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So what keeps Reddit from 'taking over' these subs? They probably already have auto moderation in some form, they could outsource manual moderation temporarily

So what keeps Reddit from 'taking over' these subs? They probably already have auto moderation in some form, they could outsource manual moderation temporarily to some companies. Probably some people who contribute a lot will get angry and not post anymore, but the world is big. Until a new similar platform pops up, you will still find new contributors who might not care about this protest.

o_m 3y ago
Wouldn't that increase expenses? Today the mods work for free, and the point of all of this is to cut costs before the IPO.
theshrike79 3y ago
The current moderators are paid only in internet points and power over a community. Zero actual dollars. The automatic moderation tools are hilariously bad, that's why people are using the API for 3rd party tools. Let's see how this develops.
KomoD 3y ago
> they could outsource manual moderation temporarily to some companies That's going to be difficult or expensive (basically making it pointless), 6500+ subs have gone dark. Almost 400 1+ million subs are participating. Total is ~28200 moderators
- paulmd 3y ago
  > Total is ~28200 moderators 5 moderators control 92 of the top 500 subs. That cuts both ways. There are a lot of mods lower on the totem pole but it's a handful of people making the call to shut reddit down, and it wouldn't be that costly to kick them out, put an admin at the top, and open the subs again. Once you've pried the big ones back open... who cares if r/warhammer wants to stay closed? You don't need to take over every little niche hobby sub, as long as the big tiktok-style content-drip subs get back running. That's the future of Reddit, in Reddit's eyes. Tiktok 2.0. That's where the shareholder value is, they don't give a shit about your niche hobby sub with 10k users being closed. Even if the lower-ranked mods don't want to mod anymore, you will always find some schmuck who wants to push buttons at people. People can't resist it even here on HN, people love flagging/downvoting. What's the least amount of power that can go to someone's head? Internet forums moderator, most definitely. There will always be an endless stream of people willing to do it for the tiny bit of clout it affords them. > (basically making it pointless), saving the business isn't really pointless for reddit. They have procedures to replace mods after 48 hours and we very well might see them deploy them. They've made it clear they understand the frustration and where people are coming from and they don't care. In fact they are actually doubling down on fucking up the web experience for mobile etc to push people to the native app on those platforms. She's not that into you, bro. Remember, this is Reddit... they bought Dubsmash, with a 25% market penetration in the black teen community, killed the platform/app, and turned it into a subreddit with 1.5k subscribers, a conversion rate of around 0.01%. They don't mind doing big Twitter-style changes that risk losing a lot of users even if the conversion rate is abysmal. People are approaching this from the perspective of "what would I, a rational person do, to preserve the Reddit I know and love?" and not Reddit's perspective of pivoting the business to being Tiktok 2.0. In their (probably correct) assessment, that pivot evidently requires people being on the native app/new experience. The hobby stuff is fine especially if it draws in users but it's not where the money is for them. They need advertiser $.
  - KomoD 3y ago
    > She's not that into you, bro. Where the hell did this come from?
    - paulmd 3y ago
      It's a concise quip for when one party in a relationship values the relationship a lot more than the other party. https://www.google.com/search?q=She's+not+that+into+you%2C+bro https://www.google.com/search?q=She's+not+that+into+you%2C+b... "Reddit doesn't care about hobbyists as long as they get eyeballs scrolling their tiktok content" just isn't as catchy. Anyway, that's the case here. There are a lot of people who are very emotionally attached to their posting, and it's a personal disaster for them to lose that. It is not, however, a disaster to Reddit - you can clearly see from the Q+A that Spez gets how upset people are and just doesn't care, they still will not change course and are even doubling down on killing the mobile website etc to further drive traffic to the native app. Very clearly they are making the decision that it's better to retain 75% or even 50% of their users and get them all on the app than to maintain the existing experience and not monetize the users effectively. In this vein I 100% expect them to crack open any subreddits still closed after 48 hours and get the money moving again. Most people will come back. Or at least Reddit thinks most people will come back. But generally, people value the content of their posting quite highly, because of the emotional connection. It's like a pawnshop, to you they're priceless heirlooms, to the guy behind the counter it's junk. It doesn't matter to Spez if you keep posting or not, and in the aggregate the odds are that you will. And that's the emotional disconnect, users see a community they built and don't want to change or go away, and Spez sees a big 'ol cash pinata if he can turn it into Reddit-Shaped Tiktok. People feel they built something and contributed something value, and Spez feels that there are more cat-picture-uploaders and movie-quote-comment-chain posters where you came from. Your posts aren't an heirloom to him, they're junk. Redditors think Spez can’t live without them - and he’s just not that into you. Making a big dramatic ultimatum is not gonna work. This is Ycombinator we're posting on, and Spez/Reddit are the very first, the model YC alum. They're chasing money, not building a community, they don't care about you the way you care about them. It sucks to get dumped but it’s over, and people are just making a scene because they can. At some point Reddit will get tired of it and call the cops (insert mods/reopen subreddits) and move on with their life.

o_m 3y ago

Wouldn't that increase expenses? Today the mods work for free, and the point of all of this is to cut costs before the IPO.

theshrike79 3y ago

The current moderators are paid only in internet points and power over a community. Zero actual dollars. The automatic moderation tools are hilariously bad, that's why people are using the API for 3rd party tools. Let's see how this develops.

