6 ms·

Sure, but without those moderators there's not much of a site. I don't spent a lot of time thinking about trash collection, but if all the garbage on my street

by tedivm 3y ago

Sure, but without those moderators there's not much of a site. I don't spent a lot of time thinking about trash collection, but if all the garbage on my street stopped being collected I'd absolutely notice.

nightski 3y ago
You are probably right, but at the same time there are probably plenty of people willing to step in and take their place.
- ntaylor 3y ago
  The truth is that there are many, many niche communities where this is simply not true. Whole sections of reddit will die off due to lack of moderation and people will be forced to go elsewhere. This may not be a killing blow for reddit, but it will be devastating to the communities that it impacts.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - edgyquant 3y ago
    Every community you’re talking about has users who would love to replace the mod team.
    - jachee 3y ago
      So that they, too, can get treated like crap by reddit? I don’t buy it.
      - edgyquant 3y ago
        No so that they can be the ones who get to ban people and shape the community.
- EnragedParrot 3y ago
  But now you have to subtract from the "plenty of people" those who are angered and disillusioned over Reddit's treatment of existing community mods and power users. You're whittling down the population of people who actually care about the subreddits they moderate and contribute to. So yeah, you could get them moderated, but the site would mostly go to garbage. Reddit's triumph from the user perspective is that all of the content is driven by users, and those users are primarily made up of a small and passionate minority. The downfall of this fact from the business side is that Reddit as a company needs to appease those people because without their contributions, nobody would want to use the site.
  - Sunspark 3y ago
    It is true. Walking down the street, you gaze with more enjoyment at a garden someone took the time to make presentable and not so much the other property with the random weeds all over and perhaps an empty can.
JumpCrisscross 3y ago
> without those moderators there's not much of a site How many of those users would notice if Reddit swapped in paid moderators for the largest subs?
- sgift 3y ago
  Reddit had years to make changes to the moderating situation. Any changes at all. Do you really think that they will start now instead of just cutting off their army of free mods and then wonder why things will go to shit even faster?
  - JumpCrisscross 3y ago
    > Do you really think that they will start now instead of just cutting off their army of free mods Better now than during a roadshow.
- tezgon 3y ago
  If they're concerned with the amount they lose to 3PAs, paying their moderators is a complete non-starter. The whole point of this is to increase revenue for the upcoming IPO.
  - fdgjgbdfhgb 3y ago
    Right, but the point of this change isn't really the _actual cost_ of 3rd party API usage, as much as the _opportunity cost_. They are way overcharging for the API, and they know it. Adding some expenses in the form of paid mods (let's be honest, probably off-shored to a 3rd world country and paid minimum wage) would be worth it, if it can guarantee the subs keep running.
- stetrain 3y ago
  That probably won’t help with their quest for profitability.
evandale 3y ago
> Sure, but without those moderators there's not much of a site. I believe moderators on Reddit like to think that they're that important and integral to the site functioning smoothly, but I think the reality is upvoting/downvoting/reporting works perfectly fine in nearly every subreddit. The only time it doesn't work is in places like r/AskHistorians or r/science which require high quality comments much like this place. You might argue with no moderation the subreddit would turn into a cesspool of reposts and memes - but who really cares? If that's what people want and that's what people are upvoting then let it be. There's no reason to have editorial control over subreddits when the entire point of the subreddit is to have stupid conversations, memes, and jokes. If people keep upvoting and enjoying the same stupid memes and jokes why do moderators feel like they need to step in and disrupt what the people find enjoyable?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- FormerBandmate 3y ago
  Most posters use third party apps too. The people who use the official app treat it like About.com, not Instagram
- tornato7 3y ago
  The worst I've seen are subreddits focused around physical location like cities/colleges, you get a lot of what amounts to cyber-bullying of individuals (like students posting hateful memes of professors they don't like), and this can lead to a pretty toxic subreddit (even inciting violence) without close moderation.
- 8organicbits 3y ago
  > reporting Wasn't reporting handled by the mods? > You might argue with no moderation the subreddit would turn into a cesspool of reposts and memes - but who really cares? Presumably the people who used the subreddit would care. It seems like you think Reddit was only for shitposting, that wasn't my experience. It was a collection of forums, each with their own norms.
sunflowerfly 3y ago
I hit Apollo yesterday out of muscle memory and clicked on one of my favorite subs. The posts were simply terrible. If that was the daily experience I would not ever read that sub.
deaddodo 3y ago
So, wouldn't the proper protest be to instead...just quit? Let the subreddits get overrun by all of this spam and extreme posts and then the admins would appreciate their influence, no? And, as a nice side benefit, maybe we'll finally get to prune the cabal of super-moderators that have been abusing their influence for over a decade now.
- raybanyoda 3y ago
  Look at the AskHistorians community. Those mods LOVE their community. They would be walking away from a passion project. These aren't just cheeto junkie computer nerds, these people are invested. So this is a little like saying "just leave your girlfriend of 5 years" like a lot of emotion is involved. You want it to work. You want to be in the ideal state. You don't want to quit. You want them to change.

