Reddit stripping moderators of rights and forcing subreddits to go public | Hacker News Reader

Reddit stripping moderators of rights and forcing subreddits to go public

famichiki.jp

84 pointsCharlesW42 comments

Any actual confirmation of this? Seems weird that Reddit wouldn't just wait one more day for the protests to fizzle out and everything to go back to normal. Forcibly taking over subs right now is only going to make the backlash even stronger.

But then again the leadership hasn't made a single correct decision throughout the whole saga, so this one wouldn't be too surprising either.

Lol this does not surprise me one bit. Reddit is all about power tripping. Usually it is the mod who is the one tripping and any disagreeing with them is a permanent bad from the sub. I really hope this is true just so I can think of mods being stripped of their power the same way they do to anyone who disagrees with them.

It's not even the regular mods getting their toys taken away, as Huffman has already clarified. It's the power mods controlling hundreds of subs via bots that will be hurt by these changes. Other users are eating up the astroturfing pushed by the power mods and raising up their pitchforks.

A good chunk of subreddits are going off indefinitely.

The subreddit in question is still private: https://old.reddit.com/r/tumblr

Indeed. There's no evidence supporting this claim. So why are people upvoting this thread?

because redditors are mad

Not private any more.

If you want to treat your moderators as employees then pay them.

Otherwise sooner or later there will always be a price to pay, as these people who have been doing your work for free for years will feel entitled to some ownership and how the site is run and they may not always agree with your agenda.

Translation to a real world scenario:

I go to an open mic night, do a set, start getting popular. One day the club owner decides he's not going to do stamp re-entries, and everyone has to pay to get back in if they leave the club.

I get mad at this for whatever reason, and decide I'm not going to perform any more. I still turn up, but just stand on the stage in silent protest, encouraging others to do the same.

Club owner tells me to GTFO, as he ushers in the next in line.

Guys, it's not your club.

a better analogy would be if the only reason the club still existed was your singing, and then the "club owner" who benefited from your singing, kicked you out and played audio of you singing without your permission instead, because they want the benefits of your singing without the drawbacks of dealing with you

And this is in a town with no other reasonable clubs because the rent is way too high. This was essentially the locals' last known accessible hangout spot, and a huge portion of attendees stand with the performer. All the attendees know the owner isn't breaking the law.

I realised soon after posting that it's even dumber than my example. The analogy should have been a volunteer bouncer having a falling out with the owner, and refusing to let people watch the show. I mean sure, he could do that, but it's not exactly a shocker when he hears that his services are no longer required.

nah, the corrected analogy you're responding to is better, where, after the singer joined when the club first started, and indeed made the club what it is today (and wasn't ever paid), the owner boots said singer and plays recordings of them without compensation or permission instead

after all, reddit exists because of the users the company is abusing now, and in spite of said abusers + their abuse

like, sure the abusive club owner could physically do that, but most people there, like they do here, would recognize that the owner is in the wrong

I really wish we were at the point in society where we could have an effective discussion on the definition of ownership.

You have it backwards. The Reddit thing is in the real world and the night club is just in your imagination.

This is the nail in the coffin for me. I can't support Reddit as a platform until there is a clear change of heart (and leadership).

If this were Reddit, spez would have already edited your comment.

Yep, I'm out as well. I'm honestly looking forward to having more free time with Reddit no longer on my phone.

Add it to the pile of "if you don't own the content, it can be taken from you at any point, for any reason, and you have no recourse"

I hope this gives a rise to a whole set of new decentralized communities (or just smaller niche sites). I'm done using or contributing to reddit.

But to your point, why would anyone put their own content on a site they don’t own?

> "if you don't own the content, it can be taken from you at any point, for any reason, and you have no recourse"

Fully embracing this idea means one shouldn’t participate in any community where one isn’t an admin.

Participate in communities, but keep the content you create stored somewhere you control it.

People have written hundred thousand word essays on stuff they're experts on and they only exist on Reddit.

I hope more people start creating their own sites and spaces. Internet diversity seems to be dying.

This seemed like the obvious next step for Reddit. Not sure why anyone would be surprised. Though the obvious result of this is not Reddit will have to actually pay people to moderate these subs (unless there suddenly becomes an abundance of mod volunteers who do not care about the third party app debacle)

As someone with no interest in Reddit beyond typing "[my search terms] reddit" into a search bar, I'd be happy to see an end to the ability to make a subreddits private in the first place. If people want private spaces online there are plenty of better options.

It's a logical step by Reddit. I don't think they care one bit about the blackout, or moderators. It's advertising as long as the eyeballs continue to view, and raking a fair amount of advertising, I think they will just try to ride this out.

What more could be done ?

It’s one thing say “we will tough it out until the storm passes” and another “we will impose our will over the ownership of subreddits”.

Every time you think Reddit management can’t do worse, they manage to exceed that expectation.

So long reddit, it’s been real.

I'd rate moderators more as "digital squatters" than "owners" of particular subreddits.

I'm sure every community with over 5,000 subscribers on Reddit has at least a dozen users who would be willing to step up into the moderator position to re-open the community.

I think it’s more that reddit can’t respect a community’s wishes.

I'm not sure that I'd define the subset of users who voted in some poll about closing a subreddit indefinitely as representative of the community's wishes. Many users lurk, or don't visit the site every day, and their opinions would not be reflected in such a poll. But I suspect the more casual users would lean towards not caring about the blackout.

There's also the whole issue of astroturfing and misinformation around the topic, such as users being rallied to the cause with incorrect claims about API access and moderator tools, which Huffman has already clarified.

That is actually hilarious if true.

And by hilarious I mean, sad but not surprising.

Hey does anyone want to come hang out on my instance instead?

https://zapad.nstr.no/ :D :D :D

Reddit privileges to de-mod moderators operates on a first in, last out seniority queue. I'm guessing that a more senior mod took action here, not global admins.

Is there any way to tell why posts get flagged?

In this case I'm assuming it's due to it (potentially?) being incorrect?

website acting completely hostile to their users in the name of profit in a completely predictable manner? say it ain’t so

Yup.

Did /anyone/ not see this coming?

Kevin Rose himself saw this coming.

It's like Kevin Rose and Chuck Norris are interchangeable now.

if this is confirmed and not isolated, that'll be it for me.

Every time I click a Mastodon link I am shocked at how slow it loads.

It loaded faster than a tweet, for me.

Why I won't use mastedon:

To use the Mastodon web application, please enable JavaScript.

At this stage pretty much the entire world runs on JavaScript.

Whitelist sites you like if you're that way inclined the data there isn't really anything wrong with decent js on decent sites.

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