KomoD 3y ago

> they could outsource manual moderation temporarily to some companies That's going to be difficult or expensive (basically making it pointless), 6500+ subs have gone dark. Almost 400 1+ million subs are participating. Total is ~28200 moderators

paulmd 3y ago
> Total is ~28200 moderators 5 moderators control 92 of the top 500 subs. That cuts both ways. There are a lot of mods lower on the totem pole but it's a handful of people making the call to shut reddit down, and it wouldn't be that costly to kick them out, put an admin at the top, and open the subs again. Once you've pried the big ones back open... who cares if r/warhammer wants to stay closed? You don't need to take over every little niche hobby sub, as long as the big tiktok-style content-drip subs get back running. That's the future of Reddit, in Reddit's eyes. Tiktok 2.0. That's where the shareholder value is, they don't give a shit about your niche hobby sub with 10k users being closed. Even if the lower-ranked mods don't want to mod anymore, you will always find some schmuck who wants to push buttons at people. People can't resist it even here on HN, people love flagging/downvoting. What's the least amount of power that can go to someone's head? Internet forums moderator, most definitely. There will always be an endless stream of people willing to do it for the tiny bit of clout it affords them. > (basically making it pointless), saving the business isn't really pointless for reddit. They have procedures to replace mods after 48 hours and we very well might see them deploy them. They've made it clear they understand the frustration and where people are coming from and they don't care. In fact they are actually doubling down on fucking up the web experience for mobile etc to push people to the native app on those platforms. She's not that into you, bro. Remember, this is Reddit... they bought Dubsmash, with a 25% market penetration in the black teen community, killed the platform/app, and turned it into a subreddit with 1.5k subscribers, a conversion rate of around 0.01%. They don't mind doing big Twitter-style changes that risk losing a lot of users even if the conversion rate is abysmal. People are approaching this from the perspective of "what would I, a rational person do, to preserve the Reddit I know and love?" and not Reddit's perspective of pivoting the business to being Tiktok 2.0. In their (probably correct) assessment, that pivot evidently requires people being on the native app/new experience. The hobby stuff is fine especially if it draws in users but it's not where the money is for them. They need advertiser $.
- KomoD 3y ago
  > She's not that into you, bro. Where the hell did this come from?
  - paulmd 3y ago
    It's a concise quip for when one party in a relationship values the relationship a lot more than the other party. https://www.google.com/search?q=She's+not+that+into+you%2C+bro https://www.google.com/search?q=She's+not+that+into+you%2C+b... "Reddit doesn't care about hobbyists as long as they get eyeballs scrolling their tiktok content" just isn't as catchy. Anyway, that's the case here. There are a lot of people who are very emotionally attached to their posting, and it's a personal disaster for them to lose that. It is not, however, a disaster to Reddit - you can clearly see from the Q+A that Spez gets how upset people are and just doesn't care, they still will not change course and are even doubling down on killing the mobile website etc to further drive traffic to the native app. Very clearly they are making the decision that it's better to retain 75% or even 50% of their users and get them all on the app than to maintain the existing experience and not monetize the users effectively. In this vein I 100% expect them to crack open any subreddits still closed after 48 hours and get the money moving again. Most people will come back. Or at least Reddit thinks most people will come back. But generally, people value the content of their posting quite highly, because of the emotional connection. It's like a pawnshop, to you they're priceless heirlooms, to the guy behind the counter it's junk. It doesn't matter to Spez if you keep posting or not, and in the aggregate the odds are that you will. And that's the emotional disconnect, users see a community they built and don't want to change or go away, and Spez sees a big 'ol cash pinata if he can turn it into Reddit-Shaped Tiktok. People feel they built something and contributed something value, and Spez feels that there are more cat-picture-uploaders and movie-quote-comment-chain posters where you came from. Your posts aren't an heirloom to him, they're junk. Redditors think Spez can’t live without them - and he’s just not that into you. Making a big dramatic ultimatum is not gonna work. This is Ycombinator we're posting on, and Spez/Reddit are the very first, the model YC alum. They're chasing money, not building a community, they don't care about you the way you care about them. It sucks to get dumped but it’s over, and people are just making a scene because they can. At some point Reddit will get tired of it and call the cops (insert mods/reopen subreddits) and move on with their life.