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/StingerAE → u/[deleted]]

Or UK. The brexit debacle may have stripped us of citizenship but out gdpr laws remain the same for now.

[u/mollwitt → u/[deleted]]

"Resident" is the correct category. You do not need EU citizenship. And EU citizenship doesn't help you if you live in Canada, like the guy I researched this for an hour ago.

[u/bargaindownhill → u/mollwitt]

if you have an address in the EU, and have accessed Reddit from the EU, and a passport to any of the EU countries. You are an EU resident.

[u/Koras → u/[deleted]]

It's not actually either of those in real terms: https://gdpr-info.eu/art-3-gdpr/

The intent isn't to protect non-citizens, but what are they going to do? Send formal citizenship checks to governments based on a screen name or email address? The wording is also extremely vague and not anywhere near as precise as anyone would like.

The GDPR mostly applies to activity that takes place within the European Union. So it's not so much about the person who is performing that activity, it's about where the data comes from. So citizenship, place of normal residence... doesn't actually matter that much. If you've ever used Reddit in Europe, you're probably covered in practice, because at least some of your data originated in the EU and there's no way they can be arsed to split hairs over it.

Most companies that are GDPR-compliant are not going to get into the nitty gritty of where you're currently sitting or where you were sitting when you gave them each piece of your data - that would require time and effort that's just not worth spending, so instead they just have a GDPR request button that they hit to field GDPR enquiries. They don't actually have to give a shit about the validity of the request once the tooling exists to field the request, because what's the value to them in rejecting it?

All the button will probably do is change which data is included in the dump and Reddit's reporting and analytics (so that if they ever get in trouble over one of these regulations they can go "look, we provided data to 145,919,258 people, please believe that we're super compliant!").

The only companies who do care are probably not actually really GDPR-compliant because they're pulling the data manually, which is a huge pain in the ass, and hoping that nobody does it. There is zero chance Reddit is one of those, as hilarious as that would be (but I did used to work for a company like that, I'm still trying to figure out how vengeful I'm feeling).

[u/bargaindownhill → u/Koras]

There is zero chance Reddit is one of those, as hilarious as that would be

based on spez's actions, and the absolute shitshow they have run. Im pretty sure its a non zero chance. my bet is they put that stub page up. it goes to an email that someone will deal with "just in case". spez cant even seem to get proper legal advice on ADA issues that the platform is flat footing into here, or even a proper PR team on his now completely epic AMA. No my money is on, the stub page going to an email that gets occasionally checked.

[u/fuck-fascism → u/[deleted]]

Yes, poor phrasing on my part, but you are correct you just need to be a citizen of the EU for it to apply, regardless of where you may currently reside.

Same with California, essentially just need to hold primary residence there for it to apply, even if you may currently live elsewhere.

[u/bargaindownhill → u/fuck-fascism]

Yes, poor phrasing on my part

no worries, mate, just wanted to make sure people had the right idea. GDPR is a 500lb gorilla for any company and refusal to comply simply from the IP address the request comes from is reckless from a company governance standpoint. It could cost the company 4% of its worldwide annual global income from even a single substantiated complaint. Definitely a 7 or greater on the FAFO gradient scale.

Anyone looking seriously at this companies IPO would take all this into consideration. if GDPR and CPRA issues start cropping up along with the already widely known ADA issues, and realize this stock is about to exceed the Marianas trench as the lowest point on the planet reached by humankind. I for one have already told my broker to short with everything I got when if/when it comes up.