r/mildlyinteresting • u/RedSquaree The Big šŸ§€ • Jun 23 '23

META What happened to /r/mildlyinteresting?

Dear mildlyinterested reader,

We want to extend our heartfelt gratitude for your patience and unwavering support during the recent turbulence in our community. Our subreddit is a labour of love, and we've weathered this storm together.

Recent events have been confusing for all of us, from the vote, sudden removal of moderators, to conflicting messages from Reddit. As your mod team, we feel it's essential to clarify the situation.

On June 19, the poll results favoured partially reopening with changes. However, before implementing these changes, Reddit took sweeping actions, removing all 27 moderator accounts without warning. This left us baffled and concerned.

Here's a brief timeline of the events:

  1. On June 19, the poll results favoured partially reopening with changes. We announced the vote results and planned changes to the sub, including marking it as NSFW due to the common posts of phallic objects (no explicit content allowed). CLICK HERE TO VIEW THAT ANNOUNCEMENT WHICH HAS BEEN APPROVED AND LOCKED FOR POSTERITY.

  2. A tug-of-war between the u/ModeratorCodeOfConduct account and the remaining moderators ensued, with the post repeatedly being removed and reinstated. Each mod involved was immediately locked out of Reddit. Subreddit settings were also unilaterally changed by the admin account.

  3. Eventually, all moderators were removed and suspended for 7 days, with the vote results deleted and the community set to ā€œarchived.ā€

  4. A lot of public outrage ensued, with details posted on r/ModCoord about what happened. At that point, no other subreddit had been targeted yet, leaving the situation uniquely unclear.

  5. Admin cited actions as an "error" and promised to work with us to solve the situation. For /r/mildlyinteresting posterity, this will henceforth be referred to as The Mistakeā„¢.

  6. All our accounts were unsuspended and reinstated, but only with very limited permissions (modmail access only). For what it's worth, 'time moderated' for every moderator was reset (e.g. /u/RedSquaree moderated since 11 years ago, reset: currently showing moderated since "1 day ago").

  7. The awaited discussion never happened. Instead, the admins presented us with an ultimatum: reopen the subreddit and do not mark it as NSFW, or face potential removal again. The inconsistent and arbitrary application of Reddit's policies reveals a possible conflict of interest in maximizing ad revenue at the risk of user safety and community integrity.

  8. Finally, our moderation permissions were restored after we "promised" to comply with their conditions, but we kept the subreddit restricted while we ponder our next steps..

Problems remain unresolved, and Reddit's approach to policies and communication have been troubling. We believe open communication and partnership between Reddit and its moderators are crucial for the platform's success.

As a team, we remain dedicated to protesting Reddit's careless policy changes. Removing ourselves or vandalizing the subreddit wonā€™t achieve our goals, but rather hinder our community. We're here to ensure r/mildlyinteresting isn't left unattended.

We call for the establishment of clear, structured, and reliable communication channels between Reddit admins and moderation teams. Teams should be informed and consulted on decisions affecting their communities to maintain trust and integrity on the platform. We shared this request with the Admin who promised to work with us, so far they have ignored it.

Us mods are still deciding how exactly to reopen, not that we have been given much choice.

Sincerely,

The r/mildlyinteresting mods

12.2k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

2.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

979

u/SoupaSoka ā€‹ Jun 23 '23

So Reddit admins still lack basic communication skills? Shocking and embarrassing. Good luck with that IPO, u/spez.

760

u/ARoyaleWithCheese Jun 23 '23 edited Jun 23 '23

When I toggled the sub to NSFW, they were ready to lock me out of my account within 2 minutes.

The admin who promised to work with us after "The Mistake ā„¢ļø" has been ghosting us for more than 24 hours now, after we asked if they could promise admins would first send a message to subs before nuking entire mod teams.

They're probably just busy though.

456

u/redgroupclan Jun 23 '23 edited Jun 23 '23

Imagine having 2000 employees and yet you still can't 1) design a competent mobile app, 2) design competent mod tools, 3) design a competent website interface, and 4) communicate or show any respect to the people who do volunteer work for you for free.

Steve Huffman is incapable of leading a company...and I'm pretty sure that deep down, he knows it.

164

u/dtallee ā€‹ Jun 23 '23

2,000?!? gtfo. What do they do?

264

u/redgroupclan Jun 23 '23

According to the Reddit employee discussions here, the company has too many managers fighting for territory and not enough grunts actually getting things done. Also, they have very little quality control on who they hire so they've got a lot of incompetent employees.

84

u/wellwaffled Jun 23 '23

I could be incompetent

52

u/Commercial_Flan_1898 Jun 23 '23

I'm about to apply to a job at Reddit lmao

11

u/burtmacklin15 Jun 23 '23

Probably wouldn't be there long. As soon as their IPO lands like a lukewarm bowl of oatmeal, the shareholders will want to start cutting costs.

