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92 out of the top 500 Reddit subs are controlled by just 4 people

21 points by bitcharmer 3y ago

nitwit005 3y ago
> Reddit mods do an estimated $3.4 Million in labor all for free each year. Reddit likely can't afford such a bill In their filing to go public, reddit disclosed their CEO's compensation was $193 million last year. Their revenue was $804 million. It's not a huge amount for them. They'd just rather not pay it.
- vba616 3y ago
  >Their revenue was $804 million. It's not a huge amount for them. They made $804M after all expenses? Or before?
  - karmakaze 3y ago
    Revenue is usually before expenses. But it's Reddit not Wikimedia--I imagine they're efficient enough to have the $3.4M without having to put up donation pleas.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - vba616 3y ago
      I don't understand what you mean, or why you wrote it.
      - karmakaze 3y ago
        I was thinking that Reddit would be much more fiscally responsible/efficient than WikiMedia, but of course I have no real data. In truth they are probably much more similar than they are different.
        vba616 3y ago
        They seem to be losing money. On the one hand, if they are incinerating millions of dollars every month, that's an argument that they could easily afford a few more - after all, they are getting cash from somewhere. On the other hand, if they are losing money, in a certain sense they have not got even $1 to spare.
- pavel_lishin 3y ago
  As a mod, I would have been happy if they'd invested that money into better mod tooling much earlier. Even now, it sucks. Or perhaps open an API to moderators, limited to the subreddits they moderate. I'd love love love to have been able to do more from Discord, but nope.
  - raxxorraxor 3y ago
    I think this is a case where reddit shouldn't listen to mods at all. Because some do use the available tools to randomly ban people some mods do not like. On the contrary, limit the tools to check and approve topics by content. Those that moderate many subs need to give up some of that responsibility to others. It maybe would improve reddit again. Bad mods are worse than bad users.
simonblack 3y ago
Anybody who puts money into Reddit has more money than sense. Their choice. Their loss. Censorship merely for the sake of censorship has been the incipient downfall of Reddit for around ten years. People should have learned in that time. They didn't.
- pavel_lishin 3y ago
  > Censorship merely for the sake of censorship has been the incipient downfall of Reddit for around ten years Can you say more about what you mean?
  - simonblack 3y ago
    Short and quick example: Today I mentioned on the local /r/australia subreddit that it was 45 years ago this week that the film "Mad Max" had been released. Now "Mad Max" is a famous and well-known Australian film. You'd expect that there would be some interest in that. This is what happened to that general-interest post: post reply Just ICYMI, "Mad Max" was released 45 years ago this week. from AutoModerator[M] via /r/australia sent 17 hours ago This post has been removed as an empty / very-short self-post. Chit-chat is best submitted to the daily thread. I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns. contextfull comments (1)reportblock usermark unreadreply As I said above, censorship merely for the sake of censorship. What's the definition of 'very short'? Two words? Ten Words? One hundred words? One thousand words? Once you put the reason for a post, why should you need to add more unnecessary words to prevent it being "disappeared"? As can be clearly seen, there is no REAL reason for removing this post. Next time I have a another 'too short' post, I will try an experiment and add about 10-15 lines of extraneous material to pad it out. See if that changes things.
    - bitcharmer 3y ago
      Or those subs that delete your comment when you don't have enough karma. How are new users supposed to participate? It's ridiculous.
egberts1 3y ago
After the Great Moderation Holocaust, it is no surprise that Reddit has ham-fisted themself tidily and neatly.
ImJamal 3y ago
How certain are we that those 4 people are in fact individuals rather than a group? Or that some of the other mods are not the same person as the 4 individuals?

21 points by bitcharmer 3y ago

> Reddit mods do an estimated $3.4 Million in labor all for free each year. Reddit likely can't afford such a bill In their filing to go public, reddit disclosed their CEO's compensation was $193 million last year. Their revenue was $804 million. It's not a huge amount for them. They'd just rather not pay it.

vba616 3y ago
>Their revenue was $804 million. It's not a huge amount for them. They made $804M after all expenses? Or before?
- karmakaze 3y ago
  Revenue is usually before expenses. But it's Reddit not Wikimedia--I imagine they're efficient enough to have the $3.4M without having to put up donation pleas.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - vba616 3y ago
    I don't understand what you mean, or why you wrote it.
    - karmakaze 3y ago
      I was thinking that Reddit would be much more fiscally responsible/efficient than WikiMedia, but of course I have no real data. In truth they are probably much more similar than they are different.
      - vba616 3y ago
        They seem to be losing money. On the one hand, if they are incinerating millions of dollars every month, that's an argument that they could easily afford a few more - after all, they are getting cash from somewhere. On the other hand, if they are losing money, in a certain sense they have not got even $1 to spare.
pavel_lishin 3y ago
As a mod, I would have been happy if they'd invested that money into better mod tooling much earlier. Even now, it sucks. Or perhaps open an API to moderators, limited to the subreddits they moderate. I'd love love love to have been able to do more from Discord, but nope.
- raxxorraxor 3y ago
  I think this is a case where reddit shouldn't listen to mods at all. Because some do use the available tools to randomly ban people some mods do not like. On the contrary, limit the tools to check and approve topics by content. Those that moderate many subs need to give up some of that responsibility to others. It maybe would improve reddit again. Bad mods are worse than bad users.

simonblack 3y ago

Anybody who puts money into Reddit has more money than sense. Their choice. Their loss. Censorship merely for the sake of censorship has been the incipient downfall of Reddit for around ten years. People should have learned in that time. They didn't.

pavel_lishin 3y ago
> Censorship merely for the sake of censorship has been the incipient downfall of Reddit for around ten years Can you say more about what you mean?
- simonblack 3y ago
  Short and quick example: Today I mentioned on the local /r/australia subreddit that it was 45 years ago this week that the film "Mad Max" had been released. Now "Mad Max" is a famous and well-known Australian film. You'd expect that there would be some interest in that. This is what happened to that general-interest post: post reply Just ICYMI, "Mad Max" was released 45 years ago this week. from AutoModerator[M] via /r/australia sent 17 hours ago This post has been removed as an empty / very-short self-post. Chit-chat is best submitted to the daily thread. I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns. contextfull comments (1)reportblock usermark unreadreply As I said above, censorship merely for the sake of censorship. What's the definition of 'very short'? Two words? Ten Words? One hundred words? One thousand words? Once you put the reason for a post, why should you need to add more unnecessary words to prevent it being "disappeared"? As can be clearly seen, there is no REAL reason for removing this post. Next time I have a another 'too short' post, I will try an experiment and add about 10-15 lines of extraneous material to pad it out. See if that changes things.
  - bitcharmer 3y ago
    Or those subs that delete your comment when you don't have enough karma. How are new users supposed to participate? It's ridiculous.

egberts1 3y ago

After the Great Moderation Holocaust, it is no surprise that Reddit has ham-fisted themself tidily and neatly.

ImJamal 3y ago

How certain are we that those 4 people are in fact individuals rather than a group? Or that some of the other mods are not the same person as the 4 individuals?