5 ms·

That's a hell of a way to treat the volunteers who make the existence of that site possible.

marsven_422 3y ago
[dead]
unshavedyak 3y ago
Because they know most will put up with it, just like users. At least, in my view. I've moved from Reddit (user, not a mod), but i think we're fringe. Reddit is going to be humming along like normal soon enough as long as they don't severely upset the average user.
- colpabar 3y ago
  Just like twitter.
  - unshavedyak 3y ago
    TBH, thinking back i'm kinda shocked Digg managed to die over this stuff. Was it just a different audience back in those days? Has Reddit reached a different more apathetic audience? Or is Reddit just not upsetting people as much as Digg did? Clearly the internet has continued to grow more mainstream which brings a larger, alternate audience. I'm just speaking to the idea of why Digg failed and why Reddit won't (in this pass at least). "Too big to fail" perhaps?
    - jdminhbg 3y ago
      Digg was much smaller than 2023 Reddit, and it had a competitor (Reddit) that was already leeching some of its userbase.
    - satvikpendem 3y ago
      By the time Digg did their redesign, Reddit was already getting something like 250 million page views a month. Reddit was a clear alternative to move towards. Today, there is no clear and large alternative to Reddit, as Reddit was to Digg.
LanceH 3y ago
Same can be said about how they mods are treating the rest of the sub.
- EA-3167 3y ago
  How so?
  - weeblewobble 3y ago
    People want to participate in their communities and have access to historical posts and comments. Mods are not letting them do that.
    - EA-3167 3y ago
      In almost all of the subs I've seen doing this, there were days of polling and discussion ahead of time, with the users themselves demanding the blackout.
  - LanceH 3y ago
    A lot of people claiming that the moderators are producing the content when they are more like editors in the scheme of things. Non-moderation redditors are the one producing the bulk of the content. So I'm saying that the moderators consolidating their whole sub's voices into the voice of the moderator is analogous to how reddit is telling everyone how the site as a whole must be used.
- jimbob45 3y ago
  Couldn't agree more. This is a flagrant abuse of power by mods. I hope this is a wake-up call to major companies never to let your employees unionize because the employees don't care about you or your company - they'll kill it just to spite you and then move on to the next company.
  - EA-3167 3y ago
    Unionize? They aren't even employees, they're unpaid volunteers that Reddit can't afford to replace with actual employees.
rvense 3y ago
On the one hand, I think this a stupid decision for Reddit, that it's disrespectful and very bad for the internet. On the other hand, if it's what they're going to do, then that's how it is. You can't really expect them to just leave a namespace like, say, /r/politics in the hands of someone who openly says they aren't going to use it. So of course they're going to remove mods who stick to a blackout, what else could they do? At the end of the day it's their site and everyone's free to leave if they don't like how it's run. This was always the problem with making a home on Reddit, some of us have been saying so all along. (PS: Please understand that Discord is going to have a moment like this. Maybe in two years, maybe in five, but it'll happen. It is inevitable.)
- EA-3167 3y ago
  At least with Discord there's an obvious and robust alternative that's always been around... IRC.
  - ugjka 3y ago
    Err, Matrix too?
- nkuttler 3y ago
  > in the hands of someone who openly says they aren't going to use it Closing it IS using it, in a very public and visible way. They just don't like HOW it is used by the people who built it.
  - satvikpendem 3y ago
    For them, making it private and not allowing users to use it are equivalent. I can't blame them either.
  - slaymaker1907 3y ago
    If you want to change the license for FOSS software like the Linux kernel, you need to get approval from _every_ contributor. To me, this means for a sub to shutdown as they have they would need permission from _every_ subscriber.
anthonypasq 3y ago
reddit moderators have an unbelievably inflated sense of their worth, which is why they thought this blackout was going to accomplish anything in the first place. I assure you, there is a line around the block of people clamoring to become mods. There's a reason its nigh impossible to become a mod of a big sub, the people that are doing it really like doing it and dont want more people joining to dilute their share of the power.
- Plasmoid2000ad 3y ago
  But many subreddits took a vote before taking action, so it's not like the moderators did this out of the blue. The subreddit model seems to me to work as a combination of moderators setting and enforcing some rules, users submitting content (hopefully good) and users upvoting and commenting on content. If the mods are wrong on all of this, then the users who voted to blackout either weren't contributing much or will back down and things will go back to business as usual. But it's also possible that replacing the mods will just lead to many of the users who voted to blackout taking further action. A subreddit without content or with protesting users posting spam isn't fixed by adding more mods.
- PepperdineG 3y ago
  >reddit moderators have an unbelievably inflated sense of their worth If moderators were inconsequential Reddit wouldn't be trying to hire and fire them. >I assure you, there is a line around the block of people clamoring to become mods. The willingness of others to do the same work doesn't make what someone does inconsequential. Would you say an NBA player is inconsequential because you could find a million people who would like to play in the NBA? Obviously being a Redditor moderator and being an NBA player are two different things but by how you are valuing based on willingness to replace, an NBA player would be more inconsequential than a Reddit moderator.
  - anthonypasq 3y ago
    this comment is so incoherent i dont even know where to start.
- 3y ago

