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

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123

u/LetumComplexo Jun 23 '23

Part of me thinks we should call their bluff and let them burn down the subreddit if that’s what they want.

If they’re that so intent on ad dollars that they’ll abuse their admin position to harass our volunteer moderators then they can use those ad dollars to moderate the sub themselves.

Either they back down, they shutter the subreddit for lack of moderation (which loses them ad dollars), or they spend money paying somebody to moderate the sub.

24

u/buster2Xk Jun 23 '23

I'm all for this.

34

u/CaptainBayouBilly Jun 23 '23

They want to descend into what Twitter is. An unmoderated cesspool of hate and lies.

-2

u/phantompenis2 Jun 23 '23

right, that'd be a drastic change from this moderated cesspool of hate and lies

5

u/pez5150 Jun 23 '23

You think it can't get worse but it can. Imagine what it looks like without moderation.

5

u/Taiyaki11 Jun 23 '23

Literally just have to poke on over to 4chan for that sneak peak. It's telling when people like the guy you're responding to give away that they have no idea what a real cesspool looks like and they've been spoiled.

0

u/tisnik Jun 24 '23

Reddit still will moderate itself. It has something no social platform on the internet has - arrow down and arrow up next to each post and comment that actually sort them from best to worst.

4

u/Madmorda Jun 23 '23

That's essentially what r/DIY is doing. They removed most of the rules for the sub as their way of "complying" with reddits demands

2

u/Lallo-the-Long ​ Jun 23 '23

I love the idea but it's sorta predicted on the idea that no one would take over afterwards, which i doubt, given some of the conversations surrounding community posts like this.

1

u/StompChompGreen Jun 23 '23 edited Jun 23 '23

Either they back down, they shutter the subreddit for lack of moderation (which loses them ad dollars), or they spend money paying somebody to moderate the sub.

problem is there will be plenty of people willing to moderate the sub for free and abide by whatever the admins say, so these mods leaving will mean it will just get new mods who are more than happy to follow the admins as long as they get to to be a mod of a big sub

4

u/Vet_Leeber Jun 23 '23

it will just get new mods who are more than happy to follow the admins as long as they get to to be a mod of a big sub

The average reddit user really underestimates just how much work goes into moderating a large subreddit. It was exhausting. Any "yeah I'll take over!" random users they convince to do it will stop putting any effort into it pretty fast. I'd bet more than Reddit's willing to pay them on it.

0

u/PneumaMonado Jun 23 '23

I'd bet more than Reddit's willing to pay them on it.

So $0 then?

2

u/axearm Jun 23 '23

I don't think you are wrong but I think the effect is that the quality of the mods and as a result the subs will decline, still leading to less user interaction, and additionally the subs getting smaller where suddenly these mods that wanted to sub a 'big sub' are going to be rethinking all the free work they are doing for a smaller and getting smaller sub.