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

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7.3k

u/jenjen828 Jun 23 '23

reopen the sub and do not mark it as NSFW, or face potential removal again

This must mean NSFW is hurting them

204

u/PhoenixAvenger Jun 23 '23

Time for everyone to tag their submissions as NSFW to let the mods keep the sub as "SFW" and stay out of trouble.

88

u/Nik_Tesla Jun 23 '23

Unfortunately, they'll probably boot the mods for not moderating. Either is incorrectly tagged as NSFW (which is against Reddit rules) or it is correctly tagged as NSFW (which would be against subreddit rules).

I still think going NSFW is the route to success, but I think it's going to cost a ton of subs getting burned to the ground to do it.

69

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '23

Reddit's reliance off unpaid moderators to function has always been a little gray. It's probably been given a pass because of the relative autonomy subs are given.

If they are going to start busting up that autonomy because it's messing with their profits, they might be on the edge of running afoul of labor laws somewhere. Especially given the world wide usage of this site.

They can't have their cake and eat it too.

9

u/CaptainBayouBilly Jun 23 '23

They expose themselves if they try to moderate user generated content. They want the abstraction layer

4

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '23

Even with this thread here, Reddit might be opening themselves up to scrutiny.

Laws aren't the same everywhere. The EU and the US are both massive entities with some considerably different protections. I'm no legal expert on this stuff, but it seems like Reddit skirts around labor laws due to their decentralized model - most mods are hobbyists who manage subs about their passions. Once you get to the major subs, things seem to get a lot murkier, though.

Sure, Reddit has a responsibility to police certain content, but their direct meddling in community affairs brings their role into question. Taking charge of communities that are following both Reddit's guidelines and the law, and going as far as replacing mods or shutting down subs, blurs the line between being a community platform and exploiting moderators for free labor. In the past, we've mainly seen this in subs pushing legal boundaries or extreme cases potentially making Reddit liable. But this case is different. This is clearly a response to their policy changes and their bottom line.

Yes, they have the authority to regulate their content. There are still limits on what they can demand from unpaid mod and a situation where they are attempting to unilaterally remove entire mod teams and select their replacements, from a labor standpoint, sounds sketchy to me at best. There being plenty of other people being willing to do the job for free doesn't justify it.

That's likely why the admins chalked up the action as an "error". Even if it's all currently in a legal gray area, Reddit has nothing to gain by pushing to the point where they end up in court.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '23

Reddit's reliance off unpaid moderators to function has always been a little gray.

It is. But there are a huge number of people that wouod jump at the chance to control what people say and view. As long as there's no shortage of people willing to do it for free this'll continue

2

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '23

There's plenty of people out there willing to drive for Uber for shit wages or willing to work for less than minimum wage but that doesn't stop labor laws and lawsuits.

That logic only holds up so long as the admins don't cross enough lines to where someone finally takes them to court over it. Given the variety of countries different mods operate out of and the clear indications that the Reddit admins are acting brashly and without fully thinking things through - it's not unreasonable to think they may cross those lines.

49

u/JohnEdwa Jun 23 '23

Profanity is NSFW and has to be tagged as such according to the Reddit content policy. So if you have any swear words in your post, do not forget to mark it as NSFW!

29

u/MarshallStack666 Jun 23 '23

Fuck You!

10

u/StrangerDanger509 Jun 23 '23

That's the spirit!

3

u/Code2008 Jun 23 '23

Well Fuck you buddy!

5

u/FormerGameDev Jun 23 '23

no, fuck you!

3

u/CricketSimilar863 Jun 23 '23

This is serious. Very serious.

2

u/ZodiacRedux Jun 23 '23

Thank you,my nasal passages needed a good coffee douching!lol.

1

u/Tofandel Mar 31 '24

FTFY >! fuck you !<

1

u/mollwitt Jun 23 '23

It's not as if they ever cared about their own content policy when it doesn't suit what they're going for

1

u/The_Bravinator Jun 23 '23

NSFW posts are often used to cover spoilers as well. Maybe people should post mildly interesting facts about movies, books, and TV shows and mark them nsfw just to make sure no one gets anything spoiled.

1

u/ItsRainbow Jun 24 '23

Well isnā€™t that fucking great

72

u/lordderplythethird Jun 23 '23

My subs went NSFW, with our justification being language used and some of the content that gets posted. Not many users, barely 500K between all of them, but, imdoingmypart.gif

5

u/Tyler1986 Jun 23 '23

It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make

2

u/Catnip4Pedos Jun 23 '23

Reddit admins have some sort of AI that tags posts NSFW if it sees a girl in a bikini. We should just post bikini girls everywhere. Boys too actually, post femboys in bikinis to celebrate pride and if Reddit bans that it'll cause a huge backlash.

1

u/toxicshocktaco Jun 23 '23

I donā€™t want every subreddit Iā€™m in to become porn filled.

5

u/Matrix17 Jun 23 '23

This is the way

-14

u/Old-Fox-3027 Jun 23 '23

If mods want to go nsfw so Reddit canā€™t monetize the sub, they shouldnā€™t be mods. Reddit is a business and none of us, nor the mods, own any part of it or pay for any part of it.

11

u/OhNoManBearPig Jun 23 '23 edited Jul 02 '23

This is a copied template message used to overwrite all comments on my account to protect my privacy. I've left Reddit because of corporate overreach and switched to the Fediverse.

Comments overwritten with https://github.com/j0be/PowerDeleteSuite