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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by bird@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org

As some subreddits continue blackouts to protest Reddit's plans to charge high prices for its API, Reddit has informed the moderators of those subreddits that it has plans to replace resistant moderation teams to keep spaces "open and accessible to users."

Edit, there seems to be conflicting reporting on this issue:

While the company does “respect the community’s right to protest” and pledges that it won’t force communities to reopen, Reddit also suggests there’s no need for that.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/15/23762501/reddit-ceo-steve-huffman-interview-protests-blackout

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[-] GadgeteerZA@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

Yes, I got the "message" from the Reddit CEO, and decided to pre-empt that, and I spent a few hours today manually deleting each and every post I made in my subreddit. The content is already anyway on my blog, on The Internet Archive, and on the Fediverse. So my subreddit now looks like this (he is welcome to let someone else take it now):

[-] AnonymousLlama@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

So much for moderators being "free to run their communities as they choose" as this article outlines

https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/204533859-What-s-a-moderator-

It's pretty obvious they're given free reign until they happen to disagree with admins and then it's "they're holding subreddits hostage", "they're just Stewarts" etc

Reddit admins will legitimately say and do anything to frame this as not their own fuck up

[-] AndrewZabar@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Lol stewards.

[-] doublejay3000@feddit.uk 1 points 1 year ago

the idea that a cabal of mods were going to take things in a good direction was always unsound

[-] Toribor@corndog.uk 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Notoriously mature and level headed mods that spend all day on the internet putting an excessive amount of emotional energy into something most people barely care about... Who could have predicted this?

[-] Saturdaycat@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Hahaha you know before this many people didn't think of reddit as corporate corporate. They scewed themselves and ruined their goodwill

[-] livus@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

I have to admit, it has changed the way I think of reddit, both as an entity and as a source of information.

[-] brie@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

As of now, more than 80% of our top 5,000 communities (by DAU) are open

I'm a bit paranoid that this could be a technical truth because the communities still closed have dropped in DAU.

Edit: Checked the blackout tracker, of the ones listed 205 are still closed or restricted, so it's probably an accurate claim, though it seems about half of the participating subreddits are still closed.

[-] kittywifclaws@lemmy.one 1 points 1 year ago

The least they could do is make it less obvious who they will replace the mods with. I expect this kind of blatant takeover attitude from a place with less legal department. Like twitter.

[-] ElysiumXII@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Glad I left Reddit tbh, so far Lemmy/the Fediverse seems to be way better.

[-] bouncing@partizle.com 1 points 1 year ago

I'm tempted to say it's better, but, unfortunately, in many ways it's not.

What Reddit had, most of the time, was semi-canonical communities. There was /r/python, /r/linux, /r/privacy, etc. The diaspora of Lemmy is a shadow of all of that. Surely, there are a dozen or so (at least) /c/python communities on Lemmy, but is there a single one that's anywhere near as active as the Reddit one? No. Not so far, at least.

And unfortunately, I can say as an instance admin, the lemmy moderation tools are just flat bad. We had to turn off open registration and enable email verification, not because we would otherwise need it, but the Lemmy moderation tools are 100% reactive and only operate on a 1-by-1 basis. If a spambot signs up 100 fake accounts, I have to go and individually ban each and every one of them. There's no shift+select, ban.

Don't get me wrong. I'm glad to be here, and Lemmy's great, and there's far less toxicity (so far). All I'm saying is, (1) there's work to do, (2) don't gloat.

[-] ahriboy@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Reddit is already dead. Old.reddit will be removed soon.

[-] AndrewZabar@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

Spez claimed that there are no plans to shut old.reddit down. We’ll see.

[-] muddybulldog@mylemmy.win 0 points 1 year ago

Funny how he repeatedly uses phrases such as “the extent that they were profiting off of our API” but has never used the phrase “the extent that we rely on freely provided content and freely provided moderation. If it weren’t for the tens of millions of people who are giving us free stuff we wouldn’t even exist.”

[-] kinyutaka@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago

I have yet to profit a single dime off of Reddit. After over ten years (11th Cake Day is coming up), and nothing to show for it but piles of worthless Karma.

[-] AndrewZabar@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

He was referring to app developers who charged for license or for premium features. Those people “profited” or at least, took in revenue.

[-] entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 1 year ago

Good luck with that! I'm excited to see the fireworks as their brand-new mod teams use their brand-new mod tools right as they go public. Should be quite a show.

[-] fouc@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago

There are enough power hungry people ready to jump in the first opportunity they get to moderate

[-] AndrewZabar@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Sure, but let’s keep in mind eagerness does not equal competence.

