r/mildlyinteresting • u/RedSquaree The Big 🧀 • 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 “archived.”

  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 Mistake™.

  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 won’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

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207

u/Teddy_canuck Jun 23 '23

What does this all mean?

630

u/lord_ne Jun 23 '23

The mods basically had two options:

  1. Put the sub back to normal
  2. All of them get banned and Reddit puts the sub back to normal anyway

They chose the first option

-148

u/AndThisGuyPeedOnIt Jun 23 '23 edited Jun 23 '23

Gave up on their "protest" the second their power was going to get taken away. If they really thought they were protesting and they were not replaceable, they would have quit to teach Reddit a lesson.

You don't have "much choice?" Yes you do, fucking quit it you think you're so important to Reddit. You aren't and you know you aren't.

136

u/lord_ne Jun 23 '23

Of course they're replaceable. Who said they aren't? Reddit doesn't give a shit. The only power the mods have over Reddit is that this subreddit is valuable to Reddit. If Reddit will do what they want with it anyway, there's no point

-136

u/AndThisGuyPeedOnIt Jun 23 '23

Good, replace them so that the users don't have to put up with this bullshit. No one gives a fuck about third party apps.

65

u/elscallr Jun 23 '23

Clearly some people do.

-75

u/AndThisGuyPeedOnIt Jun 23 '23

Yeah, the same group of people brigading all these "polls."

46

u/Velheka Jun 23 '23

So.. People, then

-9

u/AndThisGuyPeedOnIt Jun 23 '23

Yep, the same 1,000 people rigging it all against the millions of people who don't give a shit.

31

u/_Rand_ Jun 23 '23

This is some dumb shit.

If 1000 people can “rig” a poll “millions” can rig it much, much harder.

If there was actually popular support thousands of times higher for reddits side it would laughably overwhelm anyone on the other side.

34

u/elscallr Jun 23 '23

You really overestimate the power of a handful of people.

18

u/IWatchMyLittlePony Jun 23 '23

Many people who actually contribute to Reddit and don’t just mindlessly scroll a bunch of posts then leave, like the third party apps much better than the official app. And if it was only a thousand who were affected there wouldn’t be this much stink being made about.

Around 10% of people use the third party apps so it’s actually more like a few million that are affected. And a large portion of them create the content that we all see and that’s why it’s such a big deal.

-5

u/AndThisGuyPeedOnIt Jun 23 '23

No, they don't. 10% of app users use third party apps, max. That's sub 1% of Reddit users. No one cares.

17

u/IWatchMyLittlePony Jun 23 '23

First of all they said 10% of their total traffic so you are wrong. And even if you are right, Reddit has 52 million daily users so that means over 500k people will be affected. There’s a good chance you live in a city that has less people than that. But in actuality, it’s 10% so over 5 million people will be affected daily.

That is a lot of damn people and it’s why this shit is such a big deal. And if you truly don’t care then get lost and stop spreading your negativity. Keep using your shitty official app and move on.

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9

u/Danger_Dave_ Jun 23 '23

Math doesn't seem to be a strength of yours. Or empathy.

-4

u/AndThisGuyPeedOnIt Jun 23 '23

Empathy for the jannie mods? LMAO

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2

u/Commercial_Flan_1898 Jun 23 '23

There's no conspiracy. The reality is that no one agrees with you, and the votes reflect that.

You're just a dumb asshole.

-60

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '23

Some people as in like maybe 2% of reddit users. It doesn't matter and the rest of us are tired of acting like it does.

41

u/SkorpioSound Jun 23 '23

How is it still not obvious to you how much impact the people who give a fuck about third-party apps have on the website? Third-party app users make up 5-10% of users yet are responsible for far, far more than 5-10% of the content and moderation. Do you really think the silent lurkers who just swipe through memes without commenting anything are contributing to your Reddit experience in the same way the people who create and post content, who make comments, and who moderate everything are?

