6 ms·

What’s stopping Reddit from enabling all the subs?

by endisneigh 3y ago

dyingkneepad 3y ago
Having people do the (absolutely necessary) moderation for free.
- Alupis 3y ago
  If they asked random sub users who wants to be a mod - they'll get more free moderators within a heartbeat. At some point, Reddit will just force all subs to be open again, and any mods that try to delete the sub or do no moderation will just get banned or whatever. It's pretty hard to fight against the corp using the corp's own platform.
  - katbyte 3y ago
    > If they asked random sub users who wants to be a mod - they'll get more free moderators within a heartbeat. no, because it is actual work to be a mod. work you don't get paid or rewarded for. i'd say no without hesitation.
  - Aaargh20318 3y ago
    Sure, they’d get plenty or people who would want to get moderator rights. How many of those would actually put in the hours ? And how would you know before you hand over the sub? Not only that, it would create a revolt among the moderators who were still left so you’d have to do this for all subs at once. Tens of thousands of people. It would be an absolute disaster for Reddit.
  - notaustinpowers 3y ago
    They absolutely will, but I wouldn't expect those mods to actually be good mods. I've been in multiple subreddits where a new mod would be assigned because the current ones stopped being active and they'd wreck the subreddit. All posts require approval, sub topic changed, any criticism of the changes met with a permanent ban, etc. For a company wanting to go public, having users banned from some of the most popular subs, the same subs that rely on said users to publish content, Reddit may as well have shot itself in the foot. When the corp has relied on the good graces of users and mods to effectively run the site, both by providing the content AND moderating the content, any change to that status quo is going to be met with open hostility from the top 1% contributors.
  - crote 3y ago
    Finding a warm body isn't hard, but finding a competent moderator is. The current moderators spend an insane amount of time on their communities, and they are very proud of the environment they have built up over the time. They are barely able to keep up with all the automation tools they currently have available. The new moderators would not have this dedication, would not have the tools, and would have to immediately deal with an absolute deluge of some of the worst content imaginable just because the community will view them as scabs. When all the dedicated people leave, only garbage remains. Who would want to be in charge of a pile of garbage?
catchnear4321 3y ago
the fallout from doing so.
agilob 3y ago
I stop moderating it completely :)
- 8note 3y ago
  Or teach the spam filter to spam regular content and allow spam content
Aaargh20318 3y ago
Nothing. But then who’s going to moderate them ? It’s not like they can simply hire 20k people to take over.
Macha 3y ago
They'd have to remove the moderators or they could just delete everything with automoderator (some subs already went read only or "long time members only" instead of private), and then if they remove them who will replace the moderators in the subreddits are doing things like running community competitions, themed topics, etc. Stuff like r/aww and r/videos would probably survive if it was just the Reddit employees removing offensive stuff that gets upvoted high, but it will kill the long tail where the moderators are less garbage removers and more community organisers. Maybe just the generic mindless feed is enough for Reddit to be a successful business, but it's not what most people think of Reddit as, and it's not clear why such a rump reddit would be able to take users off of Tiktok etc.

What’s stopping Reddit from enabling all the subs?

dyingkneepad 3y ago

Having people do the (absolutely necessary) moderation for free.

Alupis 3y ago
If they asked random sub users who wants to be a mod - they'll get more free moderators within a heartbeat. At some point, Reddit will just force all subs to be open again, and any mods that try to delete the sub or do no moderation will just get banned or whatever. It's pretty hard to fight against the corp using the corp's own platform.
- katbyte 3y ago
  > If they asked random sub users who wants to be a mod - they'll get more free moderators within a heartbeat. no, because it is actual work to be a mod. work you don't get paid or rewarded for. i'd say no without hesitation.
- Aaargh20318 3y ago
  Sure, they’d get plenty or people who would want to get moderator rights. How many of those would actually put in the hours ? And how would you know before you hand over the sub? Not only that, it would create a revolt among the moderators who were still left so you’d have to do this for all subs at once. Tens of thousands of people. It would be an absolute disaster for Reddit.
- notaustinpowers 3y ago
  They absolutely will, but I wouldn't expect those mods to actually be good mods. I've been in multiple subreddits where a new mod would be assigned because the current ones stopped being active and they'd wreck the subreddit. All posts require approval, sub topic changed, any criticism of the changes met with a permanent ban, etc. For a company wanting to go public, having users banned from some of the most popular subs, the same subs that rely on said users to publish content, Reddit may as well have shot itself in the foot. When the corp has relied on the good graces of users and mods to effectively run the site, both by providing the content AND moderating the content, any change to that status quo is going to be met with open hostility from the top 1% contributors.
- crote 3y ago
  Finding a warm body isn't hard, but finding a competent moderator is. The current moderators spend an insane amount of time on their communities, and they are very proud of the environment they have built up over the time. They are barely able to keep up with all the automation tools they currently have available. The new moderators would not have this dedication, would not have the tools, and would have to immediately deal with an absolute deluge of some of the worst content imaginable just because the community will view them as scabs. When all the dedicated people leave, only garbage remains. Who would want to be in charge of a pile of garbage?

catchnear4321 3y ago

the fallout from doing so.

agilob 3y ago

I stop moderating it completely :)

8note 3y ago
Or teach the spam filter to spam regular content and allow spam content

Aaargh20318 3y ago

Nothing. But then who’s going to moderate them ? It’s not like they can simply hire 20k people to take over.

Macha 3y ago

They'd have to remove the moderators or they could just delete everything with automoderator (some subs already went read only or "long time members only" instead of private), and then if they remove them who will replace the moderators in the subreddits are doing things like running community competitions, themed topics, etc. Stuff like r/aww and r/videos would probably survive if it was just the Reddit employees removing offensive stuff that gets upvoted high, but it will kill the long tail where the moderators are less garbage removers and more community organisers. Maybe just the generic mindless feed is enough for Reddit to be a successful business, but it's not what most people think of Reddit as, and it's not clear why such a rump reddit would be able to take users off of Tiktok etc.