415
Reddit is reaching out to moderators after tensions rose over recent policy changes and API pricing. A Reddit admin acknowledged the strained relationship and outlined new weekly feedback sessions and other outreach efforts to repair ties. However, moderators remain skeptical of Reddit's efforts given mixed results from past initiatives. Many mods feel Reddit has been unwilling to make meaningful changes to address their concerns like more accessible API pricing or exemption for accessibility apps. After a tumultuous few months, moderators have very low expectations that Reddit's latest efforts will result in real changes.
Then why are they even still there? It's like they're so addicted to the small amount of irrelevant "power" they get from the position and they just can't give it up.
I get that the tin pot dictator narrative is popular wrt subreddit mods, but it really isn't a useful model for understanding people's behaviour.
Fear of change, denial of loss, and sunk cost are all much more powerful tools for understanding.
Plus there are plenty of subs that strongly benefit from the population size or promence of reddit - very niche interests, smaller city or town subs, etc.
And there are some subs where the archive of past material is a huge drawcard - for example AskHistorians which is almost certainly the best single reason for reddit existing and the best modded sub I know of.
Absolutely. When I was on Reddit, all the subreddits I joined were very niche: cities, fandoms, parody subs, and the like. The main reason I found them was because I could think of something and go "it's Reddit, there's a subreddit for anything".
That's pretty powerful when you're trying to build a community, since you can skip the "we exist" and "look here to find us" parts of the pitch and spend time and effort on the community itself instead.
Lemmy/KBin just doesn't have that appeal yet. Pretty much all the subs here, while by no means bad, are very "general-interest", and the interface to find them is clunky, especially if they aren't on your home server.
Thank you for stating that so clearly!