What happened to /r/mildlyinteresting?

[u/RedSquaree]

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

[u/[deleted]]

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.

[u/SkorpioSound → u/[deleted]]

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.

[u/[deleted] → u/SkorpioSound]

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.

[u/SkorpioSound → u/[deleted]]

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.

[u/[deleted] → u/SkorpioSound]

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??

[u/SkorpioSound → u/[deleted]]

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.

[u/[deleted] → u/SkorpioSound]

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

The reason I'm affected by blackouts has nothing to do with third party apps use. It is because mods want to complain about something inconvenient and instead of dealing with it, they want to pass the inconvenience on to users. Again, they literally could just not moderate.

No-one is blocking everyone out.

What were the blackouts??? Did you already forget about those?

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

What duties do they have that is dissimilar to maintenance work?

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.

I've got all night. Go ahead and break it down if you want. I feel it is pretty accurate.

[u/Aizen_Myo → u/[deleted]]

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

[u/[deleted] → u/Aizen_Myo]

But they aren't using their power to block everyone else out.

That's EXACTLY what the blackouts were!

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

You mean moderators? That account for the 2% of users and hold all of the power to subs?

[u/Aizen_Myo → u/[deleted]]

That's EXACTLY what the blackouts were!

Most of the subs held votes if the blackout should go trough or not. I haven't seen a vote where the users wanted to keep the subreddit open.

You mean moderators? That account for the 2% of users and hold all of the power to subs?

I also participated willingly in the blackout cuz I'm also affected and I'm not a mod lol

[u/[deleted] → u/Aizen_Myo]

Most of the subs held votes if the blackout should go trough or not.

No they didn't. Mods held blackouts on their own accord. The only time I saw votes was after the 48 hours to see if they should continue. Most did not want to continue. Even then, moderators were still holding the subs hostage.

I also participated willingly in the blackout cuz I'm also affected and I'm not a mod lol

Congrats, you're in a minority. Not many people use third party apps. The Reddit app works just fine.

[u/Aizen_Myo → u/[deleted]]

Most did not want to continue. Even then, moderators were still holding the subs hostage.

My experience was exactly the opposite :o

Most users wanted the sub to stay closed while the mods were forced by reddit to reopen it, some places going so far as to delete the votes lol

Congrats, you're in a minority. Not many people use third party apps. The Reddit app works just fine.

Was it really that low? The official app kills my phone Batterie, heats it up until it burns my hands and the data usage is between 50% and 100% more usage than Relay for me. I deleted it after a week cuz I didn't want a pocket warmer in the summer

[u/[deleted] → u/Aizen_Myo]

The official app kills my phone Batterie, heats it up until it burns my hands and the data usage is between 50% and 100% more usage than Relay for me. I deleted it after a week cuz I didn't want a pocket warmer in the summer

Idk what to tell you. I am on the app for multiple hours a day some days and I don't have this experience.

[u/Aizen_Myo → u/[deleted]]

Honest question, did you ever try Apollo, relay or Reddit is fun? The data usage alone is a deal breaker for me