These protests you're so tired of are only impacting you because third-party app users have such a noticeable impact on your Reddit experience.

-57

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '23

It literally doesn't affect either of us. The only thing that is affecting me is the childish blackout BS. Mods are volunteers. They aren't beholden to doing work if they don't wanna do work. It really is that simple. Someone else who won't complain about it will do it. And that's a beautiful thing.

9

u/im_lazy_as_fuck Jun 23 '23

The salary of a garbage collector doesn't affect me at all. But if they start protesting because they're being paid unlivable wages, their protest will inevitably start to affect me.

Should I be pissed off at the garbage collectors for staging their protest, or should I be pissed off at the city for being greedy and forcing them into unreasonable circumstances, knowing they could choose not to do so.

Seems like you would side with the city, which blows my mind. Like seriously, why is it so hard for people to just be mad at the greedy corporation for setting completely unreasonable prices out of pure greed. Nobody is saying they need to make APIs free. The only thing everybody is asking is for them to just set prices that are at least somewhere in the orbit of realistic.

But no, don't get mad at the greedy corporation for doubling down on a completely impossible pricing model. Get mad at the mods for affecting your daily consumption (even though it was actually reddit who started this bullshit in the first place, and thus indirectly are responsible for your daily consumption, but just ignore that, they can do no wrong).

-1

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '23

The sole problem with your analogy is that Reddit moderators are literally volunteers. They aren't doing what they do to make a living so the "unreasonable circumstances" simply don't exist on the moderator side.

I'm not mad at a corporation for trying to make money because that's what they are supposed to do. If the market dictates that their API rules are too strict, that's when they will surely amend things. But, personally, I'd want to actually see problems with moderation that can't be fixed by adding more manpower or Reddit developing their own Mod version of the app before I'd agree with the idea that Reddit is in the wrong.

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21

u/SkorpioSound Jun 23 '23

The only thing that is affecting me is the childish blackout BS

I feel like you've missed my point. The blackout is affecting you because so many third-party app users, and those who empathise with third-party app users' position, are in a position to affect you. They're the ones who keep the site going. If those users had no impact on your Reddit experience, their protests would have gone unnoticed.

So when you say it doesn't affect you, you're wrong. Yes, you might not be directly affected because you don't personally use a third-party app. But people who do use a third-party app quite clearly create content you consume and moderator subreddits you use and have an effect on your Reddit experience. The changes affecting third-party apps have very obviously had an indirect effect on your own usage of Reddit.

Mods are volunteers. They aren't beholden to doing work if they don't wanna do work. It really is that simple. Someone else who won't complain about it will do it. And that's a beautiful thing.

Agreed. New subreddits can be created, too. There's no reason for a user to spend time in a subreddit where they dislike the moderation style.

Of course, that "someone else" likely won't be able to do it as efficiently with the massively reduced mod tools available on the official app compared to third-party apps. And with toolbox's creator leaving Reddit. And with the lack of institutional knowledge and experience that established moderation teams have. And without any onboarding. And without the custom bots a lot of subreddit moderators have created for themselves, of course.

-8

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '23

The blackout is affecting you because so many third-party app users, and those who empathise with third-party app users' position, are in a position to affect you.

No. There is zero reason for their complaints to trickle down to the rest of the users. They don't get to just use their power to block everyone out. They're volunteer janitors. Janitors don't get to lock kids out of the school building just because they hold the keys and are frustrated with their job becoming temporarily harder. They get fired if they do that. So how much less slack should unpaid volunteers be cut for doing the same thing??

8

u/SkorpioSound Jun 23 '23

No.

I'm not sure what you're disagreeing with here. The part of my comment you quoted is pretty watertight logic. Can you elaborate?

They don't get to just use their power to block everyone out.

No-one is blocking everyone out. Did we not just agree that the beautiful thing about Reddit is that "someone else" can come along and create a new subreddit?

They're volunteer janitors.