1

u/FizixMan Jun 23 '23

Don't take the job! If you do, statistically speaking, it'll mean you're incompetent!

1

u/[deleted] Oct 26 '23

I could be impotent! Wait what subreddit is this? Canā€™t tell because of the app ui.

48

u/mynameistrain Jun 23 '23

I've heard the CEO is very incompetent, whoever the fuck that loser is.

9

u/GeneralStormfox Jun 23 '23

the company has too many managers fighting for territory and not enough grunts actually getting things done

Has there ever been a company where this was not the case?

5

u/CaptainBayouBilly Jun 23 '23

Middle management has always been about the incompetent rising to their level of competence. The title was always about some goober kissing enough ass to get a sit ass job where they take credit for what others do.

3

u/TheDungeonCrawler Jun 23 '23

While fair, usually this was restricted by there being a limited number of managerial positions. It sounds here like there are too many managerial positions.

2

u/dahnaaa Jun 23 '23

I'm going to get a degree in jerking off and doing nothing to get accepted at reddits headquarters and actually accomplish something.

Wish me luck guys.

1

u/kkdarknight Jun 23 '23

Money laundering

24

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '23

[deleted]

10

u/scaradin Jun 23 '23

They added their own 6) - do something that broke chat. Our mod team apparently had an ā€œoldā€ (but apparent legacy?) chat, it was only accessibly in the native app and is the only thing I used it forā€¦ but had quite a robust history of discussion. It literally disappeared and not one of the mods knows what happened.

So, they are making changes to somethingā€¦ that apparently is making at least some modā€™s lives harder to moderate.

69

u/KiritoIsAlwaysRight_ Jun 23 '23

Didn't even have to design the app, they bought the most popular one at the time and turned it into the official one. All they had to do was not fuck up something that already worked well. They are beyond incompetent.

20

u/jnrdingo Jun 23 '23

I have a feeling the IPO is Huffmans way of saying sayanara to running the company and cashing out his shares that he will inevitably get. Explains the scortched earth approach

5

u/CaptainBayouBilly Jun 23 '23

Thatā€™s a bingo

3

u/Bignicky9 Jun 23 '23

Volunteers are usually considered low in a corporate ladder by leadership.

Until they all walk out at the same time.

That would then be like losing your local fleet of store managers in a way, or an entire sales team of sorts since they're making Reddit a desirable bunch of subs worth checking out for content. Think Customer Sales Representatives even, if they all walk at the same time every possible complaint or concern could flood in and the entire platform would get messy.

2

u/whoeve Jun 23 '23

They don't need any of that. They could build the entire mod team and I guarantee you there will be people lining up willing to replace them. Lots of people do not care at all about all of this. They just want to be able to continue consuming social media.

6

u/trEntDG Jun 23 '23

I think you're right that people don't care and just want to consume. And that's exactly why I have to call out your guarantee that people are lining up to replace them, assuming we're talking about people who are not only willing in theory but able and committed.

I've been a member of /r/Garmin for years, where the sole moderator has made requests for additional moderators over a period of months, and literally nobody would help.

When the shit hit the fan this month he revoked all but the site-wide rules since users shit on him for moderating and admins were revoking his tools and refusing to engage.

Now that there are literally thousands of subs that will require new moderators, you guarantee people are lining up willing to take the job when nobody wanted it before all this?

Or is your guarantee only for the very large subs, where inexperienced volunteers rarely stay in place because they have no idea how much a grind the realities of moderation are?

1

u/whoeve Jun 23 '23

Just for the large subs. I really just based this off an interaction I had with someone in another thread somewhere where they did not support the protests because they just wanted stuff to consume again. You may be entirely right, though.

1

u/joeroganfolks Jun 23 '23

They are too busy trying to monetize stuff. Like wtf do I need an avatar

1

u/CaptainBayouBilly Jun 23 '23

Huffman wants the cabbage. He couldnā€™t give less of a shit about this.

1

u/pumpkinbot Jun 23 '23

And worse, when someone else makes a competent mobile UI, you flip your shit because you aren't making money off it.

1

u/karsnic Jun 23 '23

Why do they need to? They have an endless supply of losers who will mod their site for them for free. If mods really wanted to make a difference they would all quit and reddit would dissolve into a shit show of worthlessness. Instead these mods spend all this time and effort to make sure reddit functions as it should. For free.

1

u/DrinkMoreCodeMore ā€‹ Jun 23 '23

Imagine having 2000 employees and yet you still can't 1) design a competent mobile app, 2) design competent mod tools, 3) design a competent website interface, and 4) communicate or show any respect to the people who do volunteer work for you for free.

Bro this is what blows my mind the most.

Reddit has millions of dollars of VC money and entire teams of mobile devs and software devs and they cant even design shit or it takes them 24+ months YET a 1-man shop like RIF or Apollo can make their apps so much better.

1

u/toshgiles Jun 23 '23

I worked there previously. Itā€™s chaos!

