Reddit changes moderator seniority without consulting anyone involved | Hacker News Reader

Reddit changes moderator seniority without consulting anyone involved

old.reddit.com

29 pointstraverseda5 comments

I don't understand reddit moderation enough to follow along completely.

You look to be the founder of the subreddit. I assume you invited and approved additional mods and they seem to have the same permissions as you do. I don't see anyone new that has been added as a mod.

What does seniority have to with it if you all have the same permissions? Are they able to override your moderator actions now and potentially boot you? Do you know the other mods? What do they have to say about this?

Basically whoever has the most seniority has complete control over the subreddit, they can remove other mods or override any lower-ranked mods decisions. That doesn't mean they would, and I trust the new top mod, but it also puts a bit of a target on their back (top mods get blamed for a lot), means they're going to be dealing with a lot of people private-messaging them instead of messaging the subreddit, etc.

Basically "ownership" of the subreddit has changed hands after 10 years to the person with second highest seniority (at 5 years).

On reddit, a mod can modify the permissions of someone further down on them on the list.

    Foo
    Bar
    Qux

Foo can modify the access for Bar or Qux. Bar can modify Qux's access.

Only Reddit can modify the access for Foo.

If a new mod is added (Xyzzy), they are added to the bottom of the list.

    Foo
    Bar
    Qux
    Xyzzy

Reddit has basically gone from a democracy to a dictatorship. If mods don’t obey they’re replaced until reddit finds someone who falls in line.

That has always been the case. Consider for example, https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/flpjcx/removing... from a few years ago where there was a situation and a number of the mods of the sub were removed.

The most senior of the remaining mods in there then became the top mod (note that it is ordered by activity in that graphic not seniority).

In what may appear to be a surprising coincidence, this is the same sub and it was three years ago that the current aggrieved mod got the top mod position by having others removed.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com