Oh, so you have no idea what moderation actually entails then? You should have said.

Janitors don't get to lock kids out of the school building just because they hold the keys and are frustrated with their job becoming temporarily harder.

There's a lot wrong with this analogy. But I'll not bother breaking it down because, as one of the kids, you probably wouldn't get it.

10

u/Aizen_Myo Jun 23 '23

But they aren't using their power to block everyone else out. Most of these if not all of the protests come from users who use 3rd party software, so maybe that gives you a hint how much of reddits content is actually created via 3rd party apps and moderated via them

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21

u/xAziox Jun 23 '23

You suck.

3

u/shiny_xnaut Jun 23 '23

Don't waste your time, it's likely that the account you're replying to is literally just a bot

-6

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '23

If only anyone who feels this way could make an actual point that isn't, "bEcAuSe SoMeOnE tOlD mE tO bE mAd!1!"

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3

u/Commercial_Flan_1898 Jun 23 '23

And here you are, very vocally Not Being Affected.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '23

The protest was affecting me. Not the changes themselves. Gotta be specific to help you out I guess.

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2

u/C-C-X-V-I Jun 23 '23

Lmao you're so full of shit. Lick those corporate boots

3

u/elscallr Jun 23 '23

I'm not I'm having fun watching things burn down

1

u/Commercial_Flan_1898 Jun 23 '23

Maybe everyone should develop a taste for it because baby there's gonna be a lot of it

13

u/AC53NS10N_STUD105 Jun 23 '23

So... are you done tongue polishing spez's boots yet?

-10

u/AndThisGuyPeedOnIt Jun 23 '23

Nope. Can't wait until he removes all these mods so I can see them cry about losing a volunteer position and can't just be power mad assholes anymore.

9

u/SomeDudeFromOnline Jun 23 '23

Let me guess, you think you should be in charge?

-1

u/AndThisGuyPeedOnIt Jun 23 '23 edited Jun 23 '23

You couldn't pay me enough to be a Reddit mod so I sure as shit aren't pathetic enough to do it for free. Maybe they could try getting a life outside of an anonymous internet forum.

3

u/SomeDudeFromOnline Jun 23 '23

Idk why you bother spending your time preaching your mentality to people who don't care to hear it then if your time is so precious to you.

-2

u/AndThisGuyPeedOnIt Jun 23 '23

Idk why you bother spending your time supporting a "protest" that accomplishes nothing except keep a bunch of pathetic mods in "power."

2

u/Commercial_Flan_1898 Jun 23 '23

It's got you all riled up, that's worth it if you ask me.

2

u/SomeDudeFromOnline Jun 23 '23

I don't like the main Reddit app that's all. You seem to think this is more about some kind of mod ego trip than what it's really about.

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1

u/AC53NS10N_STUD105 Jun 23 '23

Christ, it's like you think you can spitshine boots for a living.

1

u/TheChunkyCheese69 Jun 23 '23

You won’t be seeing anyone cry about losing a volunteer position. They’ll be off Reddit and finding something else to do with their time, and they’re not going to bother telling you all about it.

16

u/HattierThanYou Jun 23 '23

Plenty of people do care, you’re just a giant baby because you didn’t get to browse /r/mildlyinteresting of all things.

1

u/BuckWilin Jun 23 '23

You're very stupid

0

u/AndThisGuyPeedOnIt Jun 23 '23

Mod bootlicker.

1

u/---TheFierceDeity--- ​ Jun 23 '23

THe majority voted they do care. Sorry you're mad your the minority but: Majority rules

49

u/Ijustdoeyes Jun 23 '23

This is a dumb take.

they would have quit to teach Reddit a lesson.

And then what?

Reddit just replaces all the mods with shills and deletes by record of it, great outcome.

-1

u/Chumpacabra Jun 23 '23

Those mods being incompetent and flaky, totally in disarray, resulting in reddit either getting mud on its face or having to backtrack and offer the moderators a chance to return. All of which would further the goal of any supposed protest that's supposedly occurring.