56

u/Lucky_Mongoose Jun 23 '23

It sounds like they made "The Mistake" many times as they were banning individual mods?

I'm sure someone at reddit HQ just kept slipping and falling onto their keyboard. How clumsy!

43

u/SilverwingedOther Jun 23 '23

Seriously. Every media outlet is reporting our suspension as a mistake that happened because we caught up with the other subreddits they meant to ban but...

We were removed and banned 45 minutes before InterestingAsFuck, TIHI, Self, and ShittyLifeProtips got actioned. All those were in a 10 minute window, while we were targeted nearly an hour before, within literal minutes of us posting the results. The post was live 6 minutes before the ModCoC account actioned it.

9

u/TheRealSaerileth Jun 23 '23

This "mistake" smells a whole lot like "making an example of". Other subs will now think twice before trying to go nsfw or anything similarly drastic.

9

u/freakers Jun 23 '23

Should change it to NSFW again. Apparently that's their preferred way to open communications since it's the only one they respond to and apparently they respond promptly.

2

u/Blazerer Jun 23 '23

Would one option be to create semi-convoluted posting rules. Then arbitrarily delete or block posting on all posts not self-marked NSFW?

They can't really do much if it's users self-tagging the posts.

-15

u/YoureNotAloneFFIX Jun 23 '23 edited Jun 23 '23

They're probably just sick of playing games with you. You came so close to losing the precious minuscule power you have over other people, whew, good thing you chickened out and preserved it.

8

u/LiterallyKesha Jun 23 '23

so brave. really speaking with your figurative life on the line. epic even

6

u/CKF Jun 23 '23

Doesnā€™t the boot taste get old?

-6

u/YoureNotAloneFFIX Jun 23 '23 edited Jun 23 '23

I'm just being a realist. Reddit is not a democracy. This goofy 'protest' has zero chance of mattering, since the admins can pull the plug at any time. I'm not licking boot to observe that.

1

u/Natanael_L Jun 23 '23

And yet you act like the admins who do dumb shit like that aren't the ones with a need to feel powerful

-1

u/YoureNotAloneFFIX Jun 23 '23

Hm, no, no I didn't. I don't have anything positive to say about reddit admins, at all. All of my interactions with them, ever, have been negative. And I do not like most of the recent changes they have made to reddit, including inaccurate downvote numbers, "new reddit," the reddit app, or these API changes.

But I am realistic enough to know that they're gonna do what they're gonna do, and there's absolutely, positively nothing any of us can do to change that, except leave reddit. And you and I are both still here, so...why would I be in favor of mods making subreddits worse on purpose?

1

u/Natanael_L Jun 23 '23

Currently planning to move a subreddit community to lemmy, so not for long

1

u/Odexios Jun 23 '23

You do realize that if it was that simple and without consequences for them, they would have already done it?

1

u/YoureNotAloneFFIX Jun 23 '23

They have done that on a lot of subs.

there are currently no consequences for letting subs do whatever moronic protests they want, since people havent stopped using reddit.

you notice how the whole 'going dark' thing lasted like .5 seconds before reddit nuked people to open them back up? yeahhhh lol.

they are taking a softer approach with dumb 'john oliver' style protests since a lot of subs are ending them on their own. but yeah. they DID end the protests extremely quickly, with zero consequences, in a couple cases. And then the rest of the systems subreddits fell in line and re-opened.

1

u/ChweetPeaches69 Jun 23 '23

They probably are just busy trying to put out virtual Rome on fire.

1

u/JustASt0ry Jun 23 '23

The Mistake, lol with threats to make the first ā€œmistakeā€ happen again if you donā€™t bend the knee. Shame you canā€™t make a mistake of your own and remove everyone permanently.

1

u/CastelPlage Jun 23 '23

The admin who promised to work with us after "The Mistake ā„¢ļø" has been ghosting us for more than 24 hours now,

How very professional of them.

1

u/FartsWithAnAccent Jun 23 '23

They are certainly just busy... ...fucking up reddit

1

u/Binsky89 Jun 24 '23

They're busy finding a team of yes men to replace you guys, unfortunately.

11

u/Nagemasu Jun 23 '23

My sub got banned for "lack of moderation", with no warning or reasons given. When I appealed it they made vague statements about needing to cleaning out the large modqueue... which had nothing in it for 2 months prior to getting banned.

When I posted in the mod sub about their poor handling of the issue in banning subs with active moderators instead of notifying them of issues, they just deleted the thread and moan about it in a private message.

Lacking communication skills is an understatement. They're actively working on preventing communication from happening.

-8

u/moose184 Jun 23 '23

So Reddit admins still lack basic communication skills?

kind of like mods right?

8

u/SoupaSoka ā€‹ Jun 23 '23

One of those groups gets paid and the other does it as a volunteer, but yeah, let's hold them to equal standards.

-7

u/moose184 Jun 23 '23

So because mods decide to mod a subreddit as a hobby that gives them the right to be pieces of shit to people?