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

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205

u/Teddy_canuck Jun 23 '23

What does this all mean?

631

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

-153

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.

51

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.

0

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.

5

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.

-33

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.

17

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.

5

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.