Comment by OrvalWintermute | Hacker News Reader

Comment by OrvalWintermute | Hacker News Reader

OrvalWintermute

I'm torn.

There is a well-known cabal of reddit mods that control many of the most popular subreddits [1] and many of them act like the subs they mod are their personal fiefdoms. Some of them have been alleged to exploit their subs for financial gain, or personal karma gain [2] at the expense of regular users

Some of these mods have operated in cahoots with Reddit Administration to squelch stories they didn't like [3], to push a political narrative, or to stop grass roots issues. While I recognize people should live harassment free, they need to operate with a great amount of editorial discretion to keep conversations on topic and apropos.

[1] https://www.cracked.com/article_29675_the-secret-war-against...

[2] https://www.protocol.com/reddit-powermods-war

[3] https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/927/965/6c2...

Here is why I find it hard to believe there is a cabal of mods: what is their motivation for shutting down Reddit? If this is true, these fiefdom mods are hurting themselves financially and personally by keeping their subreddits shut down.

The simplest explanation to me is that they protest because they care. It is not just Apollo. They don't like the overall direction Reddit is heading in.

> Here is why I find it hard to believe there is a cabal of mods:

Reddit mods doing things like this is well known [1] [2]

What is really strange is how the mods will tend to infiltrate a subreddit, get mod rights, and then bring over a bunch of other mods that are already cross-modding important subs across Reddit.

This has led to weird situations where a few mods control much of Reddit's top subreddits [3]

[1] https://old.reddit.com/r/modabuse/

[2] https://old.reddit.com/r/changemyview/comments/zk39a1/cmv_mo...

[3] https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/reddit-92-of-the-top-5...

With reddit's increasingly desperate attempts towards revenue this will increase, not decrease.

Pay Reddit and you can do whatever you want. Maybe even buy a subreddit or two.

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