[-] Pekka@feddit.nl 0 points 1 year ago

Simply replacing all the mods sound like a good way to kill a subreddit, Reddit probably has no way to pick good mods... Mods will need some connection with the topic, and you don't want to pick random users with no experience for large subreddits.

get ready for sudden and radical rule changes, non enforcement of rules, nsfw, bots, spam, all kinds of fun crazy shit in the subs with mods removed. I'm sure a percentage of subs would stay the same, but I don't think that percentage is very high.

[-] Hyperz@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

I can already hear the CPA/affiliate marketing bots spinning up lol.

[-] Plume@beehaw.org 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

...and the subreddit rebellion has been foiled. The remaining locked subreddits will be hunted down and defeated!

The attempt on my credibility by the Apollo dev has left me scarred, and deformed. But I assure you: My resolve... has never been stronger!

In order to ensure the profitability and continuing advertising...

REDDIT, WILL BE REORGINIZED...

INTO THE FIRST...

GALACTIC ADVERTISING PLATFORM!

FOR A SAFE, AND PROFITABLE WEBSITE.

— u/spez to potential investors. Maybe. Probably. Might be slightly paraphrased.

[-] AndrewZabar@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

I mean… did you even ask his permission before just ripping his words verbatim for your own post?

😎

[-] Arystique@beehaw.org 0 points 1 year ago

I swear Reddit is not only not learning from history but purposely trying to repeat it again thinking oh the previous guys were just too weak....

[-] arquebus_x@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago

I'm treating the blackout like a strike, and I don't cross picket lines, and neither should anyone else. No scabs. No one should be agreeing to moderate a sub that has lost all of its moderators to forcible removal.

[-] PelicanPersuader@beehaw.org 0 points 1 year ago

I agree, but at the same time, the people who are willing to cross the picket lines are facists. They are desperate to take over any spaces they're able to and turn those places into hellholes. A bunch of subs are about to be destroyed by right wing nutjobs forcing their way into the top slots. A former T_D mod has already set his sights on aww, which would be the death of a wholesome sub like that.

[-] AndrewZabar@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Well the more fucked it gets, the quicker it burns. After what they’ve done I’ll be glad to see it go. Spez poured the accelerant, he struck the matches and tossed them around. All the while being pled with and warned at the same time, that what he was doing was wrong. Burn, baby, burn.

[-] Bipta@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago

When r/WorkReform sprang up overnight and proposed to elect moderators, Reddit's admins threatened to ban the subreddit for that

Fuck Spez. Fuck Reddit. Build kbin.

[-] Dee_Imaginarium@beehaw.org 0 points 1 year ago

Build ~~Kbin~~ Fediverse.

I like Lemmy more than Kbin, personally, but we can federate together and build up the fediverse 😄

[-] Banzai51@midwest.social 0 points 1 year ago

I like the fact Lemmy seems to have a ton more instances, but I like the look of Kbin.

[-] Dee_Imaginarium@beehaw.org 0 points 1 year ago

I'm the opposite haha, I think Kbin has some cool communities and stuff but I way prefer the look of Lemmy. To each their own! Beauty of the fediverse is that we can choose our own platform but still interact 😄

[-] AndrewZabar@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Any mobile web apps for kbin I can use for iPhone? Like wefwef for Lemmy?

[-] Dee_Imaginarium@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Idk maybe, I implied I don't use Kbin with that comment from 25 days ago. Not sure why you'd ask me tbh.

[-] operator@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago

the fuckening just doesnt stop. u/Spez lost complete touch with the platform itself.

But hey, they own the joint. they can make their own decisions.

[-] nevernevermore@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago

Yeah and we own this joint! I'm going to open my own instance, with blackjack and hookers

[-] Meat@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago

He has not lost touch, he doesn’t care. He’s bought and paid for. If shit does go south, he’s the fall guy.

[-] flybynightpotato@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago

What's endlessly fascinating to me is how quickly Reddit (spez) dug this hole for itself. I'm (or was) an Apollo user, but didn't pay close attention to the finer technical points of app use, and was only half paying attention when the API changes were announced. In a matter of about two weeks, I went from not having particularly strong feelings (like a shrug personified) to be vehemently anti-Reddit and Steve Huffman. And it has literally all been based on the things Reddit (spez and his mouthpieces) have said and done. In other words, there hasn't been any "persuasive propaganda" that swayed me. Just them, in all their idiocy, taking me from neutral to bury them in an incredibly short period of time. The level of incompetence is truly impressive.

[-] Jallrich@lemmy.one 1 points 1 year ago

The thing that really disappointed me was that they pretended that he tried to blackmail them.

They clearly were not expecting that Christian would have recorded the call and that it was not going to be "he said, I said".

Very proud of him.

[-] firecat@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago

They already removed some mods, it's not a threat it's Spaz being a jerk and awful person.

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this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2023
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