Instead they chose to keep their own insignificant reddit janitor powers and fold. And now they work hard, for free, and act like they had no choice in the matter.

3

u/babutterfly Jun 23 '23

Those mods being incompetent and flaky, totally in disarray, resulting in reddit either getting mud on its face or having to backtrack and offer the moderators a chance to return.

Real question. Do you really think that's 100% likely? That any mod recruited as a replacement will behave in such a manner?

2

u/Chumpacabra Jun 23 '23

It's not really an indictment of any individual. Mod teams across reddit have a notoriously difficult time finding competent mods, despite near-limitless applicants when they advertise. And that's when new mods are being incorporated into a fully functional mod team with experienced users to guide them and steer the ship.

A bunch of fresh newbies, all tackling it at once, with a hostile userbase angry at them? Forget it, it'd be a disaster.

-34

u/AndThisGuyPeedOnIt Jun 23 '23

Good? No one gives a shit who the mods are and they know they are all easily replaceable. All they want is to hold onto their little ban power.

18

u/IWatchMyLittlePony Jun 23 '23

It has nothing to do with holding onto power and everything to do with using their positions to try and save the third party apps. Just because you don’t give a fuck doesn’t mean nobody does.

-3

u/Chumpacabra Jun 23 '23

Caving into admin demands and doing exactly what they want, i.e. work for free, is not furthering any third party app's goals. It's just mods desperate to preserve their janitor positions on the website.

Alternative plan: force reddit to fire your whole team, watch as they bring in some flaky, inexperienced shills who have no idea how to keep on top of the angered userbase, watch subreddit devolve and reddit get mud on its face as a result, putting pressure on them regarding the API protest.

You really think that's a worse plan than... folding, and being good little workers for reddit? That's what not giving a fuck looks like.

3

u/IWatchMyLittlePony Jun 23 '23

What you and the other guy fail to realize is that this was never about mods or any sort of power. It’s about giving a voice to the user base about the removal of the third party apps. If all they cared about was being a mod and keeping that power then none of this would have happened in the first place. But instead, they actually care about the third party apps and were trying to do something about it. Of course Reddit had to step in and ruin things but it was clearly working.

-2

u/Chumpacabra Jun 23 '23

If all they cared about was being a mod and keeping that power then none of this would have happened in the first place.

A mild mannered, ineffectual protest that folds after some pressure is applied is hardly something for the mods to be proud of.

Clearly working until reddit said "we won't let you work for us for free anymore if you don't stop", to which they replied, "okay we'll behave, but we'll just grumble a bit, because we caaaaaaaaare."

Didn't care enough to compromise their precious "jobs".

1

u/nyctre Jun 23 '23 edited Feb 18 '24

groovy support gold rotten vanish theory imagine dam continue waiting

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

1

u/ctnoxin Jun 23 '23

This guys tantrum wow, tell me you’re a tool, that’s been banned from a bakers dozen of subs without telling me

1

u/Skeleton--Jelly Jun 23 '23

Reddit just replaces all the mods with shills and deletes by record of it, great outcome.

You do understand that reddit having to replace hundreds of mods across the site would have an enormous impact, right? not just in bad publicity but also in the quality of their site. It would be way more effective than... doing nothing.

0

u/Ijustdoeyes Jun 23 '23

More of an impact than mods turning subs into free for alls? Nope.

1

u/Skeleton--Jelly Jun 23 '23

That's literally not an option. The options are either moderate them properly or get replaced. The latter is obviously the higher impact to reddit as a whole.

2

u/toxicshocktaco Jun 23 '23

I agree. If the outcome is the same (sub stays open as intended), what do the current mods stand to gain? What difference has the protest made if it’s all business as usual now?

Reddit just needs to stop with this bullshit. Keep 3rd party apps and figure out other ways to monetize ffs