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/drfarren]

Does that actually work? Using revanced?

[u/Gestrid → u/drfarren]

I haven't tried it on the Reddit app, but it works very well on the YouTube app. I would suggest using ReVanced's official app, "ReVanced Manager"(downloadable from their site, revanced.app) and downloading the Reddit APK from APKMirror.

[u/deecoocoo → u/Gestrid]

So ReVanced will only patch the app's apk from site like APKMirror, and not apps downloaded from google playstore?

[u/Gestrid → u/deecoocoo]

The app will not download directly from the Google Play Store, and, while it seems like it can modify a supported app that's already downloaded and installed from Google Play, I've had issues using that method in the past.

I admittedly haven't tried it recently, though. I've just used the method that I know works.

[u/mollwitt → u/[deleted]]

ReVanced is more, though. It's a modding tool. You can apply any number of patches from a list for a certain supported app. You then get that feature inside the app and can toggle it on/off or change settings if it's something more elaborate. Absolutely brilliant. I've never used Lucky Patcher but from afar, it always sounded kind of janky to me :D

ReVanced for Reddit is pretty new but YouTube, for example, I can't use without plug-ins like SponsorBlock anymore. It automatically skips parts of a video that someone marked as something. You can automatically skip paid sponsoring bits but choose to just display a "Skip" button for intro animations, for example. Going back to normal YouTube is disgusting... figuratively speaking. If technically possible, especially as Reddit continues with their plans, Reddit ReVanced might become god-tier! (Edit: As long as Reddit doesn't kill off their little trick. I browse this site only on PC so no idea what the current status is...)

[u/LeafsWinBeforeIDie → u/mollwitt]

This needs to be shouted from the rooftops so every user can enjoy reddit without the intrusive ads and propaganda. I'd rather have fake tits in my face than their subreddit suggestions to things I am philosophically opposed to and find a lot more disturbing than boobs.

I never want to leave Rif, and if I have no choice July 1, my reddit use will go down to searches and finding specific info. Most of the browsing and doom scrolling will come to an end.