by tedivm 3y ago

nightski 3y ago

You are probably right, but at the same time there are probably plenty of people willing to step in and take their place.

ntaylor 3y ago
The truth is that there are many, many niche communities where this is simply not true. Whole sections of reddit will die off due to lack of moderation and people will be forced to go elsewhere. This may not be a killing blow for reddit, but it will be devastating to the communities that it impacts.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- edgyquant 3y ago
  Every community you’re talking about has users who would love to replace the mod team.
  - jachee 3y ago
    So that they, too, can get treated like crap by reddit? I don’t buy it.
    - edgyquant 3y ago
      No so that they can be the ones who get to ban people and shape the community.
EnragedParrot 3y ago
But now you have to subtract from the "plenty of people" those who are angered and disillusioned over Reddit's treatment of existing community mods and power users. You're whittling down the population of people who actually care about the subreddits they moderate and contribute to. So yeah, you could get them moderated, but the site would mostly go to garbage. Reddit's triumph from the user perspective is that all of the content is driven by users, and those users are primarily made up of a small and passionate minority. The downfall of this fact from the business side is that Reddit as a company needs to appease those people because without their contributions, nobody would want to use the site.
- Sunspark 3y ago
  It is true. Walking down the street, you gaze with more enjoyment at a garden someone took the time to make presentable and not so much the other property with the random weeds all over and perhaps an empty can.

JumpCrisscross 3y ago

> without those moderators there's not much of a site How many of those users would notice if Reddit swapped in paid moderators for the largest subs?

sgift 3y ago
Reddit had years to make changes to the moderating situation. Any changes at all. Do you really think that they will start now instead of just cutting off their army of free mods and then wonder why things will go to shit even faster?
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago
  > Do you really think that they will start now instead of just cutting off their army of free mods Better now than during a roadshow.
tezgon 3y ago
If they're concerned with the amount they lose to 3PAs, paying their moderators is a complete non-starter. The whole point of this is to increase revenue for the upcoming IPO.
- fdgjgbdfhgb 3y ago
  Right, but the point of this change isn't really the _actual cost_ of 3rd party API usage, as much as the _opportunity cost_. They are way overcharging for the API, and they know it. Adding some expenses in the form of paid mods (let's be honest, probably off-shored to a 3rd world country and paid minimum wage) would be worth it, if it can guarantee the subs keep running.
stetrain 3y ago
That probably won’t help with their quest for profitability.

evandale 3y ago

> Sure, but without those moderators there's not much of a site. I believe moderators on Reddit like to think that they're that important and integral to the site functioning smoothly, but I think the reality is upvoting/downvoting/reporting works perfectly fine in nearly every subreddit. The only time it doesn't work is in places like r/AskHistorians or r/science which require high quality comments much like this place. You might argue with no moderation the subreddit would turn into a cesspool of reposts and memes - but who really cares? If that's what people want and that's what people are upvoting then let it be. There's no reason to have editorial control over subreddits when the entire point of the subreddit is to have stupid conversations, memes, and jokes. If people keep upvoting and enjoying the same stupid memes and jokes why do moderators feel like they need to step in and disrupt what the people find enjoyable?

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
FormerBandmate 3y ago
Most posters use third party apps too. The people who use the official app treat it like About.com, not Instagram
tornato7 3y ago
The worst I've seen are subreddits focused around physical location like cities/colleges, you get a lot of what amounts to cyber-bullying of individuals (like students posting hateful memes of professors they don't like), and this can lead to a pretty toxic subreddit (even inciting violence) without close moderation.
8organicbits 3y ago
> reporting Wasn't reporting handled by the mods? > You might argue with no moderation the subreddit would turn into a cesspool of reposts and memes - but who really cares? Presumably the people who used the subreddit would care. It seems like you think Reddit was only for shitposting, that wasn't my experience. It was a collection of forums, each with their own norms.

sunflowerfly 3y ago

I hit Apollo yesterday out of muscle memory and clicked on one of my favorite subs. The posts were simply terrible. If that was the daily experience I would not ever read that sub.

deaddodo 3y ago

So, wouldn't the proper protest be to instead...just quit? Let the subreddits get overrun by all of this spam and extreme posts and then the admins would appreciate their influence, no? And, as a nice side benefit, maybe we'll finally get to prune the cabal of super-moderators that have been abusing their influence for over a decade now.

raybanyoda 3y ago
Look at the AskHistorians community. Those mods LOVE their community. They would be walking away from a passion project. These aren't just cheeto junkie computer nerds, these people are invested. So this is a little like saying "just leave your girlfriend of 5 years" like a lot of emotion is involved. You want it to work. You want to be in the ideal state. You don't want to quit. You want them to change.