be monetized.

Why are you dismissing this? I don’t understand all of these comments talking about Reddit as if it was 100% free to operate and the only important users are the commenters

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

#188

Post by isaacremuant »

sarasasa28 wrote: post #36
AnotherGoodName wrote: post #8

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

Fun fact, those humans who put the info in and make up the communities do care. It's not "evil undemocratic mods", the communities in many subs voted in favor of the protest.

I love how many people who seem to complain about the blackout are like "stop whining and go back to produce the content for me".

Time will tell if the deterioration of the relationship will make that content you value less likely to exist, of less quality or more inaccesible.

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

#189

Post by simonh »

thrashh wrote: post #128
lazystar wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a silent majority - "lurkers" - that the mods have completely ignored over the course of their tantrum. I've commented more in the past few days than i have in the past few months, because it's obvious the mods have completely lost perspective of the average user experience.

I mean that is how everything in life works. Most people lurk politically and are just pulled along by people who care.

If they vote, they’re not lurkers. Even thumbs up-ing is useful engagement.

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

#190

Post by slowmovintarget »

kitsunesoba wrote: post #68
AnotherGoodName wrote: post #8

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.

During this whole debacle, there's been quite a few posts across various parts of the internet that register to me as astroturfing, including a handful on HN. It's not about the opinions presented, nothing wrong with dissent, but the way these posts express those opinions just feels wrong somehow — I've seen 20 years worth of impassioned people posting on the internet, and these posts come off as poor imitations of t…

I agree. The posts here on HN about how all the mods are terrible human beings... that just read as an oddity.
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