[dead]

Because they know most will put up with it, just like users. At least, in my view. I've moved from Reddit (user, not a mod), but i think we're fringe. Reddit is going to be humming along like normal soon enough as long as they don't severely upset the average user.

colpabar 3y ago
Just like twitter.
- unshavedyak 3y ago
  TBH, thinking back i'm kinda shocked Digg managed to die over this stuff. Was it just a different audience back in those days? Has Reddit reached a different more apathetic audience? Or is Reddit just not upsetting people as much as Digg did? Clearly the internet has continued to grow more mainstream which brings a larger, alternate audience. I'm just speaking to the idea of why Digg failed and why Reddit won't (in this pass at least). "Too big to fail" perhaps?
  - jdminhbg 3y ago
    Digg was much smaller than 2023 Reddit, and it had a competitor (Reddit) that was already leeching some of its userbase.
  - satvikpendem 3y ago
    By the time Digg did their redesign, Reddit was already getting something like 250 million page views a month. Reddit was a clear alternative to move towards. Today, there is no clear and large alternative to Reddit, as Reddit was to Digg.

LanceH 3y ago

Same can be said about how they mods are treating the rest of the sub.

EA-3167 3y ago
How so?
- weeblewobble 3y ago
  People want to participate in their communities and have access to historical posts and comments. Mods are not letting them do that.
  - EA-3167 3y ago
    In almost all of the subs I've seen doing this, there were days of polling and discussion ahead of time, with the users themselves demanding the blackout.
- LanceH 3y ago
  A lot of people claiming that the moderators are producing the content when they are more like editors in the scheme of things. Non-moderation redditors are the one producing the bulk of the content. So I'm saying that the moderators consolidating their whole sub's voices into the voice of the moderator is analogous to how reddit is telling everyone how the site as a whole must be used.
jimbob45 3y ago
Couldn't agree more. This is a flagrant abuse of power by mods. I hope this is a wake-up call to major companies never to let your employees unionize because the employees don't care about you or your company - they'll kill it just to spite you and then move on to the next company.
- EA-3167 3y ago
  Unionize? They aren't even employees, they're unpaid volunteers that Reddit can't afford to replace with actual employees.

rvense 3y ago

On the one hand, I think this a stupid decision for Reddit, that it's disrespectful and very bad for the internet. On the other hand, if it's what they're going to do, then that's how it is. You can't really expect them to just leave a namespace like, say, /r/politics in the hands of someone who openly says they aren't going to use it. So of course they're going to remove mods who stick to a blackout, what else could they do? At the end of the day it's their site and everyone's free to leave if they don't like how it's run. This was always the problem with making a home on Reddit, some of us have been saying so all along. (PS: Please understand that Discord is going to have a moment like this. Maybe in two years, maybe in five, but it'll happen. It is inevitable.)

EA-3167 3y ago
At least with Discord there's an obvious and robust alternative that's always been around... IRC.
- ugjka 3y ago
  Err, Matrix too?
nkuttler 3y ago
> in the hands of someone who openly says they aren't going to use it Closing it IS using it, in a very public and visible way. They just don't like HOW it is used by the people who built it.
- satvikpendem 3y ago
  For them, making it private and not allowing users to use it are equivalent. I can't blame them either.
- slaymaker1907 3y ago
  If you want to change the license for FOSS software like the Linux kernel, you need to get approval from _every_ contributor. To me, this means for a sub to shutdown as they have they would need permission from _every_ subscriber.

anthonypasq 3y ago

reddit moderators have an unbelievably inflated sense of their worth, which is why they thought this blackout was going to accomplish anything in the first place. I assure you, there is a line around the block of people clamoring to become mods. There's a reason its nigh impossible to become a mod of a big sub, the people that are doing it really like doing it and dont want more people joining to dilute their share of the power.

Plasmoid2000ad 3y ago
But many subreddits took a vote before taking action, so it's not like the moderators did this out of the blue. The subreddit model seems to me to work as a combination of moderators setting and enforcing some rules, users submitting content (hopefully good) and users upvoting and commenting on content. If the mods are wrong on all of this, then the users who voted to blackout either weren't contributing much or will back down and things will go back to business as usual. But it's also possible that replacing the mods will just lead to many of the users who voted to blackout taking further action. A subreddit without content or with protesting users posting spam isn't fixed by adding more mods.
PepperdineG 3y ago
>reddit moderators have an unbelievably inflated sense of their worth If moderators were inconsequential Reddit wouldn't be trying to hire and fire them. >I assure you, there is a line around the block of people clamoring to become mods. The willingness of others to do the same work doesn't make what someone does inconsequential. Would you say an NBA player is inconsequential because you could find a million people who would like to play in the NBA? Obviously being a Redditor moderator and being an NBA player are two different things but by how you are valuing based on willingness to replace, an NBA player would be more inconsequential than a Reddit moderator.
- anthonypasq 3y ago
  this comment is so incoherent i dont even know where to start.
3y ago