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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

#261

Post by runnr_az »

deeviant wrote: post #156
rootusrootus wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone that disagrees with you is doing so in bad faith. Not everything is brigading, etc. Some of us think that the blackouts are starting to look a lot like a tantrum that doesn't represent the best interests of the community. It is a very one-sided argument, as if the moderators are the reason the community exists. No. Moderators are unnecessary without users. It's a symbiosis.

> Some of us think that the blackouts are starting to look a lot like a tantrum that doesn't represent the best interests of the community. I've yet to seen a single coherent argument that supports this statement. Please enlighten me.

I use Reddit to talk about local stuff, ultralight gear. The larger world of mods and “power users” and whatnot - not super relevant. I understand how ya’ll feel, but is blocking people from using r/tempe really useful?

“I’m gonna make Reddit completely unusable so Reddit doesn’t become shitty”

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

#262

Post by raverbashing »

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.

The correct answer back is something that might betray their GPT nature ;)

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

#263

Post by km3r »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #55
juujian wrote: post #19

Welcome to do all the moderating yourself Huffman. It's the task that all other social networks are constantly struggling with and coming up against laws and regulations, while Reddit had it somewhat figured out, or at least had some systems in place that are better than automated blanked removal. Way to shoot yourself in the foot.

> Welcome to do all the moderating yourself Huffman This is obviously the endgame. I don’t even think it would be that expensive.

There are significantly more mods than reddit employees. Reddits already struggling to be profitable and you think they can afford to pay moderators?

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

#264

Post by joecool1029 »

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…

> Given reddit is apparently restoring deleted comments, that's going to be a useless gesture.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't this weaken Reddit's claim to Section 230 immunity? As in, they cross the line from simply being a provider of user generated content to being a publisher of it? We're not talking normal moderation but rather publishing what was marked for deletion.

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

#265

Post by LanceH »

deeviant wrote: post #156
rootusrootus wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone that disagrees with you is doing so in bad faith. Not everything is brigading, etc. Some of us think that the blackouts are starting to look a lot like a tantrum that doesn't represent the best interests of the community. It is a very one-sided argument, as if the moderators are the reason the community exists. No. Moderators are unnecessary without users. It's a symbiosis.

> Some of us think that the blackouts are starting to look a lot like a tantrum that doesn't represent the best interests of the community. I've yet to seen a single coherent argument that supports this statement. Please enlighten me.

Looks like a tantrum to me, with moderators trying to add others who don't feel the same way to their movement.

Example of a subreddit I was in: Moderator opens a poll on whether the blackout should continue. Lays out why it should continue. Doesn't allow discussion about the vote.

A lot of talk about "unpaid labor" of mods while they pay little mind to the "unpaid labor" of the people actually creating the posts.

I'm really not worried about this not because I'm a fan of reddit because there is really nothing stopping a subreddit from coalescing somewhere else. The arguments against this really start to show the value of Reddit, though.

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

#266

Post by bioemerl »

joshstrange wrote: post #143

Lol, users have been asking for this since almost the start of Reddit, and Reddit only cares now because it actually is hitting them where it matters. This is always so annoying, when sites are stagnant for years and then suddenly they can pump out new features when it helps them even if people have been asking for forever. See also mod tools (though they have broken that promise more times than I can count) and shit…

Yeah, not only is this crazy a slap in the face to Reddit users who have wanted it for ages, it's also a slap in the face to people who make subs for their own stuff.

So if I made a sub and I post to it, I build the content on it, some group of users can just vote me out randomly?

Fuck that. They do such a thing and reddit becomes salted earth for anyone wanting to post their content on it, and for anyone wanting to run a community where they aren't popular/don't have an opinion in line with the hive mind.

They needed to allow a more flexible moderation system and separate names of groups from the communities so that /r/games could dynamically change with time, but allowing the community to evict people from what they created is downright asinine.

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

#267

Post by pseudo0 »

slowmovintarget wrote: post #190
kitsunesoba wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It really isn't that odd. Most reddit users hardly interact with the admins. When it comes to mods though, the question is not whether they have had bad interactions, but how many. A job that offers no pay, no benefits, but the dopamine hit of having petty power over random strangers tends to attract poor candidates.

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

#268

Post by JumpCrisscross »

km3r wrote: post #263
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Welcome to do all the moderating yourself Huffman This is obviously the endgame. I don’t even think it would be that expensive.

There are significantly more mods than reddit employees. Reddits already struggling to be profitable and you think they can afford to pay moderators?

> significantly more mods than reddit employees. Reddits already struggling to be profitable and you think they can afford to pay moderators?

They're going to sacrifice quality. In the short run, that will work. The smart move would be to moderate with a small, expensive lead and cheaper offshore, arund-the-world talent. (The brilliant move would be to negotiate, but Huffman has made this personal.)

Keep in mind the power law nature of content. What makes Reddit charming is the long tail. What makes it profitable, in the short term, is the short end. They don't need to hire mods for every subreddit, just the large ones, and among those, only those rebelling and unwilling to relent.

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

#269

Post by fullshark »

pier25 wrote: 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.

Some tiny fringe subreddits will die, some high visibility subreddits will have literally 100s of people trying to become a mod, including people who are potentially paid by an economic entity to be moderator of that subreddit.

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

#270

Post by AlexandrB »

agentgumshoe wrote: post #59

Honestly, if mods can just be voted out by their community, it will be chaos and little noisy groups of people will ruin everything. I am thinking this is not so much a well thought out and reasoned opinion after weighing up historical behaviour on the platform, but a whiplash to a protest actually having effect. Just maybe...

It's pretty clear that /spez doesn't actually use reddit very much and doesn't really understand how it works "on the ground".
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